Learning French in fun new ways

Contrary to many critics, comics can be beneficial to learning in the classroom and not a fun art-enrichment activity. Comics provide narrative experiences for students learning a new language such as French. Students follow story beginnings and endings, plot, characters, time and setting, sequencing without needing sophisticated word decoding skills. Images support the test and give students good contextual clues to word meaning. Comics act as a scaffold to student understanding.

Stephen Cary, a second language learning specialist says "Comics provide authentic language learning opportuinites for all students....The dramatically reduced text of many comics make them manageable and language profitable for students".

A trial version of Comic Life is a freely available, but licensed versions do come at a price.

Our French Grade 8 class used this application to create their own comics describing their daily routines and the key benefits of engaging through creating, thinking, comprehension were all evident during the process.

Here is one example of what the boys created using Comic Life.