Current: - Mark Amengual is a Ph.D. candidate in the Hispanic Linguistics Program at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. in English Philology from the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Majorca (Spain), and his M.A in Hispanic Linguistics from The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests involve bilingual speech production and perception, language contact and laboratory approaches to phonology. His dissertation examines cross-linguistic influence in the production and perception of highly proficient early Spanish-Catalan bilinguals. In addition to his research duties, he enjoys playing and coaching tennis, traveling, live music and breakfast tacos.
- Karen Barto-Sisamout grew up in Michigan, where she got her B.A. with a French major and German minor. She then came to the University of Arizona for an M.A. in French and Francophone literatures, where she began teaching French and developing interests in linguistics and pedagogy as well. She subsequently did an M.A. in ESL Pedagogy in a program that combined linguistics, sociolinguistics and pedagogy coursework, which solidified her interest in second language acquisition and led to her entering the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (GIDP SLAT). Her linguistic interests revolve around English as a Second or Foreign Language, Lao and other tone languages. Currently, Karen in working on her dissertation, which examines intonational production in English by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. She works under the direction of Janet Nicol, Miquel Simonet and Natasha Warner.
- Joseph Casillas was born in Phoenix, Arizona and has lived in Washington State and Cádiz, Spain. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Western Washington University and his M.A. in Spanish Philology from Middlebury College Sede Prim in Madrid, Spain. He currently teaches Phonetics in the Spanish for Heritage Learners Program at the University of Arizona. His M.A. thesis research, directed by professor Miquel Simonet, explores the perceptual abilities of early Spanish-English bilinguals on English-specific vowel contrasts. In general, his interests involve second language learning, experimental phonetics, formal syntax and Casio watches.
- Brian Funk is a Master’s student in the Hispanic Linguistics Program at the University of Arizona Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interests are centered on using psycholinguistic methods to study language structure, language use, and language development. For example, he is using psycholinguistic methods in the Lab to document the acoustics of a non-standard, informal style of Spanish spoken in the US Southwest as part of his Master’s thesis, directed by professor Miquel Simonet. A fundamental goal of his research is to better understand how the brain and the mind work together to establish meaning and understanding through language.
- Marta Ramírez was born in the city of Palma, Majorca, Spain and has lived in Madrid (Spain), London (England) and Austin (Texas). She received her B.A. in English Philology from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain. She is currently working towards her M.A. in Spanish Linguistics at the University of Arizona. Her linguistic interests fall within sociolinguistics, phonetics and syntax. Her M.A. thesis explores variation in the perception and production of palatal laterals and palatal fricatives in Majorcan Catalan and is directed by professor Miquel Simonet.
- Miquel Simonet was brought up in the island of Majorca and has lived in Southern France, Madrid and the US. Miquel is the director of the lab. He is Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese of the University of Arizona and is affiliated with the GIDP in SLAT. He received his Ph.D. in Romance Linguistics from the University of Illinois and joined the University of Arizona in 2008. He routinely teaches phonetics, historical and comparative linguistics, experimental methods and second language speech learning. His research is mostly concerned with laboratory approaches to Iberian Romance phonology, bilingual speech performance, second language speech learning, and sound change. Miquel enjoys hiking, traveling, watching documentaries and reading good novels. (On leave from the University of Arizona: AY 2011-2012)
Past: - Miriam Díaz grew up in
the town of Zarautz, in the Basque Country. She got her B.A. in English
Philology at the Universidad de Deusto and her M.A. in Hispanic
Linguistics at the University of Arizona. She finished her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT: "L2 and L3 acquisition of the Portuguese stressed vowel inventory by native speakers of English," 2010) at the University of
Arizona under the direction of professors Natasha Warner, Miquel Simonet and Ana M. Carvalho. Miriam's research interests include the acquisition of the
sound systems of second and third languages, the interrelation between
L2 speech perception and production, the development of L1, L2 and L3
phonetic categorization, cross-linguistic speech perception and
production, and multilingualism and phonetics in general. She is currently Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at Concordia University, Montréal.
- Kaytee Cobb is one of the rarest breeds of human: a native
Arizonan, born and raised. She grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, but then moved
to the University of Arizona (Tucson) to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in
Religious Studies, and a M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics
(successfully defended in May 2009). Kaytee finished her M.A. with a thesis entitled "La pronunciación de las vocáles átonas del español," under the direction of professor Miquel Simonet. Kaytee’s research interests lie on
the science side of Hispanic Linguistics, more specifically phonetics and
phonology (and syntax). Kaytee moved to Oregon after completion of her M.A.
- Daniela Teoc collaborated with the team while she was an undergraduate research assistant (Fall 2009) working
towards Independent Study credit under professor Miquel Simonet. She conducted acoustic analyses of Spanish vowels produced by different groups of speakers. Daniela is from
Romania and majored in Hispanic linguistics at the University of
Arizona. She is currently (from Fall 2011) a graduate student in the M.A. program in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Arizona.
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