ISSN 2360-7998
Abstract
The importance of home videos/movies as instructional media cannot be overemphasised. While home videos can be watched with rapt attention on television in or out of school, children may be attracted to home videos primarily for the fun they derive from watching them. Worth knowing, the indirect learning process of acquiring literacy from the home videos is in conjunction with childhood education, which requires the children to acquire knowledge through play and practice. The authors in this paper describe the use of home videos as literacy tools for early childhood education in Nigeria. The data for the study derive from home videos recorded from selected federal, state and private television stations in Southwestern Nigeria. The home videos, tagged ‘BARNEY’ & ‘HAP PALMER’S (American)’ and ‘KIDDIES EDUTAINMENT SERIES VOL.2’ (Nigerian) Educational Home Videos, respectively, are (i) (i) ‘outside-school’ programmes; (ii) songs or lyrics composed in simple English sentences that may interest children; and (iii) conversational, involving dialogue between the instructor(s) and children as learners. The content features of the videos are analysed, and the potentials for literacy acquisition by children are described. Observation shows that the home videos, through various activities, present not only the basic literacy skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing but also the skills of numeracy, creativity, inquiry and exploration of nature, art, music and modelling of objects. Thus, the home videos can be utilised by the resourceful teacher or guardian to build and enhance literacy skills that are required for immediate and lifelong education. .
Keywords: Early childhood education, literacy, educational materials, mass media, home videos