Students’ Impressions of Using Educational Manga

Erina Ogawa, Japan

Erina Ogawa teaches general and business English courses at Toyo University in Tokyo. In addition to the use of educational manga, she also researches the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake on Japanese university students’ cultural identities.

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Introduction
Methodology
Educational Manga for Content-based Learning
Educational Manga as a Good Way to Study
Educational Manga as a Desirable Textbook Style
Student Comments
Discussion and Conclusions
References
Sample page of the educational manga textbook used in this study
Survey Questions

Introduction

Should I use educational manga to teach my students English? This question, which I asked myself as an English teacher at a university in central Tokyo led me to co-author and use an educational manga textbook in two of my classes. Will my students want to use manga? Will they believe that they can learn from it? Will they actually learn from it? These questions led to this research study.

Interestingly, English language teachers have at times been defenders of manga’s close cousins, the comics, which have had a difficult history. Comic books evolved in the late 1930s from newspaper comics and gained popularity in the 1940s, until they were dealt a heavy blow in 1954 when they were denounced by a famous psychologist leading to them being “virtually left for dead” by the 1960s (Mouly, 2010, p. xi). However, English teachers were not silent about this banishment of comics. For instance, English language teachers were urged to use “more image-dominant literacies ― popular culture literacies, like those found in comic books, film, television, and so on” in The Newsom Report of 1963 (Mouly, p. xix).

Such popular culture literacies may include such materials as comics, graphic novels, and manga – which can all be classified in the same genre. While the textbook used in this study was developed with a balance of image and written text in mind, the contrast of a textbook like this with a large amount of visual stimulus is evident when compared to a traditionally text-dominant textbook. The multi-faceted learning style encouraged by manga or comics is appealingly appropriate in this media-literate era, which demands the analysis of multiple sources of information. As one student who used a graphic novel commented, “You read each piece of what’s going on, and your mind puts it together” (Monnin, 2010, p. 114).

Therefore, I believe that an educational manga textbook should not be regarded as a step down from a textbook that is heavily reliant on written text, but instead the benefits it can provide should be recognized. In fact, comics offer “range and versatility with all the potential imagery of film and painting plus the intimacy of the written word” (McCloud, 1993, p. 212; bold and italics as in the original but text de-capitalized from the original comic format). For example, one benefit born from the intimacy available through manga is that “the distinguishing features of manga characters and stories … trigger a desirable image of self – seeing oneself reflected and experienced by the story’s characters” (Chen, 2006, p. 2). Another example is the benefit of increased understanding. This is evident in a study by Uchida, Orita, Kunigami, Terano, and Yoshikawa (2012), who report improved classroom discussion activities leading from greater student understanding due to the visual scaffolding of manga textbooks.

Educational manga –that is, manga designed with the primary aim of educating rather than entertaining – can be very useful in providing context for content-based learning. For example, when teaching business-related topics, manga can be used to enable students to create identities as successful workers in the business world, something which may be difficult for students with little or no working experience to draw from to conceptualize the material that they are learning (Ogawa, 2013). Such contextualized material in language learning is crucial when we consider that a learner is a person with a social identity in a particular context (Riley, 2003). The important part that visual materials such as manga have to play in education is evident when we realize that the use of such learning and teaching materials “has been successful in a number of academic settings that suggest this format may translate well to business communication and education” (Short & Reeves, 2009, p. 415). In fact, Lee and Morrall (2006) even developed a manga-inspired computer-based tool “to provide a contextualized and immersive environment for learning English as a foreign language” (p. 1).

Although literature provides substantial indications to warrant the acceptance of educational manga as a valid teaching tool, further research into the practical application of educational manga as a study medium is necessary, particularly in Japanese university English language classrooms. Therefore, this study sought to answer the following three research questions: Can students learn from an educational manga textbook? Do they believe that they can learn from one? and Do they want to use one?

