Jurnal Ilmiah Mandala Education (JIME)

Vol. 8, No. 3, Agustus 2022

p-ISSN : 2442-9511, e-2656-5862
DOI: 10.36312/jime.v8i3.3775/http://ejournal.mandalanursa.org/index.php/JIME

Students’ Perception On The Use Of Comic Strips: Reading Skill

Tsabita Ananda Harahap1, Maman Suryaman2

12
Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang, Jawa Barat

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history: The main objective of this study was to analyze the perception students in Senior High
Accepted: 15 Agustus 2022 School which discussed about the use of comic strips in students’ reading comprehension.
Publish: 22 August 2022 This study involved the descriptive quantitative method data deriving from questionnaires.
The instruments aimed to get feedback from the students about their perception about this
topic. The finding show the students take the media positively and also help them in
understanding the text using comic strip rather than text only because they can use their
Keywords: imagination to developing their critical thinking skill and comic strip also enjoyable to be
Comic strips the tool for their learning process.
Reading skill
Students’ perception This is an open access article under the Lisensi Creative Commons Atribusi-
BerbagiSerupa 4.0 Internasional

Corresponding Author:
Tsabita Ananda Harahap
Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang
Email : [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is one of the countries with low level of English proficiency. It can be considered
that English learning method in our educational field must be improved. The student needs to
consider that learning English is really important. The students should have a mindset about learning
English as a provision to enter work life rather than think to learning English just for passing an
examination. Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are four skills in English that should be
mastered by English language learners.
Reading is an important aspect of language learning because it can help students develop other
related skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and writing. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English (2014), in common terminology, defines perception as:
a) The way you thinking about something and your perception of how it is like;
b) The way in which you see things using your sense of vision, sound, and so on;
c) The spontaneous ability to comprehend or recognize new information rapidly.
In philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science, perception is the process of attaining
awareness or understanding of sensory information. The word “perception” comes from the Latin
words perceptio, percipio, and means “receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, and
apprehension with the mind or senses.”
There are so many literatures has indicated that comic strips can motivated students to read
and also improving students’ reading comprehension by empowering them with complex materials
and supplying them with appropriate learning options. According to Fukuyama (2006), the use of
pictures contextually in reading not only provides the reader with background details but also makes
them more familiar with the context in the text. The use of contextual comic strips in which the
students understand and familiar with the situation can help them understand the text more easily.
“According to UNESCO research in 2006 show that Indonesian reading interest at the lowest
position at the Asian while International Educational Achievement recorded Indonesian students
reading ability are lowest in the ASEAN region” (Naim, 2017).

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There are various elements that makes children' reading comprehension still in below average.
It can be seen in the reading material many students have no motivation with reading activity.
Students struggle to grasp the text's material caused by a lack of vocabulary proficiency, making it
more difficult to explain the meaning of the entire paragraph. In solving students’ difficulties in
reading comprehension, the teacher can use interesting media which will help the students in learning
process. Comic strip are an exciting media that may be utilized in the classroom to enhance reading
comprehension. Smith (2006) state that Comics are powerful aids for the students who excel at visual
learning or have short attention spans.
The differences with previous studies are using quantitative methods by asking open/close
ended questions that emphasize students' perceptions in using comic strips, participants and the place
where the research is carried out. The focus of this study is to determine students 'perceptions of the
use of comic strips in students' reading comprehension. This study use a quantitative methods that
takes data from questionnaires. This instrument aims to get input in the use of comic strips in
students' reading comprehension.

2. THEORITICAL REVIEW
A. Student’s Perception
One of the essential psychological aspects is perception because by stating perception or
opinion the researchers know about some phenomenon which exist in our environment. Every
individual has a unique perspective on a thing. It can be positive ways or even negative ways.
Students are the primary and also most valuable resource in the teaching - learning
activities. Students can learn from teachers, while teachers cannot teach without students
(Danim, 2010).
Perception is always begin with all of the learning process. Perception is always the main
focus for the entire learning process. Students' perception is the process by which students are
given preferential attention when it comes to information obtained from a thing that they have
viethe researchersd. By observing the object with their senses, students can make an opinion
about the object.
B. Comic Strip
According to Cheeseman (2006) comic strips accommodating a student's interest and
stimulating critical thought. Comic strips are a book of fascinating images of text. The image in
comic strips shows information in the text (Cho, 2012). More specifics on the description,
setting and speech of the characters are given in the pictures of the comic strip.
Comic strips are brief comic strips, which usually include betthe researchersen three and
eight panels, according to Gavigan & Tomasevich (2011) Comic strips are brief, unlike comic
books. The comic strips consist of a few panels and in seconds or a couple of minutes they can
be read. In theory, comic strips have the same basic elements as a comic book the
researchersbsite, according to Yomtov (2013). They are panelling, lettering, word bubble, mind
balloon, phrase, sound effects, edges, and rinks. Ranker in Drolet (2010) described the use of
comic strips for ESL students as a read material and considered their assistance with reading
and writing English language learners.
According to Fukuyama (2006), the use of pictures contextually in reading not only
provides the reader with background details but also makes them more familiar with the context
in the text. The use of contextual comic strips in which the students understand and are familiar
with the situation can help them understand the text more easily.
According to Majidi & Aydinlu (2019) when people know the meaning of a picture, they
can use that information to classify the object they see. As a result, teaching through contextual
comic strips will include the scenario and illustration that students are familiar with the

