Manga Strategy on Improving the Literary Skills of Grade 11 Students

The teaching of literature in the 21st century necessitates innovative pedagogical approaches that address the evolving learning preferences of digitally oriented students. This study investigated the effectiveness of the Manga Strategy in enhancing the literary skills of Grade 11 students in 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World. Specifically, the study examined the effects of manga-based instruction on students' literary analysis, critical thinking, and reading comprehension skills and compared its effectiveness with conventional text-based instruction. Employing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design, the study involved 30 Grade 11 students from Balite National High School during the School Year 2025–2026. Participants were divided into an experimental group (n = 15), which received instruction through a researcher-developed manga-based module, and a control group (n = 15), which received traditional instruction. Data were collected using the researcher-developed Literary Skills Assessment Test (LSAT), which demonstrated acceptable content validity and reliability (KR-20 = .85). Descriptive statistics, paired-samples t-tests, independent-samples t-tests, and Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to analyze the data. Results revealed significant improvements in literary analysis, critical thinking, and reading comprehension within both groups following the instructional interventions. However, comparative analyses indicated that the control group significantly outperformed the experimental group in literary analysis and critical thinking, whereas no significant difference was observed in reading comprehension. The findings suggest that while manga-based instruction effectively promotes student engagement and improves literary competencies, conventional instructional approaches remain more effective in developing higher-order literary analysis and critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, manga-based instructional materials may serve as valuable supplementary resources in literature instruction, particularly in enhancing reading comprehension and fostering learner engagement.