Linguistics Seminar Series

Mental Maps, Social Meanings: Spatializing Lexical Stereotypes in Bogotá

This study examines how speakers of Bogotá Spanish map lexical stereotypes onto the
city’s social and geographic landscape. Using Qualtrics’ heat-map feature, the project extends
perceptual dialectology by capturing participants’ mental maps of lexical variation while
integrating language attitudes with spatial data.

Twenty-one lifelong residents of Bogotá representing all six official socioeconomic strata
evaluated 38 lexical items associated with either gomelo (upper-class) or ñero (working-class
and marginalized) identities. Participants then located where each expression "lives" on a map
of Bogotá. Spatial analyses, including kernel-density estimation and hierarchical clustering,
identified perceived lexical hotspots and patterns of geographic distribution.

The findings largely reproduce well-known social stereotypes: prestige-associated
expressions cluster in wealthier northern neighborhoods, whereas stigmatized forms are linked
to lower-income southern localities. However, some highly stigmatized words, particularly
gonorrea and marica, were perceived as circulating across the entire city despite consistently
negative evaluations. This pattern suggests that lexical stigma does not necessarily limit use;
rather, speakers strategically repurpose these forms to express solidarity, humor, or
interpersonal stance across social groups.

Methodologically, the study demonstrates the value of combining perceptual dialectology
with interactive mapping techniques to investigate the relationship between language attitudes,
social meaning, and urban space. By treating lexical items as objects of spatial perception, it
offers a replicable framework for examining how linguistic stereotypes are socially and
geographically constructed in contemporary cities.

Keywords

Perceptual Dialectology; Lexical Variation; Language Attitudes; Bogotá Spanish.

Bio

Katherin Vargas-Henao is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Berry College. She recently
earned her Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from Georgetown University. Her research examines
language variation, language attitudes, and socioprosody in Bogotá Spanish, with particular
attention to how social media shapes linguistic stereotypes and identity. Using mixed methods
that combine sociolinguistics, perceptual dialectology, and acoustic analysis, her work explores
the relationship between language, social meaning, and urban space.

Lexical Network Development in Arabic L1 and English L2 Across Proficiency Levels

This study investigates the development of lexical knowledge among native Arabic speakers
learning English as a second language (L2) at beginner, intermediate, and advanced proficiency
levels, in comparison to their first language (L1), Arabic. It examines vocabulary structure using
type–token measures, graph-based metrics (e.g., nodes, edges, density, clustering, and
modularity), and availability indexes to explore how lexical networks evolve with increasing L2
proficiency and how they compare to L1 patterns. In addition, the study analyzes lexical
characteristics, including word class distribution and levels of concreteness and abstractness. It
also explores association patterns, such as collocational, paradigmatic, metaphoric, taxonomic, and
formal associations.

Using tools such as LexPro, Gephi, and Excel, the research aims to identify differences between
Arabic (L1) and English (L2) lexical systems and track developmental changes across proficiency
levels. The findings are expected to show whether L2 lexical networks gradually approximate L1
structures and to provide insights into the organization and growth of lexical knowledge in second
language acquisition. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of lexical development by
integrating quantitative and network-based approaches to language analysis

Bio

Ghiwa Basharoush holds a BA in English Language and Literature and a Master’s degree in
Bilingual Education. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of La Rioja, Spain. She is
a Senior Instructor of English Language at Sultan Qaboos University, with nearly 20 years of
experience in teaching English.

She is interested in how the brain processes language, particularly how the mental lexicon is
organized and how vocabulary is stored, accessed, and retrieved. She believes that understanding
these processes can help teachers use more effective approaches to vocabulary instruction and
ensure that all learners are supported

Co-creating an evaluation rubric for plurilingual children

Abstract will be posted soon

Bio

Janine is a teacher of English, teacher trainer and researcher with extensive experience in the English 'Foreign'/'Additional'/'Second' language classroom across contexts (Spain and the UK) and sectors (Nursery, Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher Education). Among other lines of research, she is interested in practical ways that children's plurilingual, pluricultural and intercultural knowledge and skills can develop and be made visible in both classroom scenarios and assessment practices. Alongside her doctoral work on learner agency in speaking tasks, she has led a number of collaborative, research partnerships between schools and universities and has presented at numerous international, national and local conferences on various aspects of teaching and learning English.

