An Innovative Teaching Tool: Manga for KOMSAS’ Prose Comprehension

Studying literature encourages thinking both critically and creatively. It helps to understand and interpret life through the lens of prose, poems, essays, and novels. The KOMSAS genre of literary materials require good pedagogical practices to ensure academic success of a student. The pivotal focus of this study is to assess the advantages of using ‘Manga’ as a creative tool to teach KOMSAS or traditional Malay literary prose and to determine its effectiveness on students’ performance. The aim of the study was also to explore the impact of using ‘Manga’ to enhance creativity among students in the classroom where traditional prose comprehension is taught. A quasi-experimental design was chosen as methodology and a study was conducted with high school students of Form Four. The research instrument involved a statistical achievement test. Findings from this research indicated that there were positive changes in the performance of students who used this Manga module. Teaching methods which could stimulate students’ interest in learning were helpful for students. Additionally, this study also found that students’ perception towards the teaching methods used by the teachers influenced their performance The main finding also highlighted students’ increased creativity when ‘Manga’ was used as a pedagogical tool. Teachers and collaborators can use this study as a point of reference when promoting ‘Manga’ as a creative device to teach Malay traditional prose in today’s classroom.