Current Research Projects
Dr. Carla Wood, Associate Professor, directs the Child Language and Literacy Lab in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida State University. Initiatives of the lab have focused on language development and disorders, specifically children with severe communication disorders and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds including Spanish-English speaking families.
Project Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI), Grant Funded by Institute of Education Sciences
The impact of Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI) on writing outcomes of 5th grade students
Carla Wood, Professor in the College of Communication and Information, School of Communication Science and Disorders and Christopher Schatschneider, Professor in Psychology recently received federal funding in partnership with Hillsborough County Public School District to evaluate students’ writing outcomes in approximately 44 elementary schools. The research grant from the National Center for Education Research (NCER) of the Institute of Education Sciences will provide the FSU research team and personnel in Hillsborough County with funding to examine writing outcomes of over 3,000 students, including English Learners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
This newly funded project builds on an existing partnership of a larger project of the REL-Southeast East (Regional Education Laboratory). The FSU research team on the overarching project, Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI), includes: Dr. Barbara Foorman (REL-SE Director, Frances Eppes Professor, Principal Investigator on WKI), Dr. Carla Wood, Dr. Sarah Herrera, and Dr. Jennifer Dombek. The WKI project of the REL-SE is a randomized control trial study examining the impact of a 20-week daily intervention on students’ language and literacy outcomes. The curriculum was developed at Florida State University and is designed to build students’ knowledge of morphology (the smallest meaningful units of language) to improve students’ ability to deduce the meaning of academic vocabulary words. The development and evaluation of the curriculum is a response to Hillsborough County’s desire to bolster outcomes of students in low performing schools and improve outcomes for students from linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Project BLOOM, Grant Funded by Institute of Education Sciences (2013-2017)
BLOOM: Bridging for Language Outcomes in the Classroom is a project designed to develop and refine an adaptive tiered vocabulary intervention that can be applied reliably and effectively for Spanish-speaking ELLs in KG-1st grade classrooms. The intervention took place within authentic learning environments and supplements the ongoing language and literacy instruction in the classroom by providing a systematic and explicit intervention grounded on comprehensible input. Assessments include standardized measures of vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability (PTONI), and oral language and literacy measures (e.g. BESA, Narrative samples, Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests). During this 3-year project, a systematic process was used to collect observations and vocabulary data that provided feedback for refining the intervention in progressive prototypes to ensure that the intervention is feasible for implementation and responsive to the needs of diverse learners with varying English proficiency levels. Outcomes of successive prototypes are being examined to determine how varying components of the intervention affects ELLS who differ in their Spanish and English skill level.
Project Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI), Grant Funded by Institute of Education Sciences
The impact of Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI) on writing outcomes of 5th grade students
Carla Wood, Professor in the College of Communication and Information, School of Communication Science and Disorders and Christopher Schatschneider, Professor in Psychology recently received federal funding in partnership with Hillsborough County Public School District to evaluate students’ writing outcomes in approximately 44 elementary schools. The research grant from the National Center for Education Research (NCER) of the Institute of Education Sciences will provide the FSU research team and personnel in Hillsborough County with funding to examine writing outcomes of over 3,000 students, including English Learners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
This newly funded project builds on an existing partnership of a larger project of the REL-Southeast East (Regional Education Laboratory). The FSU research team on the overarching project, Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI), includes: Dr. Barbara Foorman (REL-SE Director, Frances Eppes Professor, Principal Investigator on WKI), Dr. Carla Wood, Dr. Sarah Herrera, and Dr. Jennifer Dombek. The WKI project of the REL-SE is a randomized control trial study examining the impact of a 20-week daily intervention on students’ language and literacy outcomes. The curriculum was developed at Florida State University and is designed to build students’ knowledge of morphology (the smallest meaningful units of language) to improve students’ ability to deduce the meaning of academic vocabulary words. The development and evaluation of the curriculum is a response to Hillsborough County’s desire to bolster outcomes of students in low performing schools and improve outcomes for students from linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Project BLOOM, Grant Funded by Institute of Education Sciences (2013-2017)
BLOOM: Bridging for Language Outcomes in the Classroom is a project designed to develop and refine an adaptive tiered vocabulary intervention that can be applied reliably and effectively for Spanish-speaking ELLs in KG-1st grade classrooms. The intervention took place within authentic learning environments and supplements the ongoing language and literacy instruction in the classroom by providing a systematic and explicit intervention grounded on comprehensible input. Assessments include standardized measures of vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability (PTONI), and oral language and literacy measures (e.g. BESA, Narrative samples, Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests). During this 3-year project, a systematic process was used to collect observations and vocabulary data that provided feedback for refining the intervention in progressive prototypes to ensure that the intervention is feasible for implementation and responsive to the needs of diverse learners with varying English proficiency levels. Outcomes of successive prototypes are being examined to determine how varying components of the intervention affects ELLS who differ in their Spanish and English skill level.
