- Methodology and Didactics of Foreign Language Teaching, Sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, L2 Pragmatics, Study Abroad, Heritage Language Speakers, and 15 moreDialectology, Pronunciation Teaching, Teacher Education, Hispanic Linguistics, Lingüística Hispanica, Applied Linguistics, Modern Foreign Language Teacher Education and Training, Student Teacher Beliefs and Dilemmas, Student Teacher Learning, Teacher Educator Dilemmas, Classroom Management and Misbehaviour, Use of Web Tools In Language Teaching and Learning, Education, Languages and Linguistics, and Linguisticsedit
- I primarily investigate how learners of Spanish become more competent in various contexts, such as online environment... moreI primarily investigate how learners of Spanish become more competent in various contexts, such as online environments, face-to-face classes, and immersion (i.e. study abroad). This encompasses a variety of fields within Second Language Acquisition, including Sociolinguistics, Phonology and Phonetics and Pragmatics. I also investigate how learners of Spanish and first language (L1) speakers utilize and develop linguistic features that vary due to social, geographical or linguistic reasons as well as the teaching of these variable features to learners of Spanish. I am also interested in teachers and their beliefs and attitudes towards teaching variable features and diverse learners.edit
This chapter focuses on the impact of three key programmatic features – program type, housing condition, and program length – on the development of a geographically variable feature, the second-person plural forms of address (i.e.,... more
This chapter focuses on the impact of three key programmatic features – program type, housing condition, and program length – on the development of a geographically variable feature, the second-person plural forms of address (i.e., vosotros/ustedes distinction) by second language learners of Spanish studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. Additionally, we compare the use of both vosotros and ustedes to a local Madrileño speaker baseline. To measure the use of vosotros and ustedes, the participants completed an oral discourse completion task. While the results of the study point to an increase in vosotros production among all participants, the students enrolled in a service-learning program, living with a host family, and participating in a long-term program significantly increased their use of vosotros.
Research Interests: Psychology and Plural
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2013. Major: Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Linguistics. Advisors: Carol Klee, Timothy Face. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 251 pages.
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While taking foreign language classes or interacting in the target language community, language learners will be exposed to dialectal differences. This paper addresses how adult learners of Spanish in beginning, intermediate, and advanced... more
While taking foreign language classes or interacting in the target language community, language learners will be exposed to dialectal differences. This paper addresses how adult learners of Spanish in beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish courses at a large US university perceived a common sociolinguistic feature of Spanish, /s/-weakening, which can vary for stylistic, gender, and geographical reasons. The implications for teaching and learning foreign languages will be addressed, noting the importance of teaching common sociolinguistic features that are salient to native speakers but less salient to second language learners.
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Este trabajo investiga el uso de los patrones de entonacion para comunicar el foco estrecho y amplio en las preguntas interrogativas absolutas empleadas en el espanol de Montevideo. A nuestro entender, es el primer trabajo que estudia... more
Este trabajo investiga el uso de los patrones de entonacion para comunicar el foco estrecho y amplio en las preguntas interrogativas absolutas empleadas en el espanol de Montevideo. A nuestro entender, es el primer trabajo que estudia explicitamente y empiricamente la entonacion focal en esta variedad del espanol. Los seis participantes produjeron cuatro preguntas interrogativas absolutas con tres palabras acentuadas lexicamente en cada pregunta. Cada pregunta difiere en la palabra que se focaliza. Se analizaron los acentos tonales y tonos de frontera con el sistema de Sp_ToBI segun Estebas & Prieto (2008). Los resultados mostraron la existencia de variacion en cada hablante. La alineacion de los picos es diferente de la del espanol de Buenos Aires, una variedad similar a la de Montevideo. Del mismo modo, los hallazgos del analisis estadistico de la altura de los picos y valles son indicadores de una tendencia, aunque no estadisticamente significativa, de un acento tonal mas prolong...
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Previous studies have shown positive effects of instruction on pronunciation after a time abroad (Lord, 2010). Four studies have examined the production of /θ/ in Spanish, (Geeslin & Gudmestad, 2008; Henriksen, Geeslin, & Willis 2009;... more
Previous studies have shown positive effects of instruction on pronunciation after a time abroad (Lord, 2010). Four studies have examined the production of /θ/ in Spanish, (Geeslin & Gudmestad, 2008; Henriksen, Geeslin, & Willis 2009; Knouse 2013, and Ringer-Hilfinger, 2012) and one found that eight out of nine learners increased their production during the 7-week immersion in Leon, Spain in the absence of explicit instruction (Henriksen, Geeslin, & Willis 2009). The current study differs from previous work by examining the effect of explicit instruction on the development of /θ/, a salient dialectal feature to North-Central Spanish, in university-level adult learners of Spanish during a semester abroad in North-Central Spain. After completing a pretest, the experimental group, consisting of 14 students, received explicit instruction on when North-Central Spaniards use /θ/, while the control group, consisting of 10 students, did not. Surprisingly, the experimental group decreased th...
