Malaysian University English Test: A Comic Approach to a Serious Subject Matter

Abstract

Report writing is one of the two tasks in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) writing paper. In order to write a good report for Task 1, several conventions must be adhered to, which can be arduous and challenging for students. As the application of many technical terms is crucial, it was deemed necessary to inject an innovative and novel way to teach this serious subject matter in a lighter way. The researchers prepared a comic book of 23 pages on the plot of report writing, with several characters in a classroom setting. Standard comic book conventions of spoken and conversational language were used in the presentation of the comic book. An action research on a class of 15 students was conducted; the students were given the comic book to reinforce what had been learnt in the previous 4 h of instruction on report writing. The use of comic book in the 5th and 6th hours of instruction showed that it was a welcome and refreshing change for the students, as it injected fresh interest in learning report writing and added variety to instruction. Pre- and post-comic reports written by students indicated improvement in several aspects, namely, organisation of paragraphs, verbs to show trends, report title, inclusion of key features and word count. As a whole, students agreed that the comic book is primarily effective as a follow-up material for classroom instruction or as reinforcement and revision, due to the many technical terms which need to be mastered through overt instruction.