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character, community, and situation that occurs in the novel. When the researchers understand
the scenario in the frame, the researchers can better understand the story's content.
C. Reading Comprehension
According to Lehr (2013), reading comprehension is the purpose of building through
engagement and dedication to the written language. Reading comprehension is also an active
task, readers must grasp the text in order to make this practice meaningful (Dahliana, 2016).
Reading comprehension is the competence to obtain meaning from the text; it is the
most significant factor in attaining the objective of reading comprehension and text
interpretation. Reading without understanding is nothing more than staring at a sign and
sounding it out.
Reading is the most pothe researchersrful tool in any language lesson, not just as a
source of knowledge, but also for developing linguistic awareness. According to another study,
“reading comprehension can be defined as thinking process through which readers become
aware of an idea, understand it in terms of their experiential background, and interpretation
related to their own needs and purposes” (Khoiriyah, 2010).

3. METHOD
The study was conducted at SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan, Bekasi, in class XI IPS 4 In particular,
it took place in the second grade of senior high school. This study's population consisted of 41
participants. However, according to Patton (2001), the sample of the population should be 10% or
more. In this case, the researcher selected part of the students in the class to answer the questionnaire.
Neuman (2014), stressed the element of representation that “sample is a small set of cases a researcher
selects from a large pool and generalizes to the population”. In this research held online because of
the limitations in doing offline research.
The Respondents involved in this research are students from SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan class XI
IPS 4 which consist of 41 students there are 22 female and 19 males. In choosing the participants, the
researcher makes the criteria which will suit with the focus of the study, the criteria can be students
form SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan, Students are willing to be a sample of the study, Interesting in study
English. The research involved students from SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan because it was close to
researcher’s house. Unfortunately, because of covid-19 pandemic, the school was not operating and
it should be conduct online at home.
In this research, the researcher used questionnaires for collecting data. A questionnaire may
presented closed-ended questions. Closed questions are those with few answers, mostly "yes" or "no."
Closed questions help to facilitate analysis and reliability of results. Closed questions create
quantitative data. Limiting responses may have a validity effect, though.
In order to do this, sociologists also expand the possibility of answering questions closed, for
example by classifying potential answers or by showing the extent to which they agree with an
argument. The second is known as the Likert Scale and is a quantifying tool for easily analyzing
qualitative data. In this study the researcher used closed-ended questions which have content of scale
question. The questionnaire is a list of questions or statements that are given to participants. A self-
administered questionnaire was the only way to elicit self-report on peoples’ opinions, attitudes,
beliefs, and values Gall & Borg (2014).
The researcher employed descriptive qualitative methods because they were appropriate for
providing a comprehensive description of students' perceptions on the application of the comic strip
in students' reading comprehension. In spite of this “descriptive qualitative study aims at investigating
detailed rendering of people, places, or events in a setting in qualitative approach” (Creswell, 2009).
Descriptive statistics are used to evaluate this questionnaire, and frequency counts are tabulated. The
researcher was screening the results of the participant questionnaire answers with the answers that
approach to the research questions.

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Procedures of research firstly, the researcher prepares YouTube video and photo of comic strip
that explain what is the comic strips are and then it will be attach on the questionnaires. Thus, the
student can answer the question after watching the material given by the researcher which they have
been learn about the material and could make a perception about the topic. Secondly, the researcher
could track the data based on the students’ perception that written on the questionnaires. Thirdly, the
researcher processing the data after all of the students have submit their questionaries. Finally, basic
statistical method was used to assess the student responses. The questions were addressed to
investigate the aspects of respondents’ perceptions towards comics as an instructional tool for
learning English in reading comprehension.

4. RESULT
This chapter explains the findings obtained in the research that has been carried out to the 35
participants from second years’ students class of SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan.
A. Result of Questionnaire
As the researcher stated in a previous study, the questionnaire was shared for all the students
of second grade. However, the researcher only took 24% of the population. The data analysis of
the questionnaire as shown in the following.

Based on the data above, most of students agreed that using comic strips can improve reading
comprehension skill. None of them choose this part answered disagree. It can be conclude that
the implementation of comic strip as a media to improve reading comprehension skill seems
benefical for students.

