This study counters the popular assumption that Spanish Heritage Language Learners (SHLLs) on study abroad (SA) in a place of cultural origin can easily adapt and find acceptance due to the linguistic and cultural resources they bring with them. Our study builds on previous work to illustrate a more nuanced and complex story of desires for…

This article examines caregivers' everyday language choices and interactions with children in an urban Zapotec community in Mexico, where Diidxazá is being displaced by Spanish in everyday use. It argues that caregivers' language choices and interactions get entangled in complex ways with the socio-cultural organization of everyday life and with…

Recent research on second or additional language (L2) pragmatics instruction in study abroad has incorporated the technique of encouraging students to gather data about pragmatics, for example, by asking members of the host country to complete questionnaires, practice using pragmatic features, or answer questions about pragmatics (e.g., Hernández,…

The present study conducted a critical discourse analysis and a visual analysis on 12 beginner-level Spanish textbooks. The goal of the study was to examine the representation of Afro-Latinxs and the ideologies behind these representations. The frameworks that guided the study were Fairclough's framework for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and…

In this paper we analyze the semantic and pragmatic properties of a colloquial interrogative construction attested in European Spanish, which we label invariable "qué" questions (IQQs). In doing so, we contribute to the better understanding of a relatively understudied phenomenon in Spanish, given that IQQs have been mainly approached…

This article uses cognitive measures previously developed within linguistic relativity research to explore the thinking patterns of Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children in the Yucatan peninsula. These measures were designed to detect cognitive patterns associated with specific language patterns. Here, these measures are used to test whether 12…

If maximal exposure were the key to success in language learning, then adult learners at the university level would be doomed to fail. Not only are they presumably too old to learn additional languages effectively, but target language (TL) input appears to be insufficient, especially when other languages are allowed in class. Nevertheless,…

Cross-border migration is increasing in a globalized world. On the physical borderlands, migration across and between borders occurs on a habitual basis. This qualitative study employs semi-structured interviews to explore how three "transfronterizo" teachers along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands draw on their backgrounds and lived…

Study abroad (SA) provides a space and place for second language (L2) learners to be challenged in terms of their target language skills and intercultural awareness. In order to appropriately equip learners, a task-based approach seems ideal to identify learners' specific needs (Long 2015). The present study reports a multiphase needs analysis…

The present study contributes to our understanding of the effects of age and type of linguistic input in the acquisition of Spanish as a second language in adulthood. I examine the Spanish syntax (word order) of three groups of speakers, monolingual Spanish speakers from Mexico and two bilingual English-Spanish speakers born and raised in the…

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic case study of three displaced Syrian students living in Mexico who were undergoing their university studies. Drawing upon "thirdspace" and language ideology theories this study examined how three Syrian displaced students in Mexico created spaces where they used language to construct and…

Despite the extensive research on bilingual development, our understanding of how lexical competition unfolds in the bilingual mind remains limited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on crosslinguistic competition, neglecting the examination of the competition process within each language and the influence of diverse bilingual…

This paper reports on the family language policy (FLP) of three families in a Nahuatl community in Mexico. It investigates the role of: (1) parental experiences, beliefs, attitudes and expectations; (2) child practices; and (3) broader societal attitudes in shaping these policies. Drawing on survey and interview data, the study points to a tension…

Drawing on life stories and classroom observations, this qualitative study examined how six bilingual maestras enacted and embodied critical biliteracies through bilanguaging love. These maestras were born, raised, and now teach bilingual education on the Texas-Mexico border. Their stories revealed contradictory and complex beliefs about literacy…

In recent years, the number of Mexican youth moving (back) to Mexico from the US has been steadily growing (Sanchez Garcia & Hamann, 2016; Jensen & Jacobo-Suarez, 2019). The Pew Research Center for Hispanic Studies estimates that between 2009 and 2014, roughly 1 million Mexicans and their families moved from the US to Mexico…