The Impact of Children Youtube Videos on English Language Socialization and Acquisition in Indonesia


Author: Layli Hamida (English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia)
Speaker: Layli Hamida
Topic: Anthropological Linguistics
The GLOCAL CALA 2022 General Session


Abstract

This study aims at describing how the use of English on youtube videos play a significant role in the socialization and acquisition of the language for children in Indonesia. It particularly focuses on the depiction of how the media serve a platform for children’s English language acquisition and whether parents or other adults’ accommodation reinforces or counteracts on the language socialization and acquisition. Ethnographic interviews were conducted to five middle class parents with children of 3-5 years old to collect information on children and parents’ everyday practices with the media. The findings suggest that parents’ beliefs and ideology on foreign language socialization as well as their English proficiency lead to their primary support for the acquisition of English. Their everyday media consumption and communication practices with children show how arena provided by parents has turned into an assume form of scaffold in the way children reflect the language collected from the media. The research indicates that global practices of English on the internet intersect with local practices of language socialization and acquisition.

Keywords: Youtube videos, children, English, language socialization, language acquisition