IX Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся
Старт в науке
Создание комиксов на английском языке как форма повышения эффективности учебного процесса
Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя I степени
Полная версия работы доступна во вкладке "Файлы работы" в формате PDF
INTRODUCTION
A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture with words is much more better! This simple idea was used to create comic books more than a 100 years ago. Today, the comic book is one of the most popular art forms around the world. Moreover, it’s the perfect tool for learning English, too.
The relevance of the research: We live in the world with too much information. To make pupils interested in English, training materials are to be brief, enjoyable and colourful. That is why reading comic books is a perfect way to improve language skills.
The aim of the research is to create a comic strip in English.
The research objectis exploring English programmes and tools for creating a comic strip.
The research subjectis Daniel Defoe’s biography.
The hypothesis of the research is whether the learning process effectiveness enhances while using comic strips instead of standard texts in English classes.
The objectives of the study are:
To make up a quiz in a famous person’s biography (we’ve chosen Maria Curie [5]), offer the students of class 8B to do the quiz having the text with her biography on the screen, see the results.
To explore the rules of comic strips creating.
To gather information about Daniel Defoe as a main character of the comic strip. [3, 6]
To choose an appropriate programme and tools to make a comic strip.
To create a comic strip on the life of Daniel Defoe.
To present the comic strip to the class, encourage the students to do the quiz having the comic strip on the screen, see the results.
To compare the results of both quizzes (having the standard text and the comic book.
The research method is learning to convert information into comic strips.
While working on the research we used only written English Internet resources such as websites, articles, written in English, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip [1], ,https://sites.google.com/view/setevoyproject/ [4], https://www.whenitwascool.com/100-greatest-comic-books-and-graphic-novels [9], https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Great-Comic [11] and others.
A COMIC STRIP. WHAT IS IT?
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in daily newspapers, while Sunday newspapers offered longer sequences in special colour comics sections. With the development of the internet, they began to appear online as webcomics.[1]
. The history of comics
Storytelling using a sequence of pictures has existed through history. The first newspaper comic strips appeared in North America in the late 19th century. Swiss author and caricature artist Rodolphe Töpffer (Geneva, 1799–1846) is considered the father of the modern comic strips. His illustrated stories, first published in the USA in 1842, inspired generations of German and American comic artists. [2]
In 1865, German painter, author, and caricaturist Wilhelm Busch created the strip Max and Moritz, about two trouble-making boys, which had a direct influence on the American comic strip. Max and Moritz provided an inspiration for German immigrant Rudolph Dirks, who created the Katzenjammer Kids in 1897 – a strip starring two German-American boys visually modelled on Max and Moritz. Familiar comic-strip iconography such as stars for pain, sawing logs for snoring, speech balloons, and thought balloons originated in Dirks' strip.[2]
Walt Disney got into comic books too. The earliest of these was Mickey Mouse Book. The Adventures of Mickey Mouse is considered to be the first "true" Mickey Mouse comic book. It came out in 1931. [7]
In June 1938, Action Comics #1 came out, featuring a man in a red and blue costume lifting a car over his head! This was Superman, the very first comic character to have powers far beyond a normal human being. Today Superman is one of the 10 most recognized 'people' on the face of the planet. He has been in several movies, cartoons and TV series. [7]
Superman wasn't alone for long. He was quickly joined by Batman, Captain America, Wonderwoman, The Flash, and countless others to fight the bad guys. The Marvel Age started in 1961, when Marvel Comics started to put out its own superheroes. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created over 90% of the superheroes in the Marvel Comics Universe. Most of them are still around today. It would take forever to list all the heroes that they created. Another dramatic change they made to comics was giving their villains superpowers, too. [7]
1.2. The best comics of all time
Now, comic books – or the long-form, graphic novels – are “legitimate” variety of literature. Visual storytelling just offers a means of enjoyment unburdened by long and drawn-out prose. But, like all things, there are some that are far more deserving of your time and effort than others. With that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of the best graphic novels of all time.
