Reinventing Different Worlds Through Alternative Materials and Critical Literacy

In order to encourage more research on and practice of critical literacy in the EFL classroom, this paper explores a case study of critical literacy instruction conducted at a university in Taiwan. Specifically, the paper focuses on a critical literacy activity that took place during the 2024-2025 spring semester. The activity used two unconventional fairy tales taken from a comic book to help 32 freshmen create several classroom assignments and artifacts expressing alternative viewpoints. The current research combines two different frameworks, i.e., quantitative and qualitative approaches. Major data sources include (1) the researcher’s journal entries, (2) classroom observations, (3) student assignments and artifacts, (4) students’ reflection papers, (5) questionnaire responses, and (6) follow-up interviews. In conclusion, the present study indicates that most students had a positive attitude toward this personal, alternative activity that many students found meaningful. The activity encouraged students to bring their own ideas about fairy tales into the classroom, especially during the poster-making exercise. This activity also suggests that unconventional fairy tales in comic book format can be effective in promoting critical literacy. Through their poster-making, students were offered a free space in which to learn how to evaluate nontraditional fairy tales from an alternative perspective. As critical theorists suggest, students should be engaged in critical education programs that encourage students to view texts from diverse viewpoints.