The graphic showed that many students strongly agree with understanding the text easier by
using comic strip to comprehend the text. The data conducted that the highest score is 22 whose
choice agree and then followed by score 12 data for student who are agree in this agreement.

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The boredom in understanding text through comic strip seems that the frequency are in the
lowest score. Students strongly agree comic strip makes them enjoy to reading the content.

Many students do not into on reading because the reading materials mostly provide text only
which does not contain picture or visual and it could not make the reader feel enthusiasm in
reading, this reason make a bad effect in developing student’ reading skill. The analysis data
above showed that visual text is being interested for students which the section ‘strongly agree’
and ‘agree’ are the most score on this data. Even though it showed that the small part of the
students choose ‘strongly agree’.

Comic strips can affect reading motivation. It shothe researchersd in the table above that the
highest score of student choice is 21, most students agree of that statement then following to the
section ‘agree’ is 11 points, but there the researchersre also shothe researchersd the frequency of
the students who do not disagree in the lothe researchersst point.

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In this statement the students seem willing to continue learning English with the help of
comic strip. The section ‘agree’ has the highest score then followed by ‘strongly agree’. Even
though there were a small part of students ‘strongly disagree’.

The graphic above proved that comic strip is an interesting media for learning English. It
showed that most of the student agree on this statement. The section ‘agree’ has 21 point and then
followed by section ‘Strongly Agree’ which has 13 point.

One of the advantages reading comic strip is improving students’ critical thinking skill. The
students can analyze the picture in the text in understanding the text and it was done by using their
imagination. In the graphic showed on the section ‘Agree’ has the highest score which 22 point. It
seems that many student got benefit from the use of comic strip especially in improving their reading
comprehension.

The comic strip presents a new style in learning material which is different from the textbook.
It guides the students more interested, fun, and enjoy in reading comprehension than the textbook. It
explained in the graphic above that the most students agree with that statement. It showed in section
‘agree’ has 17 points while the ‘strongly disagree’ has 9 points.

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5. CONCLUSION
In this study reading comic strip is used in the students thinking skills and reading
comprehension, and the study followed by students’ perceptions of 35 secondary school students of
SMAN 6 Tambun Selatan in reading comic strip and bring the interesting implementation of learning
in students’ reading comprehension.
The data from the respondents indicated in this study a strong agree that the comic strip
approach is useful tool to help them comprehend the text. Moreover, it is very encouraging the
students to be able to comprehend the text easier. This research may indicate that comic strip allowed
students to get the knowledge deeper because of the text which presenting the visual-image. The
educator created the Learning Elements based on his or her knowledge, which includes graphic texts
and enhances the students' understanding of the particular subject (Pandian & Balraj 2010).

6. SUGGESTION
This study has numerous flaws and limitations, and it cannot be generalized to other samples
or methods. Further research into different samples and methods is required. The following study
can be carried out in different grades, for example, through experimental research. It is possible that
it will be more accurate if conducted offline rather than online.

7. REFERENCES
Cheeseman, K. (2006). Using comics in the science classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching,
35(4), 48.
Cho, H. (2012). The Use Cartoons as Teaching a Tool in Middle School Mathematics.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203093917
Dahliana, S. (2016). Partnership activity in efl reading. 3(2), 83–90.
Danim, S. (2010). Perkembangan Perserta Didik. ALFABETA.
Drolet, C. A. (2010). Using Comics in the Development of EFL Reading and Writing. SungKyul
University.
Fukuyama, Y. (2006). Effects of Contextual Visuals as Advance Organizers on L2 Reading
Comprehension.
Gall, M. D., & Borg, W. R. . (2014). Educational Research : An Introduction by Walter R . Borg ;
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Gavigan, K. W., & Tomasevich, M. (2011). Connecting Comics to Curriculum: Strategies for Grades
6–12. Libraries Unlimited.
Khoiriyah. (2010). Reading 1. University Press.
Lehr, K. (2013). Instruction reading comprehension.
http://www.specialconnection.ku.edu/?q=instruction/reading comprehension.
Majidi, N., & Aydinlu, N. A. (2019). The Effect of Contextual Visual Aids on High School Students
’ Reading Comprehension. September 2016. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0609.15
Naim, N. (2017). AKU, BUKU DAN MEMBACA : Kisah Persahabatan dengan Buku. Akademia
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Neuman, W. L. (2014). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. In
Teaching Sociology (7th ed., Vol. 30, Issue 3). Pearson New International Edition.
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Patton, M. Q. (2001). Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Pearson Education. (2014). Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (6th ed.). Pearson
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Smith, A. (2006). Teaching with Comics. Kanada: University of Lethbridge.

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