Gisela Jia

Gisela Jia received her B. A. in English Language and Literature and her M.A. in Linguistics from Beijing University, and her doctoral degree in Developmental and Cognitive Psychology from New York University. Dr. Jia is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lehman College, City University of New York.

Throughout the past 12 years, Dr. Jia has been conducting research in bilingual language development among first and second generation immigrants speaking Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Russian or Spanish as their home language. Her research has been funded consecutively for six years by National Institute of Health. Her work has been published in a number of professional journals, books and proceedings read by psychologists, linguists, educators and speech/language pathologists. Dr. Jia has involved many graduate and undergraduate students, as well as high school students in her research, most of whom have multi-cultural and multi-lingual backgrounds. She has served as a consultant for California Department of Education to develop language learning standards for bilingual children. She has offered seminars to parents, teachers and leaders in Asian communities, informing them of the scientific processes of language acquisition and the effective approaches to promote bilingual language development.

Bilingual Language Development Among Asian American Children – Research Findings and Implications for Educators and Parents

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In New York City, as well as nationwide, an increasingly significant number of children speak a language other than English at home. Sound educational policies, speech/language interventions and parenting practices largely rely on our understanding of the processes through which Asian American children develop proficiency in both their home language and English. In this presentation, … Read more