1. Amazing Spider-Man. It is the story of the bullied intellectual Peter Parker who finds himself with amazing powers but heavy responsibilities. [9]
2. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns. It tells the story of Bruce Wayne who, at 55 years old, returns from retirement to fight crime and faces opposition from the Gotham City police and the U.S. government. [9]
3."Scott Pilgrim". The series is about Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto, Ontario and plays bass guitar in a band. He falls in love with an American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her. [8]
4. "Keepers" is a unique graphic novel, which managed to convey the depth of its creators. The narrative describes an alternative reality. In it, America won the war in Vietnam, but was on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. [8]
5. "Bone". The bones, creatures of the city Boonsville, enter the human village, making friends with locals and help them to fight the mysterious enemy, the commander of the army of rat creatures. Epic fantasy, at first pretending to be a comedic tale. [9]
1.3. The rules of comics creating.
Creating your own comic can be a rewarding experience. It is much easier than you think. If you have an idea, just follow the following steps to translate it into reality.
1. Write down the main points. Think about the beginning, the characters, the conflict, the subjects and the atmosphere. All these are very important to make your comic really interesting.
2. Choose the style that will match the nature of your history and pictures you have in mind. There are many popular ones: anime/manga, captain America, illustration, black and white, and graphics.
3. Choose the format. Usually this is a single-frame, multiframe or comic books. Experiment with different formats until you find one that is suitable for the placement of the characters, it follows the story line and corresponds to the background.
4. Write the script. Divide the script into the fragments in frameworks. Each frame is a separate scene. Make sure that the dialogues do not fill much of the frame. Comics based on visual perception, so most of the action should be transferred using symbols.
5. Draw sketches to visualize the scenario. Pay attention to the location of characters in the frame in the scene and how to fit the dialogue in the process of drawing.
6. Create a framework. Use a ruler to create a border. Use the appropriate paper. For panels with non-standard angles and those that do not fit into the overall context, use separate sheets. You will be able to combine them after scanning. Make sure that the framework is convenient for reading. Always remember that readers move from left to right and top to bottom. Use different sizes and shapes of the frames to help the reader follow the plot.
7. Start adding content in the frame. Make sure you leave enough room for dialogues. Label clouds, rectangles, and other test design.
8. Scan the comic book. This will help you to add print dialog, but also make the colors on the pictures if you want. In addition, it will be easier to publish online.
9. Create your own font. One of the ways to distinguish your comic from the rest is to use a personal font. On the Internet you can find many programs available to create a personal font. One of the most popular is Font Creator. When creating a font, keep in mind both visual and written styles.
10. Add dialog boxes and text clouds in Photoshop.
11. Color the comic. This is optional - many successful comics are drawn in black and white. You can either color the comic by hand, or use digital technology after scanning. More and more comics are being painted with electronic programs.
12. Upload the image to the site and distribute the link. It’s best to choose a free hosting service if you want only friends and relatives to see your picture.
Send the link to anyone you want, make an entry on the social network along with the link. Find a special forum and share the link with the participants. [10]
PARTICIPATION IN THE REGIONAL NETWORKING PROJECT ROBINSONADE.
It is often difficult for students to sit for hours listening to a boring lecture, learning grammar rules and reading endless texts. Languages are fun and dynamic. That’s why we are interested in exploring other effective and at the same time exciting ways of learning English.
At the end of October 2019, our English teacher invited us to participate in the regional networking project “Robinsonade”. [4] This project was dedicated both to Daniel Defoe, one of the most famous English writers, his brilliant novel “Robinson Crusoe”, and travelling in general.
To take part in this original project, we had to make two comics – the first one was about Daniel Defoe’s biography, and the second one was about travelling and adventures in our life.
Project phases:
The creation of a calling card. It was one of the first parts of the project.
