To balance the difficulty of the different reading materials, the researcher consulted the criterion from ALA (American Library Association) to minimize the variables from different difficulty levels. The selection of the reading material was administered judging from the sales and the popularity of the Manga. The average words for each volume were approximately 2000 words, which were not far away from the recognition of vocabulary of the English textbooks chosen and used for the ninth graders of the junior high school.
Also, to measure the reading rate, the students read a text extracted from GEPT that had content at a level similar to what junior high school students usually read (see Appendix C).
According to Harris and Sipay (1985) and Rasinski (2003), a passage for measuring rate should be at the student’s grade level. In order to check readability of the rate text, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was used. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is one of the most commonly used measures (Readability formulas, n.d.). The readability of a text is measured based on factors such as the number of words in the sentences and the number of letters or syllables per word. Some texts that the students read in classes were measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, with a mean of 6.8. The rate text measured by the Flesch-Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 6.7 and the readability rating goes to A. They read the same text for both the pretest and posttest.
3.2.1 Comparison of Readability of Selected Manga and Textbook
Manga in Japan is geared toward kids, teens, and adults. Most Manga publishers include the age rating on the back cover of each book. The most common ratings are A (All Ages), Y (Youth, ages 10-plus), T (Teen, ages 13- plus), OT (Older Teen, ages 16-plus), and M (Mature, ages 18-plus). To bridge the gap between the differential levels of the reading materials as a pedagogical tool, the researcher was scheduled to compare the readability of the possibly selected Manga. All of the three possibly selected Manga are rated as OT. Jason Thompson (2007) maintained that parents and teachers must keep an eye on age ratings, and should, if they have any doubts, pre-screen the Manga
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themselves. The researcher used his personal teaching experience to judge that these three are appropriate for junior high students. Among them, the readability and language level of the top 2 sales volume Manga (One Piece and Kochikame) were above that of textbooks students currently use. Still, Kane (2007) pointed out that the best way for teachers to become familiar with Manga is to read it ourselves. The teacher researcher also read the contents of the three Manga to assert that the selected reading material is appropriate and feasible with his eleven-year experience of teaching English reading.
There are roughly 50 pages and each page has about 40 words in the Manga called One Piece. So the words in each chapter are approximately 2000. There are roughly 22 pages and each page has about 40 words in the Manga called Kochikame. So the words in each chapter are approximately 880. There are roughly 4 pages and each page has about 100 words for the dialogue and reading sections in the textbooks students use. So the words in each lesson are approximately 400.
Therefore, the researcher decided to adopt the Doraemon, which has closer language level of learners, in that there are roughly 10 pages and each page has about 40 words in the Manga called Doraemon. The words in each chapter are approximately 400. The comparison of the words is shown as follows.
Moreover, the readability of the selected Manga is chosen by the vocabulary density and complexity. For the Senior High Entrance Examination, the average English vocabulary is about 1200 words. There are some steps to verify if the readability of the
Names of books
chosen text and content difficulty is proper and suitable for the participants. First is the number of the words and the length of the passages of the target students’ English textbook they currently use. Second is the number of the words used in each chapter in the selected Manga. The researcher compared the readability of the three selected Manga and found out that the readability of the top two popular Manga (One Piece and Kochikame) is much more difficult than the third one (Doraemon). Moreover, the words for each episode for the first two Manga are around 1440 English words.
Comparing with the first two Manga, Doraemon has approximately 400 words for each episode, which is much closer to the words of the articles of each unit from the textbooks students currently use. The example pages of the Manga―Doraemon are shown in Appendix B. Such being the case, the researcher chose Doraemon as the selected Manga according to the familiarity of the content and the number of the words in each chapter in total. Even though more selections of the comic books may be better in terms of building up students’ reading fluency or giving them scaffolding effects, the researcher chose only one Manga instead of different comic books in that extensive reading was not the main concern in the instrumentation