Parents vs. TV L. Quentin Dixon Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Transcript of Parents vs. TV L. Quentin Dixon Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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.