As a double major
in Spanish and Psychology, I’ve taken several courses that shaped my research
interests in the education of young dual language learners. One course in
particular, Spanish in the Schools taught by Dr. Ellen Serafini, sparked a
strong interest for me in this area of research. The class involved a
service-learning component in which students served as teacher aides in a
Spanish-English dual language school. I conducted a reading lesson with a group
of second graders to encourage Spanish literacy, and I interviewed a language
acquisition specialist at the school. One semester later, I met Dr. Adam Winsler
through the Honors in Psychology Program. I knew immediately that I wanted to
work with him because of his research interests.
Dr. Winsler’s Miami
School Readiness Project (MSRP), which contains longitudinal data for a large
sample of dual language learners in Miami, presented a great opportunity for a
project that combines my research interests in language development and early
education. My project is part of the ongoing MSRP, and it investigates
elementary school outcomes for dual language learners. Joining Dr. Winsler’s
lab and having him as my mentor has been a great experience for my academic
growth. After I
graduate, I will continue working in Dr. Winsler’s lab, and I will eventually
pursue a PhD. Working on my project has helped me develop research skills that
are necessary for a PhD program.
On a weekly basis, I mostly read.
A lot! I’ve found that this area of research is highly interdisciplinary, and
my 28-page introduction contains research from journals in the fields of
developmental psychology, applied linguistics, and education. Writing my
literature review has made me realize that it’s important to integrate findings
from different fields. The other main weekly task for my project is working
with MSRP data. As I prepare data to run my
statistical analyses, I am excited to see what the results of my project will
look like!
