Talk STEM Familia: Dual-Language Academic Vocabulary-Building Technology to Improve Educational, Career, and Health Outcomes Among Latinx Students

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT While STEM fields account for most high-wage U.S. economic growth, Latinx students are underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate STEM programs. Given well-established research linking grade completion, economic success, and overall health and well-being, this underrepresentation portends serious, negative, long-term physical and mental health outcomes for Latinx families. Access to higher education and enrollment in STEM programs is hindered by gaps in academic literacy and especially by unfamiliarity with scientific academic vocabulary (SAV), a subset of the academic register that is fundamental to STEM content- area learning, but uncommon in everyday conversation, particularly in low-SES homes where English is not the first language. To promote Latinx students’ SAV proficiency, we propose a technology-based approach to engage English learner families in culturally relevant evidence-based SAV home-based learning. We will complete development of a technology package that includes dual-language SAV voice technology learning tools enhanced with rich video and audio content. Talk STEM Familia (TSF) will be accessible via mobile phones, tablets, and smart-speaker devices. The complete program will include a word corpus of 72 frequent SAV words that appear in STEM texts across middle and secondary grades and curricula. Building familiarity with SAV words in upper elementary and middle school grade levels can have a significant impact on achievement, including performance on standardized tests in middle school t h a t influence the selection of science and technology electives in STEM. In each 10-minute learning experience, students and families receive dual language instruction, practice, and feedback on the pronunciation, meaning, and usage of one target SAV word. The program features Spanish-language home vignettes that model parents and children using SAV in familiar home contexts, and English-language vignettes that model teachers and students using SAV in grade-appropriate academic contexts. The learning games guide families through an instructional progression designed to incrementally build language skills and confidence, with activities designed to encourage word use in family conversations. This proposed Phase II project will use a three panel (pre-, mid-, and post-intervention) randomized controlled trial involving 300 Latinx upper elementary and middle school student/and their English learner parents to test the efficacy, acceptability, and usability of TSF in improving student and parent SAV knowledge and academic self-efficacy relative to business-as-usual.PROJECT NARRATIVE Latinx English Learner (EL) students experience significant achievement gaps that contribute to substantial disparity in health and economic outcomes. Achievement gaps contribute to Latinx underrepresentation in STEM careers. One strategy to mitigate those disparities is to build a foundation of scientific academic vocabulary knowledge that prepares Latinx EL students for content-area learning and achievement on standardized math and science assessments that lead to secondary and post-secondary STEM study, and STEM-related opportunities. This goal of this proposal is to improve access to evidence-based instruction in scientific academic vocabulary through the development of a technology- enhanced, dual-language tool that engages Latinx EL students and their families in a culturally relevant context to build family academic engagement.