In the current study, native (L1) Castilian Spanish judges listen to a variety of L1 and second language (L2) speakers reading a paragraph in Spanish and rate the level of foreign accent. They also identify, when possible, the speaker’s... more
In the current study, native (L1) Castilian Spanish judges listen to a variety of L1 and second language (L2) speakers reading a paragraph in Spanish and rate the level of foreign accent. They also identify, when possible, the speaker’s dialect of Spanish, providing commentary on the reasons for their choice. This study measures the effects of both listener and speaker characteristics on foreign accent rating and dialect identification. The listener characteristics of residential history and experience with L2 Spanish significantly affect foreign accent ratings. Speaker characteristics including motivation to speak a particular dialect, L2 proficiency level, social networks, and the production of regional features are also explored. All have significant effects on foreign accent ratings.
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Over the past three decades, a considerable number of studies have investigated the connection between study abroad and second language acquisition to the exclusion of another emerging language profile, that of heritage language learners... more
Over the past three decades, a considerable number of studies have investigated the connection between study abroad and second language acquisition to the exclusion of another emerging language profile, that of heritage language learners who study abroad to enhance their home language skills. The few studies on heritage language learners’ development of local features abroad have focused on phonological ones, concluding that more in-depth exposure to the varieties abroad was related to increased production of the local features (Escalante, 2018; George & Hoffman-González, in press). Research on the effects of international service learning have also been limited to second language learners, demonstrating increased second language use and proficiency (Martinsen, Baker, Dewey, Bown, & Johnson, 2010) along with the development of geographically-variable patterns of use (Salgado-Robles, 2018). The current study combines these two fields and investigates the development of a variable loc...
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Absolute beginners rapidly solve several word learning problems after minimal exposure to second language speech. In this article, we report on laboratory research that supports this claim. Explaining second language acquisition is a goal... more
Absolute beginners rapidly solve several word learning problems after minimal exposure to second language speech. In this article, we report on laboratory research that supports this claim. Explaining second language acquisition is a goal of foundational research. While our findings are consistent with the generativist enterprise, generativists have been content to describe what learners have acquired while avoiding discussion of the ‘how’. We describe a specific generativist approach (the Autonomous Induction Theory) that directly addresses the role of specific learning mechanisms proposed by cognitive psychology. In contrast to alternative non-generative approaches, the Autonomous Induction Theory offers a constrained theory of language acquisition. Both the data from laboratory settings and the theoretical explanations of how adult learners learn have potential implications for language teaching. One should not, however, make teaching recommendations directly from laboratory resu...
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Heritage language learners of Spanish are studying abroad in Spanish-speaking countries yet their linguistic evolution in Spanish is not addressed sufficiently in existing published scholarship. The current study consists of four case... more
Heritage language learners of Spanish are studying abroad in Spanish-speaking countries yet their linguistic evolution in Spanish is not addressed sufficiently in existing published scholarship. The current study consists of four case studies of US heritage speakers of Spanish studying abroad in Spanish-speaking countries different from their ancestors. Previous research on heritage speakers abroad has not addressed linguistic development. The current study attempts to fill this gap by using a variety of tasks to elicit the use of regional features to compare these heritage learners to second language learners and also first language learners who develop second dialects as a result of living abroad. The findings reveal changes in the production of regional features throughout the semester by three of the four learners of Spanish. These changes are attributed to shifts in identity coupled with proficiency level and contact with locals.
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This article addresses differences in 25 study abroad students that reside in the dormitory, primarily with other native English speakers, to those that live with local host families during a 13-week semester in Central Spain. In addition... more
This article addresses differences in 25 study abroad students that reside in the dormitory, primarily with other native English speakers, to those that live with local host families during a 13-week semester in Central Spain. In addition to completing four tasks to elicit three regional features ([θ], [χ], and vosotros) the participants, all majors or minors of Spanish, also completed questionnaires and interviews to elicit a variety of social and individual factors, including social networks and amount of contact with Spanish and English. Living experience accounts for differences in the production of one feature in one task at the middle of the semester. In addition, those students that lived with a host family exhibited more contact with Spanish and completed fewer international trips on weekends. The study not only discusses ways to increase contact in Spanish but also ways to improve the study abroad experience in general.
