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Loving comics is no longer shameful. On the contrary, in Russia, new comic book stores open almost weekly, and Comic Con Russia gathers more and more fans of superheroes in particular and the graphic novel genre in general every year. Comics also have a useful side: they can be used to learn English, especially at the very beginning of the journey. Skyeng online school experts talk about why they can be better than textbooks and how to learn English the right way with Superman, Garfield and Homer Simpson.
Comics are such a convenient tool for learning a language that they are even included in quite serious English textbooks. But educational dialogues with simple illustrations are still not as interesting as comics, to which professional screenwriters and famous artists had a hand. Twisted plot, sparkling humor and impressive graphics – all this creates interest. And interest, like a locomotive, pulls the desire to read and understand more. And comics have several advantages over books.
Associations
The very structure of the comic – picture + text – helps to memorize new words, building an associative array. While reading, we not only see the words, but also remember the context, the situations in which they are used (just like during ). The same mechanisms work as when watching films or cartoons in English.
Interesting topics
Speaking of comics, we most often mean the Marvel Universe with its superheroes. But in fact, this phenomenon is much broader. Online and on the shelves of bookstores you can find comics based on famous blockbusters, from Star Wars to Charlie’s Angels, horror comics, short comic strips for 3-4 pictures, comics based on favorite cartoons for adults (for example, on The Simpsons ”), children’s, fantasy, a huge corpus of Japanese manga, historical comics, and even graphic novels based on serious books like The Handmaid’s Tale and War and Peace.
In Japan, comics generally account for 40% of all book production, and far from all of it consists of stories about giant robots.
Simple vocabulary
A comic book is not a novel. The heroes of graphic novels speak in simple language, as close as possible to colloquial speech. This is perhaps the easiest way to master words from . There are almost no rare words and special vocabulary, so even a student with a Pre-Intermediate level can master them. And this is inspiring: after reading a comic and understanding almost everything, we get a powerful boost of motivation.
Grammar Basics
Comics are a good option for beginners as the grammar is not difficult. There are no tricky grammatical constructions in them, and you can understand the essence even if you have not yet moved beyond Simple. Continuous and Perfect are less common here, and more advanced grammatical forms are almost never found.
Elementary
For adults
Rude and lazy cat recently celebrated his 40th birthday – the first comics about him came out in the late 1970s. These are short comic strips consisting of several pictures. The words here are very simple, and there are not many of them: firstly, Garfield is a cat, not a professor of linguistics, and secondly, he is too lazy for lengthy reasoning.
For children
Cute but not overly intelligent tries himself in different professions and each time demonstrates that he has paws. Suitable for both children and adults – we all sometimes feel at work, like this stupid cat.
– “smart” comics for children about the history and culture of the United States. Fascinating, broadening the horizons and at the same time simple enough that even a first grader could understand them.
Pre-Intermediate
For adults
You definitely know Sarah – comics more than once translated into Russian and became memes. It’s time to get down to the roots and read the original. Sarah is the social lunatic, procrastinator and alter ego of artist Sarah Andersen, and her strips are witty sketches of our daily lives.
For children
“Duck Tales”, which we remember from Sunday shows, have not lost their relevance. Grammar and vocabulary in a little more difficult and the stories are longer, so these comics are suitable for those who have already overcome the first stage in learning English.
Intermediate and
For adults
The Simpsons is a whole era. It was Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa who proved to us that cartoons are entertainment not only for children (although for them too). Language quite simple, but in order to fully enjoy the humor and puns, it is better to read them, reaching the Intermediate level.
For children
The adventures of the boy Calvin and his plush tiger Hobbs appeared in 2400 newspapers around the world. That kind of popularity is saying something. Comic often not the most common words are used, so it will be useful for expanding the vocabulary.
Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum need no introduction. Comic book based on the cartoon no worse than the original, which seems to be equally liked by both elementary school students and their parents.
Upper intermediate
For adults
– a real gift for those who had little series, but did not have the patience to read the entire book series. It is especially interesting to compare cartoon characters with film images, the difference is sometimes impressive. The words and grammar are easy, but following the plot requires some skill.
For children
Alex Hirsch’s cult animated series Gravity Falls has been turned into very recently, just two years ago. Dipper and Mabel spend the holidays with their eccentric uncle, who draws them into a variety of adventures.