READING BETWEEN PANELS: COMIC BOOKS AS MULTIMODAL SCAFFOLDS FOR EFL NARRATIVE COMPREHENSION
Keywords:
comic books; EFL reading; multimodal literacy; narrative comprehension; visual scaffoldingAbstract
This quantitative pre-experimental study examined within-group changes in narrative reading comprehension after comic-book-based instruction among 33 Grade X students in class X IPAS 8 at SMAN 9 Banda Aceh. Students completed a pretest, participated in three instructional meetings that integrated sequential images, captions, and dialogue, and then completed a posttest and a ten-item dichotomous questionnaire. Before instruction, 17 students were classified as sufficient and 10 as poor; afterward, 3 were classified as excellent, 26 as very good, and 4 as good. The reported mean normalized gain was 58.43% (range = 37.50%–75.00%). Because the pretest and posttest distributions were non-normal (Shapiro–Wilk p < .001 for both), a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used. All 33 students obtained higher posttest scores, Z = −5.043, p < .001, with a derived effect size of r = .88. Questionnaire responses indicated high enjoyment, motivation, perceived vocabulary support, and perceived comprehension; however, 22 students (66.7%) still endorsed the statement that narrative text remained difficult. The findings indicate substantial improvement within this class and support the pedagogical promise of comics as multimodal scaffolds. They do not establish a causal effect because the study involved one convenience sample, no comparison group, a brief intervention, and incompletely reported instrument validation.
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