Methodology

A specifically-designed educational manga named At the Riverside Café (see the end of this article for a sample page) was used by two teachers in different faculties of the same university in Tokyo to teach two class groups each of second-year non-English-major university students in the autumn semester of 2012. It was used in 90 minute class periods twice a week in a TOEIC preparation course for the remaining 14 classes after the author’s students had finished sitting the TOEIC test in a semester-based course. Likewise, it was used in 90 minute class periods once a week for 12 to 14 weeks by the other textbook author (Helen Hanae) in the second half of her year-based general English course.

This English-language educational manga was designed to teach English as a Foreign Language students how to write an English resume, prepare for an interview in English, and prepare other job-hunting documents in English. It also discusses issues related to work and provides a context of an English working business environment.

A pre-survey (see the end of this article) was filled out by 131 students before they were given the textbook. Later, a post-survey (based on the pre-survey) was completed by the 112 students who were in class on the last day of the course (not the same day for every class). As this was the last class of the semester, it was not possible to receive post-survey questionnaires from absent students. Therefore, while every student who studied from the textbook completed the pre-survey (n = 131), not every student completed the post-survey (n = 112).

Educational Manga for Content-based Learning

Due to the different number of respondents for the pre (n = 131) and post (n = 112) surveys, figures in this section are provided as percentages. This allows for comparison between the two surveys. In addition, the results have been split into three groups, according to each research question. Therefore, figures relating to the first research question are displayed in the first two tables about “Content Knowledge”, figures relating to the second research question are displayed in the third and fourth tables about “Educational Manga Effectiveness Impressions”, and figures relating to the third research question are displayed in the last two tables about “Educational Manga Desirability”.

As evident in the findings from the pre-survey shown in the table below, most students indicated that they did not know how to write a resume in English, how to write a cover letter, how to have an interview in English, or how to network in English before using the educational manga in class.

Table 1. Content Knowledge Pre-Survey

As to be expected, the post-survey revealed that after studying English resume writing and job-hunting skills with the educational manga in class, the percentages of students who agreed or strongly agreed that they then knew how to do those tasks increased dramatically. In the post-survey, 54% indicated that knew how to write a resume in English, compared to only 2% in the pre-survey. Likewise, 45% knew how to write a cover letter (compared to 2%), 28% knew how to have an interview in English (compared to 3%), and 13% knew how to network in English (compared to 3%).

Table 2. Content Knowledge Post-Survey

Despite the overall indication of the effectiveness of using educational manga for content-based learning evident in the tables above, a large number of students did not commit to a positive response. Perhaps this indicates their self-perceived lack of mastery of the task. Even so, it is clear that large numbers of Disagree Strongly responses from the Pre-Survey have been replaced by Agree and Don’t Know responses. Although the responses to each question in this section in the Pre-Survey were fairly uniform, the Post-Survey reveals differences between the questions. In particular, 72% of respondents answered “Don’t Know” to the question about networking. This may be attributed to the fact that in this case two of the four classes involved in this study did not have time to study from this final unit in the textbook, which covered the topic of networking. If we assume that these 55 students all answered “Don’t Know” to this question and remove their data, the figures are less divergent (see “Adjusted networking question” row in Table 2 above).

Educational Manga as a Good Way to Study

As related to the second research question, the following two tables compare students’ beliefs about the effectiveness of educational manga as study materials. Generally, respondents were noncommittal in their pre-survey responses regarding educational manga being a good way to study the content material of English resumes or English interviews (see Table 3 below). However, even before using the textbook, high percentages agreed or strongly agreed that educational manga are a good way to study about English skills (58%), to study English in general (71%), or to study other subjects (49%).

Table 3. Educational Manga Effectiveness Impressions Pre-Survey

Post-survey results (see Table 4 below) displayed a dramatic increase in the percentages of “agree” or “strongly agree” responses for two particular questions. Compared to 29% in the pre-survey, 71% of respondents indicated that they thought that educational manga are a good way to study about English resumes. Likewise, the percentages for studying English interviews increased from 45% to 72%. Similar patterns were not found with other questions. Corresponding responses regarding educational manga being a good way to study about English skills remained unchanged at 58%, being a good way to study English in general changed only slightly from 71% to 79%, and being a good way to study other subjects also increased relatively little from 49% to 59%. However, none of these percentages decreased, and therefore the overall perceived effectiveness of educational manga as a learning tool increased after use.

