RESEARCH PROPOSAL

PROJECT

BS-ENGLISH SEMESTER IV

FATIMA JINNAH WOMEN UNIVERSITY

GROUP MEMBERS:

o AQSA GHAZAL

o RABIA TAYYAB

o ROZEENA HASSAN KHAN

CONTENTS

1. TITLE
2. INTRODUCTION
3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
4. HYPOTHESIS
5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
6. LITERATURE REVIEW
7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
8. CONCLUSION
RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TITLE:
Influence of English cartoons on language acquisition during childhood.

PROBLEM STATEMENT/ RESARCH QUESTIONS

Our research proposal will cover the following research questions:

 How age factor is involved in language acquisition?

 How input influences language acquisition?
 How cartoons influence child language acquisition?

HYPOTHESIS:
Following are our two main hypotheses.

 If children watch English cartoons in their childhood, it will help them to

learn language.
 If children are given enough English language input in the form of cartoons,
they will acquire the language.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY:
This study is theoretically and practically significant. Many experts say that ability
or compatibility of speaking foreign language is lost in the native speaking
environment at an early age before puberty, the results of this study will help to
prove or disprove the idea that it is possible to have effective language acquisition
from cartoons along with limited usage. Moreover, this study will also help school
teachers to design their curriculum and add cartoon sessions foe better language
acquisition.
INTRODUCTION:

Language acquisition through cartoons is a vast and debatable topic. Here,

language acquisition refers to the development of language in children. Children
have usually mastered most of the basic vocabulary and grammar of their first
language by the age of 6. I will conduct this research with my group members in
order to find out that do children acquire language through cartoons. This
research comes under the area of applied linguistics (refers to the use of
language-related research in a wide variety of fields, which include language
acquisition, language teaching, and literary studies etc). It is a very important
interesting area to be researched. This study will investigate that whether
language acquisition occurs by watching cartoons. In Pakistan, like many other
countries television is a part of children’s everyday life from 2 to 8 years of age.
They watch different cartoon programs on daily basis. We will conduct a study on
university students considering their experience to find out that language
acquisition of a foreign language is stimulated by cartoons programs. Much of the
studies have been done on children to explore the effect of cartoons on language
acquisition, most of them selected children of age group 3-7 and adopted
different methods to find out results. This particular research involves university
students as sample.

As students of linguistics we want conduct this research to explore and

investigate the idea of language acquisition and how cartoons in English language
affect the language acquisition in childhood. From the literature review, the
conceptual framework for the analysis will be drawn, which overviews the
concepts and processes of language acquisition. This research will try to make a
connection between English language acquisition and cartoon watching in
childhood. In the questionnaires students will be asked to review how much time
they spent in watching cartoons in their childhood, which cartoons they watched
the most and which medium helped them to learn the language.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Many of the researchers agree that the second language acquisition is strongly
influenced by the age of the learner. They believe that age is important factor
affecting the second language learning. The well-known Lenneberg(1967),
proposed two related hypotheses in his first hypothesis, he mentioned that
certain biological events are involved in language development, biological events
such as lateralization of the brain for specific functions, which can take place in
childhood , which he labeled as critical period. In his second hypothesis, he
mentioned that certain linguistic events are also involved in language
development during critical period. During early childhood there is plasticity and
virginity in child brain and articulatory mussels by which child can easily produce a
native like accent. Brown (1994) argues that after puberty this ability is almost
absent; therefor, adult who are learning new language face difficulties in
acquiring native like accent. Al Ghazali (2006) proposed that there are different
factors involve in language acquisition, which includes Age factor and its impact
on progress input on language acquisition in language acquisition. He also
mentions the influence of comprehensible input on language acquisition.

Several other studies show that learner needs a comprehensible input to acquire
language (krashen, 1982). Input is most essential in normal language
development. If sufficient input is not provided to child he will not competent in
language use. In some cases children raised in condition of linguistic
deprivation .e.g. Victor 12 years old boy who was captured in 1800s. He lived in
the wild for a long period of time. A physician, J.Itard, worked on him intensively
for six years , he did not learn to read and write during his time with Dr. Itard and
remained mute for the rest of his life .The lack of comprehensible input will cause
delay in language development (Ellis,1994).

Some other studies show that watching cartoons in early childhood has a great
influence on child language; they learn language faster during this age. Children
during this age have integrative motivation, which help them in improving their
listening and speaking skills. Taher Bahrani (2014);proposed that various types of
audiovisual programs such as cartoon, movies, songs and documentaries have
proved to be effective in increasing motivation to learn language. Several other
studies show the effect of caption/subtitle videos or TV programs on reading,
listening and vocabulary acquisition. These studies actually investigate the effect
of caption videos or TV programs on language learning especially in terms of
vocabulary than non-captioned ones. Finding of this study shows that subtitles
and captions are very effective input tools in vocabulary learning and
improvement in reading and listening skills. This shows that through captions and
subtitles there is improvement in language learning.

SvetozarPostic(2016) proposed that watching cartoon network in childhood

have a great influence on language learning. His findings show that the crucial
role in the formation of American accent in Lithuanian and other non-English
speaking European children is played by cartoon-watching during their childhood.
As a result there is increase number of children who not only speak excellent
English, but also speak it with an American accent.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This is a qualitative research and we will choose qualitative research methodology

to carry out this research. Our population will be the students of Fatima Jinnah
Women University and National University of Modern Languages. The sample will
be selected on random basis. We will choose 30 students from Fatima Jinnah
Women University and 30 students from National University of Modern
Languages. Our research tools will be questionnaire and interview. We will
distribute questionnaire among these students. We will also conduct interview of
these students.

The analysis of our data will comprise 3 stages.

First stage will be the collection of data and analysis of data obtained by
questionnaires and interviews.

Second stage will be the testing of our hypothesis with the collected data.

Third stage will be the arrangement of data in a coherent and cohesive manner.
CONCLUSION:
Participants will take part in the research on voluntary basis. After analysis of the
data that we will collect through interviews and questionnaire, conclusions will be
drawn.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Recommendations will be given or provided according to conclusion.

REFERENCES:

file:///C:/Users/Saad/Downloads/8817-8307-1-SM(1).pdf

Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). The biological foundations of language. Hospital Practice, 2(12), 59-67.

Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching.

Al Ghazali, F. (2006). First language acquisition vs second language learning: What is the
difference?.

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition.

Ellis, R. (1994). Factors in the incidental acquisition of second language vocabulary from oral
input: A review essay. Applied Language Learning, 5(1), 1-32.

Bahrani, T. (2014). AN OVERVIEW ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WATCHING CARTOONS AS

AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE INPUT FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING DEVEOPMENT. International Journal
of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW) Volume, 5(2), 550-556.

Poštič, S. (2015). CARTOON NETWORK ĮTAKA AMERIKIEČIŲ ANGLŲ KALBOS ĮSISAVINIMUI

VAIKYSTĖJE. Verbum, 6, 188-195.

Clark, C. (2000). Innovative strategy: Concept cartoons. Instructional and learning strategies, 12,
34-45.

Bahrani, T., & Tam, S, S. (2012). Informal Language Learning Setting: Technology or Social
Interaction? The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 11 (2), 142-14