It is my life-long passion for learning that continually nourishes my passion for teaching. Throughout my teaching and academic career, I have always sought new avenues to acquire additional knowledge and I have taken great pleasure in guiding students towards a similar path. The learning needs and language issues of my students inspire me to design new research studies while my own and others’ findings inform my teaching practices. This is why my teaching and research interests are so intertwined, constantly feeding off each other, assisting in my growth both as a teacher and researcher. In addition, my international and interdisciplinary academic background has highly diversified both my teaching and research interests. It has also helped me appreciate the invaluable benefits of collaboration with colleagues from various backgrounds in both my teaching and research endeavors.

My broad teaching experiences and academic training have fully prepared me to teach a variety of classes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Based on my areas of specialization, the following are the classes I am most interested in teaching:

Heritage language pedagogy

        • Heritage language classes at all levels
        • Heritage language pedagogy and teacher research
        • Sociolinguistic awareness in heritage language instruction
        • Bilingualism
        • Language maintenance

Second language acquisition theories and methodologies

        • Spanish second language acquisition
        • Spanish teaching methodologies
        • Spanish Applied linguistics
        • Technology integration in language teaching
        • Teacher research

Spanish linguistics

        • Introduction to Spanish linguistics
        • Phonetics and phonology
        • Spanish dialectology
        • Spanish in the Southwest