- 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.
My ongoing research can be categorized in the following ways:
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, 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 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 current and former students Daniel Jung (University of Indianapolis), 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 (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 Multiple Educational Contexts, and Second Language Acquisition for Spanish Teaching, an online course I co-designed with Josh Prada at IUPUI for Indiana high school Spanish teachers.
Service
My largest professional service involvements are on the Executive Boards of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), where I serve as Secretary General, and am co-founder/co organizer of AILA Ibero-America (AIALA). I also serve on the Executive Board of the International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching, the editorial boards of TASK journal (John Benjamins) and Research in Applied Linguistics books series (John Benjamins), and I am a series editor for Language Learning and Language Teaching (John Benjamins).