CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Framework
2. Webtoon
a. The Nature of Webtoon
Comic have been around for years. Laksana (2015) classifies it into two that are comic strips and comic book. Comic strips usually found in magazines and newspaper while comic book published in the form of a book.
Nowadays, it can be used in educational context, particularly in English Language Classrooms. It can be used effectively by teachers to generate interest, develop vocabulary words and students‟ reading skill (Sudjana &
Rivai, 2007). In this digital era, comic strips published exclusively on a website or mobile app. it defined as a sequential collection of words and few panels of pictures of cartoons that aim to produce an aesthetic response of reader (Novitasari, 2020).
Online comic strips also known as a webcomics that range from traditional comic strips and graphic novels to vanguard comics, and cover many genres, styles, and subjects (Lacy, 2007). According to Jang & Song (2017), Webtoon is a Korean webcomics that also known as Manhwa,
meanwhile, the webcomics from Japan known as Keitai Manga. Jin (2015) said that webtoon development is a neologism combining web and cartoon. It is a comic strip that distributed via the internet originally, but now via the smartphone. It published in chapters and published online (Kwon, 2014). So, webtoon is the appropriate online comic strips in increasing students interest and suitable to use as a learning media.
b. Teaching Reading Comprehension by Using Webtoon
In using Webtoon for teaching reading comprehension, teacher uses a type of text which is narrative. The procedure of Webtoon in teaching reading comprehension includes pre- reading, whilst-reading, and post-reading activities (Alyousef, 2006) as explained below.
1) Pre- reading activity
Firstly, the teacher triggers the students about narrative text that they had known or learned before like asking what narrative text is, what the purpose of it, what the orientation of it. After that, teacher introduces media which is Webtoon. It starts form the basic one until the complicated point. So, the students can understand what media they will use. Then, the teacher asks the student to try to access this media on Play Store or App Store. After searching this media, the teacher lets the students to do observation by doing reading the information of Webtoon.
2) Whilst-reading
In this process of students‟ whilst reading, the teacher asks the students to read one of the stories of Webtoon in a group. Next, the teacher also asks the students to find out the unfamiliar words or vocabularies which help them understand the detail information of the story. In the process of teaching reading comprehension, the teacher does not only focus on reading the text but also make the students understand the story well about words, sentences, and phrases. In whilst reading, the observing section of scientific approach have to do well by the teacher.
3) Post- reading activities
The teacher asks the students to read a narrative story part of Webtoon in a group. This kind of activity is about the discussion section. The common activity is asking about the meaning of the words and also how to pronounce it.
c. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Webtoon
As an online comic strip, webtoon also appropriate to use as a media in teaching-learning process. According to Juniarto & Fahri (2019), there are several advantages of online comic strips by using webtoon as mention below.
1) Using webtoon is really helpful for the students because it consists of colorful pictures, great stories, and digital media which will be very important for the students.
2) Webtoon conveys the stories accompanied by verbal expressions and realistic colorful illustrations can be understood by the students easily.
3) Using webtoon as a means for teaching students‟ reading ability can be very pleasing and interesting for students.
4) Using webtoon makes students more active in learning because they feel something new and different from what they usually get in the class.
According to Fauziah in Pratiwi (2021), there are three advantages of Webtoon as follows:
1) Webtoon makes students more active in the class
2) Webtoon makes students express their opinion in the classroom.
3) The students do more activities than then the teacher in the classroom.
Therefore, it can be conclude that Webtoon is an appropriate media in teaching English especially to improve students‟reading comprehension. It is an interesting media and supporting reading material.
According to Fauziah in Pratiwi (2021), there are three disadvantages of Webtoon as follows:
1) The students will be lazy to read book without picture.
2) Webtoon is online application, so the students must provide the internet data or they cannot use Webtoon.
3) Several Webtoon stories contain expletive or swear word.
Raulan and Fatimah (2018) mentioned that as a media in teaching, Webtoon has some weaknesses. The use of Webtoon takes extra time, which can only be done outside of lesson time because it can make students a little negligent, this activity needs to be monitored regularly by the teacher, especially when teaching. By using Webtoon in the teaching and learning process requires a complete set of ICT tools such as laptops, projectors, white screens, smartphones, and of course,an internet connection that cannot be provided by every school.
Therefore, in applying Webtoon as a media, teachers have be considered about time management and the material of Webtoon stories.
Using Webtoon takes a lot of time because students required to read the text in order to understand the story, therefore teachers have to able to manage the teaching time. Besides that, the teachers need to choose the appropriate story and it is need to check both in terms of pictures and language.