Mentor
Yunjuan He
Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics
Dahlonega Campus
Research Interests
Second Language Acquisition, Pedagogy, Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, Phonology
Mentor
Sarah Hubbel
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Dahlonega Campus
Research Interests
My primary research interest is centered on sociolinguistic inquiries; that is, exploring how social characteristics of people and groups of people (i.e., social networks) affect the language that they speak. For example, how does the region that you live in influence the vowel sounds you produce? Or, how does your age impact the type and frequency of adverb usage? (For example, which intensifier do young people prefer-- really, very, so, or a new adverb altogether?) Though most of my previous research experience has been in Spanish and indigenous languages, like Quechua, I am willing to assist students in their linguistic research on any language.
Current Projects
I am currently in the very beginning stages of constructing Spanish for the Professions corpora. If any student has interest in collecting spoken Spanish data in the workplace, I would be happy for them to join me!
Mentor
Giuseppe Sanfilippo
Lecturer
Dahlonega Campus
Research Interests
My research interests focus on linguistics and how people learn languages like Italian, French, and Spanish, especially if their first language is English or another Romance language. I study how learners transfer rules from their native language to the target language and develop teaching materials to help overcome common mistakes. I can guide students in understanding the challenges and strategies for learning and studying these languages, whether they are interested in linguistics or language teaching. In addition, I have broad experience teaching Italian language and culture in different countries and currently serve as the Director of Study Abroad in Italy, for 大象传媒. If students are planning to study abroad, I can also mentor them in making the most of that experience.