#57, Research Paper: ‘Cartoons as an entertaining source of learning English(L2) for the young learners(YL)’ by Sharmin Sultana

Cartoons as an entertaining source of learning English(L2) for the young learners(YL)

by Sharmin Sultana, Senior Lecturer, English Language Institute, United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

With the recent development of EFL/ESL studies, researchers are using diverse directions to analyze the language acquisition of the young learners (YL) and are examining more day-to-day issues. What is widely accepted in this regard is that kids are basically prone to learn new ideas from their sources of entertainment rather than formal instructions, and that they usually cannot adhere to an instructional target set before them. Watching cartoons is indeed a ‘happy experience’ for the young children and is the basis for ‘an attractive and enjoyable learning environment’. Due to this entertaining appeal and their wide availability, cartoons have become one important resource from which today’s kids take a great amount of English language input and try to use that to communicate with people around them. The present paper overviews the content of some famous cartoons, delivers several case studies of some young kids and then shows how cartoon-watching has accelerated these youngsters’ English learning, and how it has influenced their language development in general. In addition, there is an attempt to demonstrate how the enthusiasm or high motivation, tender age, positive attitude and willingness for acculturation bridge between YL and L2 learning/acquisition.

Key Words: Watching cartoons, Learning English (L2), Young Learners(YL), Learning Environment, Language Development and use.

Although in the last few decades a number of insights have been achieved through research on L2 learning/ acquisition, I personally believe that ‘Watching cartoons as a dynamic source of learning English for the young learners’ can act as a trigger for exploring new, exciting area of L2 learning/ acquisition. Youngsters like cartoons and they are highly motivated to pick up the language exposed before them through cartoons. Generally, language is an integral part of growing up and is necessary to communicate and participate in ones environment. And ostensibly, watching cartoons is the basis for ‘an attractive and enjoyable learning environment’ and here ‘language learning is a happy experience’ as it supports a relaxed atmosphere.

The paper aims at today’s kids who are tender in age, motivated to learn, positive in attitude towards the L2. Hence, the present paper overviews the content of some famous cartoons, delivers several case studies of some young kids and then shows how cartoon-watching has accelerated these youngsters’ English learning, and how it has influenced their language development in general.

In this connection, a word of caution is necessary. This research is an outcome of a triangulation of primary data, secondary data and theoretical assumptions. The insight is what has seemed to me to be compelling and may not be accepted by other researchers as such. ( In this respect, readers might like to read Harrison and Gough (1996) , a conversation between the two authors on what makes a piece of research compelling for one person but not another.) Nevertheless, I believe, you will be amazed at how much the paper has to offer; more importantly, you will find the journey as well as the destination equally exciting.

Cultural and educational context

Studying a second language is unlike studying most other subjects in that it involves taking on elements of another culture, while most other school subjects involve elements common to one’s own culture. With respect to language learning, therefore, the individual will have various attitudes that might apply to language learning, beliefs about its value, meaningfulness and implications, expectations about what can and can not be achieved. All of these characteristics originate and develop in the overall cultural context as well as the immediate family.
The educational context refers generally to the educational system in which the student is registered, and specifically to the immediate classroom situation. When considering the educational context, the focus is on the expectations of the system, the quality of the program, the interest, enthusiasm, and skills of the teacher, the adequacy of the materials, the class atmosphere, etc.
The two contexts do not operate in isolation of one another. They coexist in their influence on the student. In this regard, we should mention that the environment within which a young child is being brought up and the educational atmosphere that he/ she belongs to can influence the young learner’s level of language achievement and language development in general.