Marta Segura is a lecturer and researcher at the Universitat de Barcelona specialising in language acquisition, multilingualism, and CLIL education. Her work explores early foreign-language development, vocabulary learning, and teacher training, focusing on how multilingualism, exposure (in and outside of school), and educational practices influence English learning outcomes among young learners in multilingual school contexts. 

Models of Judeo-Spanish Preservation and Rehispanization 

This study examines Spanish and Ladino contact among Hispanic and Sephardic communities in the United States, Spain, and Turkey from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. While the Judeo-Spanish spoken by Sephardim developed independently of the Spanish of Spain and the Americas following the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century, the subsequent “reencounter” between these populations —and their respective linguistic varieties— has contributed to the rehispanization of Judeo-Spanish. In this presentation, I situate contemporary contact within a longer historical trajectory, beginning with the models proposed by Senator Ángel Pulido in his Españoles sin patria (1905) and tracing how the Anti-Castilianist, Autonomist, Opportunist, and Castilianist movements evolved over the course of the twentieth century. In the United States, I draw on Benardete’s (1953) observation of what he termed “outlandish excrescences” of Sephardic speech, which “are filed away when confronted with genuine samples of the Spanish language in its modern vigor.” I turn to contemporary points of contact, both in person within the United States (Kirschen 2021) and through global exchanges online (Bunis 2016), to examine how linguistic ideologies and practices have evolved among Sephardim who continue to preserve and use their Judeo-Spanish language.

Bio

Bryan Kirschen is Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Binghamton University where he serves as Chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. A recipient of Binghamton University’s 2025 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship, he is actively involved in Sephardic and Ladino initiatives focused on documentation, preservation, and revitalization around the United States and internationally. He serves as co-director of the American Ladino League and as director of the National Authority of Ladino’s international delegation of representatives, Los Shadarim.

Bilingualism Across Borders: Heritage Language Maintenance and a Global South Response to U.S. Transnational Families

This presentation explores an ongoing community-engaged project connecting university students and researchers in Mexico with Spanish-speaking families affiliated with Juntos Lebanon in the United States. The project responds to families’ concerns about maintaining Spanish across generations while supporting children’s developing bilingual identities and connections to their linguistic and cultural heritage. Drawing on experiences with participating families, including the perspectives and responses of parents and children, the talk examines bilingualism not simply as language proficiency but as a family, educational, and affective practice shaped by migration and transnational life. Particular attention is given to the direction of this educational collaboration: rather than knowledge and support moving conventionally from the Global North to the Global South, the project illustrates how a Mexican public university can generate linguistic and pedagogical responses for Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. The presentation considers the implications of this experience for heritage language education, community engagement, and more equitable approaches to bilingualism.

Bio

Irasema Mora-Pablo is a full professor at University of Guanajuato, Mexico, in the Language Department. She currently teaches courses in the area of English teaching and applied linguistics. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics by the University of Kent, UK. Her teaching experience in university levels and her own learning experience have shaped her areas of interest: Bilingualism, Return migration, Latino studies, Identity formation and native and non-native teachers. She has conducted research on these issues and published chapters and articles in Mexico, the United States, Colombia, England, and Spain. Her most recent book "Applying Anzalduan Frameworks to Understand Transnational Youth Identities" won the 2023 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award. She is part of the National Research System, SNI level 2. She is currently part of the editorial board of the International Journal of Multicultural Education and TESOL Journal. 

