Kh.Urazbaev, N.S. Babakhanova. Evaluating the Efficiency of Language TV Shows in Learning the English Language

Автор:adminurazbaev

Kh.Urazbaev, N.S. Babakhanova. Evaluating the Efficiency of Language TV Shows in Learning the English Language

Kh.Urazbaev, N.S. Babakhanova

 Evaluating the Efficiency of Language TV Shows in Learning the English Language

 

Brief Background of the Study: Great attention to learning and teaching English is being paid in our country. The declaration of decree # 1875 by the President Islam Karimov became the cornerstone for the people working in this area. The document covers all the areas of foreign language learning and teaching. One of the most important points underlined in the decree is a special attention to the role of TV companies and channels in fostering learning foreign languages.

The 9th point of the decree clearly states: “National Television and Radio Broadcasting Company … National Information Agency shall provide:

— production of TV shows dedicated to learning foreign languages by youth and young learners by central television and regional channels and their broadcasting, constant broadcasting of movies, cartoons, scientific and technical video films dedicated to the history and culture of foreign countries with their Uzbek subtitles …” (Karimov, 2012).

As we can see from the extract a great responsibility and task is laid on our national TV companies in production of TV shows dedicated to learning foreign languages. Thus the aim of the research was to investigate the efficiency of TV shows in developing language skills of students of vocational education system.

Aims and Tasks of the Research are to study empirically the use and efficiency of language TV programs in teaching and learning English and evaluate the Uzbek TV shows dedicated to learning English.

The National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan (UzMTRK) is implementing several educational TV show projects. At present the channels of the company are broadcasting TV shows, movies, cartoons, entertaining and news shows targeted at different age groups in the English language.

            For example starting from 2013 the TV quiz show Think, Search, Find (O’yla, Izla, Top) and Kids’ World (Bolalar Dunyosi) are broadcast in the English language with the involvement of ELT professionals during 40 minutes. The aim of the shows is to introduce kids and language learners correct greeting and introducing each other, speaking about their family, alphabet, numerals, seasons and other topics are discussed within shows.

            Yoshlar channel of the country mainly targeting the shows for young learners. TV show called Fairy Tale Tellers (Ertakchi Bolajonlar) is helping to learn ABC of the English language with the help of drama, drilling and rhymes.

            The channel is also producing such shows as Big Break (Katta Tanaffus), My English Dictionary (Mening Inglizcha Lug’atim), and Merry Test (Quvnoq Test) and “English for Young learners” (Ingliz tili yoshlar uchun) for students of primary and secondary colleges.

            The creation of new channel dedicated to children called Bolajon was another prominent event in the history of national television. The channel is broadcasting films, movies, cartoons and other entertaining shows for learning the English language. Starting from July 1, 2013 the channel started to broadcast such shows as English Lessons (Ingliz tili saboqlari), True Friends (Chin Dustlar), and Stars of ABC (Alifbe Yulduzlari) dedicated to teaching English language.

            National Sports channel is also producing English language shows for children. Among them we may mention Children’s World (Bolalar Dunyosi).

            Enlightening channel which was started in 2013 Madaniyat va Marifat is also producing several TV shows. Among the shows of the channel we may mention Merry Lesson, Let’s Speak English, and National Education, Kids.

            Dunyo Boylab channel is also producing TV shows that introduce language learners with the heritage of the word art, and culture in the English language. The channel also produces such shows as Children and Nature, English for You. These shows mainly introduce with the nature, culture and history of foreign countries in the English language.

Research Design: Literature studied on use of educational television shows for learning English helped to point out the significance of TV shows for these learners. Study of related literature on the topic, general observations and informal discussions with language learners at college helped to decide that a study about the evaluation of TV shows for language learners should be conducted. The study on the topic was necessary to point out the problems of language learners related to TV shows that could be helpful for English language teaching at vocational education to improve the area in future. Moreover, best efforts of using TV shows to facilitate learners in Uzbekistan could be appreciated because the study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of TV shows too. In addition, the study aimed at getting answers to the following research questions:

  1. Are language teaching TV shows effective for language learners?
  2. What are the views of students on the effectiveness of English language teaching TV shows of Uzbekistan?
  3. What are the problems of language learners related to getting benefits from English language teaching TV Shows in learning process?

