The Implementation of LINE Webtoon Application in Promoting the

EFL Teachers’ Creativity

The Teachers’ and Students’ Perception

Ai Setialis, Diah Wulansari Hudaya and Vegayanto Abdurrakhman Alfikri Ansas

English Education Department, School of Postgraduate Studies, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia

{setialis, diahwulanhudaya, vegansas21}@student.upi.edu

Keywords: Creativity, digital comics, line Webtoon, teachers and students’ perceptions.

Abstract: The rapid development of smartphone technology and the teachers’ lack of capability in getting attention from

students in learning process may lead to passive and boring English practices in the classroom. Therefore, this

study was aimed at investigating LINE Webtoon as possible teaching media that facilitate teachers to teach

English in a fun way and investigating the teachers and students’ perceptions toward the use of LINE Webtoon

in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. This study employed mixed-method design involving

interview and closed-item questionnaire as the instruments to gain the data which were administered to three

English teachers and 35 secondary school students as respondents. The findings revealed that the use of LINE

Webtoon contributes to the teachers’ creativity in providing authentic media and material and also creating

fun learning activities. The findings also indicated that the use of LINE Webtoon creates good and active

classroom atmosphere and the students’ responses are mostly positive where they become more motivated

and interested in learning English as they have fun accessing it. However, teachers are expected to be more

selective in choosing comics in terms of its content and word choices and also to be more creative in handling

low achievement students in the classroom.

1 INTRODUCTION

A phenomenon that students’ smartphone is one of

the factors that causes the students to become passive

in the classrooms is that their smartphones are more

interesting than their teachers. Another factor may be

the students’ boredom in learning because they lose

their willingness and interest towards lesson, which

puts a major barrier in front of effective language

learning (Aralik, 2013). Also, lack of motivation still

constitutes a serious problem both for teachers and

students in language classrooms. One of the ways

teachers can do to make their teaching more

interesting is to provide the good teaching media

using LINE Webtoon; the sophisticated digital

comics which can be accessed easily through

smartphones. Recent years have observed a shift in

how comics are being socially accepted where there

is a growing appreciation towards comics which now

are capable to address almost any subject, fiction and

non-fiction, and all range of audiences’ age (Gibson,

2010).

This research aims to find the use of LINE

Webtoon to promote EFL teachers’ creativity in

providing materials in the classroom and the students’

perceptions.This study will give a contribution and

insight for teachers and language practitioners to

improve English teaching and learning. Line

Webtoon provides an extremely good stepping stone

for those who are not entirely familiar with

technologies since Line Webtoon can be easily

accessed by both teachers and students through their

smartphones.

Comic is a medium that combines words and

pictures. Alaba (2007) stated that comic is a form of

cartoons in which a cast of characters present an

educational story in a sequence of closely related

drawings designed to entertain and educate the

reader. The development of technology influences the

development of comics as well. Nowadays, there are

many media that can help us find comics easily in

many digital forms. According to Azman, et.al.,

(2014), digital comics and interactive comic begin to

appear when access to computer technology is

globally supported.

Setialis, A., Hudaya, D. and Ansas, V.

The Implementation of LINE Webtoon Application in Promoting the EFL Teachers’ Creativity - The Teachers’ and Students’ Perception.

DOI: 10.5220/0007161100090013

In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference

on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 9-13

ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2

There are several reasons why it is important to

include comics in teaching and learning language.

Teaching with comics is essential because it

encourages teachers to use authentic materials, as

suggested by Drolet (2012). It can also improve

learners’ literacy and knowledge about cultures.

Moreover, reading comics will improve learner’

vocabularies. Krashen (2008) summarized that comic

books contain a high number of unusual and

academic vocabulary words that comic book readers

tend to be better overall readers. Using comics in the

classroom will also help learners to improve their

reading skill. According to Haines (2012), the key to

getting these learners to read is to engage their

imagination and interest. Comics are perfect vehicles

because it involves the visual activities that can

facilitate learners to read better. Furthermore, when

learners read better, they will be better in writing as

well. Drolet (2010) argues that the use of comics can

become good prompts for writing topics. Finally,

teaching with comic is fun and motivating because it

gives intrinsic motivation to learners (Grabe, 2004).

