Teaching

My approach to Spanish language education aligns with the critical orientation of my research involving sociolinguistic variation, language learning, and multilingualism. My overarching goal is to prepare students to critically engage with social, cultural, and linguistic difference. In my role as professor, I socialize students to be active members of our society who value sociolinguistic diversity and are able to successfully meet the communicative challenges of a globalizing world where standardized language knowledge does not guarantee communicative success. I do this by teaching Spanish both as a normative code as well as a dynamic adaptive practice across multiple modalities, communities, and sociopolitical contexts. I employ pedagogical strategies aimed at developing students’ critical awareness of linguistic forms and reflexivity about their social use in relation to issues of identity, ideology, and cultural difference.