PEOPLE
Principal Investigator
Julio Torres (PhD, Georgetown University) is Professor of Spanish (Applied Linguistics & Multilingualism) in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese with courtesy appointments in the School of Education and Language Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). He directs the minor in Spanish/English bilingual education at UCI. His research interests include heritage/second language acquisition, multilingualism, cognition, and task-based language learning. His publications have appeared in venues such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition and The Modern Language Journal as well as edited volumes and handbooks. He's the co-editor of the 2022 volume Aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia with Routledge Press. He serves as an Associate Editor of the Heritage Language Journal. Professor Torres is the recipient of the 2014 Russell Campbell Young Scholar Special Recognition Award for the field of heritage language education and of the 2020 School of Humanities Teaching Award at UCI. He also works as a teacher educator with K-16 teachers/instructors in designing task-based instruction and curriculum for heritage language students.
Lab Manager
Nicole Vargas Fuentes is a doctoral student in the School of Education working with Dr. Julio Torres and Dr. Judith Kroll. Her current research focuses on the relationship between language and emotion, how it varies depending on language experience, and how it interacts with cognitive processes (e.g., memory). Research Team
Teresita Esquivel-Aguirre is a 4th-year first-generation undergraduate student majoring in Education Sciences. Her undergraduate experiences are reflective of her interests in language-learning, bilingualism, bilingual education, and everything related to languages. From interning abroad in Thailand where she taught English to Thai primary school students to providing Spanish tours for UC Irvine’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions. After the culmination of her undergraduate journey, Teresita hopes to pursue a graduate degree related to education, curriculum development, or linguistics! 
Tram Dan is a third-year first-generation undergraduate student, double majoring in Biology and Spanish. As a trilingual student and language learning enthusiast, she is interested in different methods of foreign language comprehension, such as comprehensible input and immersive approaches. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career where she can contribute to understanding the correlation between language acquisition/usage and healthcare outcomes. 
Youngsun Moon is a doctoral student in the School of Education at UCI. Her current research interests are broadly focused on literacy development of English learners (i.e., spelling) addressing difficulties of foreign language learning, and how language assessments can better inform instruction. 
Soomin Park is a 4th year international undergraduate student double majoring in Education Sciences and Language Science, with a minor in Spanish/English Bilingual Education. As someone who grew up in Guatemala, with Korean parents, attending an international school with an American curriculum, she got very interested in bilingualism and multilingualism, and its relationship with culture, identity, age, and environment. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in teaching elementary students in an international school. 
Dr. Jerry Won Lee is a Professor in the Department of English at UC Irvine. His latest books include an edited volume, The Sociolinguistics of Global Asias (Routledge, 2022) and a monograph, Locating Translingualism (Cambridge University Press, 2022), a study of the linguistic landscape of global Korea.
Aidan Wyrough is a second year Philosophy undergraduate at UCI. He is interested in bilingualism as expressed in the home and in second and third generations. Additionally, he is concerned with the process of acquisition of language undergone by recent immigrants. After graduation, he plans to attend law or graduate school. |