Integrating Readingwith Web Series and Cartoon Content for Enhancing Comprehension Skills of ESL Undergraduate Students
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Abstract
This study aims to explore web series and cartoons as tools for enhancing the reading skills of B.Tech students. These multimedia tools enhance creativity, critical thinking, and digital literacy through scripts and visual storytelling. Visual engagement to comprehend complex concepts is considered to be more effective as compared to a densely printed text with unfamiliar syntactic structures. However, relying too much on visualisation and ignoring reading skills can impede the proficiency levels of undergraduates.
The mixture of web series and cartoons creates a transition from traditional learning to modern learning in the educational field. A balanced integration of visualisation with reading can enhance the development of vocabulary, meaningful sentence construction and sequencing of ideas needed to communicate in a wide variety of situations. Considering the influence of media on college students, the current study focuses on integrating web series and cartoon content for enhancing comprehension skills of ESL undergraduates. The subjects of the study were engineering students studying B.Tech in engineering colleges affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH).
The data was obtained through a field study conducted for a duration of one month. A questionnaire was administered to identify the influence of web series and cartoon programmes on engineering students. English language input was provided to these students through web series and cartoon programmes. During the progress of the study, formative assessments provided feedback on the effectiveness of these visualisations and the captions or subtitles that cropped continuously on the screen. The study provides data about the progress in the proficiency levels of the students during the various stages of the field study. The qualitative data also included data obtained through personal interviews with students. Findings of the study provide information about the effectiveness of integrating web series and cartoon programmes in developing the reading proficiency of undergraduate engineering students
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