After meeting with my incoming students and their families (all 77 of them), I hope you can still hear me! Why do some of my ELL families tell me their child knows English because they watch cartoons? After they proceed to name all of the cartoons their children watch, I think they watch t.v. all day. Oh wait, they do! The parents always ask me, "what do I do my son watches t.v. all the time?" "When I turn off the t.v. they cry." All I can say is turn off the t.v. and they will cry today, but maybe not tomorrow? Is this really a good answer?
An article by Jaana Jylha-Laide, Learning by Viewing: Cartoons as Foreign Language Learning Material for Children-A Case Study say otherwise. The case study presents a study of a six-year-old Finnish girl who learned a foreign language by watching English language cartoons on video, without formal teaching or contact with native speakers. See the link here. PBS also has a great article about how elements of educational t.v. are effective.
Yes, we need children to learn a wide variety of skills while their brains are developing, but how much t.v. is too much? Do children really learn English by watching Sesame Street, Dora, and Tom and Jerry all day? I told the parents to turn off the t.v. What would you do?
Mrs. Crystal or is it Mr. Crystal, Love the blog. Turn off the TV. My kids always asked if they could turn the TV on and I was willing to say no. Parents have to be willing to say no, mean it when they say no and believe that saying no is OK. See you soon. Mrs. Fran, Mr. Fran or is it Mr. France :)
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