ACU Researcher

Dr Dalia Carolina Martinez Cano

Research Fellow, Laureate
The Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy

Areas of expertise: word reading; spelling and reading comprehension; morphology; reading development across languages; eye-tracking technology; orthographic knowledge and learning

Email: Dalia.Martinez@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU North Sydney Campus 

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2611-3447

In 2024, Dr Martinez completed her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of Alberta and thereafter assumed her role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She has worked as a lecturer for the University of Alberta, where she taught various undergraduate courses on language development and inclusive education.

Dr Martinez's research centres on word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension, with a particular focus on morphology. Her interest in cross-linguistic differences in reading development has led her to collaborate with research laboratories in Mexico and Canada. She has contributed to the design and implementation of tasks related to word reading and morphological knowledge in English and Spanish and conducted research with lower, upper elementary, and college students in both countries.

Furthermore, she was the project manager for numerous experiments using eye-tracking technology to explore cross-linguistic differences between English, Dutch, and Greek in the acquisition of novel orthographic representations.

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Select publications

Martinez, D., Colenbrander, D., Inoue, T., Falcón, A., Rubí, R., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. K. (2024). The effects of explicit morphological analysis instruction in early elementary Spanish speakers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. [Manuscript accepted for publication]

Martinez, D., Colenbrander, D., Inoue, A., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. K. (2024). Effects of Explicit Morphological Analysis Training on Novel Suffix Learning: Evidence from Lower and Upper Elementary Students. [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Martinez, D., Colenbrander, D., Inoue, T., & Georgiou, G. K. (2024). How well do schoolchildren and adolescents know the form and meaning of different derivational suffixes? Evidence from a cross-sectional study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716424000043

Georgiou, G. K., Vieira, A.-P., Rothou, K. M., Kirby, J. R., Antoniuk, A., Martinez D., & Guo, K. (2023). A meta-analysis on morphological awareness deficits in developmental dyslexia. Scientific Studies of Reading, 27(3), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2022.2155524

Georgiou, G., Cardoso-Martins, C., Das, J. P., Falcón, A., Hosokawa, M., Inoue, T., Li, Y., Martinez, D., Padakannaya, P., Parrila, R., Pollo, T., Salha, S. S., Samantaray, S., Shu, H., Tanji, T., Tibi, S., & Vieira, A.-P. (2022). Cross-language contributions of rapid automatized naming to reading accuracy and fluency in young adults: evidence from eight languages representing different writing systems. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 6, 151-168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-021-00092-7

Georgiou, G. K., Martinez, D., Antoniuk, A., Romero S., & Guo, K. (2021). A meta-analytic review of comprehension deficits in students with dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 72, 204-248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00244-y

Georgiou, G. K., Martinez D., Alves-Vieira, A.-P., & Guo, K. (2021). Is orthographic knowledge a strength or a weakness in individuals with dyslexia? Evidence from a meta-analysis. Annals of Dyslexia, 71, 5-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00220-6

Martinez, D., Inoue, T., Falcon, A., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. K. (2021). How does rapid automatized naming influence orthographic knowledge? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 204, Article 105064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105064

Gómez, I.U., Ramón, A., Velázquez, V., & Martinez, D. (2017). Una mirada a la enseñanza del ELE en México [A glance into English language teaching in Mexico], Espacio I+D: Innovación más Desarrollo, 6(14), 179-202. https://www.espacioimasd.unach.mx/index.php/Inicio/article/view/127

Projects

• Dr Martinez is actively involved in the Literacy Alive Reading Intervention Program, which strives to deliver high-quality reading instruction in Belizean classrooms. She has frequently travelled to Belize to provide training to teachers on evidence-based reading programs and maintains ongoing communication to ensure their effective implementation.

Awards

• Support for the Advancement of Scholarship. Project title: Can you spot the -ness in happiness? Examining the effects of explicit vs implicit training effects on morphological learning. Scholarships and Research Awards Committee. University of Alberta (December 2022)

• Alberta Excellence Scholarship, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Alberta (August 2022)

• Dr. J.P. Das Graduate Scholarship in Education, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Alberta (July 2022)

• Siobhan Isabella Reid Memorial Scholarship, Learning Disabilities Association of Alberta (June 2021)

• GSA, Graduate Student Research Assistant Award (February 2021)

• Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading, Travel Award to attend and present at the 2020 Conference at Toronto, Canada (June 2020)

• Kathryn Burke Graduate Scholarship, Faculty of Graduate Studies, and Research,

• University of Alberta (October 2019)

• Provost Recruitment Scholarship, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta (September 2019)

• International Scholarship awarded by the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico for an internship at the Reading Research Laboratory, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (September-December 2018)

• Diversity Enhancement Award by the National Institutes of Health of Boston University to attend the 42nd Boston University Conference on Language Development (November 2017)

• Scholarship awarded by the Mexican Academy of Science for an internship at the

• Language Department of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (May-July 2015)

• "Dreamers in Action" scholarship to study a seminar on American immigration

• laws at UCLA (April 2014)

• PIFI scholarship awarded by the Autonomous University of Chiapas to study a semester abroad at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (January 2014-June 2014)

Editorial roles

Ad-hoc reviewer for refereed Journals (2022-2024):

Reading Research Quarterly
Alberta Journal of Educational Research
Reading and Writing

International journal review panels

• Martinez, D., Georgiou, G., Vieira, A.-P., & Guo, K. (2022, July 13-16). A meta-analysis of Morphological Awareness deficits in developmental dyslexia [Paper presentation]. 29th annual international meeting of the Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading. Newport Beach, California, USA.

• Martinez, D., Georgiou, G., Vieira, A.-P., & Guo, K. (2021, July 12-16). Is orthographic knowledge a strength or a weakness in individuals with dyslexia? Evidence from a Meta- analysis [Paper presentation]. 28th annual international meeting of the Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading (online).

• Martinez, D., Falcon, A., & Georgiou, G. (2021, April 16). Reading and spelling predictors in Spanish [Conference session]. McGill's 5th Annual Conference on Human Development (online).

• Martínez, D., Falcón, A., Brito, A., & Georgiou, G. (2019, July). Rapid automatized naming and its contribution to orthographic knowledge [Poster presentation], 25th annual international meeting of the Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading, Toronto, Canada.

• Martinez D., & Falcon, A. (2018, September 21). RAN Objects and word reading

• fluency [Conference session]. 5th International Developmental Psychology Congress, Aguascalientes, Mexico.

• Martinez D. (2016, November 11-13). Music or silence? Creating a suitable environment for vocabulary learning [Conference session]. 43rd International MEXTESOL convention, Monterrey, Mexico.

Public engagement

• Literacy Alive Reading Intervention Program (2022-ongoing)
  https://www.ualberta.ca/education/about-us/education-news/2022/have-literacy-intervention-will-travel.html

• Educational Research to support literacy instruction (2023)
  https://www.suzukischool.ca/research