The Effects of Watching Television and Programme Subtitles on Hong Kong Students’ Reading Standards in English and Chinese Literature
Submitted by:
Shek Kam Tse
Abstract:
The standardised reading scores of literature in Chinese, the first language, and in English, the second language, were carefully collected from 1,202 Primary Four students in Hong Kong. The students also supplied evidence via questionnaires about how much time they watched television (TV) programmes each day, the types of programme they preferred to watch and whether or not they paid attention to subtitles. There was a closer association between the students' English reading comprehension in literature and the time spent watching English-media TV than between their standard of reading Chinese literature and the time they spent watching Chinese-media TV. Variance analyses and regression analyses were executed in order to establish which kinds of programme had the greatest impact on reading comprehension scores of literature in the two languages. Interpretation of the trends was complicated by the fact that the Hong Kong students' mother tongue, Cantonese, differs in terms of syntax and form from the Modern Standard Chinese (MSC) taught in schools. The written language they are taught in school (MSC) matches Putonghua, the official language spoken across China, rather than Cantonese.
As reported in other studies, students who watch TV for a purpose rather than indiscriminately for over three hours per day had higher reading scores in literature. The best readers made better use of the subtitles to aid understanding than students who usually skipped over subtitles. The latter students had lower levels of reading competence both in Chinese and in English. As to the effect on later reading comprehension of watching different types of Chinese programme, the two regression models for Chinese scores, for instance, news and informational programme had positive effects on children's subsequent Chinese reading comprehension. In contrast, programmes produced for light entertainment, such as entertainment news and sports programmes were associated with negative effects. While in the case of English programmes, attending to informational programmes (news and informational programmes) had a positive and significant association with subsequent reading comprehension ability. In contrast, light entertainment programmes, such as entertainment news and children's TV shows, had little or even a negative effect. It is interesting to note that the effect of attending to English programs (the L2) seemed to be larger than those in Chinese programs, the mother tongue, on subsequent reading attainment. The implications for parents are discussed.