Developing Comic Strip Using Canva in Teaching Reading Recount Text

Abstract

English language students frequently encounter challenges in comprehending recount text, and tend to lose interest when the reading material is presented without visual support. To address this issue, the study aims to develop a Comic Strip using Canva as a learning tool to teach eight-grade students how to read and comprehend recount text. The applied design was Research and Development (R&D) using ADDIE model. It involved 42 eight-grade students at SMP Budimulya as research subjects, along with two lecturers and one English teacher serving as expert validators. Instruments used to collect the data consisted of interview, observation, questionnaire and reflective journal. The results revealed that the comic strip was developed through five stages, from need analysis to evaluation. The developed product underwent a series of revisions made based on the observations from the small-scale trial. The product obtained an overall validation score of 87.15%, categorized as ‘Very Feasible’, while the student response questionnaire reached a score of 83.63%, falling within the ‘Very Positive’ category, with students showing particularly strong agreement that the visual illustration supported their comprehension of the recount text. These findings imply that comic strip developed with accessible design tools such as Canva can serve as a practical alternative learning media for supporting reading comprehension in EFL classroom contexts.