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Headshot photo of Elizabeth Hadley.

Dr. Elizabeth Hadley Earns $650,000 Grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for Project TeLI

Elizabeth Hadley, Ph.D., an associate professor of literacy studies at the University of South Florida College of Education, has been awarded a $650,000 grant by the U.S. National Science Foundation. This substantial grant will fund a three-year research study that will analyze teacher language interactions to improve the field’s understanding of preschool language development.

The study, titled "Project TeLI" (Teacher Language Interactions in Pre-K), will use new sensing technologies to collect and analyze data about teacher language interactions in diverse state-funded Pre-K classrooms. Data analysis will examine whether all children in the classroom are receiving equitable opportunities to have teacher language interactions. The study's findings will be shared with teachers and schools to inform their teaching strategies and improve their language interactions with kids.

As a former high school English teacher, Hadley saw many students struggle with understanding the complex texts they were asked to read. While in graduate school, she fell in love with research and studied the impacts of early childhood language development and its connection to long-term reading comprehension. Now, with Project TeLI, she aims to understand how to improve teacher interactions, and their impact on children's language outcomes, to support later reading success.

Hadley said, "This project uses innovative new sensing technology, including advanced language processing algorithms, so that we can gather data on children’s language experiences more quickly and accurately and get that data into the hands of teachers. This technology will also allow us to understand and track which children might be overlooked in terms of language interactions in pre-k. We think our findings will have a lot of potential for improving young children’s learning experiences and their language outcomes.” 

Hadley will lead the project in a collaborative effort with co-principal investigator Dr. Eunsook Kim from the University of South Florida, and researchers from the University of Florida and the University of Texas at Dallas. The team will conduct the study in three year-long phases.

For more information about Project TeLI, please contact Dr. Elizabeth Hadley.  

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About the USF College of Education:

As the home for more than 2,200 students and 130 faculty members across three campuses, the University of South Florida College of Education offers state-of-the-art teacher training and collegial graduate studies designed to empower educational leaders. Our college is nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), and our educator preparation programs are fully approved by the Florida Department of Education.