Faculty & Staff
Faculty
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Maria S. Carlo, PhDAssociate ProfessorPhone: 813-974-5787 |
Research Interests:
Bilingualism and literacy development in children; cross-language transfer of reading skills; educational interventions that support first- and second-language development
Dr. Carlo is an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida in the Department of Child and Family Studies. She joined USF in 2017 as part of the USF Rightpath Research and Innovation Center.
Dr. Carlo specializes in bilingualism and literacy development in children and adults and is involved in multiple projects involving these areas. Dr. Carlo’s research focuses on the cognitive processes underlying reading in a second language and in understanding the cross-language transfer of reading skills and how it affects the development of such skills.
She is also interested in generating educational interventions that support first- and second-language development, particularly around vocabulary. She has been involved in grants funded through the National Institute of Health and the Institute for Educational Sciences and has authored multiple publications. She earned her doctorate in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was previously on the faculty at the University of Texas, Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the University of Miami. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association and the International Reading Association.
Current Research
The Effect of Definitions, Contextual Support, and Cognate Status on 4th Grade Spanish-Speaking English Learner’s Understanding of Unfamiliar Words
This funding examines how word definitions, contextual support, and cognate status
affect 4th grade Spanish speaking English learners’ (EL) understanding of unfamiliar
wordsin text. The inclusion of monolingual and bilingual dictionary definitions as
a support for independent word learning is a ubiquitous practice in EL instruction,
yet, the field lacks experimental work that isolates and tests the
effect of dictionary definitions on EL vocabulary learning. Research on effective
vocabulary instruction for ELs has typically relied on interventions that include
multiple teaching strategies, each considered exemplary of best practice, but that
lack evidence of their unique contribution to EL vocabulary learning.
The value of definitions as supports for independent learning has been brought into
question in research with monolingual English speakers. The bulk of this work suggests
that definitions are mostly ineffective in promoting independent learning of word
meanings. However, a metaanalysis on the value of testing accommodations for ELs indicates
that provision of an English dictionary is a form of accommodation that is effective
in boosting ELs’ reading comprehension performance in testing situations. The same
metaanalysis found that the estimates of the effect of providing a Spanish dictionary
varied considerably
across studies, suggesting that some students benefited more from this practice than
others. The widespread use of dictionary definitions in EL instruction coupled with
the inconsistent evidence regarding their utility to ELs and English monolinguals,
compel us to study how ELs’ use definitions to aid their understanding of unfamiliar
words in text. Thus, we study the extent to which Spanish-speaking ELs benefit from
English and Spanish definitions during independent learning situations and how ability
to use definitions to understand English text interacts with other potential sources
of information about word meaning, namely sentence context and cognate status.
PI: Maria Carlo,PhD
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
Effect of Bilingual vs Monolingual Methods of Explicit English Vocabulary Instruction on 4th Grade Spanish-speaking English Learners (EL)
Contact:
Maria S. Carlo, PhD
Principal Investigators:
Maria S. Carlo, PhD
Dr. Sara A. Smith, University of South Florida
Funding Source:
Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Project Description:
There is reason to believe that instruction that incorporates Spanish definitions in teaching academic English words may benefit Spanish-speaking children who are learning English as a second language. This study compares the effectiveness of mixed-language (English and Spanish) vs single language (English) vocabulary instruction in promoting learning of English words by 4th grade Spanish speaking children who are learning English. The students receive 6 weeks of vocabulary instruction twice a week via remote instruction (using Microsoft Teams) with USF instructors. Students learn 60 academic words that are taught via 6 units about the Florida Everglades. We expect that results of this research will help us design more effective curricular materials for English learners.
Effects of Home and Classroom Practices on Language, Cognitive, and Social Development of Young Spanish-Speaking Dual Language Learners
Contact:
Maria S. Carlo, PhD
Principal Investigators:
Dr. Tricia Zucker, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, PI
Maria S. Carlo, PhD - Co-PI
Funding Source:
Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Project Description:
English learners living in poverty are at risk for later reading difficulties and are less likely than their peers to encounter the level of responsive, extended conversations in their homes and preschools needed for school readiness. Furthermore, many types of dual language programs in U.S. schools operate in ways that delay regular exposure to English until later grades, rather than systematically teaching in ways that build on students’ knowledge of their home language to accelerate English proficiency. The proposed project will evaluate a dual-language approach that: a) maintains and improves the home language of English learners who speak mostly Spanish in their homes via parent coaching, and b) simultaneously coaches teachers to use an explicit cross-language transfer approach in which sophisticated concepts are introduced in Spanish before English. The expected outcome of this project is increased understanding of effective classroom instruction and family engagement approaches for English learners at risk of later reading difficulties. This project is led by The University of Texas Health Science Center’s Children’s Learning Institute in collaboration with USF.
The Effect of Definitions, Contextual Support, and Cognate Status on 4th Grade Spanish-Speaking English Learners’ (ELs) Understanding of Unfamiliar Words in Text
Contact:
Maria S. Carlo, PhD
Principal Investigators:
Maria S. Carlo, PhD - PI
Dr. Mary Avalos, Co-PI University of Miami Subcontract
Funding Source:
Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Project Description:
This project involves series of studies to inform the development of instructional strategies intended to help Spanish-speaking 4th grade English learners learn the meanings of new words in English. The studies test the benefits of providing students with definitions in English versus Spanish, supportive text context, and cognates--words such as profound-profundo which are spelled similarly and mean the same in Spanish and English--on students’ ability to independently learn new English words. The project will provide evidence of potentially promising practices for helping English learners learn new academic vocabulary in English.