MULTIMODAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH MANGA IN JAPANESE AS A WORLD LANGUAGE

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of manga, a form of Japanese comic strip, on vocabulary learning among college-level Japanese as a world language (JWL) learners. Vocabulary acquisition through reading in the context of world language education has been researched widely, but less attention has been devoted to multimodal literature with image and text such as manga. This research examines how manga’s multimodality affects learners’ context building, inference for unknown words and how manga affects retaining vocabulary. The study raises three research questions. First, to what extent does manga influence one’s ability to infer the meaning of unknown words compared to the text with English glossary? Second, to what extent does manga influence the speed at which one can infer meanings of unknown words compared to the text with English glossary? Lastly, to what extent does manga affect the retention of vocabulary over two weeks as compared to the text with English glossary? To answer these research questions, a two-period, two-sequence crossover design was used. Students participated from two university Japanese courses. Forty-two participants completed the task for the first two research questions, and 30 participants completed the task for the final research question. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups: manga reading in week 1 and text reading with English glossary in week 2, and text reading with English glossary in week 1 and manga reading in week 2. The statistical analysis was conducted through a repeated-measure t-test for research question 1, a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for research question 2, and a two-way repeated measures ANOVA, an ANCOVA and t-tests for research question 3. Results suggested that manga was effective for inferring unknown vocabulary, and the inference was supported by manga’s multimodality. The times participants spent reading two different texts did not differ significantly. The two-way repeated measures ANOVA indicated an interaction between the text type and the time passing. A general linear model test with repeated measures on different text types indicated that there was a significant difference in mean inference score, but there was no significant difference in mean retention score between the two different text types. However, follow-up t-tests indicated that there was a significant increase in score from pretest to retention through manga reading only. These results could be due to a small number of participants (statistical power is too low), and therefore, it is concluded that the text types did not affect their retention significantly. In addition, the results revealed that the vocabulary score between the vocabulary inference score and the retention through manga was significantly decreased, meaning that manga’s effect on inference was lost over two weeks. This suggests manga’s advantage in initial inference using context, and it is necessary to engage in repetition and other output activities to maintain the effect.