Medical Humanities and Critical Thinking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

1. Understand the growing importance of critical thinking in clinical practice within the context of artificial intelligence technologies, particularly regarding ethical decision-making and patient-centered care.
2. Identify and apply practical strategies through which pre-med and medical students and clinicians can intentionally cultivate critical thinking in technologized healthcare environments.
3. Evaluate how heightened critical thinking and the use of AI can improve communication and health outcomes when working with underserved Hispanic patient populations, with attention to linguistic and cultural sensitivity and structural barriers to care.

Bio

Suzanne LaLonde is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Medical/Health Humanities, serving as the coordinator of the Medical/Health Humanities program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She teaches World Literature, focusing on literary portraits of human trauma and post-traumatic recovery, while her Medical/Health Humanities courses center on theater-informed material, such as Medical Improv. In 2021, she published Paris and Its Revolutionary Ideas, while her other book Trauma, Post-traumatic Growth, and World Literature, was published in 2022. She has also published over 15 refereed pieces, including two book chapters, “Healing and Post-Traumatic Growth” in Trauma and Literature: Cambridge Critical Concepts in 2018 and “The Plague and Dr. Rieux’s Metaphysical and Narrative Chronicle” in The Health Humanities and Camus’s The Plague in 2019. Her article “Cultural Trauma Studies and Post-traumatic Protests” recently appeared in Fall 2025 in the journal Literature and Medicine.

K–12 English Language Learning in Digital Spaces: Performing Through Technology-Mediated Interaction and AI-Mediated Multilingual Feedback

In post-digital times, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) English Language Learners (ELLs) are using a variety of technologies, including emerging ones (e.g., Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), in both their school-sanctioned and interstitial learning spaces (Wong, 2019, 2021). As technologies continue to evolve, it becomes increasingly clear that there is a need for further research looking at language learning in technology-enhanced environments. Therefore, in the following presentation, I will share my ongoing research which explores the learning experiences of K-12 ELL students in a variety of technology-mediated environments. 

First, I will share findings from a recent study which explores the “performative” technology-mediated interactions in a grade 4 classroom (Goffman, 1959). More specifically, multilingual students in this classroom were given GoPros to record their makerspace activities. Through the lens of the camera, students’ staged performances for their respective audience (the researcher). These study findings have important implications for applied linguistics research and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of cameras to document young participants’ activities.  

In the latter part of my presentation, I’ll discuss and share a newly developed AI-mediated multilingual feedback tool. This tool will be used in an upcoming pilot research study with multilingual families. 

Bio

Melanie M. Wong is an Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on technology-enhanced learning environments and their impact on supporting K-12 English Language Learners.  She is also a member of the Artem Research Collection and is interested in exploring creative approaches to applied linguistics research.

Two Languages, One Diagnosis: Heritage-Language Maintenance in Autistic Bilingual Families

Despite more than a decade of evidence that bilingual exposure does not impair language development in autistic children, families in bilingual communities continue to be advised to abandon the heritage language. This talk argues that the persistence of this recommendation rests in part on a measurement confound: reduced heritage-language input yields lower heritage-language scores, a pattern readily misattributed to bilingualism itself rather than to the distribution of exposure across a child's languages. Evidence is drawn from two studies of Latino families in the Rio Grande Valley. The first compares autistic and non-autistic bilingual children on Spanish and English semantic measures, testing whether the heritage-language gap tracks diagnosis or exposure history. The second examines caregiver perceptions of bilingualism in relation to home language practice and child communication outcomes. Perceptions were uniformly favorable and were predicted by family language practice rather than by child diagnosis yet did not predict children's Vineland-3 communication scores. Taken together, the findings locate the drivers of heritage-language shift in these families outside parental attitudes, in the institutional and professional messaging that surrounds them.

