Doomladen forecasts two years ago that young brains would be atrophied by fare like "eh-oh" for hello were misguided, according to a team at Sheffield Hallam University. "Linguistic experts have clearly been involved in the creation of these appealing characters which are so skilful in their use of repetition and rhyme," said Hallam researcher, Jacky Marsh. 

Concern centred on the basic, single syllable nature of much tubby discourse (although Po did elevate things by singing to Dipsy and the other two, Tinky Winky and Laa Laa, in Cantonese). The BBC made one concession to the initial outburst by extending the narration element of the programme to include more grown up words. 

But the corporation also mounted a strong defence, and the programme's independent producers, Ragdoll Productions, provided the research into children's behaviour and preferences that underlay the invention of Tubbyland. This pointed up the rhyme/repeat/simplicity pattern observed by the Sheffield study. 

"The Teletubbies show spectacularly how popular culture can be a valuable stimulus for work in language and literature with children," said Ms Marsh, whose findings will appear in the International journal of educational research and the on-line contemporary issues in early childhood next month. "Children who would not normally be interested in writing, fall over themselves with excitement when they get the chance to write about these familiar characters." 

The researchers noted particular success with bilingual children, and boys who have fallen behind nationally in early reading statistics. 

Other viewpoints: 

Eric Wilkinson, head of Glasgow University's department of education: 

"I am extremely concerned at the use of baby language. The evidence is the more you talk with young kids in adult ways using adult words, the more they are likely to pick up those words. If you gurgle at them and go 'dada' and all that kind of stuff it puts kids back." 

Woodland day nursery Derby: 

"We have banned the programme because the language used by the central characters is unsuitable for educational purposes." 

(Guardian 24 August 1999) 
 
 

Popular culture's role in early years literacy learning (Overview of research)  

The full article, Jackie Marsh, Teletubby Tales: popular culture in the early years language and literacy curriculum, can be found in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, vol.1, no.2, 2000.