É«»¨ÌÃ

Professor of Spanish Linguistics
Director of the online Graduate Certificate Program

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Education

• Ph.D. Spanish Linguistics (Interdisciplinary program English and Spanish departments) – É«»¨Ìà (2001)
• M.A. Spanish Linguistics – É«»¨Ìà (1996)
• B.A. Spanish and French – É«»¨Ìà (1994)

Teaching and Research Interests

• Heritage Language Education
• Second Language Acquisition
• Sociolinguistics with an emphasis on U.S. Spanish.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

• Intro to Spanish Linguistics (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Spanish Grammar Review (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Spanish Phonetics and Phonology (É«»¨ÌÃ, University of Salamanca - Spain)
• Spanish Grammar for Teachers (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Written Comm. for Hispanic Heritage Learners (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Learners I and II (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Beginning Spanish I and II (É«»¨ÌÃ, North Harris College)
• Intermediate Spanish I and Il (North Harris College)
• Spanish for Spanish Speakers (North Harris College)
• Spanish for Business (North Harris College)

Graduate

• Historical Grammar (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Teaching Spanish to Spanish Speakers (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Spanish Grammar for Teachers (É«»¨Ìà – combined 4000/6000 levels)
• Research in Heritage Language Education (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Research in Spanish SLA (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Teaching Spanish for Acquisition (É«»¨ÌÃ)
• Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Linguistics
• Introduction to Language Testing

Selected Publications

• Innovative Strategies for Heritage Language Teaching: A Practical Guide for the Classroom. Co-edited with Sara Beaudrie (2016, Georgetown UP).
• Spanish Heritage Language Test.
• Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States: The State of the Field.  Co-edited with Sara Beaudrie (2012, Georgetown UP). 
• “A working model for assessing Spanish heritage language learners’ proficiency through a placement exam.” Heritage Language Journal 9:1 (2012). Available from
• " Testing the Lexical Recognition Task with Spanish/English Bilinguals in the United States." Language Testing 28:2 (2011), 273-297.
• "Developing an Electronic Placement Examination for Heritage Learners of Spanish: Challenges and Payoffs." Co-authors: Flavia Belpoliti & Encarna Bermejo. Hispania 93:2, 270-289, May 2010.
• "Incorporating Linguistic Variation into the Classroom." Co-Author: M.J. Gutiérrez. Chapter in Salaberry, R & Lafford, B (eds.),  
• "Spanish / English Interaction in U.S. Hispanic Heritage Learners' Writing." Chapter in Mar-Molinero, C & Steward, M (eds.), 
• "La Adquisición del Dialecto Estándar: Un estudio longitudinal del discurso hipotético en el Español de los Estados Unidos." In Ortiz López, L. & Lacorte, M. (eds.), 
• "La enseñanza del español a los hispanohablantes bilingües y su efecto en la producción oral." Co-Author: N. Ariana Mrak. In Roca, A. & Colombi, C. (eds.), 
• , 2005

Affiliations

•  (AATSP)
•  (ACTLF)
• (MLA)
• (LASSO)
•  (ALFAL)