            In order to analyze the attitudes of learners to TV shows several TV shows broadcasted by different TV channels of UzMTRK were selected.

            The respondents of the research were 2nd and 3rd year students of Gulistan College of Medicine. The total amount of respondents was 61 students of the years mentioned above.

            In the process of research several questionnaires were designed and there were held several interviews with the students.

Discussion of Results: The questionnaire number 1 was implemented with the 2nd and 3rd year students of Gulistan College of Medicine in April, 2014. The aim of the questionnaire was to define the popularity of English TV shows among the learners of colleges and define the amount of TV shows watched by the learners of the English language.

      Question 1 of the questionnaire was What English language TV shows do you know? According to the results of the questionnaire the most popular TV show among the learners was the shows broadcast on Bolajon channel, namely English Lessons. 45 percent of the respondents admitted the popularity of the TV show. Despite the fact that the show’s audience is mainly learners of pre-college education, college students like the show very much.

On the second place according to the votes is Let’s Speak English which is broadcast on Madaniyat va Marifat channel. 36% of the respondents admitted the popularity of the show and told that they watch it with their family members (Table 1).

Table 1

Table 2. Popularity Level of English Language TV Shows among Respondents

# Name of the TV Show Percentage
1 English Lessons (Ingliz tili saboqlari), Bolajon 45%
2 Let’s Speak English, Madaniyat va Marifat 36%
3 English for Young learners (Ingliz tili yoshlar uchun), Yoshlar 32%
4 Kids’ World (Bolalar Dunyosi), Uzbekistan 30%
5  Fairy Tale Tellers (Ertakchi Bolajonlar), Yoshlar 29%
6 Think, Search, Find (O’yla, Izla, Top) 11%
7 Kids’ World (Bolalar Dunyosi) 2%
8 Fairy Tale Tellers (Ertakchi Bolajonlar) 4%
9 Big Break (Katta Tanaffus) 5%
10 My English Dictionary (Mening Inglizcha Lug’atim) 6%
11 Merry Test (Quvnoq Test) 5%
12 English for Young learners (Ingliz tili yoshlar uchun) 7%
13 True Friends (Chin Dustlar) 3%
14 Stars of ABC (Alifbe Yulduzlari) 2%
15 Children’s World (Bolalar Dunyosi) 3%
16 Merry Lesson 4%
17 Kids 2%
18 Children and Nature 5%
19 English for You 5%

The second question of the questionnaire was When do you watch TV shows? (usually, seldom, always) and according to the results of the questionnaire about 43 percent of the students admitted that they always watched TV shows in the English language, 27 percent of the students admitted that they usually watched TV shows and 20 percent of the students said that they watched them seldom.

            The aim of the questionnaire 2 was to analyze the benefit of TV shows for certain kinds of language aspects. The questionnaire was implemented in February 2014 among the 1st and 2nd year students of the college.

            According to the results of the poll the aspect of the language which is acquired by college students via TV shows was grammar which was pointed out by 61 percent of respondents. 54% of respondents agreed that they learned English vocabulary best if they were presented on TV shows (Diagram 1).

Diagram 1. Distribution of Language Skills Acquisition among Language Learners

 

            On the basis of results of questionnaire 2 there was designed a questionnaire No. 3 in order to learn about the amount of vocabulary learnt by learners via TV shows.

As it was mentioned above the aim of the 3rd questionnaire was to analyze the amount of vocabulary items perceived via TV shows by college students. The questionnaire was implemented among the students of 2nd and 3rd year of college. Again 61 college students took part in the questionnaire.

