|
CSULB
awarded $1.9 million project grant for literacy
development
By
Roberta Berredo
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
The
National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD) has awarded Cal State
Long Beach a $1.975 million grant for a
project that will examine the literacy development
among Spanish-speaking children in Mexico.
The
project, titled "Language and Literacy
Development among Mexican Children,"
will study specific factors that may influence
reading development and related skills in
English and Spanish.
The
Child Development and Behavior Branch at
NICHD develops proposals and supports research
and research training applicable to the
psychological, psychobiological, language,
behavioral and educational development of
children.
"There
is an interest in literacy development because
it has an impact in understanding child
development," said Lisa Freund, program
director in the Child Development branch
at NICHD. "Understanding Spanish literacy
development helps us to better address the
difficulties that bilingual children might
have [when] learning to read."
According
to Leslie Reese, co-principal investigator
for the project and a professor of teacher
education at CSULB, the project objective
is to study the development of language
and literacy skills among 600 children in
the first through third grades in Mexico.
"We
hope it will allow us to understand more
about the development of language and literacy
skills in a cultural and linguistic context
that is substantially different from that
of the United States," Reese said."
CSULB
is the lead institution in the project and
is joining forces with the University of
Houston, Temple University and the Instituto
Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores del Oeste
in its research.
The
project relates to another program CSULB
has taken part in. Moving into its fifth
year, this program researches language and
literacy development in both English and
Spanish among Spanish-speaking children
in the United States. The children were
studied at sites in California and Texas.
The
U.S.-based project has studied school, home
and community factors that may influence
Spanish-speaking children's language and
literacy development.
There
will be three public schools in which students
from the study will be sampled. All from
a metropolitan area in Mexico, the communities
vary from working class to predominantly
middle class to a combination of both the
communities.
In
order to assess the students' development,
officials will observe classrooms five different
times throughout the school year. The students'
language and literacy skills will be evaluated
at the beginning and end of each year.
"We
want to compare the factors that influence
literacy development levels among Spanish-speaking
students in an English-speaking environment
and their Spanish development in a Spanish-speaking
environment," said Claude Goldenberg,
project director for the study.
Goldenberg,
who has studied this issue of literacy development
with Reese for nearly the past two decades,
said the project is "one of the most
comprehensive studies that has been researched
for Spanish-speaking children in the U.S."
"Many
students and teacher credential candidates
will come across Spanish-speaking learners
[in their careers]," Goldenberg said
when asked how the study will relate to
CSULB students. "Even though bilingual
education has significantly diminished,
this study is a direct application to students
teaching language and literacy skills to
Spanish-speaking children in the U.S."
|
