THE INFLUENCE OF YOUTUBE KIDS CHANNEL “KIDS DIANA SHOW” IN

DEVELOPING CHILDREN’S VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Estuningtyas Mahanani/ 122014253011

Airlangga University 2020

Abstract
In the 21st century, studies which discuss the influence of YouTube videos in
children’s language development has undergone a rapid development since the use of
YouTube video is viewed as a crucial factor that can influence chilldrens’ language
development.. However, teachers are not always motivated and interested to accept the
integration of ICT into their teaching practices. Teachers‟ perceptions and barriers become
determinant factors in how ICT is integrated into classroom practices. Regarding this issue,
this study was intended to investigate the influence od youtube kids channel in developing
children’s vocabulary acquisition.
In order to ensure triangulation and complementary data, descriptive quantitative
method by using survey approach was used in this research. A number of 49 EFL teachers
from 15 senior high schools in Kabupaten Bantul were involved. The data were collected
through close-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed
and interpreted through qualitative procedures. The qualitative data were analyzed within 3
steps; data condensation, data display, and conclusion.
The result of the study showed that teachers‟ perceptions in integrating ICT into
classroom practices were generally positive. Teachers perceived that the use of ICT is very
useful since that ICT can enhance students‟ motivation in teaching and learning process, help
teachers to conduct effective, meaningful and interesting learning activities, improve their
teaching performance, and provide convenience in monitoring students‟ learning progress.
This study also revealed that teachers were confronted with numerous obstacles in integrating
ICT into their classroom practices such as lack of time, lack of ICT training, lack of technical
support, lack of accessibility to ICTs, and large classes This study suggested that EFL
teachers should be well-equipped with adequate knowledge and skills in using ICT.
Furthermore, the government should provide adequate facilities and infrastructures in order to
make teachers enable in integrating ICT into their teaching practices.

Key words: psycholinguistics, vocabulary, youtube, kids diana show, children’s acquisition.

INTRODUCTION

In this current research trends, studies which discuss the influence of YouTube videos

in children’s language development has undergone a rapid development since the use of

YouTube video is viewed as a crucial factor that can influence chilldrens’ language

development. Nowadays, YouTube videos become part of children's immediate environment

and the impact is undeniably significant. The use of YouTube videos appropriately can

enhance and help children’s in learning language (Fred, 2012). A study conducted by
Linerbager and Piotrowski (2009) revealed that the use of video can help children to enhance

and develop their literary and narrative skills. Tridianti (2017) in her research found that the

use of media such as animation, song and video can attract children’s interest which can

enhance children’s linguistic intelligence. Furthermore, prior studies also revealed that the

use of YouTube has significantly impact to enhance children’s language development

especially in communication skills (Ikhfi et al., 2020; Salwa, 2014; , Wayan & Gunada,

2017). Notably, although the prior studies has been investigated the influence of YouTube

videos in children’s language development, less focus has been placed on early children’s

vocabulary acquisition, especially in early elementary years. Therefore, a gap in the literature

exists in the specific area of early children’s vocabulary acquisition.

According to Hornby (2000), vocabulary is defined as all words which a person

knows or uses in a particular language. In the language acquistion, vocabulary plays an

important role that will determine language development (Harmon, Wood & Keser, 2009). It

can be said that the more someone acquire the vocabularies, the more he will master the

language competence. This idea is supported by Schmitt (2000) who revealed that the lexical

knowledge is viewed as a critical tool in having communicative competence and acquiring

the second language. In the acquisition of children’s vocabulary, children will acquire the

vocabularies through the input and stimulus which is received by children. This idea is

related to Skinner theory who stated that child acquires the language by extracting all the

linguistic components from the environment (Skinner, 1957). It indicates that how children

acquire the language will depend on the result of exterior influences after child is born, (e.g

exposure and experience in learning). Prior studies revealed that the use of YouTube videos

has a positive effect on children’s vocabulary acquisition. In line with Kabooha and Elyas

