Mabie and the Disney Channel

Mabie, at a vey young age, is able to understand imperatives, questions and simple statements in English, both in oral and written forms. She also has the proficiency to understand most parts of a TV program in English, especially those for children. Her younger brother, Ernest, thous less proficient than Mabie, somehow also shows appreciation of TV shows in English and both of these siblings are fond of repeating lines uttered by their favorite cartoon . And a lot of times, these two youngsters surprise our family by uttering those lines in a more or less proper context. When asked why her children are able to use the funny lines of cartoon characters in a proper situation, my aunt told me that Mabie and Ernest almost do nothing but watch the Disney Channel everyday, especially during summer vacation. I observed that they were really glued to the the TV when they got to see the faces of the Powerpuff girls, The Titans, or Tom and Jerry flashed in the screen. Mabie often copy the lines of Buttercup, while Ernest often humorously imitate the way Johnie Bravo or Spiderman speak. It is observable that these children learn a second langaueg through exposure to it in school and at home, particularly through media. Though they say that books are still the best way for children to develop language and litreacy, it wouldn't hurt to say that TV programs for children may also be a big help for them to improve their phonological skills and widen their vocabu;aries. I can observe that my cousins pick up a lot of vocabularies from these programs. As a wishful thinkng, I do hope that by more exposure to children programs, they will be able to acquire the accents of the characters in the TV shows. But form what I observe, it may actually take a longer time and greater efforts before they acquire an English native-like accent. They still speak English with a Filipino-English accent (just like I do!). Not that I am saying that there's something wrong with that