Alicante University reveals comics to be the best way to learn foreign languages

A course that is being taught (until March 18th) at the Catalan Philology Department of Alicante University reveals comics to be the best way to learn foreign languages.

In the context of our Global Village, where differences are being effaced day by day and the only resting barrier remains language, the need to learn foreign languages, or at least the “lingua franca” of our generation, becomes a must. This, in turn, gives rise to questions regarding the best ways to teach languages, using modern and interactive, interdisciplinary and engaging methods, fit for both children, teens and adults.

Each student is a different case study, each person has their own internalized mechanism, so learning is a very personal aspect. Nevertheless, it has been proven that visual stimuli are vital in the process of acquiring knowledge.

The Alicante professors seek to value the potential of the comic book as a didactic tool by employing a pluri-linguistic approach. Comic strips are fascinating from the point of view of linguistics and pragmatics, because they not only feature text, but also employ self-explanatory drawings, which facilitate the transmission of the message – which is thus conveyed through two channels: the written coded one and the visual.

The comic strip has its history rooted in the 18th and 19th century satirical drawings found in British journals. The American comic strip “The Yellow Kid”, which first appeared in 1895, is widely credited as being the first one. Having reached their maximum popularity between the 1940s and 1960s, comics today remain a popular means of entertainment – and they also have something of a “vintage” air about them.

Let’s hope kids and teens in Spain continue to read comics and learn foreign languages from them! Meanwhile, if you want to attend the course we talked about, you can come ask Alicante transfers to give you a lift!

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