The communal reading of comics: a case study of an extensive reading project for adult basic literacy

Abstract

This paper describes a piece of classroom-centred research we did into the extensive reading practices of adult basic literacy learners. The research reported here was part of a larger research project into the 'communicational' teaching of English for beginning learners inspired by the work of Prabhu (1987). Using comics supplied by The Storyteller Group, we experimented with the Prabhu/Krashen 'acquisition' approach and extended the pedagogy through trial and error, documenting the whole process with the help of video recordings and our own notes. We present four stages in this 'reading for pleasure' course with descriptions of the pedagogy and excerpts of classroom interaction. Important outcomes of this research are the creative use of language promoted by story re-telling and the desire for ownership of books by learners once they experience ownership of the story through task-based activities on the comics.