College of Business
Florida International University
Modesto A. Maidique Campus
11200 S.W. 8th St, MANGO 410
Miami, FL 33199
Email: mbaralt@fiu.edu
Melissa Baralt
Associate Professor, School Int'l & Public Affair
Adjunt Lecturer, Department of International Business
College of Business
Florida International University
Modesto A. Maidique Campus
11200 S.W. 8th St, MANGO 410
Miami, FL 33199
Email: mbaralt@fiu.edu
Education
Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics
Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia
Professional Activities
Melissa Baralt, Ph.D. (PhD, Georgetown University) is Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages (SIPA). Baralt is an applied psycholinguist whose work cuts across the humanities, social sciences, and medical science disciplines. Specializing in first and second language acquisition, language development in children, and language teaching, her research seeks to shed light on the sociocultural, cognitive, and environmental factors that lead to successful language outcomes. Baralt has published research on psycholinguistics, online language learning, language teaching, bilingualism and prematurity, heritage language learners, and minority student experiences in second language classrooms.
Prior to coming to FIU, Baralt was a primary school teacher in Maracaibo, Venezuela. At FIU for the past 13 years, she aims to advance disciplinary and public knowledge about how the brain acquires language in infancy, early childhood, and throughout the life course, and what teachers, caregivers, and parents can do to maximize the language learning process at these various stages. Her funded research follows two strands. The first seeks to provide language-based support for at-risk Latinx children in order to maximize their language and literacy outcomes. In this strand, Dr. Baralt works in three, related areas: 1) the general effects of bilingualism on preterm-born children, 2) the neural recruitment of executive function in children of various ages, and 3), pathways for supporting at-risk children’s early language environments. With funding from Baptist Health, she and her team were the first to show that productive bilingualism leads to enhanced executive function skills in preterm-born children. Baralt’s work also highlights the connection between language and health, for which she and her team created a mobile app, Háblame Bebé. Winner of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal Challenge in 2017, Háblame Bebé engages Latinx parents with information about and support for their children’s bilingual language development. The app is funded by the National Library of Medicine (NIH) as well as U.S. HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), and is currently being used with nurses and at-risk mothers in South Florida’s federally-funded Nurse-Family Partnership.
The second strand of Baralt’s active work focuses on best practices for supporting language teachers as well as minority language learners, with a special focus on the needs of African American and Black Diaspora learners in second language classroom contexts. She was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support a collaboration between FIU and Florida Memorial University designed to improve modern language curricula and teacher-training programs. The project focuses specifically on improving Spanish language courses for African American and Black diaspora students, who remain underrepresented in foreign language programs. Dr. Baralt was also awarded a grant for over $500,000 by the Stevens Initiative and U.S. Department of State to implement virtual language exchanges for US and MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region students who are learning Arabic and English. “FIU Tabadul: Creating Language-Learning Community Through Virtual Reality” sets students up to use their cellular device to meet in virtual reality spaces to compete language learning tasks. This project is the first to empirically demonstrate that students who engage in language-learning tasks in virtual reality need only half the language exposure to gain the same level of performance as students following traditional language-learning approaches.
Publications
Baralt M. L., Doscher S., Boukerrou L., Bogosian B., Elmeligi W., Hdouch Y., Istifan J., Nemouchi A., Elsakka N., Arana F., Perez G., Cobos-Solis J., Mouchane S., & Vassigh S.
(2022).
Virtual Tabadul: Creating Language-Learning Community Through Virtual Reality.
Journal of International Students
, 12(S3)
.
Baralt M. L., Griffith S. F., Hanson K. L., André N., Blair L., & Bagner D.
(2022).
How family needs informed an early literacy family reading program in multilingual and multicultural Miami-Dade County.
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy
.
Larson A. L., Baralt M., Hokenson J., Scheffner Hammer C., Barrett T., & DeVilbiss N.
(2022).
A Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Effectiveness of the Háblame Bebé Mobile Application With Spanish-Speaking Mothers Experiencing Economic Hardship.
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
, 31(2)
.
Ferjan Ramírez N., Baralt M., Hippe D., Correa L., & Andert J.
(2022).
Habla conmigo, daddy! Fathers’ language input in North American bilingual Latinx families.
Infancy
, 27(2)
.
Becklenberg A., Hires K., Darcy Mahoney A., Baralt M. L., & Stapel-Wax J.
(2021).
A training to promote early language interactions among refugee mothers who are speakers of languages other than English.
Journal of Cultural Diversity
, 28(2)
.
Darcy Mahoney A., Baralt M., Brito N., Buerlein J., Patel S., & Lu M.
(2021).
Innovating Maternal and Child Health: Incentive Prizes to Improve Early Childhood Development.
Maternal and Child Health Journal
, 25(10)
.
Baralt M., Darcy Mahoney A., & Brito N.
(2020).
Háblame Bebé: A phone application intervention to support Hispanic children’s early language environments and bilingualism.
Child Language Teaching and Therapy
, 36(1)
.
Anya U., Baralt M., Gómez D., Hechavarría H., Hobbs W., & Robinson A.
(2020).
Improving Spanish-language teacher retention and success among Black Spanish-language learners: An HSI-HBCU collaboration.
Commissioned paper for the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP)
.
Baralt M., & Darcy Mahoney A.
(2020).
Bilingualism and the executive function advantage in preterm-born children.
Cognitive Development
, 55()
.
Heymann P., Heflin B., Baralt M., & Bagner D.
(2020).
Infant-directed language following a brief behavioral parenting intervention: The importance of language quality.
Infant Behavior and Development
, 58(February)
.
Larson A., Cycyk L., Carta J., Scheffner Hammer C., Baralt M., Uchikoshi Y., An Z. G., & Wood C.
(2020).
A systematic review of language-focused interventions for young children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
, 50(1)
.
Baralt M., & Morcillo Gómez J.
(2017).
Task-based language teaching online: A guide for teachers.
Language Learning & Technology
, 21(3)
.
Baralt M., & López-Bravo M.
(2016).
Teaching Chinese as a foreign language: A classroom study on the timing of grammar around a task.
Chinese as a Second Language Research
, 5(1)
.
Gillenson C., Bagner D., Darcy Mahoney A., & Baralt M.
().
A preliminary study of executive functioning in preterm-born children: A bilingual advantage.
Advances in Neonatal Care
.
Books
Baralt M. L.
(2015).
A psycholinguistic approach to technology and language learning.
.
Baralt M. L.
(2015).
Preface.
.
Baralt M. L.
(2015).
Preface.
.
Baralt M. L.
(2014).
Task Sequencing and Instructed Second Language Learning.
.