In response to the issue, this study attempts to find the

use of LINE Webtoon to promote EFL teachers’

creativity in providing materials in the classroom and

the students’ perceptions of learning using Line

Webtoon.

2 METHOD

This study used mixed-methods design to find out the

use of LINE Webtoon to promote EFL teachers’

creativity in providing materials in the classroom and

to investigate students’ perception on the use of LINE

Webtoon in EFL classroom.The respondents

involved in this study are three English teachers and

35 students of secondary schools, and chosen

purposively since Line Webtoon was used in the

classrooms.Since this research uses mixed methods

design, therefore, there are two methods of collecting

the data. The first method for collecting the data was

semi structured interview which consists of five

questions. The first two questions cover the teachers’

opinion about teaching using Line Webtoon in their

classrooms, the third question is about the obstacles

that the teachers encounter during the teaching

process, the fourth question is about the advantages

of teaching using Line Webtoon, and the last question

is about the teachers’ suggestion about the application

of Line Webtoon.

The second method of collecting data was closed-

item questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of ten

items which cover the students’ perception about the

quality of Line Webtoon application as an

edutainment tool and the effects of Line Webtoon on

the students’ English skills including grammar and

vocabulary.

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 How LINE Webtoon can Promote

EFL Teachers’ Creativity in

Providing Materials in the

Classroom?

After analyzing the qualitative data, it has been found

five themes in the findings. The first theme covers the

strengths and weaknesses of LINE webtoon in EFL

classroom. All respondents said that the use of LINE

webtoon was good and refreshing. It gives them the

easy way to get students more engaged during the

lesson.

Teaching English with comics will also

encourage students to be more engaged in the

classroom. Comics contain attractive features

to motivate them to learn English. (R1).

However, LINE webtoon was only effective for

high achievement students. Those who are lower

achiever cannot engage well with this media in the

classroom. Also, there were some vocabularies which

were quite difficult for students.

Unfortunately, with my students’ ability, only

those who are categorized as high achievers

who can use this media well, considering that

students have very limited vocabulary and

what is presented in webtoon is categorized

middle-hard for students. In addition, there

are many informal languages that are

unfamiliar for students. (R2).

The second theme is about the strategy and

procedures used by teachers in using LINE webtoon.

They have their own strategy in using LINE webtoon.

They used creative writing, cooperative learning, and

retelling the story.

Because I teach writing class, I ask the

students to see the pictures on the comics and

they need to make or write their own dialogues

based on the pictures in the story. They seem

to be interested in doing this activity. And this

activity can also help them to foster their

creative writing. (R3).

The third theme discusses the problems that

occurred during implementing LINE webtoon in the

classroom. The problems may arise from the students,

time allotment, and the internet access.

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

The problems I found when implementing

webtoon in the classroom is when we decided

the genres or stories that will be used in the

classroom. At the first, the students wanted to

choose the stories by themselves and it’s quite

annoying because the class became so noisy.

The second problem is when I let them to use

their phone in the classroom, to open the

webtoon, of course, several students choose to

open the other applications, such as

instagram, bbm, whatsapp, instead of

webtoon. The third problem is in the low-

achiever students and those who do not like

reading comics. (R1).

The fourth theme covers the role of LINE

webtoon as a refreshing way to foster teachers’

creativity and make the learning process more fun.

The advantages that I get are I get new media

which is refreshing in learning process, it is

easier to deliver the material, especially

recount and narrative text which includes

various skills, and it can make the classroom

become more active. (R2).

The last theme is about suggestions to use LINE

webtoon in a more effective way. The respondents

suggest that it will be better if the class is divided into

groups so that students will focus on only one

smartphone.

