Weinberg College welcomes Assistant Professor of Instruction Irene Finestrat Martinez to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese! Martinez recently answered a few questions about her research and what inspired her to pursue her area of study.
Where are you from? Where did you study?
I am originally from Alicante, a small city on the east coast of Spain. I got my bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Alicante. Then, I moved to Chicago, where I obtained a master’s and PhD in language acquisition and bilingualism from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
What inspired you to pursue your area of study?
One of the main reasons that I was drawn to the study of second language acquisition and bilingualism was my personal experience as a language learner. I have studied as many as four different languages as an adult, namely Catalan, English, German and Portuguese. Through these various classroom experiences, I noticed that communicating in a different language was very challenging for me, while others in my class seemed to learn the language with relative ease and great success. As a result of these experiences, I was curious to understand what makes a good language learner and how the skills that we bring into the classroom mediate our language learning journey. As we all know, being able navigate different languages and cultures is an instrumental 21 st century skill. Thus, with this information, I aim to develop best teaching practices that will give opportunities to all students to acquire world languages in the way that works best for them.
Please describe your research.
My research examines how languages are acquired, processed, and used, among late-learners as well as bilingual populations. In particular, I am interested in exploring the unique language skills that individuals bring to the task of learning languages and how these mediate language learning in the classroom context as well as in the study abroad or immersion setting. In addition, I use this information to develop a teaching approach that leverages learners’ strengths and fosters language acquisition.
What are you working on right now that excites you the most?
I am part of the Chicago chapter of the Bilingualism Matters research group, an initiative aimed at making accessible to the general public some of the insights about multilingualism that have been developed through empirical research. We are currently working on developing training materials to disseminate information about language bias and linguistic discrimination in the university setting. We hope that this training will contribute to the development of a welcoming and nurturing environment where every student, faculty, and staff member feels respected and has the tools to thrive.
What is most fulfilling to you about teaching?
In my opinion, one of the most fulfilling parts of teaching Spanish is following students’ journey in their proficiency, from learning about numbers and colors to expressing complex thoughts and ideas in a whole new language. However, languages are much more than just the words that are spoken, a language is also the culture and community where meaning is created, and exploring different cultural perspectives of the Spanish-speaking world is a central part of my classes. In this regard, I really enjoy seeing how, by taking a language class like Spanish, students start to expand their horizons, develop a rich and flexible cultural framework, and realize how this global awareness is a fundamental skill for their career readiness.
What’s a fun fact that you want to share with the Northwestern community?
When I moved to Chicago, back in 2014, I had no idea that Chicago was such a big city, nor had I ever seen the snow before in my life, being from a small city that seats on the Mediterranean Sea. My first winter was an interesting surprise!