Online Manga and Anime in Promoting Language Learning and Literacy Practices

Abstract

The field of language learning and literacy education is vast and ever expanding. New and hybrid literacies are always given birth to within and outside the field of education, in particular the Internet realm. With the reach of the online medium these new literacies has expanded for the consumption and production of people all over the world. More often than not, these forms of new literacies develop through the consumption and production of the many popular cultures within the Internet. Realizing the importance of these new literacy practices, a number of scholars have studied the impacts, roles, and potentials of these online popular cultures with relations to language learning and literacy education. Two of the more recent areas within the sphere of online popular culture being studied by literacy scholars are the consumption and dissemination of online manga and anime. This conceptual paper analyzes several key academic papers (i.e., commentaries, conceptual papers, research studies, etc.) published thus far on the use of online manga and anime in the field of language learning and literacy education. In doing so, the author discusses briefly the notions of New Literacies Studies and Multimodality in the use of online manga and anime in language learning and literacy education. The author also discusses a brief background of manga and anime; the roles and potentials of these genres as representation of universal culture and in promoting literate practices; and the issues or problems with online manga and anime in the field of language learning and literacy education. The author offers views, recommendations, and implications for the use of online manga and anime in the field of language learning and literacy research.