A BRIEF HISTORY OF OLD ENGLISH IN COMICS

In recent years, a lot of scientific and methodological research has been devoted to the use of comics in the learning process, which clearly demonstrates the relevance and popularity of this tool.

A comic is a chain of static images united by a common plot. Text is usually located inside the images that explains them, and dialogs are transmitted using special “clouds”. Comics are read i.e. perceive images in turn from left to right, from top to bottom [1].

It should be pointed out, that comics are often used in advertising as well as for the purpose of propaganda. That is why they have a place in the pages of many newspaper publications. Comics belong to the group of print media, which are confirmed by the method of its distribution, appeal to a wide audience.

In the XX century, comics gained mass popularity among teenagers. A whole comic book industry was appeared in the framework of which many comics were created about a wide variety of superheroes (the most famous of them are Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, Hulk, etc.). To date, many of the comics have many superhero action films however the printed comic itself remains one of the favorite formats for perceiving information for a modern child and teenager.

Over time, the comic strip began to be attracted by teachers in the learning process as incredibly popular, interesting format to students, which is corresponded to the unique “clip” thinking of children of the Generation Z (also called Internet Generation).

In the field of education, comics can and should be used as a universal form of presenting information due to its unique psychological properties of influencing, the capacity to reflect the essence of ideas that are put into it, imagery, orientation. In addition, students learn information faster and better, they can see the essence of the problem, learn to highlight the main thing.

The plot of comics is usually based on action. Characters are constantly on the move. There are rarely episodes where the hero is sleeping or just messing around. The characters are constantly discussing something, telling, informing, promising something, forbidding. Therefore, children who read comics do not get bored. Conversely, they follow the course of events with enthusiasm. In comics, the dynamics can be traced on every page, the information contained in the pictures eliminates the need for lengthy descriptions, making it easier for the reader to perceive and understand the text [3].

This potential of the comic strip makes the use of comics, as a relevant mean of teaching the history of the English language, because this form of presentation of information is not only effective but also popular and beloved by modern children and adolescents. The complex relationship of language and history, historical facts, periods, important relationships between ancient tribes or languages are most easily understood and remembered if you use a pedagogical visualization technique, which is very easy to implement with the help of a comic strip.

Nevertheless, today the use of comics in education and especially in the teaching of English and its history is still a fairly new and unusual teaching technique.

Turning to the issues of using comics in the teaching of history, researchers note that there are two options for organizing students' work on comic books of historical content:

• discussion and critical analysis of ready-made comics
• creating comic strip as a practical, creative task

The Old English or Anglo-Saxon period of the historical development of the English language is characterized by word formation, the roots of which belong to the dialects of settlers (Utes, Saxons, Angles and Frisians) who captured the territory of modern England. Similarly, developed system of vowels, diphthongs, palatalization of consonants, inflective structure, free order of words, morphological differentiation of parts of speech, a well-developed system of derivational affixes, productive phrasing are described. The following comic can serve as an example of a ready-made comic book, which is devoted to questions of the history of the Old English language.

Picture 1. Example of a comic book about the influence of the Scandinavians on the vocabulary of the Old English language

Old English is minimally similar to modern English and its study is maximally fraught with historical components, which creates the conditions for the use of integration as a means of teaching the history of the Old English. The integration of the two disciplines creates a layering of knowledge of both of them on each other making it difficult for students to master this vast part of knowledge. Accordingly, the process of integrative learning should include tools (in our research- comics) that can facilitate and simplify the process of studying such a discipline as the “History of the English Language”.

References:

1. Rapp D. N. Comic books’ latest plot twist: Enhancing literacy instruction. Phi Delta Kappan, 2011. – Р. 64–67.
2. Reznic R. V. A History of the English Language. Flinta, 2003.
3. Ringe D. R. and Taylor A. The Development of Old English – A Linguistic History of English, Vol. II, 2014.