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I was an undergraduate theology major at the University of Dallas and theology is an area that still interests me. I enjoy reading Thomas Aquinas and Augustine, although I haven't done much of that lately. However, during my freshman year I took beginning Spanish. By the time I was a senior I was relatively proficient in Spanish, but even more important for my professional carreer was not my proficiency in Spanish, but my fascination with language learning. To make a long story short, I became intrigued by language. How did it work? How does a baby acquire language so easily and adults struggle to communicate effectively in a second language? How are languages similar? How are languages different? As I took more language courses (French, German, Latin, Portuguese -- none of which I ever mastered completely), I became more convinced that I should devote my professional life to language. I completed a Master's degree in Spanish at Texas A&M in 1994. I decided to pursue linguistics for my PhD at Purdue University. I have several interests in the field of linguistics (syntax, sociolinguistics, historical), but it was language acquisition and second language pedagogy that became my primary field of inquiry for my PhD (completed in 1999). These days I divide my research between the following areas:
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