I think the best way to use this webtoon is by

dividing the class into groups so that the

learning activity can run well. The students

will focus because they only use 1 smartphone

and this can make them avoid opening the

other applications. (R3)

3.2 The Students’ Perceptions on the

Use of LINE Webtoon in EFL

Classroom

The students’ perceptions on the use of Line Webtoon

in EFL classroom can be seen in the following table.

There were 35 secondary school students who

responded to the questionnaire.

Table 1: The students’ perception on the use of Line

Webtoon in EFL classroom.

Num Statement

(%)

Learning

English using

comics is very

fun for me.

- 2.86 20 77.14

LINE

Webtoon is an

interesting

- 2.86 37.14 60

digital comic to

learn English.

LINE

Webtoonis a

practical digital

comic and can

be easily

accessed using

smartphone or

computer.

60 - 28.57 11.43

LINE

Webtoon is a

digital comic

which contains

various

interesting

stories to learn

English.

- 2.86 45.71 51.43

LINE Webtoon

improves my

motivation in

learning

English.

- 2.86 28.57 68.57

LINE

Webtoon

improves my

English

vocabularies.

- 2.86 42.86 54.29

LINE

Webtoon

improves my

skill in reading

English text.

- 5.71 48.57 45.71

LINE

Webtoon

improves my

skill in writing

English text.

- 11.43 51.43 37.14

LINE

Webtoon

improves my

English

grammar

competence.

- 17.14 31.43 51.43

LINE

Webtoon

improves my

knowledge

about English

idiom.

- 8.57 31.43 60

Note: SD (Strongly Disagree), D (Disagree), A (Agree), SA

(Strongly Agree)

From Table 1, it can be seen that most of the

students were positive toward the use of Line

Webtoon in their classrooms although there are items

that students disagreed but in small percentage.The

third item shows an interesting finding in this study;

60% of the students strongly disagreed that Line

Webtoon is a practical digital comic and can be easily

accessed using smartphone or computer. The possible

reason for the students’ disagreement is that they

didn’t have internet connection, computer, or even

smartphone. However, the findings above indicate

The Implementation of LINE Webtoon Application in Promoting the EFL Teachers’ Creativity - The Teachers’ and Students’ Perception

that the use of Line Webtoon had positive effects on

students, from students’ motivation to their English

skills.

3.3 Discussion

The findings from the qualitative and quantitative

data indicate some points. First, as the teachers

mentioned that the use of Line Webtoon was good

and refreshing and makes the classroom become more

alive and the students become more active.

Next, the teachers also become more creative in

providing authentic media and material, as well as

activities that may help students in improving their

skills and make the learning activities become more

fun. As suggested by Richards (2002), authentic

materials support a more creative approach to

teaching that enable teachers to develop their

potential as teachers, developing activities and tasks

that better suit their teaching styles and students’

learning styles. Moreover, most of the students’

perceptions also indicated that Line Webtoon can

improve their vocabulary, writing and reading skills,

and grammar competence.

The problems that were mentioned by the teachers

may lead to the students’ disagreement in some points

of their perception, like poor internet access that

causedstudents’ difficulty in accessing Line

Webtoon, choosing suitable stories for the students

based on their levels, the limited time, low achiever

students and students who do not like reading comics.

Therefore, teachers should be able to overcome these

problems so they can use it in more effective way.

Fortunately, the teachers’ suggestion during the

interview session might be able to solve the problem

that occurred during its implementation. For example,

by dividing into groups and using cooperative

learning strategies can make students more focus and

the time will be more effective. It also can help low

achiever to interact with their friends, help them to

understand more about the story, vocabulary, even the

grammar; and they may feel that learning using Line

Webtoon can improve their skills. As supported by

Cimermanova (2015) that the use comics indicated

possible positive effects in students’ vocabulary

development. Ahamed (2016) also suggested that in

long run, webcomic would also add to the collection

of familiar words in students’ memory.This is also

related to Yunus, el al. (2007) who found that digital

comics have a lot of advantages that encourage

students to write in English.

