| Summary: | This study focuses on pre-teen's responses to a particular cultural form, the Archie
comic book. The research is framed by two central questions: (1) In what ways does the reading
of Archie comics among pre-teen Archie readers support their literacy in Ll and 12? and (2)
What do pre-teens' responses to the Archie story, "Fairy Tale Land Revisited, " tell us about
their identity and their ways of understanding the world? In regard to the second question, I am
primarily interested in students' identities as gendered and as L l and L2 learners. In addition, I
am investigating the ways in which this research could foster community building in the
elementary classroom.
Two theorists in particular, Krashen (1993) and Glasberg (1992), have made claims about
Archie comics, specifically in relation to student learning. Krashen believes that comics like
Archie are perfect for "hooking" students into reading since they are high interest/low vocabulary
reading. In fact, he concludes that comics in general are linguistically appropriate, not
detrimental to reading development, and conduits to book reading in many cases. Glasberg takes
a more critical approach to these comics and examines the messages that are embedded in the
discourse. He argues that Archie comics relay dangerous messages to pre-adolescents regarding
sexual stereotypes. This qualitative study attempts to respond and move beyond these claims by
exploring student responses to questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to
fifty-five pre-teen students. These students commented on their reading activities in general and
responded to a particular Archie story. Out of the fifty-five students, thirty-four were categorized
as Archie readers and filled out an additional section of the questionnaire in which they were
asked to share their insights about these comics. In addition, twenty of these Archie readers were
subsequently interviewed. The objective of the interviews was to gain a deeper understanding of pre-teen identity and specifically, to explore the extent to which insights about Archie comics
could reveal the multiple identities of these readers.
The findings point to the importance of popular cultural forms such as Archie comics in
the lives of these pre-teens, both L I and L2. They indicate the ways in which these comics can
support literacy for students. They also suggest that using comics in the classroom could be an
effective tool for engaging children in a critical reflection of text, in particular the way that
gender is constructed in stories.
It is important to note that this study is part of an ongoing research project conducted by
Dr. Bonny Norton, and therefore the use of the pronoun "we" in this thesis refers to Dr. Norton
and me.
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