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Absolute beginners rapidly solve several word learning problems after minimal exposure to second language speech. In this article, we report on laboratory research that supports this claim. Explaining second language acquisition is a goal... more
Absolute beginners rapidly solve several word learning problems after minimal exposure to second language speech. In this article, we report on laboratory research that supports this claim. Explaining second language acquisition is a goal of foundational research. While our findings are consistent with the generativist enterprise, generativists have been content to describe what learnershave acquired while avoiding discussion of the 'how'. We describe a specific generativist approach (the Autonomous Induction Theory) that directly addresses the role of specific learning mechanisms proposed by cognitive psychology. In contrast to alternative non-generative approaches, the Autonomous Induction Theory offers a constrained theory of language acquisition. Both the data from laboratory settings and the theoretical explanations of how adult learners learn have potential implications for language teaching. One should not, however, make teaching recommendations directly from laboratory results. Rather, the findings should be reinterpreted as a research agenda for the classroom, one that recognises its complexities. In this paper, we make several proposals as to how to get from laboratory findings to a classroom-based research agenda.
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The current study investigates the development of the second person plural informal (vosotros as opposed to ustedes) by 24 Spanish majors and minors studying abroad for 14 weeks in Central Spain. Data were gathered at the beginning,... more
The current study investigates the development of the second person plural informal (vosotros as opposed to ustedes) by 24 Spanish majors and minors studying abroad for 14 weeks in Central Spain. Data were gathered at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. A variety of individual and social factors, such as social networks and attitude toward Castilian Spanish, were analyzed to determine why some participants employed vosotros while others did not. A pre, mid, and post survey elicited vosotros in a variety of contexts, while questionnaires and semi-structured interviews shed light on extralinguistic factors affecting the production of this feature. According to Geeslin (2011), "[r]esearch on variation in L2 [second language] Spanish should also take a closer look at the study abroad environment and the development of linguistic features of the region in which a learner stays" (501). Learners in the classroom may be exposed to multiple forms to convey the same function (e.g., ustedes and vosotros for second person plural) and will ultimately have to choose which form to employ. Native speakers typically employ one form consistently, but it is unclear which form learners will choose, especially given the influence of a sojourn abroad. This becomes more important as learners gain competence in the target language. Sensitivity to dialects and their registers forms a part of sociolinguistic competence , which is encompassed within language competence (Bachman, 1990). Spain was the third most popular study abroad destination and the first most popular Span-ish speaking destination in both the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years according to the most recent Open Doors Fast Facts Sheet published in 2015 by the Institute of International Education (Institute of International Education, 1998-2015). Since L2 learners of Spanish in the United States are often exposed to a variety of regional dialects, it is unclear which features from which dialects they will develop. Whether or not learners will develop regional features while studying abroad could depend on a variety of linguistic and extralinguistic factors, such as the opportunities available to interact with locals. The current study investigates the development of one salient dialectal feature, the informal second person plural vosotros and all of its accompanying verbal and morphological forms, in Castilian Spanish as spoken in Toledo, Spain.
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In the current study, native (L1) Castilian Spanish judges listen to a variety of L1 and second language (L2) speakers reading a paragraph in Spanish and rate the level of foreign accent. They also identify, when possible, the speaker's... more
In the current study, native (L1) Castilian Spanish judges listen to a variety of L1 and second language (L2) speakers reading a paragraph in Spanish and rate the level of foreign accent. They also identify, when possible, the speaker's dialect of Spanish, providing commentary on the reasons for their choice. This study measures the effects of both listener and speaker characteristics on foreign accent rating and dialect identification. The listener characteristics of residential history and experience with L2 Spanish significantly affect foreign accent ratings. Speaker characteristics including motivation to speak a particular dialect, L2 proficiency level, social networks, and the production of regional features are also explored. All have significant effects on foreign accent ratings.
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ABSTRACT: With the growing number of English language learners throughout the United States enrolled in the foreign language class representing their heritage language, it is increasingly important for foreign language methodology courses... more
ABSTRACT: With the growing number of English language learners throughout the United States enrolled in the foreign language class representing their heritage language, it is increasingly important for foreign language methodology courses to address how to plan for, instruct, and assess the diverse needs of these students in the K-12 foreign language classroom. Their needs as heritage language learners are different than those of second language learners. Therefore, in order to teach these language learners, teachers should possess specific competencies, not typically evident in foreign language teaching methodology courses. The present study is a preliminary effort to integrate a module on teaching heritage language learners into a foreign language teaching methodology course and to evaluate the development of teacher candidates’ declarative knowledge, beliefs, and conceptualizations about heritage language learners and heritage language instruction. Participants (N=30) are pre-service 9-12 Spanish teachers at two postsecondary institutions in the Eastern United States. The results demonstrate that teacher candidates move beyond conceiving heritage language learners as similar to second language learners and proceed toward perceiving them as culturally and linguistically diverse learners of Spanish, as evidenced through surveys and lesson plans.
