Learning by Viewing: cartoons as foreign language learning material for children

18 Pages·2012·1.17 MB·English

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Journal of Educational Television
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Learning by Viewing: cartoons as
foreign language learning material
for children‐‐a case study
a
Jaana Jylhä‐Laide
a
Department of English, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Available online: 03 Aug 2006
To cite this article: Jaana Jylhä‐Laide (1994): Learning by Viewing: cartoons as foreign
language learning material for children‐‐a case study, Journal of Educational Television, 20:2,
93-109
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Journal of Educational Television, Vol. 20, No. 2, 194 93
Learning by Viewing: cartoons as
foreign language learning material
for children—a case study
JAANA JYLHä-LAIDE
Department of English, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Jaana Jylhä-Laide works as a teacher of English and Swedish in a
Finnish comprehensive school. Her research interests include using tele-
vision and video in second/foreign language learning.
Initial Outline
The general attitude among second language researchers toward the potential of
television in language learning is critical because the medium is considered to lack
two prerequisites of successful language acquisition: modified input and interaction.
It has been argued that the lack of these features leads to a situation where the
learner receives incomprehensible input and has, because of the ephemeral nature of
television, too little time to process it. On these grounds, television has been claimed
to be helpful only in the maintenance of a language skill already acquired. The
beginning language learner would, according to this view, be able to learn only a few
isolated words or phrases. However, video as a medium has seldom been differenti-
ated from television in language learning research. Instead, these media are often
treated as synonyms both in theory and in practice.
This study, however, deals with a case where a Finnish girl has acquired a second
language by watching English language cartoons on video, without any formal
language teaching or other contacts with the language. The girl was six years old
when she started to spend a lot of time watching cartoons, videotaping them and
reviewing the same programmes several times. Within a couple of years, she
managed to acquire a good command of English in the areas of listening and oral
production skills. Analogous cases have not, at least to the knowledge of the present
writer, been reported in the literature of second language acquisition.
The present study describes and analyses the girl's language learning process and
the learning outcome. The purpose is to find out whether the learning has followed
the rules of naturalistic language acquisition. Therefore, attention is paid to the
input that the learner has received, i.e. to the language of the cartoons that she has
viewed. The present investigation also aims to examine whether the video-based
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94 J. Jylha-Laide
learning context, unlike the criticised television viewing situation, exhibits the basic
elements of the naturalistic learning situation: modified input, interaction, contex-
tual or non-linguistic information, and the learner's previous knowledge of the
world. Both video and television viewing contexts are analysed and compared with
the naturalistic learning situation to assess the similarities and differences between
these learning contexts.
Features of cartoons facilitating language
The simplified visual representation and the recurrent plot typical of cartoons help
to elicit children's interest in them. The comparison of various programmes viewed
by the girl implies that the language of at least some cartoons contains sim-
plifications that are not found in programmes aimed at adult audiences, but are
frequently used in caretaker speech and foreigner talk. The analysis of the cartoons
viewed by the learner indicates that they feature the following modifications: (1) the
cartoons contain features that effectively capture the viewer-learner's attention, (2)
they present a strong picture-word interconnection, which corresponds with the
'here and now' principle of 'modified' registers, (3) the dialogue of the cartoons is
characterised by sentences that are simple and complete, (4) the dialogue contains
very few disfluencies, (5) repetition is used frequently, and (6) the rate of speech is
relatively low in some cartoons. These adjustments are used in modified speech
styles to make the input more comprehensible for the learner. It could be assumed
that they, when present in television programmes, serve a similar function for the
viewer-learner. In other words, watching cartoons may offer input that is, at least to
some extent, modified.
