Teaching Dual Language Learners

Lisa M. López, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Dr. López earned her Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from the University of Miami and completed a National Science Foundation‐funded postdoctoral fellowship in language and literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She serves as Chair of the Society for Research in Child Development Latinx Caucus (2019-2021). Her research agenda involves understanding and improving upon the educational and environmental opportunities of Latino dual language learner (DLL) children in the United States. Her main research objective is to identify the developmental trajectory of school readiness skills for Latino DLL children while applying an ecological perspective to better understand this developmental trajectory. Her research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and published in journals focused on both education and developmental psychology. Dr. López has won numerous awards for her scholarly and community work with the Latino DLL population.

Mariela M. Páez, Ed.D., is Associate Professor at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College. She has a doctorate in human development and psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her primary research interests include bilingualism, childrenâ (TM)s language and early literacy development, and early childhood education. Dr. Páez has conducted several longitudinal studies with young bilingual children with funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Office for Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, she is conducting a study investigating practices of exemplary teachers for dual language learners across different early childhood programs (i.e., public, private and Head Start). Dr. Páez is author of numerous articles in top journals and, with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, co-edited Latinos: Remaking America (University of California Press, 2008).