About me

My research interests lie at the crossroads of second language acquisition (SLA), bilingualism, and Hispanic linguistics. I am particularly interested in usage-based and functionalist theories of language acquisition. My current research examines various aspects of vocabulary learning in Spanish. If you'd like to read my reflections on being a heritage speaker during my sabbatical in Poland, I've been compiling them here.

The courses I regularly teach at UCSC are:

  • Spanish 150 (Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics)
  • Spanish 153 (Spanish as a Second Language)
  • Spanish 154 (Spanish Pragmatics)
  • Spanish 114 (Adv. Conversation & Composition)
  • APLX 80 (Intro to Applied Linguistics)
  • APLX 101 (Second Language Acquisition)
  • APLX 135/201 (L2 Teaching Methodology)
  • APLX 105 (Language Loss)

In March 2021, I began serving a five-year term as Executive Director of Language Learning