Table 4. Educational Manga Effectiveness Impressions Post-Survey

Educational Manga as a Desirable Textbook Style

This section examines student responses to statements regarding the desirability of using educational manga. The two tables below relate to the final research question about whether or not students want to use educational manga. The pre-survey figures displayed in Table 5 below generally show more positive than negative responses. The one exception to this is the question about participating as a manga character. In this textbook, the reader appears as a manga character and is written into the storyline. Very few students, in fact only 13%, agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to be a manga character.

Table 5. Educational Manga Desirability Pre-Survey

From Table 6 below, we can see that the post-survey generally brought more positive responses, and fewer negative responses, than the pre-survey. Even so, the results from this section did not show significant change, with the question about being a manga character again being the exception. Interestingly, students did not expect to enjoy participating as a manga character, with only 13% agreeing (strongly or otherwise) to this statement in the pre-survey. However, this percentage contrasts strongly with the 46% who agreed with this statement in the post survey, indicating that they enjoyed participating as a manga character.

Table 6. Educational Manga Desirability Post-Survey

Student Comments

Before using the materials, students were asked to write in detail what they knew about English resumes and job-hunting. All but three students wrote that they didn’t know anything. These three responses were (translated into English from Japanese): “It’s helpful to have a high TOEIC score for job-hunting”, “You have to get TOEIC”, and “I think foreign companies use them”. In contrast, students’ successful learning of content is evident in the wealth of comments received for the same question in the post-survey. The variety of answers included such details as: “resumes cannot be handwritten”, “a letter is necessary”, “you sign at the end”, “the address is written in the opposite order to Japanese”, and that “you can refuse to answer questions if don’t want to talk about your personal information”. Four students replied generally that they learnt how to write a resume and a further five wrote the same thing in response to the next question (see below). Ten students said that they didn’t know, some of them specifying that they couldn’t answer in detail. Tellingly, three students wrote that they didn’t know anything about English resumes and job-hunting until they took this course.

The other question students were asked to comment on in the pre-survey asked what else they wanted to learn from a manga concerning English resumes and job-hunting. Aside from large numbers of “I don’t know” responses, comments can be divided into those about culture and those about language. Examples of comments about cultural learning include that they thought an educational manga could teach them about “the cultures of foreign countries”, “manners for adults in foreign countries”, and “basic manners”. Some examples of comments regarding language are: “communication with foreigners”, “Business English”, “use a broader range of English”, “hold conversations in English”, “increase vocabulary”, and “everyday conversation”. In addition, one student wrote, “I can look at pictures while I study, so it’s easy to picture this in my mind”. Another student wrote, “I think that educational manga are extremely attractive, [but] only for languages”.

The related post-survey question asked students to write in detail about what else they had actually learnt from their educational manga about English resumes and job-hunting. Because the wording of the question asked for other things they had learnt, five students who had mentioned things other than writing a resume in the first question, wrote here that they learnt how to write a resume. Further, another student wrote that he/she learnt how to write a cover letter and two other students wrote that they learnt how to take an interview in English. Comments unrelated to resumes and job-hunting included four students who noted that they learnt new vocabulary (two of whom commented that they learnt new ways to use words they already knew) and three students who said that they learnt about general English conversation.

At the end of the post-survey, students were asked to write anything about this particular textbook or about educational manga in general. Here, eight students indicated that manga is easier to read or understand, seven students requested improved picture quality, and five wrote that it was (very) interesting. The other comments were all different and a selection of them follows: “I think you should continue [to use educational manga] because it was interesting”, “I think educational manga is good, but I personally prefer normal textbooks”, “it was very easy to understand and I enjoyed studying”, and “I hate English and am not good at it, but using educational manga in class weakened my English complex”. Finally, one student wrote the two words that every teacher likes to hear, “Thank you!”

Discussion and Conclusions

Before using the educational manga in class, most students indicated that they knew neither how to write a resume or a cover letter in English, nor how to have an interview and to network in English. However, this was no longer the case after they studied these English resume writing and job-hunting skills with their educational manga textbook. This indicates a positive response for the first research question. In other words, students can learn from educational manga.

