My teaching and academic leadership span Spanish L2 and heritage-language instruction in the United States and English and French language education in Mexico. At the University of Houston, I teach in both the Spanish L2 and heritage Spanish tracks and co-coordinate the Spanish L2 program, contributing to curriculum alignment, assessment, instructional materials, course development, and instructor support. My scholarship in language teaching develops from questions that emerge from these instructional settings. I am particularly interested in how task structure, feedback, assessment, instructional modality, and educational technologies shape opportunities for language production and development. This work has included the development of an oral-production model for asynchronous Spanish instruction, published in L2 Journal, as well as ongoing curriculum-development work across the Spanish L2 sequence.
TEACHING APPROACH
My teaching is organized around purposeful language use, transparent expectations, and structured opportunities for students to develop through practice, feedback, and revision. In language courses, I design tasks that connect linguistic form with communicative goals and encourage students to use language analytically as well as interactively. I adapt these principles to the needs of L2 and heritage-language learners, whose linguistic histories and instructional needs are not interchangeable. Across modalities, I use instructional technologies when they create meaningful opportunities for interaction, production, feedback, or access. Assessment is aligned with course objectives and designed to make expectations visible while giving students opportunities to apply feedback to subsequent work.
TEACHING INTERESTS
Bilingualism and multilingualism
Heritage language acquisition and heritage Spanish
Second language acquisition
Sociolinguistics and language contact
Bilingual speech production and perception
Phonetics and phonology
Experimental methods in linguistics
Introduction to linguistics
Spanish L2 and heritage-language instruction
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Houston (2024–Present)
Heritage Spanish
SPAN2308 Spanish for Heritage Speakers Intermediate II
SPAN2307 Spanish for Heritage Speakers Intermediate I
Spanish L2
SPAN2312 Intermediate Spanish II
SPAN2311 Intermediate Spanish I
SPAN1502 Introductory Spanish II
Anáhuac University, Center for languages (2020–2023)
English as a Second Language
Advanced English VI
Universidad del Valle de México (2022–2023)
English as a Foreign Language
English as a Foreign Language VI
English as a Foreign Language III
English as a Foreign Language II
English as a Foreign Language I
French L2
French IV
French III
French II
French I
Topics in Language and Culture
Multiculturalism I
Autonomous University of Baja California-UNISER (2017–2021)
English for Specific Purposes
General English VI
General English V
General English IV
General English III
Instructor of ESL in Basic Education (2010-2012)
English as a Second/Foreign Language
Colegio Cristóbal Colón Independencia (2012–2021)
Prepa-Tech (2021-2022)
Cumbres International School (2017-2018)
Colegio Emma de la Vega (2015-2016)
Public Elementary Schools (2010-2012)