(2015), they found that the use of YouTube gives positive impacts in enhancing their

vocabulary acquisition. In addition, he also revealed that videos in YouTube can attract the
students’ attention and focus. Another study by Akbulut (2007) revealed that the vocabulary

scores in which the text along with video, picture and graphic are higher than those assigned

to the definition only group. In line with Hu and Deng (2007), they found that media which

combines audio and video can enhance someone’s ability to memorize words. The

multimodality which contained in the videos in YouTube will attract children’s attention and

accordingly can improve their word retention. It can be concluded that the use of videos in

YouTube has a positve impacts in developing children’s vocabulary acquisition. Thus, this

assumption is in line with the theory of Lavigne et al., (2015) and Montag et al., (2015) who

revealed that the use of media can expose children to new vocabulary and concepts in a

similar way to children’s picture books.

In this current study, the focus on the research is in examining the influence of

YouTube videos in acquiring children’s vocabulary. The researcher chooses Kids Diana

Shows videos to be researched because of some reasons. First, Kids Diana Show is a popular

channel featuring a girl, Diana, playing with her friends and family. The channel provides

children songs, vlogging-videos, and also educational videos. As of October 2020, this

channel has arround 66 milion subscribers. It indicates that this channel is popular among the

children and may have impacts on children’s vocabulary acquisition. Second, based on the

researcher’s observation, the subjects of the research like to spend much time to watch this

channel. The researcher found that this channel has a significant effect in the subjects’

language development. Therefore, the research related to the influence of Kids Diana Show

videos in developing subjects’ vocabulary acquisition become an interesting topic to be

discussed. In addition, the focus of this study is on children transitioning from kindergarten to

first grade because the study about language and media has focused on primaly on children

under 3 years of age (Linerbager & Vaala, 2010). Moreover, children in this age range will

gain more vocabularies and language skills as well as beginning in learning to read. (Farkas
& Beyon, 2004). As said by Leneberg (1967), critical period is a crucial time when children

can absorb and optimize their linguistic input and skills. Thus, it indicates that early learning

is fundamental in language acquisition. Therefore, the vocabulary acquistion in children

holds an important key in children’s language development. Other consideration is that the

use of media in this age range is higher than the use of media during the early childhood

(Rideout, 2007).

Thoroughly reading some prior studies, the research focuses on investigating the

influence of of videos in “Kids Diana Show” YouTube channel in developing children’s

vocabulary acquisition. It intends to reveal the influence of the videos in the language

development specifically whether children will acquire vocabularies through the videos or

not. The prior studies are mostly discussed the influence of YouTube videos among the early

childhood or students in junior or senior high schools. However, the study which focuses to

discover the influence of Youtube videos in early elementary years is still limited. Therefore,

the current study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of YouTube kids channel

in the children’s vocabulary acquisition.

In sumarry, the study will firstly investigate the influence of Kids Diana Show

YouTube channel videos in developing children’s vocabulary. This research is expected to

enrich the research outcomes related to the areas of child language development, especially

related to the use of YouTube videos and children’s vocabulary acquisition. The current study

addreses a research question, 1). What is the influence of YouTube kids videos in “Kids

Diana Show” channel in developing children’s vocabulary acquisition? The researcher

hypothesize that the use of YouTube videos in “Kids Diana Show” will improve vocabulary

acquisition on children.

METHODOLOGY AND PARTICIPANTS

 The method used in this research is qualitative research. This study focused on how

childrens’ developing vocabulary acquisition by watching “Kids Diana channel” youtube

videos. The subject was named Zahra Adiwa, 6 years old, her addres is in Nawungan villlage,

Bantul District, Yogyakarta regency. Data collection methods carried out in this research

were by observation and interview. The type of interview used is semi-structured interviews.

Meanwhile, the observation used is non-participant observation. According to Sugiyono

(2011), non-participant observation is an observation in conducting research which the

researcher not involved and only as independent observers. The research was carried out in

the subject’s home in Bantul, Yogyakarta.

