UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #776

Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Rebecca Vasile
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers
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Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): rvasile@fcrr.org
Position Title: Graduate Student
Faculty Advisor Name: Sonia Cabell
Faculty Advisor's FSU Email: scabell@fcrr.org
FSU College (if applicable): Education, Health, and Human Sciences
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: School of Teacher Education
Headshot (optional): https://cre.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/urop_project_proposal_portal/14506/current%20headshot.png

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Shared Book Reading in Early Childhood: Are Books a Rich Source of Input for Language Learning?
Project Keywords: language acquisition, early childhood, text corpus, shared book reading
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 2
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Open to all majors

Project Location:: 2010 Levy Avenue, Suite 100 Tallahassee FL 32310
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: The Seminole Express comes to IN (Innovation Park) where the lab is located during the Fall and Spring semesters.
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: In-person
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 5
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: During business hours
Overall Research Project Description:
The current study builds on an existing body of research that states that the language in books is unique when compared to the everyday speech children hear (Cameron-Faulkner and Noble, 2013; Dawson et al., 2021; Montag et al., 2015). While these studies have shed important light on the unique contributions of book language, there are important weaknesses with these studies that are worth considering. The first one being the selection of books being examined. All three corpora used picture books that came from parent recommendations, book review websites, and librarian recommendations. This selection process lacks ecological validity that would come from parent or teacher reports or observations of books they had read to their child(ren). The final weakness of the current corpus work with early childhood picture books is the lack of examination of genre and how this impacts the lexical diversity of a book. If a larger goal of this work is to better understand the stimuli children experience and how it influences their learning, we need to analyze stimuli that most closely resembles what children experience. This study addresses both limitations by analyzing books that we observed early childhood teachers reading in their classrooms and by including genre in analyses of book language.  

Research Tasks:
Data collection: here data collection consists of transcribing the text in books, scanning the books for later reference, and collecting secondary data about the books (i.e., author, publisher, publication year, award status, etc). 


Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
It is recommended that the student working on this project is detail oriented, self directed, and has effective time management skills.


Mentoring Philosophy:
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself” - Oprah Winfrey. I find mentorship to be the most rewarding part of my work. Mentorship is important because it provides a gateway to more information that a mentee may otherwise not know about. Mentors can actively be the person to either help push on a door or even open it wide for the right person. I see part of the job of mentoring as helping my mentees figure out more about themselves in the process of working together. This is true whether the mentee is interested in my work or a completely different path.  
Generally, I want to provide an open, inclusive, and flexible environment for my mentees. This means building a relationship based on trust that includes open and effective communication that fosters independence and promotes professional development. To help achieve a successful mentorship relationship, I will make myself readily available, maintain open and honest communication along with consistent meetings to ensure that we are on the same page with expectations and goals. 

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Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable?: No
Roundtable times and Zoom links:
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UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes
Faculty Advisor Confirmation: Yes

Are you interested in attending in a UROP Research Mentor Workshop Series?: No
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Year: 2024
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