Media consumption of multilingual children

Background. As well as linguistically competent interaction partners, media are a part of a child's linguistic environment. Aim of the study. The media consumption of multilingual children was examined in comparison to monolingual children and in terms of its impact on the active German vocabulary. Method. A total of N = 195 children (n = 53 multilingual; n = 143 monolingual) aged 5-8 years participated in the study. The language development test for children aged 5-10 years (Sprachstandserhebungstest [SET] 5-10) was performed. Using multivariate variance analysis the groups were compared regarding the time they spent with the media. In addition, the impact of the duration of media use on the active vocabulary in multilingual children was examined. Results. There were differences between monolingual and multilingual children in the time they spent with television, smartphones and audio books and this effect even persisted when the maternal education level was controlled. In addition to age, contact time with the German language and the IQ, the duration of television use and the use of audio books significantly influenced the expressive vocabulary of multilingual children. Conclusion. The findings illustrate that multilingual children preferred image driven than language driven media compared to monolingual children. Furthermore, the results suggest that the use of the image driven medium television had a negative influence on the expressive vocabulary of multilingual children, while the use of the language driven medium audio books had a positive influence.