The data were analyzed within 3 steps; data condensation, data display, and

conclusion (Huberman & Saldana, 2014). Data condensation refers to the process of

focusing, selecting, simplifying, abstracting, and transforming the data into the form of

transcription. In this step, the data were collected by doing the interview to the teachers. After

that, the interview transcript was translated and transcribed. The data will be presented in the

form of the description of the actions and tables. The last step was making the conclusion.

Further, the conclusion was gained based on the related issues. The data was record by the

recorder applicator. The research was conducted on 2 nd December 2020, 10th december 2020

and 24th December 2020. The researcher used 10 videos on Kids Diana channel youtube

videos with the consideration that the videos are the most watched videos by the subject. In

addition, the interview was held by interviewing Zahwa’s parents to gain more detail

information related to the vocabulary acquisition by watching Kids Diana youtube channel.

The interview was held by using the zoom application due to the corona pandemic that

obliges the psychal distancing. This reseach applied a semi-structured interview guided by a

list of questions in the form of interview guideline (Merriam, 1988). Camera was used to

record the process of the interviews. The interview lasted for about 20 minutes. To avoid
misunderstanding and to make participant easier to answer the questions, the interview

process was delivered in Bahasa Indonesia. The participants were allowed to ask question or

seek for explanation if there was any difficulty to answer the questions during the interview.

The interview was conducted face to face between the interviewer and the teacher

participants. The interviews were conducted according to the interviewees’ availability and

schedule. Meanwhile, the interview was conducted on 28th December 2020.

The sample used in this reseach is purposive sampling. According to Arikunto (2010:

183), purposive sampling is the process of selecting sample by taking subject which is based

on the specific purpose so that the researcher can choose the sample that represents the

specific purpose of the research. This research used flash cards which contain some pictures

in the videos. The researcher will ask the participant whether she knows the word in the

picture or not. The flash cards were choosen to attract the subject’s attention to know

whether she acquires some vocabularies through the videos she is watched or not. The

research also observes some behaviour of the subject.

The subject was spent minimum 3 hours in watching youtube videos. The parents

limit the watching the videos in the weekdays and she usually watch the videos arround 4-5

hours in weekend. It can be said that in one week, she spent arround minimum 21 hours-30

hours in watching youtube videos. It is considered that the subject is familiar in watching

youtube vidoes especiallt watching the kids diana show , the most watched videos by her.

The time spent can present the data below. Pake diagram

FINDINGS

This part presents the finding of the research which the researcher found in this research. In

addition, this section classifies the result into two themes, such as:

Vocabulary Acquisition through Youtube videos (Kids Diana Show Channel)

The data were collected through the observation with the helped of flashcard in knowing the

vocabulary acquisition in the children. The result revealed that the participant’s acquire some

vocabularies through the videos that she watched. The researher also found that the

participant also imitate some gestures and some behaviors doing by Diana (The main

character of Kids Diana Show Channel). Interestingly, the participant not only knowing the

vocabularies in English but she also knows what the meaning of the words in Bahasa. It is

indicated that she understand the meaning of the words both in English or in Bahasa and it is

related to the second language acquisition. The table shows the most 3 favorite videos and 3

latest videos watched by the subject of the research:

No Title of the video Video Duration

1 Diana and Roma Find Color Balls Adventure 4 minute 31 second

2 Diana and Roma Make Kids Song for Kitten 4 minute 4 second

3 Diana and Dad Pretend Play Hairstyles Photo Session 6 minute 11 second
Story
4 Diana and Roma Learn the Alphabet and Numbers 18 minute

5 Diana and Love, Diana Dress Up - new game for kids 5 minute 7 second

6 Diana and Roma Play with Colored Surprises 5 minute 54 second

The table shows the vocabularies acquire by the participant by watching Youtube Kids Diana

Show channel are as follows:

No Vocabularies Class of words Video Title Bahasa

5
6

The data indicated that the participant acquires some vocabularies through the videos.

