Jessica Chan

Assistant Professor

Education

On Leave Until: January 1, 2024
Email: jessica.chan@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Language and Literacy Development; Oral Language and Math Development; Reading Development and Disorders; Community-based initiatives; Literacy and Numeracy

Biography

Dr. Jessica Chan is an Assistant Professor in Language Arts and Literacy Education at the Okanagan School of Education, University of British Columbia. Dr. Chan is a reading researcher and teacher educator committed to advancing the science of reading for language diverse learners. The goal of her research program is to understand how language and literacy develops in diverse learners including children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and children with and without learning disabilities. Dr. Chan’s current research investigates the relationship between language, reading, and mathematics development in school-aged children. Dr. Chan completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina. Dr. Chan earned her Ph.D. and M.Ed. in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University at Kingston in the areas of language and literacy education, and cognition and learning, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Employment Relations at the University of Toronto.

FACULTY ADVISOR/SUPERVISOR

Dr. Chan is currently accepting graduate students with interests in language and literacy development, reading development and disorders in school-aged children, bilingualism, and community-based initiatives.

Degrees

SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of South Carolina, United States
Ph.D. in Education, Queen’s University, Canada
Master of Education, Queen’s University, Canada
Honours Bachelor of Science, University of Toronto, Canada

Selected Publications & Presentations

Selected Publications

Chan, J. S., Wade-Woolley, L., Heggie, L., & Kirby, J. R. (2020). Understanding prosody and morphology in school-age children’s reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 33, 1295–1324. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-10005-4

Chan, J. S., & Wade-Woolley, L. (2018). Explaining phonology and reading in adult learners: Introducing prosody and executive functions to reading ability. Journal of Research in Reading, 41, 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12083

DeLuca, C., Bolden, B., & Chan, J. S. (2017). Systemic professional learning through collaborative inquiry: Examining teachers’ perspectives. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 67, 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.05.014

Selected Chapters

Adlof, S., Chan, J., Werfel, K. & Catts, H. (2022). Learning to Read with a Language or Hearing Impairment. In Snowling, M., Hulme, C. & Nation, K. (Eds.) The Science of Reading: A Handbook (2nd ed., pp. 460-485). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119705116.ch21

Selected Presentations

Chan, J., Adlof, S., & Duff, D. (2021). Examining the relationship between home literacy and home numeracy environment and language, reading, and cognitive abilities in school-aged children. Poster presentation for the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.

Chan, J., Fitton, L., & Adlof, S. (2021). Investigating the role of language and literacy in children’s mathematics achievement: A quantile regression approach. Poster presentation accepted for the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI, U.S.A.

Chan, J. (2020, November). 11158: Reframing the role of language and literacy in mathematics: A reading development perspective. Proposal accepted at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, San Diego, CA. (Convention canceled)

Chan, J. S., Wade-Woolley, L., & Kirby, J. R. (2020, July). Examining the pathways between prosodic awareness and word reading in school-age children across Grades 3 to 6. Paper presentation accepted for the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Newport Beach, CA, U.S.A. (Conference canceled)

Chan, J. S., & Adlof, S. M. (2020). The role of language and literacy in mathematics: Definitions, Connections, and Applications. Presentation at the South Carolina Speech Language Hearing Association convention, Columbia, SC, U.S.A.

Chan, J. S., Wade-Woolley, L., & Kirby, J. R. (2019). Cognitive differences between Chinese-English bilingual and English monolingual children in Canadian classrooms: A closer examination of prosody, morphology, and phonemic awareness. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, Canada.

Professional Services/Affiliations/Committees

American Educational Research Association
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (non-certified member)
Association for Reading and Writing in Asia
Canadian Society for the Study of Education
Council for Exceptional Children – Division for Research
Society for the Scientific Study of Reading
The Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society