Advantages of video
The video medium offers two advantages over broadcast television: firstly, the
viewer-learner is not dependent on transmission time, but can watch the tape when
it is most convenient for her and, secondly, the learner has the possibility to control
the recorded program by stopping and winding the tape according to her personal
needs and interests. In other words, the use of the video medium enables the learner
to control the learning context and thus to create a situation which is, at least to
some degree, interactive. The possibility to review the programmes or parts of them
gives her as much 'extra' processing time as she needs and thus enhances efficient
use of both the visual and linguistic input of the programmes. The video medium
offers the viewer-learner the possibility to negotiate meanings in a similar way as in
the naturalistic learning situation: by reviewing the parts that she found difficult she
was able to 'ask for clarification' and to induce repetition. When reviewing a familiar
programme the learner may also receive feedback on what he has learned during the
previous viewings.
Because learning by viewing requires several reviewings of the same programmes,
it could be assumed to suit small children especially well—they seem to enjoy
watching the same cartoons several times in the same way as they enjoy listening to
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Learning by Viewing 95
the same books read to them over and over again. As far as designing language
teaching programmes for young language learners is concerned, cartoons seem to be
a format that attracts especially preschool as well as primary schbol-aged children.
Fascinating stories and adventures together with the clear form of presentation
typical of cartoons attract child-viewers attention and make them highly motivated
to understand the programmes. Combined with the efficient use of the possibilities
offered by the video medium, cartoons can create a motivating language learning
context.
On the basis of the case studied here it could be assumed that even small
children are able to study by themselves as well as to monitor their own learning.
Therefore, further research is needed to establish the most successful format of
language teaching programmes for children's self-studying. Attention should also be
paid to the use of the video medium and how it could be taught to young viewers.
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96 J. Jylha-Laide
Conference presentation
The study reported here was carried out by Jaana Jylha-Laide and Sirpa
Karreinen at the Department of English, University of Jyvaskyla.
ABSTRACT Many language learning researchers share a critical attitude towards the
potentials of television in language learning as it is considered to lack two basic elements of
naturalistic language learning: modified input and interaction. However, television and
video are seldom differentiated in this criticism.
The study reported here deals with a case where a Finnish girl acquired a foreign
language by watching English language cartoons on video, without any formal language
teaching or contacts with native speakers. The investigation of the programs suggests that
some cartoons contain language that can be suitable for a beginning foreign language
learner. Further, cartoons seem to be characterized with several features that make them a
suitable format for language learning programmes aimed at child audiences. Another
important finding is that the video viewing situation radically differs from the television
viewing situation as it offers the viewer-learner a possibility to control the programme and
thus to create an interactive relationship with the medium.
The general attitude among second language learning researchers toward the poten-
tials of television in language learning has been critical for two reasons. Firstly, the
language of television programmes is claimed to be too difficult for a beginning
language learner to comprehend. Secondly, the medium is considered to lack
interaction, which is regarded as a prerequisite of successful language learning. This,
it has been argued, leads to a situation where the learner hears language that is
incomprehensible to her, and has, because of the ephemeral nature of television, too
little time to process it. However, television and video as media are seldom
differentiated in language learning research. This case study deals with a Finnish
girl, here referred to as Laura, succeeded in acquiring a second language by
watching English language cartoons on video. As Laura seemed to have 'broken the
rules' of language acquisition, her learning process was analysed in order to find out
whether it had followed the rules of naturalistic language acquisition. The emphasis
was mainly on two features: (1) the qualities of the cartoons, especially the language
in them, and (2) the video viewing situation as a learning context. The study was
exploratory by nature as analogous cases have not, at least to the knowledge of the
researchers, been reported in the literature of second language acquisition. There-
fore, generalisation of the results is problematic. Another limitation of the study is
that very little is known of the first stages of Laura's language learning process.
