My name is Madison Innes Brodoski, I’m a sophomore and I’m majoring in Spanish. The Elli (Early Language and Literacy Investigations) Lab is in the department of Human Development and Family Studies here on campus. There are a multitude of projects within this lab which are funded by federal grants, all of which have to do with the literacy/learning development of children.
I became involved by searching for undergraduate research I could do pertaining to my minor in Communication Sciences and Disorders by contacting professors and scheduling interviews with research organizations on campus. The Elli Lab ended up being a perfect fit for me.
Personally, I have been involved in a project called iWRITE, where we have been testing and analyzing the writing of preschool/kindergarten students and comparing scores. As a research assistant, the main part of my job is to score the children’s writing, and input it into data sets. My favorite thing about this work is that some of the data we have tested are from children who live in Chile, so it is also excellent practice for me in my Spanish major. Not to mention, sometimes these kids’ writings are adorable.
Typically we present our research at conferences for undergraduate research at places like Mid-SURE or URAF, among other places. Over the summer, I helped a friend present his separate project about multilingual children’s phonological awareness at Mid-SURE, and it was a huge success. I loved having that exposure to learn about other projects within the lab, but most importantly I loved how rewarding it was to actually present this information and witness the excitement and interest that even complete strangers had for our work.
It is important to conduct this kind of research because it gives a measurable set of results for different kinds of teaching methods. In the end we can gain valuable information in seeing which techniques are most useful for teachers, across different groups of children (with regards to age, native language spoken, gender, familial background, etc.)
Of course, there are many goals we have to further our research, including making tests easier to navigate for native speakers of many different languages, finding new groups to test, etc. Personally, I have goals to do more work in data collection specifically–I would absolutely love to actually conduct the tests with children in the area, which I think I will be able to do in the Spring.
I started working in this lab in January, and by May I was offered a paid position to stay and work over the summer, which I have just recently completed, as well as taking classes to finish my major requirements. Because of this, I am now able to study abroad sooner than anticipated, and add a minor in linguistics.
My advice to MSU students trying to find research within their field, is to simply ask around–there are tons of places all over campus always looking for new undergraduate researchers. When I was looking, I even had options to choose between multiple groups who wanted me to work for them. Undergraduate research is a great way to explore your interests and make a difference in the community around you.