Why cartoons rather than formal instruction

I would like to identify two contexts, namely formal instruction within the classroom and unstructured language acquisition in a natural setting. What is missing in the formal setting is that sometimes it is boring and strictly structured. On the contrary, being innovative, young learners are basically prone to learn new ideas from what they enjoy and experience from the environment. Therefore, with a teacher-centered approach (Rogers, 2004), students usually sit, listen, recite and hopefully learn as they are at times less enthusiastic and devoid of enjoyment.
However, language learning is a ‘happy experience’. Children tend to learn best through direct experience, where they can see and relate an object within its environment. By providing youngsters with exposure to foreign language conversation in an enjoyable manner, and by familiarizing them with foreign cultures and ways of living, they are found to communicate in the target language more positively.
Not surprisingly, young people like cartoons ( Ito,2002;Ling, n.d.; Talwar, 2005). They have become much more interested in cartoons over many years and it has become a primary action to some lives. Typically, children begin watching cartoons on television at an early age of six months, and by the age two or three children become enthusiastic viewers. In keeping with the spirit of the school, learning through cartoons attempts a relaxed, low-anxiety approach to learning. Moreover, it is the basis for ‘an attractive enjoyable learning environment’.
How cartoons facilitate learning
Watching cartoons promotes exposure to English language. Language is an essential part of learning. It serves as a means of making sense of a text, of expressing observations and judgments about it, and as a resource providing concepts and criteria to be developed in talking about cartoons. In this way, language facilitates a pragmatic literacy which helps in the understanding of television itself, its codes and conventions. It also, enables children to develop a general transferable literacy, in such a way that the competencies that they acquire in relation to television are not in opposition to skills and knowledge related to print literacy. As Bangladesh is predominantly a monocultural society, opportunities to use the target (L2) language in daily verbal exchanges are relatively restricted. Even though, the young learners, who are influenced by watching cartoons, are seen to be interested to use L2 in everyday conversation. Watching cartoons promotes YL’s conversational practice to such a degree that their parents feel satisfied. Moreover, L2 oracy parallels L2 literacy.

Theoretical Assumption

A number of factors influence a learner’s success. Gardner (1982) in his socio-economic model, identified a number of factors which are interrelated when learning a second language. These include the social and cultural milieu, individual learner differences(motivation, age, attitude,etc.) , the setting or context in which learning takes place.

Age

Rate and success of SLA appear to be strongly influenced by the age of the learner. The critical period hypothesis states that there is a period when language acquisition takes place naturally and effortlessly. Penfield and Roberts (1959) argued that the optimum age for language acquisition falls within the first ten years of life. During this period the brain retains plasticity, but with the onset of puberty this plasticity begins to disappear. Young children are seen as socio-culturally resilient, because they are less culture-bound than adults. They move through the stages of acculturation more quickly and so acquire L2 more quickly. Primary levels include a reasonably large functional vocabulary and as far as success in pronunciation is concerned, younger learners do better. Younger children, while not totally lacking in meta-awareness, are not so prone to respond to language as forms. As Halliday(1973) pointed out, the young child responds not so much to what language is as to what language does.

Motivation

Gardner and Lambert (1972) define ‘motivation’ in terms of the L2 learner’s overall goal or orientation. It is a multifaceted construct. The motivated individual is goal-oriented, persistent, attentive and aroused. He / she expends effort, has desires, demonstrates self-confidence. In other words, a motivated person has desires, expectancies and motives. There are mainly two types of motivation, instrumental and integrative. With instrumental motivation the purpose of language acquisition is more utilitarian, such as meeting the requirements for school or university graduation, applying for a job, etc. My focus here is on integrative motivation as the young learners are more likely to have this type of motivation and are too innocent to understand the desire for achieving the goals set before them by the institutions. It is thought that students who are most successful when learning a target language are those who like the people that speak the language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in which the language is used( Falk 1978). This form of motivation is known as integrative motivation. Watching cartoons bridges between youngsters and English through exposure of the people and culture of the target language and motivates the learners to pick up L2. In fact, motivation plays a role in various ways in the process of learning a second language.

Attitude

Gardner and Lambert (1972) define ‘attitude’ as the persistence shown by the learner in striving for a goal.They have investigated a number of different attitudes which they consider relevant to L2 learning. Stern (1983:376-7) classifies these attitudes into three types: (1) attitudes towards the community and people who speak the L2, (2) attitudes towards learning the language concerned: and (3) attitudes towards languages and language learning in general. Cartoon-watching enables young people to love English, to like English speaking people and they are prone to learn any new language. Moreover, positive attitude helps them to have a low affective filter. Thus, cartoon-watching has accelerated these youngsters’ English learning, and it has influenced their language development in general.

