Parents vs. TV

L. Quentin DixonHarvard Graduate School of Education

Parents vs. TV

The Relative Importance of Caregiver Language versus TV Language in Predicting English

Vocabulary Skills among Bilingual Kindergarten Children in

Singapore

Today’s Presentation Why Singapore? Previous Research Research Questions Methods Results Discussion

Why Singapore?

http://www.goway.com/orientasia/singapore/si_img/singapore_map.gif

Why Singapore?

3 major ethnic groups: 77% Chinese 14% Malay 8% Indian

4 official languages: Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, & English

Most families are not native-English speakers

English is the medium of education “Mother Tongue” is a required subject

Why Singapore?

                                                                                             

http://www.internationalreports.net/asiapacific/singapore/2002/images/ScienceStudents.jpg

Why Singapore? Third International Math and

Science Study (TIMSS) 1995 Third International Math and

Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R) 1999

Reading Literacy Study 1991 Progress in Reading Literacy Study

(PIRLS) 2001

Previous Research: TV and L1 vocabulary

L1 English-speaking children learned vocabulary presented through TV (Rice & Woodsmall, 1988)

Viewing “Sesame Street” was correlated with vocabulary growth among L1 English-speaking children (Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990).

Previous Research: TV and L2 vocabulary Home TV viewing significantly predicted

Spanish-English bilingual children’s receptive and expressive English vocabulary at the beginning and end of kindergarten in the US (Uchikoshi, 2004).

Dutch children learned L2 vocabulary through viewing subtitled and unsubtitled English TV programs (Koolstra & Beentjes, 1999)

Previous Research: TV and L2 vocabulary Frequency of TV viewing did not

significantly predict English vocabulary of bilingual 2-year-old children in the US (Patterson, 2002)

Research Question What is the role of caretaker

language, TV language and mother tongue vocabulary in predicting English vocabulary of kindergarten pupils in Singapore?

Stratified Random Sample of Kindergarten Centers by Region

http://www.cdc.org.sg/index.html

28 centers participated

Within Center, Stratified Random Sample of Children by Ethnicity

n = 285 59% Chinese 22% Malay 18% Indian

http://www.mfa.gov.sg/sections/aboutsg/idx_aboutsg.htm

Sample by Home Language

Language category

Percentage(n = 285)

English only 16%

English and Other 27%

Other Language Only

56%

Predictors

Home Background Questionnaire Caretaker language TV language

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III Translated into Mandarin, Malay

& Tamil

Outcome Measures

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III (PPVT-III) in English

Control Variables

Home Background Questionnaire Mother’s education Family income Ethnicity Gender

Data Collection Procedures

Data Collection Procedures 6 local bilingual Research

Assistants administered tests Fluent Mandarin, Malay, & Tamil

speakers Trained to administer child

assessments All data were collected within a 3-

week period in July, 2003

Results

Predicting English Vocabulary (n=285)

Unconditional Model

Final Model

Intercept 79.87*** 36.75***

Mother’s Education 0.90***

Gender -1.43

CT English only 5.23*

CT English + other 5.24**

TV English mostly 10.53***

TV English + other 4.65~

Family Income 3.88***

MT Vocabulary 0.27***

MT Vocab*Income -0.04*

Malay -1.63

Indian 1.85

σ2u 47.28 18.59

σ2e 194.35 140.42

-2LL 2343.30 2240.50

df 11

Results: Caretaker Language

English Vocabulary Predicted by Mother Tongue Vocabulary, by Language Spoken to Child (n=285)

65

70

75

80

85

90

40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130

Mother Tongue Vocabulary Score

En

glis

h V

oca

bu

lary

Sco

re

English

No English

Results: TV LanguageEnglish Vocabulary of Kindergartners Predicted by Mother Tongue Vocabulary, by Language of TV Programs

Watched (n=285)

65

70

75

80

85

90

40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130

Mother Tongue Vocabulary Score

Pre

dic

ted

En

glis

h V

oca

bu

lary

Sco

re

English Mostly

English and Other

Other Mostly

Discussion Supports studies that indicate

children can learn vocabulary from TV (Uchikoshi, 2004; Koolstra & Beentjes, 1999; Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990; Rice & Woodsmall, 1988)

Discussion

Seems to contradict the finding that number of hours of TV viewing did not significantly predict bilingual children’s English vocabulary (Patterson, 2002)

BUTNumber of hours of TV viewing was not significant

Limitations

Correlational Parental report data

Acknowledgements

Catherine SnowTerry TivnanBarbara PanJohn Willett

Spencer Research Training Grant

ReferencesKoolstra, C. M., & Beentjes, J. W. J. (1999). Children's vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language through watching subtitled television programs at home. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47(1), 51-60. Patterson, J. L. (2002). Relationships of expressive vocabulary to frequency of reading and television experience among bilingual toddlers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23(4), 493-508. Rice, M. L., Huston, A. C., Truglio, R., & Wright, J. (1990). Words from "Sesame Street": Learning vocabulary while viewing. Develomental Psychology, 26(3), 421-428. Rice, M. L., & Woodsmall, L. (1988). Lessons from television: Children's word learning when viewing. Child Development, 59, 420-429.

References

Uchikoshi, Y. (2004). Development of early literacy skills of bilingual kindergarteners: An individual growth modeling approach. Harvard, Cambridge, MA.