Bridging the Technological Gap in English Language Teaching Classrooms of India with Comic Books

Jubi Das^1* & Debasish Mohapatra^{2  
 1}Research Scholar, Department of English, Tezpur University, Assam, India. *Corresponding author.
²Associate Professor, Head, Department of English, Tezpur University, Assam, India.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n3.05g
Full-Text PDF Issue Access}

Abstract

With the turn of the century, as new forms of media emerged along with technological innovations, it transformed how students perceive information, making them mostly audio-visual learners. However, despite various educational benefits, there is a gap in the accessibility of these technological innovations across schools in India, depriving students of an engaging way of language learning. This study examines the potential of an easily available and appealing multimodal resource, the comic book, for English language learning. It delves into the potential of physical comic books as an innovative tool to bridge the gap between traditional approaches and technology-assisted approaches in schools of marginalized areas of India. As it is crucial to understand students’ interests and perspectives for the successful implementation of an innovative tool, this study was conducted among 369 students of private and government schools in Assam, India and observed a positive response. It also highlighted the potential for improvement in certain language skills using comic books under proper guidance.

Keywords: English Language Teaching, Government and private schools, Comic books.