Content of some famous cartoons

Tom and Jerry

I think among all the cartoon series that have ever been made Tom and Jerry is the most loved and most successful. Children love the never ending chase and the comedy in these serials. How much he tries, Tom is never able to catch Jerry, who is too clever and cunning. And the situations are very comical. Some of these cartoons are nearly sixty years old, the first ones were made in the 1940’s. They were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Today it is being made by the Warner Brothers who own the rights to Tom and jerry.

Ben 10

Ben 10 Animation Series: Ben Tennyson is an ordinary ten year old boy who is going to spend his summer on the road with his grandfather and cousin Gwen. On this trip he discovers a strange, alien device that attaches itself to his arm allowing him to transform into any on of ten aliens. Later more are obtained. This device allows Ben to become a hero but also attracts unwanted attention from alien baddies seeking the power of the device known as the Omnitrix.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Ben 10 Alien Force is the sequel to the hit Cartoon Network series, Ben 10. The series takes place five years later after the original. Ben no longer wears the Omnitrix, and his cousin, Gwen, has honed her skills in magic. But when an alien invasion of the DNALIENS strike Earth and Grandpa Max goes missing, Ben decides that it’s hero time once again. He’s not alone, as he is joined by Gwen, and even his old archenemy, Kevin Levin comes along for the ride. Now it’s time once again for Ben to begin his quest to find his grandfather and stop the invasion from the evil.

Barbie Girls

The amazing beauty of Cartoon Princess Barbie, steals everybody’s heart. As for the Island Princess story, Barbie is known as Ro and with the help from her animal friends, she tries her best to find her own parents. She is a sweet and gentle-nature person in this story. And the songs and the character animals all add up a particular sweetness to the wholesomeness of the story. Barbie in the12 Dancing Princesses’ is the cartoon many girls like best in series about Barbie. All Barbie cartoons are gently, peaceful and suitable for girls. They are like fairy tales with magnificent context.

Observation

In these cartoons the dialogues are sparse so the stories can be easily followed. The language contains clearly spoken common words with obvious visual reinforcements. Moreover, the animal characters with their facial expressions and gestures can communicate messages that are not culturally specific. Reigeluth (1999) also emphasizes the importance of developing ‘content familiarity’ to enhance the formation of “stable cognitive schema to which more complex capabilities and understandings can be assimilated”. Thus, these characters, who are clever, funny, strong, sweet and easy to understand, in stories that contain elements of suspense and remarkable action, closely mirror youngsters’ expectations.

The Study

Research Scope

This paper attempts to focus that watching cartoons help young kids to pick up new language that the use to communicate in English in their everyday life.
I have endeavored to observe children to find out how much the language used in the cartoons are new learning to them and the extent they later use it in their everyday communication and in the correct context.

Hypothesis

Watching cartoons can be a dynamic source of learning English for the young learners.

Limitations

I asked about 20 children whose age varies from 6 to 7. All came from English medium background. I could not visit non urban areas or other types of schools. I did not ask any students who come from Bangla medium nor did I go to the rural area to interview the children who study and live in village.

Even the children, who I asked, were studying in reputed English medium schools. They were from same school and same class. The learners’ parents were educated and used English words in their daily conversations. So the words the young learners use could have already been learnt and were not necessarily learnt from cartoon, mere reinforced their earlier learning. I doubt too if they really know the meaning of the words and can use them in the right context.

As I did not observe them for a length of time, I relied on their answers.

