Watching Television and Reading Achievement: A Study of Third Grade Language Minority Students
Technology and Youth: Growing Up in a Digital World
ISBN: 978-1-78560-265-8, eISBN: 978-1-78560-264-1
Publication date: 24 September 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The current paper examines the relationships between watching television for various times of day and reading achievement for a subsample of third grade language minority (LM) students compared to third grade students in general.
Methodology
The analysis uses ECLS-K 1998–99 data to first test for significant differences between the two samples, then further explores these relationships using separate OLS multiple regression models, while controlling for past reading achievements and socioeconomic variation.
Findings
Building on more nuanced versions of displacement theory, this paper finds a positive relationship between reading achievement and watching television after dinner on weekdays specifically for LM students. For the general sample, watching TV on weekends or weekdays at any time period has no relationship with reading achievement.
Originality/value
This research suggests the potential for TV or perhaps other media to act as a lingual- or cultural-learning facilitator for LM students, being positively tied to reading achievement. The paper’s unique focus on multimedia use and LM students makes it particularly applicable to educators and public policy officials tasked with confronting the reading skills gap for a growing LM student population.
Keywords
Citation
Mills, G.J. (2015), "Watching Television and Reading Achievement: A Study of Third Grade Language Minority Students", Technology and Youth: Growing Up in a Digital World (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 395-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-466120150000019014
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited