Learning Narratives via Animated Movies: It’s Impact on Secondary

School Students’ Creative Thinking.

Jihan Aisha Khirahla

English Language Education Program

khirahla@student.ub.ac.id

ABSTRACT

Narrative text is an interesting topic to learn in Secondary school student. Meanwhile,

using animated movie in learning narrative is more interesting. Several studies found that
using animated movie as a learning media can affected students’ ability, especially their
creative thinking. There are several things to be highlighted in choosing the suitable movie as
the learning material which are : choosing the right content, pay attention to the quality of the
movie, choose an animated movie with the English subtitle, suitable classroom setting, and
considering the suitable time. Watching animated movie can help the student understand the
content better rather than using the usual textbook. Students are more interested with visual
thing. When they can understand better, they can absorb and understand more as well. When
it followed by doing discussion like problem solving or creating something in the class, they
can distribute their creative skill, and their creative thinking. Well, by learning narrative
through animated movie can increase students’ creative thinking.

Keywords : narrative , animated movie, visual learning, creative thinking, secondary school
students.

Author Biodata

Jihan Aisha Khirahla, is a student in Universitas Brawijaya, Malang. She is currently taking
the undergraduate study on English language education program. She has joined several
committees held by the faculty of cultural studies, such as English Annual Student
Tournament (2016) as the Staff Medical and Refreshment; Education Gate (2016) as the Staff
of Advisor; Music Clinic & Show Your Talent (2016) as the Treasurer. She also joined some
of the competitions such as the Participant of Debate Competition on Student Talent Day
(2015) and the 1st winner of Pop Singing Competition on FIB Cup (2015). Other than that,
She was participated on some events in Universitas Brawijaya such as a Performer of Grand
Concert for Disability Awareness (2015) and as a Mistress of Ceremony on Student Talent
Day (2016).

INTRODUCTION

There are a lot of ways and techniques to learn narrative text. When the teacher uses
the conventional methods, it can be less attractive and even boring. Learning narratives
through animated movies can be one of the effective ways to make the learning process
become more attractive and fun. For secondary school students, using animated movies may
help and ease them to learn narratives. Movies are not always used for entertaining people, it
can be used to help students learn something, and also increase their creative thinking.
Therefore, by using visual learning such as animated movies when learning narrative text, it
can help the students to develop their creative thinking.

In this era, students will be more attracted to watch movies then read a textbook when
it comes to learning something. Supported from one of the educational articles by Kabooha
(2016) students became more interactive and merged with the lesson when the teacher used
movies more than when he or she used the textbook and other conventional ways. However,
it’s important to keep in mind that if the teacher wants to use movie as a teaching media, they
should consider several things in order to reach successful learning. This paper will explain
the impact of using animated movies on learning narratives to secondary students’ creative
thinking.

LEARNING NARRATIVE

For secondary school students, Narrative text is one important thing that must be
studied. Based on decision from Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Indonesia (2016) ,
narrative is occur on the 3rd grade of Junior High School. According to Mislaini (2015) ,
narrative text is the kind of text which tells about something imaginative and also something
fantasy and the purpose of narrative text is to make the reader entertained. Thus, it’s
important for the student to understand the narrative text.

Learning narrative is such an interesting thing to do. Sometimes, people do not realize
that when we were a little, our parents usually read us a bedtime story like Cinderella,
Pinocchio, a Legend of something and others. Without us knowing it, our parents indirectly
taught us about narrative. Narrative text are much appropriate, it helps students to expand
required attitudes, behaviors, and also the value (Sallabas, 2013) When narrative is inserted
as a lesson at school, the students are not just getting the meaning of the story, but they also
get the knowledge about the purpose, the types of narratives, the structure, and how to make
it as well. Therefore, learning narratives can make the students become entertained while
they’re studying it.

USING ANIMATED MOVIES IN LEARNING NARRATIVE

Sometimes, using an audiovisual learning as a teaching media can be said as a good

idea. Audiovisual is not only an alternate for the instructor, but it helps the teacher in his
venture to encourage learning ( McKean, 1962 ) . As Soe’ed et al (2018) said that in this Era,
technology and educational activities can’t be separated from each other. In other words,
teacher nowadays can use many kinds of media in order to support the teaching process.

