Her research examines cognitive and motivational aspects of reading comprehension with monolingual and second language learners in elementary and middle school. For the last four years, Dr. Taboada Barber has been principal investigator on a federally funded intervention grant that focused on fostering reading comprehension and motivation with struggling middle school students. She has worked as a teacher and a literacy educator, and she brings practical experience as a bilingual researcher to the study of language and literacy.