Spotlight On: Perla B Gamez
Perla B. Gámez awarded $436,088 grant to study early development of bilingual children
Gámez, Associate Professor of Psychology, received NIH grant to research Spanish-speaking toddlers' dual language development
Perla B. Gámez, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology within the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, has been awarded a $436,088 grant from the National Institute of Health to continue supporting her research evaluating the early language environments and dual language development among Spanish-speaking Latino children.
“Congratulations to Dr. Gámez on being awarded this impressive grant to continue her crucial study of bilingual children’s development and early learning experiences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago. “Dr. Gámez’s work will not only contribute to the advancement of scholarship in the field of development psychology, but it will also inform on how to better understand, support, and teach our dual language learners.”
The grant will fund this project over the next three years through the Bilingual Language Development Lab, directed by Gámez. The lab is dedicated to investigating the language and literacy development of children negotiating two languages by studying how linguistic environments and experiences, at various points of their development help promote language and literacy skills.
Gámez’s interest in dual language development was heavily influenced by her own upbringing and firsthand experiences as a bilingual speaker exposed to both Spanish and English at home and in her community.
Earlier in her career, before transitioning to academia, Gámez was a kindergarten teacher in a bilingual transitional program, which is expressly designed to transition non-English speakers to English-only classrooms.
Bilingualism is both a skill and a superpower that benefits the speaker and the communities they belong to, yet it is undervalued in these subtractive models of bilingual education, resulting in underserved students.
“Despite my students arriving at school with the rich language experience of being exposed to Spanish at home, the ultimate goal of their schooling was English proficiency, not bilingualism,” explained Gámez. “I saw firsthand how many students struggled to maintain their bilingualism.”
Frustrated with the lack of support for bilingual education, Gámez set out to create change.
“It became my long-term goal to contribute to a better understanding of the child- and environmental-level factors that influence positive dual language development. This includes studying effective language teaching practices at school, as well as the culture-specific assets that Latino families possess to raise bilingual children.”
On this project, Gámez and her team seek to identify the features of Spanish- and English-speaking Latino children’s early language environments associated with their positive dual language trajectories.
“We are interested in learning more about how multiple sources of language exposures, such as caregivers and grandparents, and different types of exposure, such as the diversity of words and amounts of Spanish and English, contribute to each child’s unique bilingualism,” explained Gámez.
The lab will recruit 80 children from Latino homes in the Chicagoland area, that represent a range of exposure levels to Spanish and English, and visit their homes every six months to collect video and audio-recorded samples of the child’s language exposure and use. Gámez will also interview caregivers, and conduct experiments on campus using word learning and language modeling.
College of Arts and Sciences students are key to supporting and conducting this research, according to Gámez.
“Our team of highly trained undergraduate students will collect, transcribe, and code our recordings, administer researcher-developed and standardized assessments of children’s language skills, and carry out the experiments on campus.”
The impact of this research will not only help identify the factors behind successful dual language learning in Spanish-speaking Latino toddlers, but it will also have significant implications for future interventions and policies aimed and enhancing language-related academic outcomes among a significant and growing community within the U.S. population.
Learn more about Gámez’s work and the Bilingual Language Development Lab.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Gámez, Associate Professor of Psychology, received NIH grant to research Spanish-speaking toddlers' dual language development
Perla B. Gámez, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology within the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, has been awarded a $436,088 grant from the National Institute of Health to continue supporting her research evaluating the early language environments and dual language development among Spanish-speaking Latino children.
“Congratulations to Dr. Gámez on being awarded this impressive grant to continue her crucial study of bilingual children’s development and early learning experiences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago. “Dr. Gámez’s work will not only contribute to the advancement of scholarship in the field of development psychology, but it will also inform on how to better understand, support, and teach our dual language learners.”
The grant will fund this project over the next three years through the Bilingual Language Development Lab, directed by Gámez. The lab is dedicated to investigating the language and literacy development of children negotiating two languages by studying how linguistic environments and experiences, at various points of their development help promote language and literacy skills.
Gámez’s interest in dual language development was heavily influenced by her own upbringing and firsthand experiences as a bilingual speaker exposed to both Spanish and English at home and in her community.
Earlier in her career, before transitioning to academia, Gámez was a kindergarten teacher in a bilingual transitional program, which is expressly designed to transition non-English speakers to English-only classrooms.
Bilingualism is both a skill and a superpower that benefits the speaker and the communities they belong to, yet it is undervalued in these subtractive models of bilingual education, resulting in underserved students.
“Despite my students arriving at school with the rich language experience of being exposed to Spanish at home, the ultimate goal of their schooling was English proficiency, not bilingualism,” explained Gámez. “I saw firsthand how many students struggled to maintain their bilingualism.”
Frustrated with the lack of support for bilingual education, Gámez set out to create change.
“It became my long-term goal to contribute to a better understanding of the child- and environmental-level factors that influence positive dual language development. This includes studying effective language teaching practices at school, as well as the culture-specific assets that Latino families possess to raise bilingual children.”
On this project, Gámez and her team seek to identify the features of Spanish- and English-speaking Latino children’s early language environments associated with their positive dual language trajectories.
“We are interested in learning more about how multiple sources of language exposures, such as caregivers and grandparents, and different types of exposure, such as the diversity of words and amounts of Spanish and English, contribute to each child’s unique bilingualism,” explained Gámez.
The lab will recruit 80 children from Latino homes in the Chicagoland area, that represent a range of exposure levels to Spanish and English, and visit their homes every six months to collect video and audio-recorded samples of the child’s language exposure and use. Gámez will also interview caregivers, and conduct experiments on campus using word learning and language modeling.
College of Arts and Sciences students are key to supporting and conducting this research, according to Gámez.
“Our team of highly trained undergraduate students will collect, transcribe, and code our recordings, administer researcher-developed and standardized assessments of children’s language skills, and carry out the experiments on campus.”
The impact of this research will not only help identify the factors behind successful dual language learning in Spanish-speaking Latino toddlers, but it will also have significant implications for future interventions and policies aimed and enhancing language-related academic outcomes among a significant and growing community within the U.S. population.
Learn more about Gámez’s work and the Bilingual Language Development Lab.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”