Television and Language Development

Educational television is widely used in British primary schools to aid language development. In the light of current theories of language acquisition and development, this paper considers the characteristics of the medium which may militate against effective language learning. It is argued that further research is needed to ascertain whether language development is in fact promoted by television programmes and, if so, which programmes and what type of format are best suited for the purposes. Work already carried out in the USA and suggestions for future work in Britain are discussed.