Presentations

Learning a second language is difficult, and so is teaching it. How SLA research can inform teaching methods. Plenary presentation. XXIV Semana de Letras. Organized by Universidade Federal de Paraná. Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. July 2022. 

Setting relevant goals for L2 pronunciation learning: What do teachers and researchers have to say? Plenary presentation. Meeting of the Núcleo de Pesquisa em Fonética e Fonologia Aplicada à Língua Estrangeira (NUPFFALE). Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. May 2022.

Let's not obsess over the trill: Toward a model of evidence-based pronunciation instruction for Spanish. Plenary presentation. 8th Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology (CASPSLaP). Organized by University of Wisconsin, Madison. February 2022.

Cinderella finally invited to the ball: Pronunciation instruction and L2 speech. Semiplenary  presentation.  41st Annual Conference of the Argentinian Federation of English Teachers Associations (FAAPI, Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés). San Juan, Argentina. September 2016. 

Phonetic training to promote dialectal competence among Spanish teachers in Brazil. Guest lecture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, February 8, 2024.

Informed decision-making in L2 teaching: How SLA research can help us get there. Guest talk for Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Virtual, November 8, 2023.

Setting an agenda for instructed second language pronunciation research. Guest talk at the symposium Second language speech learning: Balancing big data and individual trajectories. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, October 19, 2023.

Fulbright Scholar opportunities in Brazil. Invited speaker at webinar organized by the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Institute of International Education, June 14, 2023.

Raza, identidad y enseñanza del español en los Estados Unidos: Hacia una pedagogía de inclusión. Guest lecture in Spanish for graduate program in Linguistics. Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. July 22, 2022.

Enseñanza de la pronunciación del español como lengua extranjera en los Estados Unidos: Oportunidades y desafíos. Guest lecture for Spanish undergraduate students. Universidade Federal de Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. July 22, 2022.

Pathways to empower Black and African American students in college-level Spanish classes. Guest lecture series, Second Language Studies Research Group, The University of Texas at Austin. Virtual, March 11, 2021.

Dr. Rajiv Rao's “Topics in Hispanic Linguistics” (SPANISH 630), graduate course, Diphthongs in Second Language Spanish, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Virtual, February 18, 2021.

Rethinking a Spanish language program at the college level: Toward inclusive and relevant second language education for ALL students. Guest lecture series, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Virtual, January 28, 2021.

Beyond input: How can we help L2 learners acquire pronunciation in an instructed setting? Dr. Mailce Borges Mota’s Linguistics Group, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil. Virtual, June 24, 2020.

When input is not enough: Implementing meaningful pronunciation instruction in the L2 Spanish classroom. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Georgetown University. Washington, DC, October 4, 2019.

What counts as a pronunciation error in the L2 classroom? Depends who you ask. Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Portland OR, USA, March 2023.

What phonetic features predict intelligibility, comprehensibility, and foreign accent in L2 Spanish speech? 8th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, New Sounds 2022. Barcelona, Spain, April 2022. [with C. Nagle & A. Huensch]​​

Can teachers learn to teach L2 pronunciation? Testing the effectiveness of a training module for novice Spanish teachers. 13th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference. Virtual, June 2021.

Rethinking translation as a pedagogical tool in the Spanish as a second language class. Annual Conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters (MASAL). Virtual, March 2021. [with M. Á. Castañeda Pino]

Effects of L1 transfer and L2 proficiency on the production of Spanish diphthongs. 7th Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology (CASPSLaP). San José  CA, USA, February 2020. [with T. Erskine]

Acquisition of Spanish diphthongs by second language learners. Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. El Paso TX, USA, October 2019.

The complexities of Spanish diphthongs in L2 pronunciation. 12th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference. Flagstaff AZ, USA, September 2019.

What do language teachers believe about pronunciation instruction? Recommendations for teacher training and professional development. 11th International Language Teacher Education Conference. Minneapolis MN, USA, May-June 2019. [with C. Nagle & R. Sachs]

A longitudinal study of second language development in two learning contexts. Annual Conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters (MASAL). Alma MI, USA, March 2019. 

Production of final boundary tones in declarative utterances by English-speaking learners of Spanish. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018. Poznan, Poland, June 2018. [poster presentation]

What’s research got to do with it? The relationship between research findings and teaching practices in Spanish pronunciation instruction. Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology (CASPSLaP). Bloomington IN, USA, February 2018. [with C. Nagle & R. Sachs]

Relationship between perception and production of L2 intonation. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). Columbus OH, USA, October 2017.​

“Was that a question?” Perception of utterance-final intonation among L2 learners of Spanish. 10th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference. Salt Lake City UT, USA, August/September 2017.

Teachers’ and learners’ evolving beliefs on pronunciation instruction. Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Portland OR, USA, March 2017. [poster presentation, with C. Nagle & R. Sachs]

Improving second language pronunciation: English speakers’ production of Spanish diphthongs. Annual Conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters (MASAL). Kalamazoo MI, USA, March 2017. [with Timothy Erskine]

Pitch peak alignment as indicator of phonological development in a second language. 8th International Conference on Second Language Speech, New Sounds 2016. Aarhus, Denmark, June 2016.

Developmental patterns in the L2 acquisition of the Spanish tap and trill: A longitudinal study. 8th International Conference on Second Language Speech, New Sounds 2016. Aarhus, Denmark, June 2016. [poster presentation, with C. Nagle]

Categorical perception and prenuclear pitch peak alignment in Spanish. Speech Prosody 2016. Boston MA, USA, May-June 2016. [poster presentation]

Neither English nor Spanish: Pitch peak alignment in Spanish among bilingual speakers. Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Orlando FL, USA, April 2016.

How is intonation in a second language perceived? The case of pitch alignment in Spanish. 8th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference. Dallas TX, USA, October 2015.

La pronunciación del inglés en una plataforma educativa. IV Jornadas Internacionales de Tecnologías Aplicadas a la Enseñanza de Lenguas. Córdoba, Argentina, May 2014. [with N. Leánez & A. Leceta]

El papel de la personalidad en el acento de hablantes de una segunda lengua. III Jornadas Internacionales de Fonética y Fonología. Mar del Plata, Argentina, September 2013.

Enseñanza de ELE (Español como Lengua Extranjera) en la Universidad Nacional de San Juan. XVIII Encuentro Plurilingüístico. San Juan, Argentina, September 2012. [with C. Palou & L. Villavicencio]

How slippery you are, oh construct of awareness: Toward a finer-grained methodological perspective. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). College Park MD, USA, October 2010. [with R. Leow & E. Johnson]

Speakers’ knowledge about syllable structure: Diphthong vs. hiatus resolution in Spanish as a second language. Second Language Research Forum (SLRF). East Lansing MI, USA, November 2009 .

Getting a grip on the slippery construct of awareness: Methodological issues. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT). Washington DC, USA, March 2009. [with R. Leow & E. Johnson]

L1-L2 phonological transfer at the word level: Stress placement on cognates by Spanish learners. Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Denver CO, USA, March 2009. [poster presentation, with C. Guidi]

Language learning strategies for the pronunciation of English in the foreign language classroom. Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Washington DC, USA, March 2008.

Comedias televisivas y uso de vocativos. 10th National Conference for the Sociedad Argentina de Lingüística (SAL). Salta, Argentina, July 2005. [with R. M. Sanou, G. Albiñana, & N. Leánez]