It allowed other participants to learn the most important things about your team and cheer up! On our calling card we displayed the name of our educational organization, the team name, our English teacher’s full name, the team motto, the wish to other teams. In the picture you can see our calling card. [4]
Our calling card for the regional networking project “Robinsonade”
2. The creation of a comic strip on the biography of Daniel Defoe in English.[5]The comics’ evaluation was done by other participants’ voting according to the following criteria: comic’s conformity to the theme of the contest, its originality, design, humor, literacy. You can see some parts of our comic strip “The exciting life of Daniel Defoe” in the picture below. [4]
Some parts of our comic strip for the regional networking project “Robinsonade”
Commenting on other participants’ comic strips.
Doing a quiz on Daniel Defoe’s most famous novel “Robinson Crusoe”.
Creation of a comic strip summarizing personal travelling experience in English “Мy Тravelling / Adventure”. [4]
We began the process of creating a comic by searching for information on the biography of Daniel Defoe [3, 6]. In order to make the comic strip fascinating and informative, we selected the most interesting and significant facts from his biography. In our case, it was not so difficult.
The next step was to think about some ideas and sketch them out.
We arranged the slides in a logical sequence, sketched the positions of the inscriptions and heroes of the comic. After that we started to come up with comic book labels, headlines, and character lines. At that stage we were extremely careful, because the text was supposed to be literate with real facts. Further, based on the finished text, we selected the most suitable images and atmosphere for the background, characters, and other details. After that, we uploaded our comic to a site where any project participant could see our work and the works of other participants. Also, anyone could leave a comment under any comic book they liked.
THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH. CONCLUSION
In this research we’ve tried to confirm the idea that students understand English better while enjoying incredible stories than reading typical texts.
The aim of the research was to create a comic strip in English.
The hypothesis of the research was whether the effectiveness of the learning process enhanced while using comics instead of standard texts in English classes.
While working on the research, we used programmes, books, websites, and articles written in English.
There were three of us who took part in the research.
First of all, we made up a quiz in Maria Curie’s biography [5], displayed the text about her biography on the screen and encouraged the students of class 8B to do the quiz. The results were 1 student – 1 point out of 5, 2 students -2 points out of 5, 3 students – 3 points out of 5, 4 students – 4 points out of 5, 2 students – 5 points out of 5.
Next, we made a comic strip on the life of Daniel Defoe. A lot of work was done. We explored the rules of comics creating, gathered information about Daniel Defoe, and chose appropriate programmes and tools.
After the comic strip was ready we presented it to the class, encouraged the students to do the quiz using the comics displayed on the screen. The results were much more better. 1 student - 2 points out of 5, 5 students - 4 points out of 5, 6 students – 5 points out of 5.
Comparing the results of both quizzes (using the typical text and the comics) we concluded that students can understand English better while enjoying incredible stories than reading standard texts.
Obviously, to make students interested in English, training materials are to be brief, fascinating and colourful. That is why reading comics is a perfect way to improve language skills.
The hypothesis was completely confirmed. Furthermore, we achieved the goal – made a comic strip in English.
To sum up, we not only participated in an exciting experiment, but also used time to our advantage. We found different websites for creating comics, developed our IT and design skills.
In conclusion, we want to say that the work on the project was an interesting, unusual, and most importantly, useful experience for us!
REFERENCES:
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip#History
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe
URL: https://sites.google.com/view/setevoyproject/
URL: https://www.biography.com/scientist/marie-curie
URL: https://www.biography.com/writer/daniel-defoe
URL: https://www.dw.com/en/a-brief-history-of-comics/g-19359163
URL: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/learning-english-through-comics/
URL: https://www.whenitwascool.com/100-greatest-comic-books-and-graphic-novels
URL: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Great-Comic
Appendixes
Students of Class 8B from school 19(25) are doing the quiz on Marie Curie’s biography using the standard text displayed on the screen
Students of Class 8B from school 19(25) are doing the quiz on Daniel Defoe’s biography using the comics displayed on the screen
The results of the research
The comments to our comic strip in the regional networking project “Robinsonade”