UROP Project

Describing Vocabulary in K-12 School Readings

literacy vocabulary reading school morphology

Research Mentor: Ms. Audrey Hendrix,
Department, College, Affiliation: School of Communication Science and Disorders, Communication and Information
Contact Email: ahendrix@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all Majors
Project Location: 201 W. Bloxham, Warren Building Tallahassee, FL 32306-1200. The Warren building is part of FSU, but it is off of the main campus.
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Yes
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-7, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:

• Day: Thursday, September 4
  Start Time: 1:30
  End Time: 2:00
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/92380405506?pwd=9aeh8w4IRlVAocoG2z8VwIpfrYl12j.1

Project Description

This project seeks to analyze vocabulary of the readings that students in grades K-12 may be assigned to read. Vocabulary words that students encounter in school may be more complex than those that they hear and use in everyday conversation. For example, the word "biology" can be broken up into the meaningful word parts "bio" (life) and "logy" (a telling/study of a topic). In the field of literacy research, meaningful word parts are called "morphemes" and they are theorized to have a role in vocabulary and reading outcomes. Our aim in this project is to determine and catalogue the numbers and types of morphemes present in American English Language Arts readings. Knowledge of how vocabulary complexity changes through the grades will inform future research on vocabulary and reading instruction. At this point in the project, we have compiled approximately 4 million words for analysis. However, we still need to convert a number of books into usable text files in order to analyze the vocabulary they contain. This project is expected to influence research on reading instruction and intervention to benefit struggling students (and their teachers).

Research Tasks: Research tasks may include any of the following:
1. Converting e-books to a standardized file type
2. Scanning physical books (We are using primarily e-books to minimize the amount of time spent scanning!)
3. Checking text files for characters that cannot be analyzed
4. Checking code output (We will be using code to identify and categorize vocabulary words in running text)
5. Checking vocabulary words against a database to identify their characteristics and suggesting new classifications if the word does not exist in the database.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: 1. Basic familiarity with Word and Excel (Required: However, extra training will be provided)
2. Access to a computer if remote work is desired (Recommended: We do have physical computers in the lab if you do not have your own computer)
3. Access to transportation for in-person meetings either at the Warren building or FSU's main campus. (Recommended: You can walk to Warren or take the bus from the main campus, but it is a long walk)
4. Basic lab skills: communication, transparency, curiosity, attention to detail, and dedication (Required: Lab tasks will sometimes be tedious or frustrating, but you are always free to ask for help. I will not ask you to do anything I would not do myself)