USING COMIC STRIPS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING FRENCH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE: CHANGES IN MOTIVATIONAL BELIEFS
USING COMIC STRIPS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING FRENCH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE: CHANGES IN MOTIVATIONAL BELIEFS

Summary/Abstract: The present work reports a small-scale quasi-experimental study which investigates effects of using comic strips as authentic learning materials in supporting Romanian students’ motivation for learning French as foreign language. The study is based on a pretest – post-test design with experimental and control convenience groups (N= 29), which included Romanian students from an urban high school, studying French as the second foreign language. Motivational beliefs were investigated with adapted versions of three scales selected from Motivation Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ, Pintrich & De Groot, 1990): self-efficacy, intrinsic value and test anxiety. The intervention consisted in educational activities organized for eight weeks, in which comic strips have been used consistently. Results revealed significant effects of the intervention on students’ test anxiety, but no significant effects on self-efficacy and intrinsic value. These outcomes suggest the potential role of coming strips, among other authentic documents, in sustaining and improving some of the students’ motivational beliefs. However, more research is needed in this direction, as authentic documents, especially comic strips, are resourceful teaching and learning materials in language classes.

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