RESUMEN: Con el creciente número de aprendices de inglés en los Estados Unidos matriculados en clases de lengua extranjera que representan su lengua de herencia, es cada vez más importante que los cursos de métodos de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras aborden cómo planificar, instruir y evaluar las diversas necesidades de estos estudiantes en el aula de lengua extranjera en la educación pre-universitaria. Sus necesidades como aprendices del idioma heredado son diferentes a las de los aprendices de una segunda lengua. Por lo tanto, para enseñar a estos aprendices de lengua, los profesores deben poseer competencias específicas, las cuales normalmente no son evidentes en los cursos de metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. El presente estudio representa un esfuerzo preliminar para integrar un módulo sobre la enseñanza de aprendices de lengua de herencia en un curso de métodos de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y evaluar el desarrollo del conocimiento declarativo y las creencias del alumnado de pedagogía y conceptualizaciones sobre el aprendiz de lengua de herencia y la didáctica de lenguas de herencia. Los participantes (N = 30) son profesores de español en formación inicial de educación secundaria de dos universidades en el este de los Estados Unidos. Los resultados demuestran que los profesores en formación inicial van más allá de concebir a los aprendices de lengua de herencia similares a los aprendices de segunda lengua y de percibirlos como aprendices de español cultural y lingüísticamente diversos, conforme se evidencia en encuestas y planes de lecciones.
RESUMEN: Con el creciente número de aprendices de inglés en los Estados Unidos matriculados en clases de lengua extranjera que representan su lengua de herencia, es cada vez más importante que los cursos de métodos de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras aborden cómo planificar, instruir y evaluar las diversas necesidades de estos estudiantes en el aula de lengua extranjera en la educación pre-universitaria. Sus necesidades como aprendices del idioma heredado son diferentes a las de los aprendices de una segunda lengua. Por lo tanto, para enseñar a estos aprendices de lengua, los profesores deben poseer competencias específicas, las cuales normalmente no son evidentes en los cursos de metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. El presente estudio representa un esfuerzo preliminar para integrar un módulo sobre la enseñanza de aprendices de lengua de herencia en un curso de métodos de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y evaluar el desarrollo del conocimiento declarativo y las creencias del alumnado de pedagogía y conceptualizaciones sobre el aprendiz de lengua de herencia y la didáctica de lenguas de herencia. Los participantes (N = 30) son profesores de español en formación inicial de educación secundaria de dos universidades en el este de los Estados Unidos. Los resultados demuestran que los profesores en formación inicial van más allá de concebir a los aprendices de lengua de herencia similares a los aprendices de segunda lengua y de percibirlos como aprendices de español cultural y lingüísticamente diversos, conforme se evidencia en encuestas y planes de lecciones.
Research Interests: Teacher Education, Bilingualism, Teaching Spanish as a heritage language, Teachers' beliefs and professional development - Language and power - language policy and planning - Literacy and social justice - Curriculum theory - English Language Teaching, Heritage language education, and L2 Spanish Classroom
This book brings together a variety of perspectives and interventions related to online and remote language teaching. Aimed at scholars and language teachers, as well as students of language pedagogy, these perspectives are drawn from... more
This book brings together a variety of perspectives and interventions related to online and remote language teaching. Aimed at scholars and language teachers, as well as students of language pedagogy, these perspectives are drawn from diverse teaching contexts, although the findings they share can be applied across different levels and target languages. This volume also includes reflection on implementing these ideas during and after the remote learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This volume will be especially valuable in the coming years, as educators and researchers work to understand the experiences of teachers and learners during the pandemic, and as the remote teaching precipitated by recent events increases interest in online learning. As online language course offerings continue to grow and develop, this volume will be a rich resource for researchers, instructors, and students interested in better understanding the diverse practices and methods that can be employed in online language teaching.
This volume will be especially valuable in the coming years, as educators and researchers work to understand the experiences of teachers and learners during the pandemic, and as the remote teaching precipitated by recent events increases interest in online learning. As online language course offerings continue to grow and develop, this volume will be a rich resource for researchers, instructors, and students interested in better understanding the diverse practices and methods that can be employed in online language teaching.