Another suggestion is selective in choosing

stories that is appropriate for the students. This

suggestion can also save time since the teacher is the

one who is responsible for it. Thus, he/ she can choose

the story in advance, as well as designing the

activities that will be conducted in the classroom.

However, the teachers did not mention the suggestion

of the problem about poor internet connection. This

also should become teachers’ consideration that

without internet connection, students will not be able

to access it. Thus, before assigning the students tasks

related to Line Webtoon, teachers should make sure

that all students have internet access to read the

comics.

Finally, the use of Line Webtoon in EFL

classroom may contribute to the 21

century

education. With the development of ICT, it enables

the teachers and students to be familiar with ICT. In

comparison to the previous research by Azman, et. al.

(2014) which focuses on computer-based digital

comics, this study provides new insight about

smartphone-based digital comic.

Besides that, the use of authentic materials by

using Line Webtoon can provide the students with the

use of English in real situation. It has been found by

Drolet (2012), that the learners’ literacy and

knowledge about culture can be improved through

comics as authentic materials.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

RECCOMMENDATION

English teachers should be creative in providing the

material for students since we know that technology

has developed sharply these days. Through the use of

LINE webtoon, as a refreshing way to teach and learn

English, the English teaching and learning process

can be more alive and encourage students to be more

active in the class. It can be seen that students have

the positive perceptions towards this media and they

agree that LINE webtoon can help them improve their

English ability, such as, improving reading and

writing skill, expanding their vocabulary, improving

grammar knowledge, and increasing their motivation

to learn English. LINE webtoon can also foster

teachers’ creativity since it provides new chance to

modify the teaching materials and various genres.

This media can be a good start for teachers to

integrate technology in the way they teach English. In

addition, LINE webtoon can also be a good stepping

stone for teachers who are not so familiar with

technology.

Since the use of LINE webtoon in EFL classroom

still has several weaknesses, it is better for teachers to

be more selective in choosing the comics which

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

contain the appropriate words choice and contents.

Also, teachers should be more creative in handling the

low achievement students to be more engaged in the

classroom so that they can follow the teaching and

learning process well.

REFERENCES

Ahamed, A. Begum. 2016. The principles adopted in

designing the webcomic to assist lower secondary

students with reading comprehension. International

journal of academic research in business and social

sciences 6 (11), 708-721.

Alaba, S.O. 2007. The use of educational cartoons and

comics in enhancing creativity in primary school

pupils.Journal of applied sciences research, 3(10), 913-

920.

Aralik. 2013. The reasons of lack of motivation from the

students’ and teachers’ voices. The journal of academic

social science, 1(1), 35-45.

Azman, F.N., Zaibon, S.B., &Shiratuddin, N. 2014.

Exploring digital comics as an edutainment tool: An

overview.Knowledge management international

conference (KMICe).

Cimermanova, Ivana. 2015. Using Comics with novice EFL

readers to develop reading literacy.Procedia – Social

and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 2452-2459. Retrieved

from www.sciencedirect.com

Drolet, C. A. 2010. Using comics in the development of efl

reading and writing. SungKyul University.

Gibson, M. 2010. Picture books, comics and graphic

novels.D. Rudd, TheRoutledge companion to children's

literature, 100-111.

Grabe, W. 2004. Research on teaching reading.Annual

review of applied linguistics, 24, 44-69.

Haines, J. (2012, April). Why teach with comics. [Web log

post]. Retrieved November 27, 2016 from

http://www.readingwithpictures.org/2012/04/why-

teach-with-comics

Krashen, B. 2008. Developing power in reading. Dubuque,

IO: Hunt Publishing Company.

Richards, Jack C. 2002. Curriculum development in

language teaching. New York: Cambridge University

Press.

Yunus, M.M., Salehi, H., Tarmizi, A., Idrus, S.F.S.,

Balaraman, S.S. 2007. Using digital comics in teaching

ESL writing.Recent researches in chemistry, biology,

environment and culture.

The Implementation of LINE Webtoon Application in Promoting the EFL Teachers’ Creativity - The Teachers’ and Students’ Perception