The effect of multimedia on low-income children’s word learning: A theory of synergy

• In Event: Learning about Literacy through Multimedia

Abstract

Early vocabulary development is critical for later academic success (Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). We now recognize that high quality educational media – including print books, videos, and e-books – can support vocabulary growth (e.g. Takacs, Swart, & Bus, 2015). However, we have much to learn about how these different media might work together to support vocabulary acquisition. The theory of synergy (Neuman, 2009) proposes that different media used in combination (e.g. print book and a video) rather than one medium alone (e.g. only print books or only videos) can support the development of a more robust understanding of new words. This occurs because different media hold unique affordances, so exposure to a combination of media allow children to benefit from these varied strengths. Prior research has investigated differences in learning based on media features (e.g. Takacs, Swart, & Bus, 2014; Neuman, Wong, & Kaefer, 2017), but little prior work has investigated learning through combinations of media in comparison to a single medium.
The present study investigated whether vocbaulary learning from educational media would be stronger when children viewed content twice in a synergy condtition – once via print book, and once via video – compared to viewing content twice through one medium (print book or video). We hypothesized that children would learn more vocabulary through the synergy between two different media than either print books or videos alone.
Participants were 140 children ((Mage = 52.56 months, SDage = 3.60 months); 55% female; predominantly African American and Hispanic) from low-income households. Children were randomly assigned to either the synergy condition, or the same medium (print book or video) condition. In the synergy condition, children viewed a story once in a print book format and once in video format. In the same medium condition, children viewed the story twice in the same medium (book or video). Print books were read aloud by research assistants in a one-on-one interaction. The design was fully counterbalanced. Nine vocabulary words were embedded and taught within the story (see Table 1). Participants were pretested prior to the study and post-tested after their second story exposure on receptive and expressive vocabulary.
Repeated Measures ANCOVAs revealed that children improved on their receptive, F(1, 131) = 87.77, p < .001 and expressive vocabulary, F(1, 131) = 69.57, p < .001 from pretest to posttest. Additionally, there was a significant difference in vocabulary learning between the synergy condition, print book condition, and video condition for receptive vocabulary, F(2, 131) = 3.56, p = .031, but not expressive vocabulary. Follow-up receptive vocabulary analyses revealed that the synergy condition had stronger growth than the print book condition, t(105) = 2.79, p = .006. The video condition fell in between and did not significantly differ from either. See Table 2 for descriptive statistics.
Overall, results suggest that providing children with repetition through different media may be more beneficial to receptive vocabulary learning than repeated exposures to the same medium, aligned with the theory of synergy (Neuman, 2009).

Author

• Preeti Samudra, SUNY Plattsburgh
  Presenting Author