Movies can be used as a teaching media in the class. As supported by Kresse &
Watland statement (2016) that movies and films can be said as valuable tools on pedagogical.
Supported also from Heinch et al (1990) that movies and films laid themselves to an
educational application. When using a movies as a teaching media, especially in learning
narrative, it would be beneficial to the students because nowadays students are tend to watch
and hear something then read something. In pursuance of Nurizmawati et al. (2014), during
the process of learning using video, the students were enjoyed and enthusiast. They also
concentrated with the stories. According to Raiyn (2016) in a visual environment , the
students uses their eyes to gather visual information. Thus, by using visual learning, it helps
the student to absorb more information.

Animated movie seems more interesting than just an ordinary movie, because it’s like
a cartoon moving pictures. As Henich et al. stated that, Animation is the kind of technique
which the movie creator gives motion to the insentient objects. An animated movie seems
suitable to use in secondary school students’ learning process. Besides that, animated movie
can help the students to learn narrative. According to Wright’s statement (1976) that
animated movies conceived several elements of narrative like characters, plots, dialogs, and
also climax. In conclusion, from watching animated movie, students may get a lot of things
related to narrative text.

Movies are one of the effective tools for increasing students learning. As Nurizmawati
(2014) stated that the animation video made the learners easier to acquire narrative text. Still,
there’re also some defiance and detention in using the tool (Kresse & Watland , 2016) .
Thus, when the teacher decided to use an animated movie as their teaching media in learning
narratives, it’s important to consider several things in choosing the right movie like:

1. Choosing the right content

Every animated movie has a different kind of story, nor the content. Choose the movie
related to the thing that is going to be learned. For learning narrative text, pick a movie which
tells about folktales, fairytales, fables, legends, etc. As a teacher, they have to know the
purpose and the suitable degree of it (Lynn, J. 1952) . Here are some examples of an
animated movie that can be used in learning narratives: The Little Mermaid (1989); Toy
Story I (1995); A Bug’s Life (1998); Chicken Run (2000); Ratatoullie (2007); How to Train
Your Dragon (2010) ; Inside Out (2015); Sing (2016); Zootopia (2016); Finding Dory (2016);
Moana (2016); Coco (2017), And many more. Not all the animated movie has a suitable
content to children. In essence, it’s important to crosscheck the movie before using it as a
teaching media.

2. Pay attention to the quality of the movie.

At this point, it should be noted that quality of the movie is really important. Make sure that
the movie that already prepared has a good quality, high definitions, high resolution, and
clearly display. Either good or bad the quality of the film has, it can be affected the process of
watching. Usually, the high quality of a film can give an overview of an interpersonal
communication (Aspelin, J .2015). In otherwise, when the display showed an old and bad
quality, the viewer will not feel interested to watch it. In either case, the teacher must provide
the movie with a good quality in order to support the students’ on their learning process.

3. Choose the movie with English subtitle

Sometimes when we watch a movie, we must have experienced “misheard” of

pronunciation on some scenes or some parts. To avoid it, it’s way better if the teacher pick a
movie with an English subtitle inside.Not only in terms of understanding the content of the
film, Sanjaya et al (2014) stated that the subtitle in the movie can help the student to
strengthen and obtaining the new vocabularies. As shown above, the use of subtitles on the
movie chosen will help students to understand more than when they’re watching without the
subtitle.

4. Make a suitable classroom setting

As a teacher, it’s necessary to prepare the environment for the process of learning
narrative through animated movies. Before the student start with the activity, they need to be
able to hear and see the movie comfortably. It’s important to provide a proper lightning, the
volume & sound control (Heinch et al, 1990 : 239). Look for a comfortable place to watch
such in the movie room ( if any) , auditorium , or if there’s no place like that, the teacher can
provide a projector and its LCD.

