| NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 11, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 11, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1917625 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Tatiana Korelsky
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | July 15, 2019 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $226,036.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $226,036.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
4200 FIFTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH PA US 15260-0001 (412)624-7400 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
5000 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh PA US 15213-3815 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Young Latino dual language learners are a growing segment of our society. Unfortunately, many of these children struggle with reading comprehension, and their parents do not always have the tools to support them. That is, the parents are often recent immigrants who are also poor readers in both Spanish and English, and thus read infrequently with their children. When these parents do engage in shared reading, they do not ask the sorts of questions that promote comprehension. This project will build upon the already-developed iPad application, EMBRACE, which helps dual language learners become successful readers of English. EMBRACE will be modified to encourage parent/child shared reading; to train the parents on how to ask questions that enhance comprehension; and to promote reading in both languages since reading skill transfers between languages. Thus, the work will potentially impact society by improving reading skills and educational achievement of both parents and children.
The project will contribute to three areas of science. The first contribution is to the study of human-computer interaction. EMBRACE will be modified with the first intelligent tutoring system designed specifically for parent-child use, thus uncovering design principles for the creation of intelligent learning environments that are sensitive to how they are being used and by whom. Second, experimental testing of the new EMBRACE system with families will contribute to understanding the processes that enhance bilingual education and how interventions can positively influence these processes. Third, a component of the testing includes the use of electroencephalography to trace changes in brain activity produced by the intervention. Thus, the research contributes to the cognitive psychology and neuroscience of reading comprehension by using a combination of process data, outcome data, and neurocognitive data from both the children and their parents.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
EMBRACE (Enhance Moved by Reading to Accelerate Comprehension in English) is an iPad application designed to be used in conjunction by children and caregivers. A major goal is to help children whose native language is Spanish develop greater competency in English reading comprehension.
EMBRACE, and a version created for this project, Parent-EMBRACE, are designed around several principles. First, it incorporates principles of embodied cognition, namely that reading comprehension requires a simulation of the content of the sentences using motor, perceptual, and emotional cortices. To accomplish this simulation, children manipulate images that accompany the text. That is, they move the images to illustrate sentence content (see Figure 1). A second principle is based on the notion of dialogic reading when engaged in shared book reading. That is, when a parent and a child read together, the child's comprehension of the text is improved when the parent asks questions intended to engage the child in dialog about the text. A third principle is related to bilingual literacy. The application is designed specifically for Latine families, and there are multiple places where users can engage in either Spanish or English.
The primary purpose of Parent-EMBRACE was to scaffold parents (using an intelligent tutoring system) in asking dialogic questions of three kinds: Questions about concrete components of the text (C) such as questions about specific facts or pictures; questions about abstract components of the text (A) such as what might happen next; and relational questions that relate the text to experiences that the child has had (R).
We conducted a study with 21 dyads examining use of the system and outcomes for parents and children. We are still in the process of data analysis for much of the research including a) simultaneous EEG of parents and children while reading, b) online recordings of dyad conversations, c) story retells as an index of story comprehension. Nonetheless, we have completed analysis and manuscript preparation for one important component of the research. Each dyad was video recorded while engaging in shared book reading of a hard-copy book (printed in Spanish and English). A video was made both before and after the 8-week training in Parent-EMBRACE and a control condition that involved reading the same texts but without the intelligent tutoring system that supported parents in question-asking during shared book reading. After using Parent-EMBRACE, the parents asked many more dialogic (CAR) questions than before the intervention, and parents asked a greater variety of dialogic questions.
We continue to work on the analyses of other components of the project, including automated speech processing of parent-child talk to provide Parent-EMBRACE with real-time input on how parents and children are engaging with the system. We are additionally in the process of porting the Parent-EMBRACE system into a web-based application that will be accessible from smartphones, tablets, and computers, enabling Parent-EMBRACE to reach a broader audience.
Last Modified: 02/09/2024
Modified by: Erin Walker
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