Spoken texts coupled with moving images in the early years – effects on comprehension, language, and literacy
Previous research has shown that young children can learn from educational television programmes, videos or other technological media. However, the blending of any of these with traditional printed based text appears to be omitted. Repeated viewing is an important factor in children's ability to comprehend the content or plot. The present study used spoken texts coupled with moving images requiring repeated viewing. It is original and distinctive. The theoretical framework was Mayer's multimedia learning theory combined with Vygotsky's learning theory. The first study was a pilot study to explore whether the intervention was implementable in ordinary classrooms. The second study explored whether curricular embedding of the video was important. The third study explored the effect of “dosage”, i.e. whether a longer/more intense intervention had a proportionately greater effect on outcomes. Both quantitative outcomes (receptive vocabulary, letter sound knowledge, and early word recognition) and qualitative outcomes (comprehension of video content, teacher-child dialogue and drawings) were obtained. An experimental design was used with 4-5-year-old children in nursery and primary schools for the first three phases. Six links to video clips exploring non-fiction science content were provided to teachers in the first three studies. About half of each class was selected randomly for pre-post assessments (the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVSIII) and the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC) Early Reading). Different implementation fidelity measures were used - observations, teacher self-reports, attendance logs and post-programme interviews. All data gathered was triangulated. Quantitative data showed there was no significant pre-post differences in children's receptive vocabulary, letter sound knowledge, and early word recognition. A Case Study followed to explore how the teachers used the spoken texts coupled with moving images to mediate the children’s learning, how children responded to the teacher's effort to support them, and what other factors were operating in the situation to promote children's comprehension on video content, language development and literacy skills. Five links to non-fiction video clips were provided. The qualitative data from the Case Study revealed that the use of spoken texts coupled with moving images can promote and support children's literacy skills, particularly in teacher-child dialogic talk, retelling stories and making meaning in drawing. The child-interview evidenced that the use of spoken texts coupled with moving images supported children to remember, to comprehend, to evaluate, and to analyse. The teacher interview showed there were deeper and more meaningful ways to support children's comprehension of video content and connect this to language and literacy. Implications for practitioners and researchers were explored.
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