2. 2. LEARNING TO READ IN ENGLISH WITH COMICS
2.2 Motivation to read in English
Who is currently in full on the practice of teaching foreign language
knows the difficulty in motivating students to read something that is not in their
mother tongue. Even the Portuguese teachers complain about the lack of
interest in reading, whether classical or contemporary literature. Awaken the
sympathy of the students in reading in a foreign language has not been an easy
task, but this is the most requested skills by PCNs (Parametros curriculares
nacionais) and more necessary in the process of communication in the social
context in general.
The first step we must take so that this problem can be solved is to
motivate our students. According to Fernandez (2009, p.64) the latest study in
the field of motivation are the linguist Dörnyei, in which he combines linguistic
theories, the psychological and social class. The author divides the process into
three levels of motivation: the level of language, the student's level and the level
of learning situation.
The level of language is the most comprehensive and reflects the image
that the student has the communities where the language is spoken, admiration
or not the culture of the country of the target language, the prestige of the target
language in the social context and the usefulness of language for these
students.
The student's level refers to the characteristics of individual students as
the desire for perfection and self-confidence. The desire for perfection awakens
in students the need to succeed in running activities, while the self-esteem
involves them.
And the last level of the learning situation, refers to the components of
formal learning as: content, teaching materials, teaching methods, how the
teacher is needed in the classroom and how they are developed in the work
3. group. All these are factors that can increase or decrease the interest of
students by language that is being taught.
In order to motivate students to read, we look in the comics the starting
point for the development of this motivation. Once you have chosen a story
produced in Brazil cultural differences are gently exposed, not causing much
disgust or lack of understanding foreign customs. We do not want our students
become admirers in countries that speak English, but we want them to learn to
respect differences while allowing the idea that one culture is better than
another.
We can see an example in the figure below two typical situations of
foreign culture, but that is easily understood by students:
fig.1
Figure 1: the notes from Monica are exposed not as numbers, but with
letters, we don’t find this method of evaluation in Brazil, but it is clear to them
that there is a connection between the notes numerical Brazilian educational
system with the letters displayed here. Let's look now to Figure 2:
4. fig.2
In Figure 2 we have a moment of relaxation and fun in the class. In Brazil
hardly would find a group of kids playing baseball in the street, this is also a
situation in which we find traces of foreign culture. This is a way of motivating in
terms of language, English language learners adapt to the customs without
denigrating or exalting one culture or another.
The story motivates students in appropriate level of perfection and
confidence. In the case of the high school where teenage boys and girls found
in the formation of personality, certain matters discussed in the stories can
encourage reading and develop an interest in reading in a foreign language.
Issues such as friendships, relationships, school, decisions, among others, will
collide directly with their reality and it reflects the theories of Holden (2009,
p.71) argues that when the reading has to be done with pleasure. Know that the
5. dilemmas for which they are passing it also happens with other young people
stimulate your self-confidence and consequently to generate interest in history
his desire for perfection will be developed simultaneously. Sequenced or not the
comics arouse more and more like reading from the student, and this is an
excellent bridge for learning a foreign language. The level of learning is directly
linked to teacher performance in the classroom. For this reason we aside a
specific topic for this step.
2.2 The teacher and the use of comics
2.2.1 The aid of images
The comics can contribute greatly to the success of foreign language
teaching in many respects, but the biggest advantage is the teacher can explore
the variety of images that contains the comic, and how these communicate.
Rossi (2009, p.9) defines the image as something that "seduces by its very
presence, as the word implies a linearity in their reading. The word evokes
something that is absent, the image is already present, here and now. "
If the word and the image have both important functions in the cognitive
process can be concluded that the two together will do a more thorough job
when it comes to foreign language teaching.
Beger (apud Rossi 2009, p.10) believes that "the view comes before
words. The child sees before speaking." Whether they are images that move
the modern world we can not exclude them from the process of learning and
teaching only code written. However, Nation and O'Toole (apud Procopio 2010,
p.93) suggests:
(..) need for careful selection of visual elements, because, for him, all
forms of expressing meaning involve changing an idea in a way
observable, therefore, indirect, and liable to be misinterpreted and can
not give exact concept of the word .
6. Along with the foreign language classes can promote visual literacy of
students, since we are working with comics. Examine, for example, the texts
that are read as images may aid in understanding the context of the story.