In this case, it is related to the second language acquisition which the learner can learn

language by using the videos. The data revealed that the participant mostly learn about Noun

(56%). It means that the videos impact the vocabulary acquisition of children. (diagram)

Parents Role in Engagement in using Youtube Videos

In addition to gain a deeper understanding result, semi-structured virtual or online interview

was employed. Interview provides an opportunity for the researcher to obtain original

thoughts that will not be uncovered by other data collection techniques. Semi-structured

interview was used to triangulate and corroborate the findings of the quantitative analysis.

The data revealaed that the parent agreed that the use of videos in youtube can give some

positive effect in developing children’s cognitive aspect. However, the use of youtube also

can give negative effect due to the pshycological condition and also some negative content

that will affect the children’s behavior. Thus, the parent is the crucial role in monitoring the

children’s activity in watching youtube videos. She always monitors the children’s activity in

using youtube. The participant’s spent maximum 2 hours in a day. In addition, the children

learn some vocabularies from the videos that she watched. As the parent said, the participant

is considered as a smart child who is fast-learner. She can understand the instruction easily

and her memory is relatively strong. The participant is an active child and considered as a

child who has a good language skill. When the participant watching the videos the child often

asked some questions to ask the meaning of the words in Bahasa. Moreover, by watching the

videos of youtube, the participant often imitate the behaviors of Diana by imitating the

Diana’s gesture or utterances.

The parent plays an active role in accompanying children when watching videos then

associate the video content with environment. In the sense of implementing fill with what is
around the child. Like for example colors, parents too give color book and show the color

referred to the video. In addition to that on Parents Street cartoon video show provide

examples of moral values in cartoon characters.

DISCUSSION

The result shed light on the influence of youtube videos in improving children’s

vocabulary. The result showed that the children watched over 2 hours of youtube videos per

day on average. This confirms the theory of Rideout (2017) which explained that children

between five and eight used almost 3 h of media per day on average.

The research question focused in examining the influence of kids diana show youtube

videos channel in improving children’s vocabulary. The result showed that the use of youtube

videos (Kids Diana Show Channel) can improve and develop children’s vocabulary. The

findings of the study concur the previous study conducted by Dore, et al., (2020), imaniah, et

al (2020) and Salwa (2015). The findings revealed that children acquire some vocabularies

through the youtube videos. Thus, it can not be separated from the appeal of Youtube which

provides interesting visualization audio and video that can attract children’s attention and

focus. Similarly, Imaniah, et al., (2020) stated that YouTube is an audio-visual media which

contain attractive animation tehniques combining with musical ryhmes that will engage

children’s focus and attention. The easy choice of words in the song is also chosen so that

children are easier to remember.

Another finding revealed that the the most vocabulary which is the participant

mastery is noun, followed by verba and adjective. The finding is constrast with the findings

of (Bloom, 1975; & Tardif, 1995). They found that children will master verbs earlier that

nouns. However, the finding of this study is relevant with the findings of Gentner (1982)

which stated that the child will master nomina earlier than verb. In line with the research

done by Dardjowidjojo, 2000), the children master more nouns than verbs. During the five
years of his research, nouns become the first rank which children’s master (average 49%), the

second one is verbs (average 29%), meanwhile the adjective becomes the third (average

13%). It indicates that children especially in Indonesia will acquire noun first than others

class of words.

Furthermore, the data showed that parent affirmed that the use of youtube videos can

improve children’s vocabulary. Nowadays, the use of YouTube become an infotainment

source for parents and their children. The parent agreed that YouTube can give positive effect

in children’s cognitive development. This idea is in line with Mares and Pan (2013) who

revealed that YouTube contain potential educational values in it. However, the parents have

concerns in the usage of YouTube that will have a negative impact if it is overused. This

finding confirmed the theory of Vygotsky (1962; Bruner 1983) which stated that at higher

levels, the use of media had a negative relation with children’s language gains that is in line

with social interaction theories of language development. In addition, Vandewater et al.,

2006; Khan et al., 2017) revealed that the YouTube media use can replace other valuable

language-enhancing activities. It indicated that it is important to control the use of YouTube

to avaoid the negative effects if it is over-used. Futhermore, the parents stated that the use of

YouTube must be followed with the parent’s involvement. In the same line, Bittman,

Rutherford and Brown (2011) argued that parental participation in child’s media use is more

significant in creating the interactive context and improving child;s vocabularies and

linguistic ability. It can be said that the parent affirmed that joint engagement can support

children’s learning (Reiser et al., 1984; Dtrouse et al., 2013).

