Cartoons can be used effectively in English language lessons to engage students and promote discussion. The author proposes including one-panel political or social commentary cartoons from websites. Students would be asked to interpret the message, take sides in debates, and express opinions in pairs or groups. While initially challenging for lower levels, cartoons encourage students to go beyond descriptions to interpretations, opinions, and analysis. They provide opportunities for rich student output and discussion with minimal teacher input. Care must be taken in selecting age-appropriate and culturally sensitive topics that don't promote strong political views.

1. CARTOONS in the English Class
José Antonio Alcalde
Not long ago I was on a school exchange in Germany. While my students were
touring the German Gymnasium (it wasn't my first visit...), I was talking to some
colleagues who also teach English about their final exams in 6th
Form. There was
a section in the exam that I really liked: Cartoon Interpretation. It is what it
sounds like. Students are given a couple of cartoons and they have to write
about them. Eureka! I had found another idea in the same line as What a map!,
Today in History, It's a small world. I like to include some short activities in my
lessons to change activities, warm up, end the lesson, wake up my students, etc.
Always eager to find inspiration for my lessons, here is my proposal.
First of all, let us say that my scope is limited to one-panel
cartoons and not comic strips or animated cartoons... for the sake
of clarity. Long past are those days when introducing “alien” stuff
(songs, videos, magazines, advertisements, brochures, etc.) in
schools was considered not serious enough. Today the use of
realia (authentic materials) is favoured everywhere. With the help
of projectors and smartboards it is really easy to show one cartoon
and ask students to interpret what they see in pairs, take sides in
a debate, express their opinions, etc. Bringing current issues to
the classroom is motivating, content-based, appealing and useful
for everybody. Thus, the school boundaries are broken and we
connect with the real world outside.
At first sight it may seem easy because it is just a cartoon with a short caption
(sometimes even none) but I would say that this kind of activities are meant
for B1 or higher level students. I say so because there is skill transfer from
something mainly visual to speaking (or writing). Here students have to go
beyond mere description (unlike in photo description or pictures comparison)
and add interpretation, ideas about fads, opinions on current affairs,
background knowledge, analysis, etc. Simple never meant easy! Let us put it
another way. With these activities there is very litle Input but a truly elaborate
Output and the more my students produce, the better! At the beginning
students will be silent as a stone, so it is our job to elicit some answers by
asking them things like: What is the main message? Do do you understand
it?, Why do you find it funny / shocking?, Why do/don't you agree?, etc.
Thanks to the Internet resources are endless and we can google
virtually any topic. There is always something of interest. In fact, it is
more a matter of choosing rather than finding. On certain occasions, we
must be careful with cultural sensitivities, political opinions, etc. This is a
grey area as we are dealing with students who may have their own
strong opinions on certain topics. I found great stuff from sites like
http://www.private-eye.co.uk. But the winner is no doubt
https://www.cartoonstock.com. Here we can search for cartoons
according to topics, key words in captions, colour, cartoonist, category,
archive, orientation, etc. Amazing! Once students get into the habit, they
can even search for and bring to class their cartoons for the rest of the
peers. Every little bit helps...