Karen Jo
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Twila Tardif, Professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 1 (10am-10:50am)
Breakout Room: Room 3
Presenter: 2
Abstract
Media use has been a beneficial tool for education in schools, especially over the past year, and can expand the knowledge that can be known by any individual person. While it advances education in the school systems, it may also have some negative effects regarding how children adapt to language acquisition, especially those who are not native to English in the U.S. In this study, we observed 23 children from Spanish-speaking homes. We asked about both the children’s and their parents Spanish and English media use through a questionnaire asking them to report their time spent on certain categories of media. In addition, two animated videos aiming to teach English possessive nouns and verbs were shown to the students. They were tested on English vocabulary, through the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Spanish vocabulary through the Spanish version, TVIP, and on English and Spanish grammar through morphosyntax tests. The results of this project reinforce that educational content is beneficial for children’s language development. However, the results also show that parent’s media use negatively impacted childrens English morphosyntax scores, as well as their English and Spanish vocabulary knowledge. For future research, it would be beneficial to understand which aspects of educational media benefit bilingual children’s ability to develop their non-native language. Additionally, it would be interesting to see the impacts of interactive educational media compared to passive animated media.
Authors: Karen Jo
Research Method: Qualitative Study
