The notions of Critical Thinking (CT) and Lifelong Learning (LL) are mutually inseparable as both are required in every domain of one's educational and professional life in order to survive and flourish in today's world of increased literacy and competition. CT is an important functional skill, needed for students to analyze concepts and ideas to…

Graphic novels use visual literacy and multimodal learning two methods of teaching. Graphic novels also have a history of being motivating to students. This study aims to quantify the degree of influence graphic novels have on secondary student comprehension and motivation. Students were recruited from two classrooms taught by one twelfth-grade…

Theory of mind is one of the most important cognitive factors in social information-processing, and deficits in theory of mind have been linked to aggressive behavior in childhood. The present longitudinal study investigated reciprocal links between theory of mind and two forms of aggression--physical and relational--in middle childhood with three…

In this study, the use of concept cartoons in a particle structure of matter unit was investigated using the flow map of 7th-grade students' academic achievement. The development of their cognitive structures and thoughts about concept cartoons was analyzed. 27 experimental and 27 control group students who were studying in the 7th grade…

In 2014, Scottish Book Trust (SBT) published and distributed classroom sets of a graphic novel about the life of pioneering environmental activist John Muir to all secondary schools in Scotland, where he is still relatively unknown. This paper outlines the collaborative process SBT used in producing the graphic novel and sets out to trace the…

Fan practices involving translation open up opportunities to explore language learning practices within the fandom (Sauro, 2017). We examine how three fans capitalize on fan translation and language learning. We consider the cases of Selo (an English-Spanish translator of games), Nino (a Japanese-Catalan fansubber of anime, and Alro (an…

This article will focus on sociolinguistic aspects in Terry Pratchett's "The Wee Free Men." In particular we will deal with the interplay of standard and non-standard British English by which the writer highlights cultural stereotypes as well as narrative ones; creating a children's tale with a distinctively adult-like character set.…

Between the years 1935 and 1946, National Comics--the leading comic book publisher in the United States--experimented with various strategies such as book lists and juvenile book reviews in order to encourage children and young adults to read books other than comics. This paper surveys these strategies and the work of key persons such as Malcolm…

While access to images in general has improved in the last 20 years, due to both advances in electronic storage and dissemination and to improvements in the intellectual provisions of them, access to editorial cartoons lags behind access to other types of images. While there have been piecemeal or ad hoc efforts to organize large cartoon…

Although the popularity and use of graphic novels in literacy instruction has increased in the last decade, few sustained analyses have examined adolescents' reading processes with informational texts in social studies classrooms. Recent research that has foregrounded visual, emotional, and embodied textual responses situates this qualitative…

In this article, Kang discusses how she scaffolded a comic book project in a university L2 writing class and argued for its pedagogical value in teaching multimodal argument and fostering critical thinking skills. Although this project was assigned in a specific university L2 writing class, it can be adapted to other types of writing courses and…

Scholars have determined popular literature often contains propaganda imperatives (Berelson, 1952; Budd, 1967; Davis, 1942). Given the persuasive impact children's literature has upon the reader, children's literature containing propagandistic intent is a powerful force (Desai, 2014). This is especially true during times of war. Several studies…

This article draws upon a research project on intercultural language education conducted online between 2014 and 2017 with people living in the Gaza Strip (Palestine). Because the Gaza Strip has been under blockade since 2007, people cannot travel in and out freely. This context thus prompts educators and scholars to reflect on intercultural…

There has been much talk about the popularity of graphic novels in the classroom, and for good reason--the comic book industry is playing a significant role in popular culture. The characters and stories found in comic books and graphic novels are generating large revenues in the movie, video game, and toy industries. With the cultural influence…

Despite ongoing and prolific critical scholarship arguing for the widening of the secondary language arts curriculum, many practicing teachers are required or encouraged to teach a curriculum dominated by canonical texts. This is often the case at schools with highly diverse students whose varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds have…