Methods
Data on Laura's behaviour and characteristics were collected by observations and
interviews between the spring of 1988 (when Laura was 8 years old) and the autumn
of 1990. A WISC-R test was administered to her to find out whether she was
especially talented in some field, which could have contributed to her learning of
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Learning by Viewing 97
English. The information of the early stages of Laura's acquisition of English was
based on the recollections of her mother and her previous class teacher. Further,
language tests and recorded conversations with Laura provided material for the
analysis of her skills in English. Among the language tests were listening comprehen-
sion and vocabulary tests by Takala (1982), a vocabulary test by PitkSnen (1992),
and the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM) by Burt et al. (1975). The data on the
input that Laura had received (i.e. the language of the programmes) were collected
by videorecording several episodes of The DJ Kat Show on broadcast television (Sky
Channel) and analysing six cartoons: Captain Caveman, Sport Billy, Transformers,
The Gobots, Super Chicken and Tom Slick. Information about Laura's viewing habits
and her way of using the video medium were collected by observation and inter-
views.
Laura's story
Background
Laura is a Finnish girl who comes from a family of four. The mother works as a
member of the staff in a university language (not English) department and the father
is a trained nurse. Both are Finnish. Laura also has an elder sister. The family does
not have any English-speaking relatives or friends, and Laura has never visited an
English-speaking country. At school she is an average pupil who manages all
subjects but does not show any special talents. The WISC-R test shows that Laura
is very good at perceiving entities and thinking logically. Her social skills seem to be
well developed and she is good at interpreting implications embedded in interac-
tional situations. The level of her verbal skills could be regarded as low average.
Cartoons as a hobby
Laura's interest in cartoons arose at the age of six, as soon as cable TV was
introduced in the neighbourhood in the autumn of 1986. Watching and recording
English language children's programmes became her favourite leisure activity, her
daily viewing time being two to three hours in the spring of 1988. The programme
she liked most, The DJ Kat Show, consisted of several rather short live and animated
series. Laura preferred cartoons and normally videotaped them for later viewing.
After several reviewings she began to select and view only those parts which
interested her at that moment. She used to rewind the tape whenever she came
across a word or an utterance that she did not understand, trying to find out the
meanings herself. She had the habit of memorising what each of the characters said,
and later, when reviewing, she went through each line in her mind before it actually
came up in the program and checked whether she had remembered right. Finally,
she learned the programmes by heart.
Skills in English
Laura started to use English words in her speech within a year after the introduction
of the cable TV. At first she could remember single words, and later produce longer
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98 J. Jylhd-Laide
sequences. After Laura had taken the initiative, her mother began to use English
with her when discussing everyday matters. Within a couple of years, Laura's use of
English was far beyond mere imitation of single words and phrases. Both the test
results and the conversations carried out in English with her showed that she was
able to use English creatively, and that her skills in the areas of speaking and
understanding spoken English were outstanding. She seemed to have been able to
acquire the English grammar and an almost native-like pronunciation of American
English, mastering many sounds that are often problematic for Finnish learners of
English. The results of the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM) indicated clearly that
she could be placed in the fifth, i.e. the highest level of proficiency, which is defined
by Burt et ah in the BSM Manual as follows:
Proficient English: Children in Level 5 demonstrate native or near-native
proficiency in English. They control most of the basic grammatical struc-
ture of English, and their speech is comparable to native English speakers
their own age.
Learning the correct pronunciation and intonation may have been easier for Laura
than for pupils taught at school. When watching the programmes, she has been able
to hear the correct model from the beginning, whereas in classroom language
learning the teacher is normally a non-native speaker of the language, and learning
often based on written texts. Having acquired the language by viewing, Laura had
not learned to read or write English. (A detailed description of Laura's skills in
English is provided by Jylha-Laide and Karreinen, 1993.)
Cartoons as language learning programmes
When talking to a language learner, for example to a child learning her mother
tongue, we tend to simplify our language in order to make it easier for the listener
to comprehend. The language of television programmes is often regarded as too
difficult for a beginning language learner as it is considered to lack similar
modifications. Because cartoons have functioned as the major source of English for
Laura, the language of these programmes was analysed and compared with six
different features typical of mothers' speech to their children (often referred to as
caretaker speech): attention-getters, 'here and now', sentence structure, rate of
speech, fluency and repetition.