Bio

Dr. Montiel-Nava is a bilingual clinical psychologist and director of the Behavior and Child Development Laboratory (BeChilDLab) at UTRGV. Her research focuses on understanding ethnic and cultural disparities in autism spectrum disorder and neurodevelopmental conditions, with a particular commitment to developing evidence-based, parent-mediated interventions for underserved communities. She leads an active research program examining autism in Latino and Latin American populations, including how bilingualism intersects with autism diagnosis and language development. Dr. Montiel-Nava. She is a two-time recipient of the Cultural Diversity Research Award from the International Society for Autism Research (2019 and 2025) and received the Faculty Research Excellence Award from the UTRGV College of Liberal Arts in 2023. She serves as a technical consultant for the WHO–Autism Speaks Caregiver Skills Training initiative and the Autism Speaks Early Career Investigators Advisory Subcommittee, which operates alongside the organization's Medical and Science Advisory Committee and co-leads the Latin American Autism Spectrum Network (REAL Network), which spans multiple countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board, and Autism Speaks.

• B.S. in Psychology (Clinical), Universidad Rafael Urdaneta, Venezuela
• M.S. in Clinical Psychology (Child Track), Loyola University Maryland
• PhD in Psychology, Universidad Central de Venezuela

Why "Spanglish" Isn't Broken: Lessons from Translanguaging in Bilingual Teacher Preparation

For many bilingual communities, Spanglish is more than a way of speaking—it is a marker of identity, belonging, and cultural continuity. Yet it is often dismissed as "broken" language. Drawing on research in bilingual teacher preparation at the U.S.–Mexico border, this presentation explores how translanguaging challenges deficit views of bilingualism and reframes bilinguals' fluid language practices as valuable linguistic resources. Using examples from my work with future bilingual teachers, I argue that honoring and elevating the linguistic repertoires of our communities and students is essential for fostering biliteracy and linguistic justice for all. Although grounded in teacher education, this talk invites a broader conversation about language, identity, and what bilingual speakers can teach us about the nature of language itself.

Bio

Dr. Sandra I. Musanti is Professor and Chair of the Department of Bilingual and Literacy Studies at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies from the University of New Mexico and has more than 25 years of experience in teacher education in Argentina and the United States. Her research examines bilingual teacher preparation through the lenses of translanguaging, biliteracy, linguistically sustaining pedagogies, and practice-based approaches. She has published extensively in English and Spanish and is co-author of Enseñando en el aula bilingüe: Content, Language and Biliteracy, one of the few books on bilingual education written in Spanish. Her recent work explores community-engaged approaches to bilingual teacher preparation informed by transnational, transcultural, translanguaging, and transdisciplinary perspectives.

Language Access and Health Justice in Multilingual Kansas Communities

Dr. Showstack will explore the role of language and communicative practices in health equity, present the context of healthcare for Spanish and Indigenous language speakers in multilingual communities in Kansas, and describe a multi-site community-engaged program that has been dedicated to the advancement of healthcare language access in Kansas since 2020.

Bio

Rachel Showstack (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Wichita State University, Co-Director of the Academic Center for Biomedical and Health Humanities and Founding Director of Alce su Voz. She received her PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013 and her MA in Spanish from Sacramento State University in 2006. Dr. Showstack’s current scholarship addresses language and health equity and community-based learning and research methods. Her work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited collections, and she is co-author of the books Health Disparities and the Applied Linguist and Language Ideologies and Linguistic Identity in Heritage Language Learning.

Translating (or not) a South American Philosopher: The works of José Enrique Rodó in English

This lecture will consider translation as a tool to transfer ideas from Latin America to North America (and the rest of the English-speaking world). It will do so by exploring some of the paratexual strategies that have been employed in transmitting the ideas of Latin American philosophers to the English-speaking world. Specifically, it will rely on a case study, namely, the translation into English of the works of José Enrique Rodó, an important South American philosopher from the early twentieth century. The paper will outline Rodó’s work as translated into English, focusing not on the quality of the translated texts themselves but rather on what the translations were expected to do. This will help draw conclusions regarding the role of translation in the flow of ideas from the Global South to the Global North.