Abstract
Generally, comics have been looked down upon and not seen as a pedagogical tool. Despite this, the research on the use of comics has increased in recent years which has shown the potential benefits to using comics in the language classroom. There is, however, a lack of research on teacher attitudes and research in a Swedish EFL context. The present study has attempted to fill this gap by investigating teacher attitudes toward comics and factors that might affect their attitudes toward using it in the language classroom. This is a quantitative study with 85 participants. A self-developed questionnaire was administered online to gather data, which was analyzed using statistical and thematic analysis methods. The results showed that participants did not have positive attitudes toward comics itself but had positive attitudes toward the use of comics. It also showed that they were unsure of the usefulness of comics. To investigate the factors that might affect teacher attitudes toward using comics, it was split into potential benefits and challenges. These factors were rated, and participants expanded on their answers in open-ended questions. In terms of potential benefits, all three factors were regarded as such, but participants also questioned them and brought up other potential benefits in their answers. When it comes to challenges, the participants showed a higher degree of disagreement toward one factor while agreeing with the two other ones being challenges, but, here as well, questioned them and brought up other challenges. Pedagogical implications were discussed and areas for future research were presented, before concluding the paper addressing the overall significance of study.
Degree
Student essay