Parents vs. TV

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Parents vs. TV

• L. Quentin Dixon
• Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Parents vs. TV

• The Relative Importance of Caregiver Language
  versus TV Language in Predicting English
  Vocabulary Skills among Bilingual Kindergarten
  Children in Singapore

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Todays Presentation

• Why Singapore?
• Previous Research
• Research Questions
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion

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Why Singapore?
http//www.goway.com/orientasia/singapore/si_img/s
ingapore_map.gif
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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

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Why Singapore?
http//www.internationalreports.net/asiapacific/si
ngapore/2002/images/ScienceStudents.jpg
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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

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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).
  

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Previous Research TV and L2 vocabulary

• Home TV viewing significantly predicted
  Spanish-English bilingual childrens 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)

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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)

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Research Question

• What is the role of caretaker language, TV
  language and mother tongue vocabulary in
  predicting English vocabulary of kindergarten
  pupils in Singapore?

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Stratified Random Sample of Kindergarten Centers
by Region
http//www.cdc.org.sg/index.html
28 centers participated
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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
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Sample by Home Language
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Predictors

• Home Background Questionnaire
• Caretaker language
• TV language
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III
• Translated into Mandarin, Malay Tamil

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Outcome Measures

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

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Control Variables

• Home Background Questionnaire
• Mothers education
• Family income
• Ethnicity
• Gender

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Data Collection Procedures
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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

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Results
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(No Transcript)
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Results Caretaker Language
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Results TV Language
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Discussion

• Supports studies that indicate children can learn
  vocabulary from TV (Uchikoshi, 2004 Koolstra
  Beentjes, 1999 Rice, Huston, Truglio, Wright,
  1990 Rice Woodsmall, 1988)

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Discussion

• Seems to contradict the finding that number of
  hours of TV viewing did not significantly predict
  bilingual childrens English vocabulary
  (Patterson, 2002)
• BUT
• Number of hours of TV viewing was not significant

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Limitations

• Correlational
• Parental report data

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Acknowledgements

• Catherine Snow
• Terry Tivnan
• Barbara Pan
• John Willett
• Spencer Research Training Grant

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