Gabriela Zapata

Biography

Dr. Gabriela C. Zapata received her PhD in Spanish (Linguistics track) from the Pennsylvania State University in 2002. Her research foci are second language acquisition and pedagogy, bilingualism, and teacher education. She is also interested in language program direction, and she has served as Director or Coordinator of four Spanish and Portuguese basic language programs in public and private universities in the United States and Canada. Throughout her career, Dr. Zapata has taught a variety of classes in the areas of English and Spanish as a second language (all levels of instruction, including Spanish for Heritage Speakers), and Applied and Hispanic Linguistics, such a Teaching Strategies for Postsecondary Language Instructors, Bilingualism and L1 Attrition, Introduction to Applied Linguistics, History of the Spanish Language, Second Language Acquisition Theory and Research and L2 Pedagogy, etc. She has published articles on bilingualism and second language acquisition and pedagogy in journals such as Computer Assisted Language Learning, Hispania, Language Learning, and Language Awareness, among others. She is also the main author of the first edition of the Canadian edition of Puntos de partida, and a certified ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester in Spanish. At present she is working on a co-authored edited volume on Multiliteracies and the teaching of Spanish to Heritage Speakers, and on two research projects involving the examination of the linguistic aspects that distinguish the Spanish spoken in the Salinas Valley in California and the application of keystroke logging software for the study of the writing process in L2 Spanish and Heritage students.

Research Interest

Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy Bilingualism Computer Assisted Language Learning Language Program Direction and Materials Development