The K-12 ESL education efforts in Canada are focussed on assisting the ESL students to master English and achieve their regular curriculum goals in K-12 schools. The K-12 ESL education efforts in Canada are focussed on assisting the ESL students to master English and achieve their regular curriculum goals in K-12 schools.
Librarians and ESL educators can benefit from using graphic novels to enhance ESL learning. Gorman (2003) stated that "Introducing graphic novels that address history, politics, literature, or social issues in a comic style format into the school library or classroom may begin to help bridged the gap between what students want and what schools require" (p. 15).
Schwarz (2002) pointed out the following:
Graphic novels offer value, variety, and a new medium for literacy that acknowledges the impact of visuals. These novels appeal to young people, are useful across the curriculum, and offer diverse alternatives to traditional texts as well as other mass media... Some English teachers use graphic novels to teach literary terms and techniques such as dialogue, and they use works like the Victorian murder novel The Mystery of Mary Rogers (Geary, 2001) as a bridge to other classics of that period... Social studies is another area in which graphic novels can bring new life beyond bland textbooks.
The ESL educators could create lesson plans based on graphic novels to support the ESL students' regular curriculum. For example, a lesson plan for Adventures in Ancient China by Linda Bailey could support the grade six social studies curriculum. In regards to improving the ESL students' English skills, the combination of illustrations and text in graphic novels provide an excellent opportunity to enhance their learning.
A list of curriculum-related graphic novels that can integrate into the ESL learning follows this section to help librarians and ESL educators select titles for their ESL children.