Introduction
My research focuses on the development of fluency and cognitive abilities by second language learners of Spanish. I am currently investigating the relationship between lexical access, lexical retrieval and attention control and fluency, and more specifically, how different learning contexts contribute to the development of these abilities. My interest in the effect of different contexts of learning, such as study abroad, overseas immersion, and standard college-based instruction, on L2 oral production encompasses methodological and applied issues. My most recent work examines topics such as fluency, topic effect, and the relationship between clause type and filled pauses in second language speech. I also belong to a research group, headed by Kimberly Geeslin, which investigates the acquisition of Spanish variable structures in an overseas immersion program.
At the last stage of my PhD candidacy in Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington, I was hired as Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at University of Alabama at Birmingham but I am holding an instructor position until I defend my PhD in the next few months. I am also affiliated with the Second Language Psycholinguistics Lab directed by Isabelle Darcy of the Department of Second Language Studies at Indiana University. I am involved in a project of perceptual categorization with various members of this lab.
At the last stage of my PhD candidacy in Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington, I was hired as Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at University of Alabama at Birmingham but I am holding an instructor position until I defend my PhD in the next few months. I am also affiliated with the Second Language Psycholinguistics Lab directed by Isabelle Darcy of the Department of Second Language Studies at Indiana University. I am involved in a project of perceptual categorization with various members of this lab.