Regarding the second research question, even before using the textbook, students generally agreed or strongly agreed that educational manga are a good way to study about English skills, English in general, or other subjects. This overall perceived effectiveness of educational manga as a learning tool increased even more after use. Therefore, these students did perceive educational manga to be a good medium for study.

Finally, results were also generally positive regarding the desirability of using educational manga. There was no dramatic change from surveys taken before and after using the textbook for this group of questions, with one exception. Although students predicted that they would not enjoy participating as a manga character, this task proved to be quite enjoyable for them.

In regards to student comments regarding educational manga, the majority of the pre-survey comments were “I don’t know” as most students did not know what an educational manga was. However, some students expressed expectations to learn everyday English conversation and more vocabulary, as well as to learn about the manners and cultures of other countries. In comparison to the pre-survey, the post-survey received a large number of comments. While a number of students commented that they still didn’t know much about job searching in English, many replied that they knew how to write a resume in English. In addition, a number wrote about details they learnt such as signing their cover letter, and how to politely refuse answering questions in an interview. Apart from job-hunting related skills, such as taking interviews or writing resumes and cover letters, students indicated in the post-survey that they had learnt new vocabulary, how to use existing vocabulary in different ways, and about general English conversation.

In conclusion, I will return to the question I posed at the beginning: Should I use educational manga to teach my students English? I think the answer to this question is yes. And, I will pose one further question: Should other teachers consider using educational manga to teach theirs? The findings presented in this paper suggest that the use of educational manga is worth considering.

References

Chen, H-P., (2006) The significance of Manga in the identity-construction of young American adults: a Lacanian approach, Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education, 2006(1), 1-7

Lee, W.K.A., & Morrall, A., (2006) Manga: Edutainment project on profession-related language training, APERA Conference 2006 Conference Proceedings, Hong Kong: APERA

McCloud, S., (1993) Understanding Comics, New York: Harper Collins Publishers

Monnin, K., (2010) Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical strategies for the ELA classroom, Gainesville, FL: Maupin House

Mouly, F., (2010) Foreword, In K. Monnin Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical strategies for the ELA classroom, (pp. xi-xiii), Gainesville, FL: Maupin House Publishing

Ogawa, E., (2003) Educational manga: An effective medium for English learning, In Sonda, N. (Ed.), JALT2012 Conference Proceedings, Tokyo: JALT

Riley, P., (2003) Drawing the threads together, In D. Little, J. Ridley, & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom: teacher, learner, curriculum and assessment (pp. 237–252), Dublin: Authentik

Short, J.C., & Reeves, T.C., (2009) The graphic novel: a “cool” format for communicating to generation Y, Business Communication Quarterly, 72( 4), 414-430

Uchida, H., Orita, A., Kunigami, M., Terano, T., & Yoshikawa, A., (2012) Gakushu ni okeru kizuki no henka wo hakaru [Measuring a change of learners’ awareness], The 26th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, 2012, Tokyo: Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence

Sample page of the educational manga textbook used in this study

Sample Page

Survey Questions

The following is an English translation of the sections of the Japanese pre-survey discussed in this article. The complete survey included other sections, which are not included in this appendix as they are related to research by Helen Hanae, the co-author of At the Riverside Café. The post-survey questions relate directly to these pre-survey questions, with slight changes to allow for grammar tense, etc.

Interest in Educational Manga

How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Please circle your answer for each question:

I think that educational manga is a good way to study English.

I would like English more if I could use educational manga.

I think my English will improve if I can use educational manga.

I think that educational manga is a good way to learn resume skills in English.

I think that educational manga is a good way to learn interview skills in English.

I think that educational manga is a good way to learn general English skills.

I want to be a manga character in a manga story.

I want to use manga to study English in class.

I want to use manga to study other subjects in other classes.

I think that educational manga is a good way to study subjects other than English.

Knowledge of English resumes and job hunting skills

I know how to write a resume in English.

I know how to write a cover letter in English.

I know how to have an interview in English.

I know how to network in English.

What else do you know about English resumes and job hunting?
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What else do you think you could learn in English from an educational manga about resumes and job hunting?
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