Faculty
Xi Chen-Bumgardner, Ph.D
Professor Chen-Bumgardner will be accepting new students next year (2013-2014). For Dr. Chen's full CV please visit this link.
Associate Professor (DPE)
OISE/UT Room: 9-221
Tel: (416) 978-0970
Fax: (416) 926-4708
xi.chen.bumgardner@utoronto.ca or xchenbumgardner@gmail.com
Keywords
Bilingual/ELL (English Language Learner) children's literacy development; cross-cultural and cross-linguistic studies of literacy
Research Interests:
Dr. Chen's research focuses on bilingual and ELL (English Language Learner) children’s language and literacy development.
She is interested in how children develop literacy skills (e.g. morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographic processing, visual perception and memory, vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension) simultaneously in their first language and second language, and whether these skills transfer between the two languages.
Right now, she is the principal investigator of a multi-year longitudinal project in a French immersion school. This project has three goals: 1) identify at-risk readers in French immersion and provide them with a phonological awareness intervention, 2) compare the development of English and French literacy skills between children who are native speakers of English and those who speak another language at home, and 3) examine transfer of literacy skills between English and French.
She is also the principal investigator of a SSHRC standard research project that compares the development of literacy skills between Chinese-speaking ELLs and Spanish-speaking ELLs. The project aims at examining the effects of first language characteristics (Chinese vs. Spanish) on English learning. Finally, she conducts cross-cultural studies comparing the development of Chinese literacy skills between Chinese-speaking children in Canada and children in China. In applied practice, she is interested in helping children with reading disabilities.
Specialty Courses:
HDP1238 Cross-Cultural and Cross-Linguistic Studies of Literacy
JHC1251 Reading in a Second Language
HDP 1238 Introduction to Language and Literacy
Representative Publications:
Ramirez, G., Chen, X., & Pasquarella, A. (accepted). Cross-linguistic Transfer of morphological awareness in Spanish-speaking ELLs: The facilitating effect of cognate knowledge. Topics in Language Disorders.
Stich, M., Girolametto, L., Johnson, C. J., Cleave, P.L. & Chen, X. (accepted). Contextual effects on the conversations of mothers and their children with SLI. Applied Psycholinguistics.
Deacon, H. S., Chen, X., Luo, Y., & Ramirez, G. (in press). Changing relationships between orthographic processing and reading: Contrasting Chinese-English and Spanish-English bilingual children. Journal of Research in Reading.
Deacon, H., Commissaire, E., Chen, X., & Pasquarella, A. (in press, published online). Learning about print: The development of orthographic processing and its relationship to reading in first grade
children in French immersion. Reading and Writing.
Hao, M., Chen, X., Dronjic, V., Shu, H., & Anderson, R. C. (2013). Chinese children’s development of morphological awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 34, 45-67.
Anderson, R. C., & Chen, X. (2013). Chinese reading development in monolingual and bilingual learners: Introduction to the special Issue. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17, 1-4.
Luo, Y., Chen, X., Deacon, H., Zhang, J., & Yin, L. (2013). The role of visual processing in learning to read Chinese characters. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17, 22-40.
Anderson, R. C., Ku, Y.-M., Li, W., Chen, X., Wu, X., & Shu, H. (2013). Learning to see the patterns in Chinese characters. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17, 41-56.
Chen, X., Geva, E., & Schwartz, M. (2012). Understanding literacy development of language minority students: an integrative approach. Introduction to a special issue of Reading and Writing, 25, 1797-1804.
Chen, X., Ramirez, G., Luo, Y., Geva, E. & Ku, Y.-M. (2012). Comparing vocabulary development in Spanish- and Chinese-Speaking ELLs: The effects of metalinguistic and sociocultural factors. Reading and Writing, 25, 1991-2020.
Lam, K., Chen, X., Geva, E., Luo, Y. & Li, H. (2012). The effects of morphological awareness development on reading achievement in young English Language Learners (ELLs): A longitudinal study. Reading and Writing, 25, 1847-1872.
Research Grants and Contracts:
2012-2013 Evaluation of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board English/Mandarin Bilingual Language Transition Program-Follow up, Co-PI, with Jim Cummins (Co-PI), $29,883.
2012 Clifford B. Kinley Trust Award, The Effects of Dual Language Instruction on Children’s Academic Growth, Co-PI, with Alejandro Cuza at Purdue University (PI), $20,000.
2011-2014 SSHRC Standard Research Grant, Altering the Academic Achievement Trajectory of Recent Adolescent immigrants: An After School Community-Based Intervention Targeting Language and Reading Related Strategic Knowledge, Co-PI, with Esther Geva (PI), Fataneh Farnia, and Alexandra Gottardo, $159,717.
2010-2013 SSHRC Standard Research Grant, Literacy Development of English Language Learners, PI, $87,754.