In relation with second language acquiisition, the data showed that the effect of

YouTube can help the child to learn and adapt new vocabularies in learning the second

language. This confirms the same circumtances as what some researchers investigated that

the use of media can increase linguistic intelligence and children’s language and literacy skill
(Tridianti, 2017; Aryanti and Emzir, 2016; Palupi, Hafidah and Karsono, 2019). The internet,

as a digiral media of the 21st century, based on YouTube Channels influences the learning of

children as well as English Foreign Language (EFL) learners (Hayet, 2016). The use of

YouTube has altered children’s learning patterns. Moreover, children’s language acquisition

is much helped by sound, both in the form of word or sentences. Thus, YouTube provides

some facilities and content that will help children to acquire and learn their second language.

It can be concluded that the use of videos of YouTube becomes an effective strategy to

improve children’s vocabularies in learning second language acquisition, in this case English.

To sum up, the use of videos of YouTube influence to improve and develop children’s

vocabularies. Children acquire some vocabularies such as nomina, verb and adjective by

watching the videos. YouTube help children to memorize and understand the words easily.

Thus, the use of YouTube videos help children’s to acquire their second language acquistion.

CONCLUSSION

This study is aimed at discovering the influence of youtube videos in improving

children’s vocabulary. As the effect of the use of technology nowadays is undeniable, it is

important to know the effect of videos in developing children’s cognitive skill especially in

developing children’s communicative skill. In this case, it can be said that the mastery of

vocabulary is very crucial to develop children language and literacy skill. The findings of this

study revealed that the use of Youtube videos can improve and develop children’s vocabulary

skills. Children acquire some vocabularies by watching videos on youtube. This is related to

the multimodality provides in youtube which children can understand easily by watching the

visual and audio in the videos. It attracts the children attention and focus to learn some words

and remember it.

This study provides an overview of the effect of youtube videos in developing

children’s vocabulary. In addition, this study contributes to enrich the exisiting theory and
practice related to the use of media in developing children’s language skills especially in

developing and improving children’s vocabulary. Therefore, this study offers several

theoritical and practical implications related to the use of media in improving children’s

vocabulary acquisition. These can be summed up as follows:

1. Parents should monitor the children’s activity to avoid some negative content that can

be watched by the children

2. Joint media engagement plays an important role in developing children language

skills, the children should provide a good stimulus to maximize the skills. It is related

to the children’s golden year

3. Teachers should utilize the postive effect of youtube videos to provide some learning

strategies in developing children’s vocabulary

4. The use of video can utilize the second language acquisition which can help learners

to understand the second language.

Future Research Recommendation

This research aimed at investigating the effect of youtube videos in improving or

developing childrens’ acquisition in youtube. However, it did not discuss and measure to

what extent the children acquire vocabulary through the youtube videos. It would be more

meaningful if future studies discover to what extent the youtube videos affect the children’s

vocabulary acquisition. The future researchers can use “Woodcock model” in order to

measure to what extent the youtube vidoes can improve childrens’ vocabulary. Furthermore,

this research was conducted by focusing on the single subject or participant which may limit

the generalizability of the findings. Moreover, future studies should hold the longitudial study

to observe and know the development of children’s vocabulary with more population and

sample. Mixed methods may be carried out to find more comprehensible and complete data
in investigating the problems. Thus, it will enrich the research outcomes related to the use of

media in improving children vocabulary, especially using youtube videos.

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