My name is Bouchra and I am a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Linguistics minoring in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, and a Graduate Associate in Teaching for the department of Spanish and Portuguese. 

At the UofA, I am a Graduate Assistant at the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and a member of the Arizona Applied Phonetics Psycholinguistics Lab. Furthermore, I have worked as a Spanish Basic Language Program coordinator, and Co-coordinator & member of the Committee of the Annual Graduate and Professional Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature Language and Culture, as well as the Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics Working Group (HLLWG). Finally, I have volunteered as Editorial Assistant for the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Editorial, and assisted our Study Abroad Program in Liberia, Costa Rica during the second session of Summer 2023. 

My areas of interest include:

• Bilingualism (perception and production): focus on Spanish-Arabic & Spanish-English in contact.

• Morphological processing: structure of the L2 mental lexicon.

• Second Language Acquisition and Teaching: focus on Heritage Language Learning and Teaching.

• Translation Studies and Language Program Development, Direction and Evaluation. 

I graduated from the University of Alicante (Alicante, Spain) in 2018 with a BA in Translation and Interpretation. My working languages are English, French, Catalan and Arabic, and my thesis was focused on the Interpretation of Spanish Sign Language in songs. During my undergraduate studies I completed an academic exchange at Queen's University Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Upon graduation, I was lucky to be awarded with a scholarship to perform as a Spanish Cultural and Language Assistant in Illinois College, US. During this academic year I found my passion for education; offering language practice and exposure to the culture and perspectives of Spanish speakers and serving as a bridge between the institution and the Spanish-speaking population in the local community.

During my senior year I worked as an interpreter in conferences and completed an internship interpreting for the Hospital General Universitario de Alicante. At the same time, I worked as a translator for the International Project Management Office in Alicante. Nevertheless, my real passion is learning new languages, reading, and writing for fun!

Education

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• PhD., Hispanic Linguistics, University of Arizona (minor in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching)

• Language Program Administration Certificate (in progress)

• MA., Hispanic Linguistics, University of Arizona

• B.A., Translation and Interpretation (English, French, Arabic and Catalan)

• Guest Non-Degree seeking in Illinois College

• Erasmus academic exchange (English in Transition, Language in the Media, Broadcasting and Identity and French Noir), Queen’s University Belfast

• ​Court Interpreter Training Institute Certificate