Attention-getters
Various types of attention-getters, such as Look! and Hey! or mentioning the child's
name, are used in caretaker speech to indicate to the child that he ought to listen
(Clark & Clark, 1977). In addition, paralinguistic features such as high pitch and
exaggerated intonation also efficiently draw the children's attention and indicate that
the utterances are addressed to them. Garnica (1977) maintains that high-pitched
peaks in an utterance may mark the most salient part of it so that it stands out, thus
guiding the child's attention. Wright and Huston (1983) claim that also in television
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Learning by Viewing 99
viewing 'anything that enhances attention in general, or especially selective attention
to central content, should enhance comprehension and recall'. In cartoons, certain
production techniques, such as visual and auditory effects, are often used to
highlight certain elements of the programme. For example, lively or loud music, as
well as peculiar voices are thought to attract and maintain children's attention
(Huston & Wright 1983). Among the most efficient attention-getters are rapid
character action, sound effects and visual special effects. Further, there is a strong
connection between the use of salient features with central content and a higher level
of recall of this content. Narration, however, compared with dialogue, seems to
result in lower attention (Calvert et al. 1982). The attention callers embedded in
cartoons may have been useful for Laura as the learner's level of attention, according
to Fillmore (1976), determines, for instance, how well the learner is able to use the
contextual information as an aid in comprehension of the language.
'Here and now'
When talking to small children, adults tend to speak about something that is
concrete, that can be seen in the immediate context, trying to avoid difficult and
abstract words. They often name and describe objects that the child is interested in,
for example toys, and talk about the relations between the objects. This 'here and
now' principle helps the child to interpret the linguistic input (Clark & Clark, 1977).
The same may also be applied to interpreting television content: children are able to
understand television content better when it is presented in both visual and verbal
modes than when expressed in either of them alone (Calvert et al. 1982). Also in the
cartoons that Laura has watched the meanings of words or sentences are usually
made clear with the help of the picture: there are plenty of occasions where the word
that is mentioned, often naming an object, is simultaneously accompanied by the
corresponding reference on the screen (see also Rice, 1984). For example, when one
of the characters talks about footprints in the snow, a corresponding picture is seen on
the screen at the same time. It may be assumed that such a strong picture-word
connection has enabled Laura to efficiently draw on the context for help in
interpreting the meaning of a word.
Sentence structure
The language spoken to first language learners is usually simplified so that most
utterances are complete, fluent and grammatical, whereas incomplete and abbrevi-
ated sentences typical of adult-adult conversation are rare (Cross, 1977). Sentence
structure is normally restricted to simple sentences, whereas embedded structures
and conjunctions are seldom used. Similarly, well-formed, short and simple sen-
tences are typical when we talk to foreigners (Hatch, 1983a; Fillmore, 1976; Long,
1981). This feature is likely to make the processing of speech easier for the learner
(Hatch, 1983a).
The investigation of Laura's cartoons implies that they mostly contain short and
complete sentences; exclamations and short imperative forms occur frequently. It's
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100 J. Jylha-Laide
the snow wolf!, Let's go!, Run! and What's that? represent the type of utterances that
are commonly used. This finding is backed up by Rice's study (1984) in which she
found that Bugs Bunny, a cartoon, contained more complete sentences than care-
taker speech. In addition, the mean length of utterances (MLU) used in this cartoon
was close to that found in caretaker speech, whereas a programme aimed at adults
differed from the cartoon in these respects. According to Fillmore (1976), a
beginning language learner can make use of sentences like these as they can be
learned as unanalysed wholes: the learner does not have to know the exact meaning
of the expressions, but can still acquire the appropriate use of them, i.e. when,
where, and for what purpose they can be used.
Rate of speech
A slower rate of speech is typical when we talk to foreigners or small children. This
should give the learner more processing time, and can at the same time mark the
boundaries of the major constituents of a sentence more clearly, thus making the
message easier for the listener to comprehend (Clark & Clark, 1977; Hatch, 1983a).
