Jessica Chan

Assistant Professor

Education

Other Titles: Director, Reading, Language, and Mathematics (ReaLM) lab
Email: jessica.chan@ubc.ca

Research Summary

• Language and literacy development (early years through school-age)
• Reading development for children with risk for language-based disorders (dyslexia and/or developmental language disorder)
• Reading development for culturally and linguistically diverse learners
• Family literacy processes
• Literacy and Numeracy
• Community-based literacy
• Educator knowledge and professional learning

Courses & Teaching

English Language Arts and Literacy
Literacy in Action for Elementary educators
Foundations of Reading Development: Research to Practice
Theory and Practice in Inclusive Education

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. Dr. Chan directs the Reading, Language, and Mathematics (ReaLM) lab. 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 examines literacy development through an ecological lens acknowledging both the individual learner and their learning environments. In addition, Dr. Chan aims to support professional learning among literacy educators in schools and community learning spaces to improve learning outcomes for learners and their families.

Dr. Chan was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow and Research Associate 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 (M.A., M.Ed. Capstone and Course-based) with interests in the areas of language and literacy development, learning disabilities, multilingual language learning, and community-focused projects. Prospective doctoral and postdoctoral trainees should contact Dr. Chan to discuss their research interests and funding opportunities.

Research opportunities for undergraduate/postgraduate students: Dr. Chan mentors undergraduate (across disciplines) and postgraduate (including B.Ed.) students through the ReaLM Lab. Please contact realm.lab@ubc.ca with a one-page cover letter and resume/Curriculum Vitae.

Websites

Reading, Language, and Mathematics (ReaLM) Lab: https://education.ok.ubc.ca/research-partnerships/reading-language-and-mathematics-realm-lab/

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., Li, M., Deacon, S. H., & Kirby, J. R. (2025). Summarizing expository text and the relationship to verbal ability and reading skills. The Journal of Educational Research, 119(1), 118–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2025.2523038

Kirby, J. R., Deacon, S. H., Georgiou, G., & Geier, K., & Chan, J., & Parrila, R. (2025). Effects of morphological awareness, naming speed, and phonological awareness on reading skills from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 253. Epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106188

Goodrich, J. M., Fitton, L., Chan, J., & Davis, C. J. (2023). Assessing oral language when screening multilingual children for learning disabilities in reading. Intervention in School and Clinic, 58(3), 164–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/10534512221081

Chan, J., Adlof, S. M., Duff, D., Mitchell, A., Ragunathan, M., & Ehrhorn, A. (2022). Examining the associations between parent concerns and school-age children’s language and reading abilities: A comparison of samples recruited in-school vs. online participation. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(2), 431–444. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00080

Wade-Woolley, L., Wood, C., Chan, J., & Weidman, S. (2022). Prosodic competence as the missing component of reading processes across languages: Theory, evidence and future research. Scientific Studies of Reading, 26(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2021.1995390

Li, M., Chan, J., Kirby, J. R. (2022). The summary writing performance of bilingual learners with reading difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 73(1), 109–129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-022-00258-0

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. (2024). Examining the associations between prosodic awareness and word reading for linguistically diverse learners [Roundtable presentation: Unveiling the Complexity of Bilingual and Biliteracy Development: Quantitative Perspectives]. American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.

Chan, J. (2024). Drawing from experience: Exploring the associations between multilingual children’s home language environment and English vocabulary knowledge [Paper presentation]. Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada, Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Montréal, QC, Canada.

Chan, J. (2023). Investigating the dimensionality of prosodic awareness for English monolingual and Chinese-English bilingual school-aged children. Paper presentation at the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada, Canadian Society for the Study of Education. York University, Toronto, ON, CA.

Chan, J., Wade-Woolley, L., & Kirby, J. R. (2022). Examining the pathways between prosodic awareness and word reading in school-age children across Grades 3 to 6. Paper presentation at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Newport Beach, CA, U.S.A.

Chan, J., Li, M., & Kirby, J. R. (2022). Summarizing expository text and the relationship to reading skills. Paper presentation at the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada, Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Virtual Conference.

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 at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Virtual Conference.

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 at the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI, U.S.A.

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 presentation at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Toronto, ON, CA.

Professional Services/Affiliations/Committees

American Educational Research Association
Canadian Society for the Study of Education
Society for the Scientific Study of Reading
UBC Language Sciences
Institute for Community Engaged Research (UBCO)