Methodology

This study has been conducted to observe the effectiveness of watching cartoons in the small children of their English language learning. This aims mainly to be an analytical paper that breaks down the issue into its component parts, evaluate and presents them as part of a plain academic exercise. To a large extent this tends to be expository by nature because of my views about the learning of English words of children from watching cartoons and how that has effect in their language learning. I do not make a claim or give an opinion but justify my conclusions with specific evidence, and sometimes make recommendation to improve. The goal of the paper is to convince the readers that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.
The study on the topic reveals two principal things entertain children from watching cartoons: Effect of watching cartoons in their language learning; and use of the knowledge they get from watching cartoons.

For the purpose of this study, secondary and primary data have been used and the data are synthesized through the light of theoretical assumptions. The major sources of primary data are the questionnaires from children’s, case study and observation of children, and for secondary data, the sources are previous research studies and reports available from interviews. The data collected have been summarized, analyzed and interpreted to make the study meaningful. To make the study informative and useful the materials of the paper have been presented systematically so that fruitful inference can be drawn from them.
The first hand information is collected from observation. I passed time with children and asked some questions to children. Draft questionnaire was prepared earlier and necessary information was obtained.

Summary of Findings

• Children can pick many words and sentences from watching cartoons. They can use these in their daily life. But sometimes they use it in the wrong context e.g. breakfast has been used to denote Launch

• In general boy children prefer actions and ghost’s type cartoons like Ben 10, Tom and Jerry whereas the girl children like fairy tales, supernatural and magical cartoons like Barbie Girls.

• They have the comprehension of cartoons. In ‘Tom and Jerry’, the children can understand that Tom chases Jerry as Tom is a cat and Jerry is a mouse. They also see it in their real life situation.

• They try to transfer the knowledge that they acquire from cartoons to their real
life situation. They sometimes imitate e.g Boys have been seen display some of the actions in his playfield. Girls have been seen to make them Queen or any supernatural characters.

• There is relationship between age group and effect of the cartoons that is the older children try to imitate what they have seen in their expression and playground activities.

• Watching cartoons can be effective in developing their vocabulary. It has been demonstrated children tend to pick up expressions and behavioral mood from cartoons. They also enjoy watching cartoons. Therefore it could be excellent vehicle for teaching if the programs are designed so.

Implications for pedagogy

Children are innovative, young, restless and they are lovers of enjoyment and fun. The theoretical perspective on SLA takes into account the sociocultural as well as the cognitive perspectives in language learning and holds that YLs learn a foreign or second language when both are activated and interact with each other. To make it possible, we can use cartoon as a material in the classroom for the young learners. And for successful learning, teaching-learning environment should be friendly, stress-free, easy, associative and enjoyable. From the above, a summary of crucial points include:

• Easy to understand classes;
• Enjoyable classes that are free of worries;
• A process that is trusted by parents and communities;
• A system that can improve the provision for education.

Conclusion

In light of the findings, it is evident that watching cartoons can have a positive effect on learning English. That is because the affective filter is lower and learning takes place while there is a lot of motivation, possibly integrative motivation. Hence, it stands to reason that if cartoons could be used in an educational context, an interest in learning might also be created. Canning- Wilson (2000) notes that visuals, including cartoons, “used to help one see an immediate meaning in the language may benefit the learner by helping to clarify the message, provided the visual works in a positive way to enhance or supplement the language point.” With great success, the U.S. television series ‘Sesame Street’ has been doing just that for nearly 40 years. In Bangladesh, BTV series ‘Sisimpur’ is also doing a nice job in the same way for the last 4/5 years. Therefore, I would especially recommend this method (watching cartoon) to all those concerned with the education of young learners.

References

Canning-Wilson, C. (2000). “Practical Aspects of Using Video in the Foreign Language Classroom.” The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 11, Retrieved on 04 May 2006, from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-video.html
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Appendix 1: Questionnaire
1. Do you watch cartoons?
2. What type of cartoons do you watch?
3. Can you pick words from them?
4. What types of words do you pick / learn from watching cartoons?
5. Do you use the words in your everyday life?
6. Can you pick any short sentences from watching cartoons?
7. If yes, what are they?
8. Do you understand the story of cartoons?
9. Which cartoon character is your favourite?
10. Do your parents give time to you to watch cartoons?