Ongoing Projects
Word Learning Across the Senses
In this project, blind and sighted adults study the meanings of extremely rare English words (like hebetude), after either reading them (in braille or in print) or hearing them pronounced. We want to learn whether there is an advantage for reading over listening during word learning, and whether it matters if reading is done tactilely or visually. This work is important because braille literacy has been declining among people with visual impairments, and it isn’t known what impact this decline will have on blind people’s learning and comprehension.
Sponsored by a Proposal or Pilot (PoP) Award from the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy.
Bilingual Prosodic Transfer
(with Juan Zhang and Charles Perfetti)
In this project, adult Chinese-English bilinguals are asked to judge the spellings of English words. We are curious whether native Chinese speakers react differently to intonation and stress patterns when reading English than do native English speakers, because of the importance of intonation in spoken Chinese. This work could have important implications for English as a Second Language education.
Sponsored by a Proposal or Pilot (PoP) Award from the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy.
Child Lexical Stress Sensitivity
In this project we are visiting elementary school classrooms to find out whether children who have just begun to learn to read are sensitive to the stress patterns of words, and whether children who are more sensitive to stress learn to read more easily than children who do not. If they do, children at risk for reading difficulty may benefit from receiving instruction on English stress patterns.
Sponsored by a Research and Artistry Opportunity Award from the Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships.
