- Ph.D., with distinction, Georgetown University, 2010
- M.S., Georgetown University, 2007
- B.A., Marquette University, 2005
Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Research
I specialize in the field of instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), which studies how additional languages (L2s) are acquired in instructed contexts (classrooms, immersion programs, etc.), and what can be done to maximize learning outcomes. My research expands our understanding of variables that may affect L2 learning using distinct and complementary approaches, including but not limited to cognitive-interactionist approach and complex dynamic systems theory, usage-based and variationist lenses, and psycholinguistic methods.
A cornerstone of my research is ensuring that the data I collect are impactful beyond academia. My work directly informs L2 learning opportunities in elementary, high school, and university contexts in our Bloomington and greater Indiana communities, contributes to national and international conversations on instructed second language acquisition and task-based language teaching (TBLT), and almost all occurs in collaborative engagement with students at undergraduate and graduate levels, within and beyond the classroom. I am committed to sharing my work via open access on IRIS-database.org, OASIS-database.org, and via the open-access educational resource site that I founded and direct, the TBLT Language Learning Task Bank, tblt.indiana.edu.
Teaching
I teach two undergraduate courses regularly: Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics (HISP-S326), and the Acquisition of Spanish (HISP-S430). For the former course, I co-authored a textbook with faculty colleagues Díaz-Campos and Geeslin (Introducción y aplicaciones contextualizadas a la lingüística hispánica, Wiley Blackwell, 2017) and, with former students Daniel Jung (Wake Forest University), Carly Carver (Augusta University), and Nofiya Denbaum-Restrepo (Minnesota State University), collaboratively designed a task-based companion set of materials for use with the textbook.
The graduate courses I teach include L2 teaching methodology and curriculum design (HISP-S517), the required training course for all our associate instructors, as well as seminars in second language acquisition including Task-Based Language Teaching and Learning (TBLT), Individual Differences (IDs), ISLA Research Methods, the Acquisition of L2 Spanish in Instructed Contexts, and Second Language Acquisition for Spanish Teaching, an online course for Indiana high school Spanish teachers that I co-designed with Josh Prada at Groningen University.
Service
My largest professional service involvements are as President of the International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching (iatblt.org), as Secretary General of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (aila.info), and as co-founder/co organizer of AILA Ibero-America (AIALA; with Kyria Finardi). I also serve as co-editor (with Nina Spada) Language Learning and Language Teaching book series (John Benjamins) and on the editorial boards of the journals TASK (John Benjamins), Studies in Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (SSLT), and the book series Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (John Benjamins). Additionally, I founded and direct the TBLT Task Bank, an open-access repository for task-based materials (tblt.indiana.edu).