Unleashing the Potentials of Reading Graphic Novels in Advancing Meaning Making in the Language Classroom

Effective teaching of reading skills requires responsive actions to the requirements of 21st century students. At present, the students are digitally oriented and in urgent need of skills and competencies that empower them to smoothly understand and critically engage in dialogue with the world beyond their countries' borders. Therefore, gone are the days when the sole aim of learning a foreign language is to develop linguistic and communicative competences. The objective of this research study is, therefore, to offer a much-needed account of transcending the traditional linear manner of teaching reading comprehension and to embrace graphic novels as a challenging alternative for interpretation and meaning-making, particularly since graphic novels do not lend themselves to a straightforward interpretation of the authors’ mise-en-scène. The reading session can be a powerful means to assist the students in deciphering the aesthetic dimensions of the elements of graphic novels, including images, panels, language, words, balloon captions, colour, violence, the gutter, and the mise-en-scène. In this respect, graphic novels can provide the students with multifaceted concepts that are open to miscellaneous interpretations since the students are in a position to deduce meaning and unleash the power of their imagination in the reading and literature classroom alike.