Eisner (1989, p.10) argues that "the lettering treated graphically and service
history is an extension of the image." In Eisner image below shows an example
where the way the letters are displayed the title of the story can elicit ideas on
your reading while not in their mother tongue.
Fig. 3
The letters on the stone tablet make a reference to the Ten
Commandments given to Moses by God. The position of the character makes
reference to a position of prayer. The word contract is a word cognate.
Associating then words connate, inferences graphic image title we can easily
arouse our students to discover the meaning of the title as much as what it is
about this story.
In the stories of Monica's gang is more common to find this kind of
images literate. Consider:
7. Fig. 4 Fig.5
In picture 4 we see the title of the story linking the word son and a baby
into letter O. So they can realize that the baby has the characteristics of Jimmy
Five, explaining that the word son means a kinship between the baby and the
character highlighted.
In Figure 5 makes this word giving the impression of movement,
functions as a reference to its significance. Exploring the well-spelled words or
drawn around the meaning we can enrich the vocabulary of the students without
being constantly resorting to the dictionary to discover the meaning of words or
even phrases.
Another way to explore the meaning of words through images is through
onomatopoeia. These associated images can awaken the power of discovery of
learners of foreign language, especially in English because it is full of words that
make reference to the sound of actions that they reproduce. Observe the
following figures:
8. Fig.6 Fig.7
In Figure 6 we find Jimmy Five shutting the door and the word slam
which means something close to violence. In the same story, in Figure 7 we
found the baby ripping Jimmy’s comics and the noise as rip, rip, rip it means
tearing.
Fig.8 Fig 9
In Figures 8 and 9 when we found the attack of Jimmy Five in Junior and
when Junior retaliates by attacking with a shove, the word used to associate the
sound with the action is thump, that means aggression. If we found the same
story four words that reflect their meaning through images, we can work
constantly this strategy and soon we will have students with a rich vocabulary,
and when faced with a text that does not have any image, they will know the
meanings simply by memorizing these words by pictures.
The features of the characters and how the balloon is exposed or their
absence in the story also conveys important information for understanding the
context. In figure 10 the features of J-Five and Monica reflects the nervousness
9. of one and tentative to calm another. In addition to the features of the character
in bold font and shape of the balloon reflects the desperation of the character,
thus facilitating understanding of the context of the overall framework.
The images undoubtedly have much more to offer, however, we limit
ourselves to the above information. It is up to each teacher to seek the best way
to work the images and explore the vocabulary and meaning of the general
context of the story so engaging and effective for learning the target language.
2.2.2 Genre and comics
Just as we can use the images to find out the context, we can also use
the context to introduce a lesson on text genres and their representations in
society. According Marcuschi (2008, p.155):
(...) texts embodied in communicative situations recurring. The textual
genres are the texts we encounter in our daily life and who are defined
by characteristic patterns socio communicative functional
compositions, styles and goals enunciative concretely realized in the
integration of historical forces, social, institutional and technical. (...)
Are empirical entities in communicative situations and express
themselves in various assignments constituting in principle open lists.
By working with the teaching of a foreign language is very important
that we emphasize the textual genres targeted education, since they are
constantly used in communicative situations.
10. The comics of teen Monica daily episodes portrays a group of teenager
who goes to school, have fun, use the modern means of communication, finally,
we can find various kinds of texts embedded in the top stories.
The report Monica's shown in Figure 1 can be an opportunity to display
the name of the school subjects and their abbreviations for the newsletter. Calls
phone messages can be a bridge for the teaching of virtual language, where the
word you, for example, stops being written as you and just happens to be
written as u because the phoneme is the pronoun cited.
A letter explaining the
next figure 11 can be a model to
illustrate how to pay someone a
letter, submit the degree of
intimacy that reflects each word
in the foreign language.
We also address some
issues grammar through text
genres. For example, if we look
at Figure 12, which shows the
sign of a comic book store, so we
can work the genre marquee
commercial establishment like
the possessive case.
Fig 11
Fig. 12
11. However the conveniences of teaching grammar through comics
beyond the work associated with textual genres. Then present some techniques
of how to exploit the grammar through daily situations in comics.
2.3 Functional Grammar in comics
Although the textbooks now come under the criteria of PCNs, as
teachers, we still find it difficult to work with the grammar in its functionality.