Project BOLLD: Bilingual Oral Language and Literacy Development & Disorders grant
Project BOLLD is a doctoral leadership training grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. It is designed to build the capacity of young investigators at Florida State with specialized knowledge of dual language learning to foster research and innovations for improving instructional supports and services for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
There are currently six doctoral students funded on BOLLD.
Project BOLLD is a doctoral leadership training grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. It is designed to build the capacity of young investigators at Florida State with specialized knowledge of dual language learning to foster research and innovations for improving instructional supports and services for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
There are currently six doctoral students funded on BOLLD.
Voices Project: LENA
The Language Environment Analysis Project is designed to describe and assess children’s early communication in natural environments. Children’s vocalization counts, conversational turns, and adult word count are recorded and quantified using a small device worn by young children during routine everyday activities for up to 16 continuous hours. Automated measures using the ADEX accompanying software provide a promising tool for screening, assessment, and progress monitoring oral language development in very young children (Gilkerson & Richards, 2008; Greenwood et al., 2011). Research assistants in the School of Communication Science & Disorders at FSU have gathered samples from over 100 monolingual typically developing children; 60 Spanish-English dual-language learners; and 30 children with identified language-learning disorders. Data collection is on-going. Of primary interest is the relationship between automated LENA measures (e.g. rate of child vocalization counts and/or rate of alternating vocalizations between adults and children) and concurrent measures of widely utilized language measures (e.g MLU, TTR). Additionally, investigators will examine influencing factors that contribute to variance in automated LENA measures such as environment, family income, and maternal education.
FSU students have participated in data collection and management, parent interviews, training of undergraduate research assistant on SALT procedures (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts); data analyses, and presentation of results of a national conference.
School Age Language and Literacy Project
Dr. Carla Wood’s child language lab is partnering with Florida Center for Reading Research to analyze written narrative samples of over 1000 students in Florida including 20% English Language Learners. This data provide opportunities for examining the use of nonmainstream dialect and developmental “norms” across children in grades 1st – 7th in microstructural aspects and macrostructural components. FSU students also have opportunities to explore the relationship between written languages and children’s performance on standardized language and literacy assessments.
The Language Environment Analysis Project is designed to describe and assess children’s early communication in natural environments. Children’s vocalization counts, conversational turns, and adult word count are recorded and quantified using a small device worn by young children during routine everyday activities for up to 16 continuous hours. Automated measures using the ADEX accompanying software provide a promising tool for screening, assessment, and progress monitoring oral language development in very young children (Gilkerson & Richards, 2008; Greenwood et al., 2011). Research assistants in the School of Communication Science & Disorders at FSU have gathered samples from over 100 monolingual typically developing children; 60 Spanish-English dual-language learners; and 30 children with identified language-learning disorders. Data collection is on-going. Of primary interest is the relationship between automated LENA measures (e.g. rate of child vocalization counts and/or rate of alternating vocalizations between adults and children) and concurrent measures of widely utilized language measures (e.g MLU, TTR). Additionally, investigators will examine influencing factors that contribute to variance in automated LENA measures such as environment, family income, and maternal education.
FSU students have participated in data collection and management, parent interviews, training of undergraduate research assistant on SALT procedures (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts); data analyses, and presentation of results of a national conference.
School Age Language and Literacy Project
Dr. Carla Wood’s child language lab is partnering with Florida Center for Reading Research to analyze written narrative samples of over 1000 students in Florida including 20% English Language Learners. This data provide opportunities for examining the use of nonmainstream dialect and developmental “norms” across children in grades 1st – 7th in microstructural aspects and macrostructural components. FSU students also have opportunities to explore the relationship between written languages and children’s performance on standardized language and literacy assessments.