About the Lab
The Language and Literacy Research Lab (LLRLab) is supervised by Dr. Lesly Wade-Woolley . Our lab is currently involved in a number of projects. Some of these involve investigations into:
1) Linguistic Stress and Reading
We use linguistic stress, or prosody, to signal meaning in our spoken language all the time. For example, the difference between “icy streets” and “I see streets” is one of prosody, just like REcord as a noun and reCORD as a verb have different meanings signaled by stress placement. Our work in this area suggests that people’s sensitivity to stress differences in words and phrases is also related to individual differences in reading and spelling.
Representative Publications & Conference Presentations
Clin, E. M., Wade-Woolley, L. & Heggie, L. (2009). Prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness in children’s reading. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 197-213.
Goodman, I., Libenson, A. & Wade-Woolley, L. (in press). Sensitivity to linguistic stress, phonological awareness and early reading ability in preschoolers. Journal of Research in Reading.
David, D., Wade-Woolley, L., Kirby, J. R. & Smithrim, K. (2007). Rhythm and reading development in school-age children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Reading, 30, 169-183.
Goetry, V., Kolinsky, R. Wade-Woolley, L. & Mousty, P. (2006). The role of stress processing abilities in the development of bilingual reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 29, 349-362.
Akaoka, E., & Wade-Woolley, L. (July 2006). Examining the role of prosody in fluent reading. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Vancouver, BC.
Wade-Woolley, L. & Wood, C. P. (2006). Editorial: Prosodic sensitivity and reading development. Journal of Research in Reading, 29, 253-257.
(For more, check out the Publications page.)
2) Early Interventions for Struggling Readers
Research tells us that children who are at risk for reading failure or who fail to make age-appropriate gains are most effectively helped by intervening early, with systematic and explicit programming in phonics, phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension, and by monitoring student progress and response to instruction (RTI). Some of our work in this area has involved programming in phonological awareness for at-risk readers in French immersion. We have also worked with several school boards to help them implement Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), a Tier 1 reading program for primary grades.
Representative Publications & Conference Presentations
Barnes, M. A. & Wade-Woolley, L. (2007). Where there’s a will, there are ways to close the achievement gap for children with learning difficulties. Orbit, 37, 9-13.
Conod, J., Wade-Woolley, L., and Cormier, P. (2007, June). Learner characteristics of poor responders: A grade 1 French immersion study. Presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, Calgary.
MacCoubrey, S.J., Wade-Woolley, L. & Kirby, J.R. (submitted). Effective phonemic awareness intervention for at-risk children in French Immersion. Canadian Modern Language Review.
MacCoubrey, S. J., Wade-Woolley, L., Klinger, D. & Kirby, J. R. (2004). Early identification of at-risk readers in a second language, Canadian Modern Language Review, 61, 11-28.
(For more, check out the Publications page.)
3) Reading Development in a Second Language
Many Canadian classrooms are home to a variety of languages, in addition to English and French. Supporting these children as they learn to read can be a challenge for teachers. Our research in this area seeks to help us understand the cognitive and linguistic processes at work in the acquisition of reading skills. Over the years, our work here has involved readers of Chinese, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and English, both children and adults.
Representative Publications & Conference Presentations
Clin, E., Wade-Woolley, L., and MacCoubrey, S. (2006, July). What predicts L2 alphabet knowledge in French Immersion Kindergarten students? Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Vancouver, BC.
Deacon, S. H. & Wade-Woolley, L. (2005, July). Developing bilinguals: How the relationship between morphological awareness and reading changes as language skills increase. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, ON.
Yuen, W. S. Y., & Wade-Woolley, L. (2005, July). Phonological representation and English reading in Chinese ESL children. Presented at the annual meeting of the Scientific Studies of Reading, Toronto.
(For more, check out the Publications page.)
Associations
Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR)
Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet)
International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)
Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE)
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA)
American Psychological Association (APA)
Funding
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSRHC)