This episode features Dr. Young-Suk Kim, a leading researcher and professor at the University of California, Irvine, whose work explores how reading and writing develop together across languages and cultures. Dr. Kim discusses her path from bilingual classroom teacher to scientist, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the diversity and strengths of multilingual learners. She also unpacks her Direct and Indirect Effects of Reading model (DIER), to explain how foundational, cognitive, and emotional skills interconnect to support literacy growth.
About our guest:
Young-Suk Kim is a professor at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine. A former classroom teacher in San Francisco, Young’s scholarship focuses on understanding language and literacy development and effective instruction for racially, ethnically, economically, and linguistically diverse children, and helping them build strong foundations to support their success in school and beyond. Her areas of research include reading comprehension, reading fluency, listening comprehension and oral language, dyslexia, higher-order cognitive skills, written composition, and reading–writing relations. She has worked extensively with monolingual children from various linguistic backgrounds (e.g., English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Kiswahili) and multilingual children in the United States. Her research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Science Foundation. She was a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Barack Obama and is the AERA (American Educational Research Association) fellow.
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