The impact of watching English video programs in English language acquisition as a second language (A case study conducted in Rathnapura and Kurunegala districts)

Abstract

Language is an important, basic and primary tool for communication. Language acquisition is an unconscious process that is necessary for the language development. In recent years, the usage of video, audio and other visual materials has increasingly been used for different kind of purposes such as education, entertainment and communication etc. These usages may have a direct or an indirect impact on the language acquisition process. This study has been conducted to identify the impact of watching English video programs in English as a second language acquisition process. For the study, by using direct sampling method, 50 students who are learning in grade five and four have been selected from two primary schools in Kurunegala district and Rathnapura district. For the selection, common pretest has been given and 25 students from each school have been selected depending on the pretest marks. A DVD that is containing video materials (cartoons, lessons and songs) has been distributed among all selected students. They had to watch the video programs for one and a half months. After that, the posttest has been given. Hypothesis testing has been conducted by using marks of the pretest and posttest. Paired sample t-test in MS-Excel has been used for the analysis. The result of the analysis does not support the assumption that “there is an impact of watching English language video program on English as a second language acquisition process”. Thus, depending on the results H0 has been accepted and H1 was rejected. However, when comparing the pre and posttest marks, there was a slight difference between the marks of students. Some students have scored higher marks than the pretest, but these differences are negligible. Thus, depending on the results of the analysis, it could be concluded as there is no considerable impact of watching English language video programs on English language acquisition process.