Common wisdom tells us that light reading, such as comic books, teen romances, teen novels, youngster magazines and bestsellers - reading materials that both children and adolescents consume almost every day - can hinder a child's literacy development in understanding more "serious" and demanding academic literature.
Parents especially are fearful that their children are averse to reading school textbooks, and are instead getting hooked on reading bestsellers and comic books. Meanwhile, teachers feel guilty unless they exhort students to finish reading books on science, scientific journals and other demanding literature as prescribed in the school curriculum.
Light reading has never found favor in any language program in the country. Children - book lovers - are seldom encouraged to form a habit of reading for pleasure on their own. They are hardly given freedom to read voluntarily and to choose what they want to read.
The role of light and pleasure reading in enhancing literacy development has been overlooked. Comic books in particular have been accused of being a big hindrance in promoting heavier reading. They are often claimed to offer no academic value. In many cases, they are treated as "junk reading" that can disrupt children's interest in reading academic literature.
Inspiring students to read "serious" literature is indeed a worthy goal. There is nothing erroneous with any language program aiming at imbuing students with demanding academic texts. Yet, there is a grave mistake with the means used to achieve the goal.
Does light reading disrupt children's passion in reading more demanding literature? No. Do parents and teachers need to worry about children who have the habit of gobbling up any kind of book they find genuinely interesting and entertaining to read? They don't have to.
Overwhelming evidence exists, confirming the robustness of light reading in children's literacy development. One piece of reassuring evidence comes from South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Also known as a distinguished writer and thinker, he says, "One of the things that my father did was to let me read comics. I devoured all kinds of comics. People used to say, *That's bad because it spoils your English', but in fact, letting me read comics fed my love for English and my love for reading. I supposed if he had been firm I might not have developed this deep love for reading and for English" (quoted from Teachers College Record 2005 by Steve Krashen).
Compelling evidence also comes from research using case histories. A mother whose sons were unmotivated to read and had to be urged, coaxed and cajoled finally felt relieved after they engaged in reading comic books.
As for her eldest son, she states that ".devoured what seems to tons of the things . The motivation these comics provided was absolutely phenomenal and little bit frightening. My son would snatch up a new one and, with feverish and ravenous eyes, start gobbling it wherever he was - in the car on the way home from the market, in the middle of the yard, walking down the street, at the dinner table.
All his senses seemed to shut down and he became a simple visual pipeline." This mother also noted that comic reading led her son to other reading, saying that "he is far more interested now in reading Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury, books on electronics and science encyclopedias" (quoted from Teachers College Record 2005 by Steve Krashen).
From these claims, it is clear that light reading provides the background knowledge necessary for the understanding of heavier reading. The evidence also demonstrates that readers don't stay on the same genre of the same book, but continue to read more serious and demanding books - ones with completely different genres. This shows that readers gradually expand their interests in reading more.
No less important than the above evidence, light reading promotes literacy in general. Consistent with a general hypothesis that reading more means reading better, writing better and having more vocabulary and acquiring more complex grammatical constructions, light reading has become one of the strongest predictors of success in someone's ability in writing.
The following quote is a statement by Tasha Stoltz, a student at Sekolah Bogor Raya, who had her writing published for the first time by The Jakarta Post in 2006. Aspiring to become a writer and describing herself as an avid reader of fanfiction and as a "Potteraholic", she wrote: "I also learned to love writing through fanfiction; and because of fanfiction, I look forward to writing school essays and reports, whereas previously I loathed them."
One of my students in my writing class told me recently that she learned much in using the degree of formality in English vocabulary from comics such as The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventure of Moby Dick, and Travelers on Gulliver's Island. She also reported that she developed a habit of reading through these comics.
Needless to say, if light reading has a tremendous effect on children's literacy development and offers great pleasure for children, so great that they acquire the language effortlessly, its inclusion in language programs at school is imperative.
From language acquisition point of view, a large quantity of compelling, interesting and engaging junk reading can make a healthy "diet" for children to consume every day.
The writer is a voracious reader and chief-editor of Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching. He teaches English composition at Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta, and can be reached at setiono.sugiharto@atmajaya.ac.id.
