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

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Waterloo] On: 07 March 2012, At: 19:37 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Educational Television Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjem18 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 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260741940200204 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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. Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012 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 Downloaded by [University of Waterloo] at 19:37 07 March 2012

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