Biography
Born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho. Served mission in Málaga, Spain (1994-1996). Associates degree from College of Southern Idaho (1994). Undergraduate degrees in Math and Spanish Education (1999). Master’s degree in Spanish Pedagogy from BYU (2001). Completed Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) in 2006. Taught at Pima Community College (2001-2006) as an adjunct professor. Worked at the University of Central Florida as an assistant professor of Spanish (2006-2012). Joined BYU in August of 2012 as a faculty member in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Co-directed study abroad in Segovia, Spain (2003) and directed study abroad in Granada, Spain (2010).
Research Interests
Researches teacher and student language use in the Spanish foreign language classroom, heritage language teaching and placement, teacher development in study abroad programs, and service learning in the language classroom. Currently investigating Spanish heritage students in service learning classes as well as research into code-switching in the foreign language classroom.Teaching Interests
• Second Language Assessment• Second Language Acquisition
• Spanish as a Heritage Language
• Code-Switching and Bilingual Identity
• Second and Foreign Language Teacher Development
• Sociolinguistics
• Service-learning
• Bilingual Education
Education
- PhD, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching , Program Development and Language Pedagogy, University of Arizona (2006)
Memberships
- Utah Foreign Language Association (UFLA) (2012 - Present)
- American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) (2004 - Present)
- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) (2004 - Present)
- The American Association of Teacher of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) (2004 - Present)
- SWCOLT (2014 - 2024)