According to the results of the poll 47% of the respondents admitted that they learned about 10 words a week by watching TV shows in English. 26% admitted that they learned about 15 words a week by watching TV shows in English. 9,8 % of students learned about 20 words a week with the help of TV shows and only 9,8 and 6,5 % of respondents said that they learned more than 25 words a week with the help of TV shows (Pie chart 1).

Pie chart 1. Amount of Words Learned by Students with the Help of TV Shows

            The questionnaire 4 was taken among the learners of colleges after the 2nd questionnaire where most of the learners admitted that they learned English grammar best with the help of TV shows.

            The aim of the questionnaire was to identify the grammar points which were acquired by learners of English with the help of TV shows.

             As the results of the questionnaire suggest the most easily and widely learnt aspect of English grammar was English nouns. According to the poll 74% of the respondents admitted that they had a better understanding of English nouns with the help TV shows. In the second place among the most easily accepted topics of English grammar include Adjectives, Pronouns and Question forms. The respondents ticked that they clearly understood the use of these words and forms by means of TV shows (Diagram 2).

Diagram 2. Language Aspects Learned with the Help of TV Shows

            Conclusion: As the research suggest the efficiency of English TV shows broadcast in Uzbek Television plays a great role in the development of foreign language skills of students. Most of the respondents admitted the efficiency of TV shows in their language acquisition. According to our research results the most of the students were successful in acquiring the grammar and the vocabulary of the English language.

            This fact can be explained with the grammar and vocabulary orientatedness of most of the TV shows. However, the students who participated in the poll did not admit the role of TV shows in developing their speaking and listening skills.

            Researchers suggest that most people today watch about three to five hours of television a day. Defenders of TV and its spread call TV a window on the world, a magic carpet of discovery. They claim that it enlarges both knowledge and understanding. Defenders say it encourages a new way of thinking, with interlocking hopes, needs and problems. Critics call it the idiot box.

It’s no use complaining that children today would rather watch TV or videos than read. We the teachers should try to exploit students’ viewing habits as a starting point for developing more active literary skills. Teachers need to know the interests of the students and what they like most to watch in order to keep their motivation high, undertake different duties, fulfill various assignments and feel the success.

Most of the students who watch TV as an Educational tool admit that TV:

— has a lot of information

— is a powerful and trustworthy station

— is attractive, entertaining, informative, serious

— gives quick and exact information in different fields

— is of high quality, quick and fresh

— staff is very professional and well qualified

— uses an advanced technology;

These considerations show that the students watch that TV channel that meets their interest. Through their answers we see that the students really think about what they watch. We also see what they are interested in and so, we should try to exploit those TV shows to promote students’ learning.

Thanks to the presidential decree and tasks on implementing the decree there has appeared numerous TV channels and TV shows dedicated to learning foreign languages. Prevailing number among the shows are dedicated to teach English.

According to our research results most of the TV shows really enhance learners’ language skills. Nevertheless, most of the shows do not develop its audiences’ receptive skills as listening and reading. Most of the shows as the results of the research show develop learners’ knowledge of language structure and enrich their vocabulary.

As the research suggest the efficiency of English TV shows broadcast in Uzbek Television plays a great role in the development of foreign language skills of students. Most of the respondents admitted the efficiency of TV shows in their language acquisition. According to our research results the most of the students were successful in acquiring the grammar and the vocabulary of the English language.

 

REFERENCES

 

Karimov I.A. Chet tillarni o`rganish tizimini yanada takomillashtirish chora-tadbirlari to`g`risida. PQ-1875 sonli Qaror. Toshkent, 2012. // http://lex.uz

Anderson D. R., Collins P. A. The impact on children’s education: Television’s influence on cognitive development. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. 1988.  // http://www.scholar.google.com

Bates A. W. Adult learning from educational television: The Open University experience. In M. J. Howe (Ed.), Learning from television: Psychological and educational research. London: Academic Press. 1983. // http://www.scholar.google.com

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