Professor awarded IES grant to develop and test an oral language and literacy development intervention

The U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences awarded Professor Young-Suk Kim a five-year, $1.4 million grant to develop and examine the feasibility, usability, and potential promise of a multi-component oral language comprehension intervention, iMODEL.

The grant - Developing Theory- and Evidence-based Children’s Oral Language Intervention – Integrated Multi-component Oral Development for Language and Literacy (iMODEL) – will develop a listening comprehension instruction regime that is feasible to implement in primary classrooms with teacher- or user-friendly features, and will examine its potential promise in improving children’s comprehension skills.
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“Simply put, without successful language and literacy skills, children cannot be successful in their schoolwork,” Kim said. “Evidence clearly indicates that listening comprehension is as complex as reading comprehension except that listening comprehension does not involve word reading. “

Kim has previously observed that curriculum in schools tends not to systematically address language development, and many teachers do not receive sufficient training and support for teaching language skills.
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“I have long been committed to improving children’s language and literacy outcomes,” Kim said. “I am thrilled about the opportunity to work on something that will be useful for and have a direct impact on student learning. Materials from this project will be useful resources for teachers and have a real impact on children.”

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