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Comics and literacy
Aug. 12th, 2010 06:04 pmWhen I hear people knocking comics in conversation, if the degree of ignorance shown requires it I occasionally feel obliged to gently remind them that many children in the poorest parts of the world, with restricted access to education, may and often do begin their reading with comics if they are available. And not just young children, for they may have rarely attended school even into their teens or later, a situation made worse when a child's parents are also illiterate. Comics are a simple and entertaining way to learn the basics of written language because they visually link words with actions. I don't actually read either comics or graphic novels these days and haven't for around twenty years, but I still have to try not to get impatient when comics are even now cited as being inferior to books – even picture books – when it comes to a child's reading and learning. There is still a latent perception that comics are something a child needs to grow out of, and preferably as soon as possible, before he or she enters teenage years and adulthood (this study, for example, from the Cambridge Journal of Education in 2001, addresses the question of prejudice against comics in the UK).
A straightforward map of worldwide illiteracy levels is here. A comics-obsessed nation such as Japan has a literacy rate at age 15 of 99%, like much of the developed world, and in Japan the reading of comics continues well into adulthood and with no stigma attached: middle-aged men and women on the Tokyo subway can always be seen reading the latest Manga. In Thailand the literacy rate is around 95%; other samples: Argentina and Uruguay 97%, Palestine 93%, Colombia & Mexico 92%, Brazil 90%, Peru 89%, South Africa 88%, Nicaragua 78%, Kenya 73%, India 66%, Sierra Leone 38%, Ethiopia 22%.
Comics are widely available in Thailand (the country I am obviously most interested in), in Thai and less so in English, and usually translated from Japanese. However looking at that list of literacy percentages around the world I wonder if there is also an inverse correlation with the availability of comics. I cited many percentages from Central and South America above because comics in Latin America are widely available, which may help improve literacy in the face of other negative socio-economic factors. It's not hard to imagine a world where comics would be less prevalent in Latin America and literacy might therefore, by degree, be worse. But dealing with the world we have, unfortunately it's also difficult to imagine a greater availability of African comics across rural Africa – for instance in most schools I visited across rural Kenya from 1994 to 2001, comics in either KiSwahili or English were rarely seen anywhere, and I often encountered both boys and girls in their late teens sitting alongside children of 7 or 8 in a written English class (and have a look at the extraordinary story of Kimani Maruge). Most classes in Kenya are taught in English, often with no materials to learn from except a blackboard and old text books, with little in the way of visual media. I acknowledge that's a very small sample from a very large continent, but I wonder if that absence of comics corresponds in any small way with Kenya's 73% literacy rate, and wider still with the far lower levels of literacy across most African countries. By saying "corresponds" I am of course not implying that an absence of comics is a direct cause of lower literacy, just that it is one factor that would assist in the literacy of a child from the developing world in the absence (or even denial) of access to education. Of course the main determining factors of a child's literacy is first the presence of a nearby school, and secondly the ability to pay school fees even at primary level (many African countries still do not provide free primary education). Also, across the developing world girls often come off worse, as educating boys is still (sadly) seen as a better investment for the future.
This will be an interesting subject to look into further, and I'd welcome any pointers to articles about the correlation between comics and literacy in the developing world. No doubt there are already some studies available and I may well have a distorted picture of things at the moment, but I will be looking out for more on this.
In the meantime, offered as proof that comics are indeed a superior learning tool, I see Batman and Spiderman are now being used to teach philosophy. It's also the article that prompted this post.
A straightforward map of worldwide illiteracy levels is here. A comics-obsessed nation such as Japan has a literacy rate at age 15 of 99%, like much of the developed world, and in Japan the reading of comics continues well into adulthood and with no stigma attached: middle-aged men and women on the Tokyo subway can always be seen reading the latest Manga. In Thailand the literacy rate is around 95%; other samples: Argentina and Uruguay 97%, Palestine 93%, Colombia & Mexico 92%, Brazil 90%, Peru 89%, South Africa 88%, Nicaragua 78%, Kenya 73%, India 66%, Sierra Leone 38%, Ethiopia 22%.
Comics are widely available in Thailand (the country I am obviously most interested in), in Thai and less so in English, and usually translated from Japanese. However looking at that list of literacy percentages around the world I wonder if there is also an inverse correlation with the availability of comics. I cited many percentages from Central and South America above because comics in Latin America are widely available, which may help improve literacy in the face of other negative socio-economic factors. It's not hard to imagine a world where comics would be less prevalent in Latin America and literacy might therefore, by degree, be worse. But dealing with the world we have, unfortunately it's also difficult to imagine a greater availability of African comics across rural Africa – for instance in most schools I visited across rural Kenya from 1994 to 2001, comics in either KiSwahili or English were rarely seen anywhere, and I often encountered both boys and girls in their late teens sitting alongside children of 7 or 8 in a written English class (and have a look at the extraordinary story of Kimani Maruge). Most classes in Kenya are taught in English, often with no materials to learn from except a blackboard and old text books, with little in the way of visual media. I acknowledge that's a very small sample from a very large continent, but I wonder if that absence of comics corresponds in any small way with Kenya's 73% literacy rate, and wider still with the far lower levels of literacy across most African countries. By saying "corresponds" I am of course not implying that an absence of comics is a direct cause of lower literacy, just that it is one factor that would assist in the literacy of a child from the developing world in the absence (or even denial) of access to education. Of course the main determining factors of a child's literacy is first the presence of a nearby school, and secondly the ability to pay school fees even at primary level (many African countries still do not provide free primary education). Also, across the developing world girls often come off worse, as educating boys is still (sadly) seen as a better investment for the future.
This will be an interesting subject to look into further, and I'd welcome any pointers to articles about the correlation between comics and literacy in the developing world. No doubt there are already some studies available and I may well have a distorted picture of things at the moment, but I will be looking out for more on this.
In the meantime, offered as proof that comics are indeed a superior learning tool, I see Batman and Spiderman are now being used to teach philosophy. It's also the article that prompted this post.
