Perceptions of a group of students from the Modern Languages Program at the Universidad del Cauca regarding the integration of digital comics into their English reading process : An experience from a multiliteracies approach

Abstract

The reading of digital comics, from the field of multiliteracies, allows us to study this type of texts as multimodal. Multimodal texts merge verbal, visual, sound, gestural and distributive language, providing a complete experience for readers to find the overall meaning of the comic. This paper reports an action research study about the perceptions of a group of higher education students on the insertion of digital comics in their English reading process. The study aims to foster the reading experience from the perspective of multiliteracies. The participants were a group of students belonging to the bachelor’s degree Program in Modern Languages with Emphasis in English and French of the Universidad del Cauca. These students participated in a reading workshop that makes use of digital comics as multimodal texts. These comics can be found in the Webtoon platform. The instruments that were used to collect data were surveys, focus group interviews and digital journals of participants and researchers. This study allowed us to understand and describe the perceptions of the insertion of digital comics in the participants' English reading process.