Usually the texts are worked according to the grammatical rules to be learned in
that quarter or semester.
We propose that the use of comic books can do the opposite, seeking
during the context of the narrative and to explain how the models are used
grammatical, or even through the recurrence of these models in various
contexts students can discover the same use and functionality of these rules.
With the comics this technique becomes viable because, as we have seen
above, we have several text genres and everyday situations that contribute to
the understanding of language in their general context.
According Tomitch (2009, p. 193) we should focus on reading
comprehension as the main objective to be attained in foreign language
classes. And he reinforces saying:
From this perspective, the teaching of reading strategies and / or the
teaching of grammar and / or teaching vocabulary are seen as "tools"
or "means" to achieve the ultimate goal and not as "ends" in itself.
Teaching through the simple past by means of memories that the
character Monica, for example, has a day at the beach with J-Five is more likely
to pique the interest of young learners of the English language than any other
text, for a teenager. Gradually they realize they have previously learned verbs
are modified, and the recurrence of the late ed and the use of did in
interrogative and negative sentences, they began to understand better, with the
12. help of the teacher, that these are the specific construction of the simple past in
English.
The use of scenarios that refer to their daily lives, as J-Five using the
modal verb can to ask for the car keys from his father can make the grammar is
better understood than when simply explain their rules and examples expose
loose on the board to be followed in the exercise.
One point that we consider very important in learning a second language
and that often is ignored by textbooks, are slang and abbreviations used in oral
speech. Teach only the formal language is a mistake we made in the teaching
of foreign language and sometimes even the teaching of the mother tongue. It is
important that the students learn the language as it is conveyed in modern
society. If we analyze an advertisement realize that the language used is that
the consumer will understand, otherwise the product will not be sold.
Likewise we need to work with these words in foreign language. The
media in times of globalization not only displays the formal language, then we
must be updated so that we will not train students who can not associate
abbreviations or slang to what was learned in the classroom.
In the stories produced for young people find a great variety of this
language. In Figures 13 and 14 we find two clear examples, see:
Fig.13 Fig. 14
13. In a dialogue between J-Five and Smuge after Smudge proof uses the
phrase I dunno referring to the phrase I do not know. We found that expression
constantly being used in movies or television shows and even music. This type
of expression must be worked in a comparative, always making a parallel
between the language and the language conveyed educated among young
native speakers of English.
As in the case of the word wanna, when used by Monica J-Five
questions with the phrase: But you wanna know what? We can not neglect
these situations when teaching English.
Anyway, there are different perspectives on how to work with English
language comics, this research only awaken readers to some of these
possibilities. It is now up to each teacher to analyze his class of students and
choose the best way to work this kind of reading so rich in teaching strategies.
14. References
EISNER, Will. Quadrinhos e Arte Seqüencial (tradução: Luís Carlos Borges)
– 3o ed. – São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1999.
FERNANDEZ,G.E;CALLEGARI,M.V. Estratégias motivacionais para aulas
de espanhol. São Paulo, Companhia Editora Nacional, 2009.
HOLDEN, Susan. O Ensino da Língua Inglesa nos Dias Atuais. São Paulo,
Special Book Services Livraria, 2009.
MARCUSCHI, Luiz Antônio. Produção textual, análise de gêneros e
compreensão. São Paulo: Parábola Editorial, 2008.
PROCÓPIO, R.B.; SOUSA,P.N. Letramento visual no ensino-aprendizagem
de vocabulário em língua estrangeira. In The especialista, v3, nº1(93-118)
2010.
ROSSI, Maria Helena Wagner. Imagens que falam: leitura da arte na escola.
Porto Alegre, Editora Mediação,2009.
SOUZA, Mauricio de. Na eventful day!. Revista Monica teen. Nº3. Panini
comics, 2012.
______.The love of an Angel. Revista Monica teen. Nº5. Panini comics, 2012.
______.Count on me! Revista Monica teen. Nº2. Panini comics, 2012.
______.Everyday adventures. Revista Monica teen. Nº1. Panini comics, 2012.
______.Take of him, he’s your son. Revista Monicas’s gang. Nº21. Panini
comics, 2011.
TOMITCH, Leda Maria Braga. Aquisição de leitura em língua inglesa. In
Ensino e aprendizagens de língua inglesa. São Paulo, Parábola Editora,2009.