Other than that, the sound system is also needed. Prepare at least a speaker to support the
real environment of watching a movie in the cinema. Even there’s a subtitle, but the sound
system is not supported, it will affect the students’ intentions. On the whole, when the
situation is comfortable and all the things has also supported, it can affect the students to be
more concentrate while watching the movie.

5. Consider the time

Choose the particular time to watch the movie in the class. Prepare at least 2 hours to
watch the movie. Don’t do it if there’s not enough time. Pick a specific time where the
students are ready to do the activities. If the teacher pick the wrong time, it will affect the
students’ ability to absorb the story. The teacher also need to adjust the durations of the
movie to the time provided. According to Ljubojevic, M. et al. (2014) The length of the
movie may affect the effectiveness of learning and also the students’ pleasure. After all, as a
teacher they should prepare and pick the suitable time and also consider the duration with the
time that has been provided before.

THE IMPACT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ CREATIVE THINKING

Creative thinking means think freely, out of the box, unique and creative. To increase
creative thinking, people should have a lot of experiences, doing something new, and try to
think something in different perspective. Learning narrative through animated movie can dig
up students’ creative thinking. There must be a problem happen in every movie. As a
secondary student, they have a big curiosity. Such kind of thing is can be used for problem
solving. As stated by Munandar ( 1931: 25) , the process of creative thinking are arranged in
the areas of problem solving and thinking. While learning narrative using animated movies,
it’s better if it’s followed by discussion activity. Discussion here can be sharing thought, or
even they working in groups to create something. When doing a discussion, unconsciously
each of them has developed their own creative thinking and made it more effective. Hunter et
al. (1995 : 49-51) stated that contributed into a discussion, group decision making, and task
allotment is one of the activity that can be used to make things more effective. After they
discuss about the movie, they asked to make a narrative text which re-tell about the movie
that they have watched. As shown above, to make students think more creative through
watching animated movie, the teacher may provide several supporting activities that used in
order to sharpen their creative thinking.

As a teacher, it’s important to give an explanation briefly about the movie. Ask the
student to express their opinion about the movie. Tell the students about the moral value
contained from the movie. If there’s a scene or part that shows about ambiguities, teacher
should straighten it by giving an explanation about why the actor/subject did that or said that.
After all, to avoid confusion and misunderstanding of the students’ with the movie they
watch, it’s important for the teacher to give explanations and it will be better if the teacher
held a small discussion to share their idea about the movies.

CONCLUSION

Narrative can be taught in different way. Using an animated movie as a teaching

media in learning narrative for secondary school students can be a great idea. Student can be
more interested with the lesson, more motivated, and they probably will give an extra
intention to the movie rather than using only a textbook. When using an animated movie in a
learning process, teacher should consider several things in order to support the learning
process. In essence, teacher should create the activity as fun as possible, and also make the
environment as comfortable as possible.

Students can develop their creative thinking by watching the movie. They can discuss
the problem happened in the movie with their friends, and then they can also write a narrative
text based on the movie. The more students watch the movie, the more they can get the new
information from it. From the information that they’ve got before, the student may use it to
dispense their creative thinking. Creative thinking occur when the student got a lot of
information, and also experiences. The benefit of having a high ability in creative thinking for
the students is it’ll help you in the future. By having a high creative thinking, it’s easier for
the students later on to create something, to invent something. In fact, they also have the
ability to solve the problem in a good way.

Students with creative mind and thinking can be useful for others, and also for their
surroundings. Not only helping others in solving the problems, they also can give a good
solution to others, and so on. Thinking creatively will also beneficial because it will make
the student become an open minded person. They see something not in the same perspectives
which can make them less-judgmental, and it’s good for them. In the future, when they
passed the junior high school then continuo their study whether in senior high school or if
they decide to help their parents to work, they’re lucky if they have a creative mind and
creative thinking. Because in the real world, people need to make something to get
something. If someone wants to become an entrepreneur, creativity is number one. They
should think of what they’re going to do to live their life. In the final analysis, learning
narratives through animated movies may increase the students’ creative thinking.

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