TESOL Thesis
Thesis Statement: Cartoon is an extremely efficient source to use in second language learning.
I moved to the United States from South Korea when I was 6 years old. Not knowing
any English, I was immediately enrolled into elementary school. Outside of school, I did
what many 6 year olds or children of other ages would do after school: Go home and watch
cartoons. Watching cartoons on television and reading cartoon strips such as Garfield helped
me learn English but most importantly, it was fun. During this whole process of earning this
TESOL certification, I realized the certification does not mention anything about showing
cartoons to children. The closest was using media source or YouTube videos to L2 learners.
This thesis will try to convince the readers why showing cartoons on TV and in newspapers
to children should be a requirement in TESOL/ESL/TOEFL education, how it affects the
language learning for children and what kind of assignments can be done incorporating
cartoons into language learning. Most people acknowledge that exposure to cartoons is an
efficient way to learn a second language, but showing cartoons should be a standard
requirement in second language learning environment.
In a scholarly article “Cartoons in the English Class” by Walter Blackman, he gives
five reasons as to why showing cartoon strips is an effective teaching method: 1) Young
students value humor in a teacher and when you incorporate cartoons into your lessons, this
can improve teacher-student relationship immensely and when errors are made by students,
“cartoons can ease the process of correcting errors.” 2) Cartoons can help maintain students’
interest and stimulate. 3) There are certain words or phrases that might be hard to explain by
the teacher alone, so cartoons can be used to better described them. 4) Cartoons help students,
especially high school students, develop attitudes that are crucial to the learning process.
Blackman gives us an example of a Wall Street Journal cartoon showing a woman leaving her
job, with the boss saying “We’ll be sorry to see you go Miss Witherspoon; your unique
spelling has given us many hilarious moments.” Cartoons like this help students develop the
importance of spelling and eventually will matter in their careers. 5) Cartoons that can relate
to the students. Blackman gives his readers an example of a ninth-grade teacher making all
her students do public speaking in front of the class. In order to relieve their tension, the
teacher showed a cartoon of a professional public speaker hiding his head behind a curtain,
which drew laughter from the class. Depending on the age of the students and their level,
cartoons should not be too difficult for them. The educator would want them to at least able
to comprehend some words and phrases. The cartoon should not be too vague or else that will
decrease the effectiveness of the cartoons. And most importantly, cartoons showing poor
grammar or a misconception should never be used because that will throw off many students
and potentially develop poor habits. But as this article has stated, cartoons can be beneficial
because there is that comfort zone and humor that is essential in a learning environment.
Cartoons that are relevant, that can motivate students, stimulate their thought process, and
most importantly improve good relations between teacher and students are essential for a
good learning environment.
In the article “Ho Ho Ho: Cartoons in the language class”, the article discusses
cartoons and the presence of American culture. Cartoons not only allows the students to learn
English in a fun manner, but they can also teach students about the American or United
Kingdom culture, depending on what cartoons the teacher show and what culture the teacher
wants to educate the students. Without learning about the culture of the specific language, as
a teacher you cannot expect the student to look at a cartoon strip from a newspaper and
understand it fully, simply because that student is looking at the cartoon from his or her
native cultural point of view. When the student learns more about the culture, understanding
the cartoons should come much easier. But this is not to say learning the culture in other ways
should be a prerequisite in order to show cartoons. Cartoons that can ease into both the
language and culture learning should be used, therefore the teacher needs to know what
cartoons can be useful. Learning a second language is not as one-dimensional as it sounds,
because when a person is trying to learn a new language, the person also needs to understand
the culture of that language in order to be fully fluent in the language. For example, showing
an episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons might be difficult to many students who have no
clue as to what the American culture is like. Those cartoons depend heavily on the norms and
stereotypes that exist in the American culture in order to draw laughter. But once a student
knows more about how the American culture is and the norms that exist in this culture, these
cartoons can be extremely humorous to a student.
Reading cartoons in the newspaper is very effective, but watching cartoons can be
equally as efficient. If you’re a believer of audio-lingual method, then cartoons should be one
of your main teaching aids because it offers listening, watching, and reading. Watching
cartoons like Scooby Doo can not only be fun for younger students but they are listening to
what the cartoon is saying, enhancing and exposing them to the language. Sometimes
children can mimic quotes from the cartoon, allowing them to learn to speak the language
better. Teachers can use cartoons in their lessons. Allowing the students to watch cartoons on
TV if available or on the internet is a lesson itself because they’re hearing the language while
watching the characters interact in the cartoon. After showing them an episode or maybe
perhaps an animation movie such as Finding Nemo, the teacher could ask the students to
write about what they saw and a basic summary of it. The teacher could give them a limit,
such as one page or 100 words. After the students have written what they saw, the teacher can
have a classroom discussion about it, to help out any misunderstanding or explain it better.
Students can discuss with one another or perhaps this can be a group work. This can be used
for cartoon strips as well; let the students read it, analyze it, and be asked to write down what
they saw. Cartoons can be used in all ages, but for older students, a cartoon strip from the
newspaper would be more fitting.
Cartoons, whether it is on television or in newspaper, should be incorporated into
every teacher’s syllabus. This helps the student not only learn the language, but helps them
understand the culture better and it is fun. Humor can ease any tension or frustration, and a
classroom should be a place for students to want to attend, not be forced into. Watching
cartoons expose them into the language and subconsciously learning the language and the
culture. Reading cartoons and looking at its drawings can also be beneficial. The readings in
the cartoons are generally not too hard, depending on where it came from, allowing it to be a
good teaching aid. Because of all these reasons, cartoons should not only be part of a standard
teaching method but viewed as an important teaching aid.
References
Blackman, W. "Cartoons in the English Class", The Clearing House, Vol. 30 No. 5 (Jan 1956)
pp. 14-26
Fowles, J. "Ho Ho Ho: Cartoons in the Language Class", TESOL Quarterly Vol 4, No. 2
(June 1970)