Courses Taught
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
Graduate Courses
Spanish Phonetics & Phonology (SPAN 5703)
Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics (SPAN 5703)
Undergraduate Courses
Advanced Spanish Grammar (SPAN 4003)
Advanced Spanish (SPAN 3003)
DAVIDSON COLLEGE
Spanish Courses
Third Semester Spanish (SPA 201)
Second Semester Spanish (SPA 102)
First Semester Spanish (SPA 101)
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
Advanced Linguistic and Culture Courses
First Semester Spanish Culture (SPAN401)
Structure of Spanish I: Phonetics & Phonology (SPAN361)
Spanish Language Courses
Second Semester Advanced Spanish (SPAN302)
First Semester Advanced Spanish (SPAN301)
Second Semester Intermediate Spanish (SPAN202)
First Semester Intermediate Spanish (SPAN201)
Conversation Courses
Advanced Spanish Conversation (SPAN312)
Intermediate Spanish Conversation (SPAN212)
Beginner Spanish Conversation (SPAN112)
Online Intercultural Courses
Global Engineering Experience (ENGR397)
Purdue Global Competence Certificate (COM30301)
NANJING UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
English Language Courses (Graduate Level)
Oral English for Carnegie Mellon Exchange Students
Oral English for Material Science & Engineering
Academic Oral English & Presentation Skills
Spanish Language Courses (Undergraduate Level)
Fourth Semester Spanish (Spanish IV)
Second Semester Spanish (Spanish II)
First Semester Spanish (Spanish I)
Introduction to Spanish for Non-English Majors
Teaching Philosophy
Drawing on current second language acquisition methodologies, I consider myself as a facilitator in the classroom and students as active learners. To elaborate, the communicative teaching method shows that learners can effectively learn and communicate when given small amounts of structured input and significant opportunities for output. For example, during a regular 50-minute day of teaching, I give a small lesson on new content, which reinforces work students have done to prepare for the class, then dedicate the rest of the class time to communicative activities in which students work together to produce meaningful interaction via tasks using both recycled and newly learned content.
In addition to teaching courses in both language and linguistics, I strive to incorporate issues of standard speech, cultural identity, colonialism, and race into my curriculum at all levels, including the lower-level language courses, as these topics cannot be separated from the Spanish language and linguistic varieties. I always make clear to my students each semester that although we are all unique and different, we are equal in terms of value and respect. At the start of each semester, I explain that, in my classroom, everyone in the room is to be treated with respect, regardless of their background or personal lifestyle. In doing so, I strive to cultivate a classroom in which all students always feel safe and welcome.