Comparison between Cross's (1977) and Rice's (1984) studies implies that the rate
of speech in cartoons is close to that used by caretakers, whereas the highest measure
of the overall rate of speech is found in a programme directed to adults. However,
the analysis of the different cartoons that Laura has watched suggests that the rate
of speech can differ greatly from programme to programme. As slow rate of speech
has been found to enhance comprehension, the similarity of caretaker speech and
some cartoons in this respect would suggest that the language of these programmes
could be easier for the viewer-learner to comprehend.
Fluency
Caretaker speech is well formed and fluent, and regarded as highly intelligible
because the amount of unanalysable speech is small. This seems to be useful for a
learner, as Cross (1978) found an interdependence between the language learning
rate and the intelligibility of the speech directed to children. It seems that the
representation of information in Laura's cartoons is fluent concerning the linguistic
input, although these findings contradict the results of Rice's (1984) study. In
Laura's programs, the fluency of speech in the cartoons appears to be good, the
stuttering and false starts typical of adult-adult conversation being extremely rare. In
addition to the fluency of speech, the overall representation of information is clear
and fluent. This simplicity of the visual representation of information typical of
cartoons may contribute to the fact that children find them appealing as they are
easier for young viewers to comprehend. Further, certain production techniques can
be thought to comprise a part of the overall simplicity of representation typical of
cartoons as these techniques can be used to parse the flow of visual and auditory
images. Features like flashbacks, instant replays and skips forward can function as
segmental markers of time; similarly, for example, dissolves at major scene changes
can mark changes in place. These production techniques used in cartoons can be
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Learning by Viewing 101
regarded as the grammar and syntax of television, since they can mark breaks in
content and changes in scene, and are also used as bit and programme boundary
organisers (Huston & Wright, 1983; Wright & Huston, 1983).
Repetition
A modification that is also typical of caretaker speech is that various focusing
operations, for example repetition, are used frequently. Similar features can also be
found in foreigner talk (Clark & Clark, 1977; Hatch, 1983a). By repeating or
expanding the learner's or their own utterances, the speakers can give the learner
more time to process the information and thus ensure comprehension (Cross,
1977). Hatch (1983a) adds that repetition may also clarify the relationships of
syntactic forms. In children's word learning from television, the number of repeti-
tions, together with clear presentation of information, is of crucial importance (Rice
& Woodsmall, 1988).
On the basis of the analysis of Laura's favourite cartoons it would seem that,
although Rice (1984) found only a relatively small amount of focusing operations
(e.g. repetition) in the cartoon that she examined, these operations may, in fact, be
used more often in some cartoons than in others. It could be assumed that the high
amount of focusing operations, especially the repetition of certain words, and the
recurring short utterances typical of cartoons analysed in this study would help the
viewer-learner to comprehend the linguistic input in the same way as they help a
learner in face-to-face interaction. In Laura's case the use of video has multiplied the
number of repetitions.
Summary
Many researchers have regarded the language of television programmes as un-
modified, and therefore unintelligible for a beginning language learner. Even the
researchers who are of the opinion that the level of difficulty of the dialogue varies
according to the programme type, tend to regard cartoons as worthless for a
language learner. However, Laura's favourite cartoons feature linguistic adaptations
which are frequently used in modified registers in order to make the input more
comprehensible for the learner. It could be assumed that they, when present in
television programmes, serve a similar function for the viewer-learner. In other
words, watching cartoons has offered Laura a possibility to receive input that has
been, to some extent, modified.
Learning by viewing vs. naturalistic language learning
Naturalistic language learning, for example a child's learning of the mother tongue,
takes place in face-to-face interaction, where the learner is an active participant. In
order to interpret the language the learner can draw on contextual information
received in parallel to linguistic input as well as on her own previous knowledge.
Similarly, the viewer-learner also has these sources of information available. But
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