Lorraine Ramos

Lorraine is researching Spanish sociocultural linguistics within the Interdisciplinary Humanities doctoral program. She works with Professor Dalia Magaña and studies heritage language speakers in Spanish and English classes. Her research focuses on how these students develop their linguistic skills and how they conceptualize their language learning experience as well as their identity. She wants to contribute to pedagogical programs that focus on Spanish heritage language learners as a resource in the classroom. Her current research interests in applied sociolinguistics include issues surrounding bilingualism in the U.S. and academic Spanish development. She explores language attitudes and ideologies through conceptual metaphor within various genres using systemic functional linguistics in conjunction with metaphor theory in order to better understand the students she serves. Her developing investigations consider Spanish speakers from an English perspective to provide a more holistic view of the heritage language learner. Her sub-research interests lie in second language acquisition, as well as Spanish/English code-switching in text. She is a member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). Outside of her academic investigations, she is an energetic instructor and thoroughly hooked on traveling.