Jackie Relyea, an assistant professor of literacy education in NC State’s College of Education, has received the Dina Feitelson Research Award from the International Literacy Association.
The Dina Feitelson Research Award recognizes an outstanding empirical study that reports on an investigation of aspects of literacy acquisition such as phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, bilingualism, home influences on literacy development, or cross-cultural studies of beginning reading, and has clear implications for instruction.
“The Dina Feitelson Award has a strong legacy of recognizing high-quality, peer-reviewed research that makes a real difference in how we understand and support literacy learning. To be part of that tradition is incredibly humbling,” Relyea said. “As a researcher, it’s encouraging to know that the questions my team and the communities I’m learning from are asking are seen as important to the broader conversation in the field.”
Relyea received the award for a paper entitled “Effects of Tier 1 Content Literacy Intervention on Early-Grade English Learners’ Reading and Writing: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Domain-Specific Vocabulary and Oral Language Proficiency,” which was published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.
The study examined the differential impact of classroom-based content literacy intervention on reading and argumentative writing outcomes among English learners in first and second grade. Results showed the intervention significantly bolstered English oral proficiency and argumentative writing in science and social studies and led to improved domain-specific vocabulary knowledge.
“I hope our study adds to the growing recognition that all children, especially multilingual learners, deserve access to rich, high-rigor literacy experiences from the very beginning,” Relyea said.
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