Dr. Judy de Oliveira
Adjunct Faculty, Modern Languages
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Research Interests:
Some of my research interests include sociolinguistics, dialectology, language contact, second language acquisition and applied linguistics. My research includes work with native and heritage speakers of Spanish and Portuguese as well as studies on various linguistic phenomena in an effort to document the linguistic varieties of Portuguese and Spanish spoken in New England. Despite the salient presence of these two language groups within the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, little is known about them from a sociolinguistic perspective, and hence there is a lack of linguistic studies that yet need to be conducted. Thus, one of my prospective objectives is to fill this gap through continuous research.
Furthermore, the study and understanding of the acquisition process of adult second language learners has been important and has shed light on the development of my own pedagogical practices, strategies and methodologies that I have implemented in the classroom. My goal has been to help adult learners in the classroom understand and process linguistic structures that are challenging and different from their own native grammars so that they are able to communicate more effectively and comfortably using the target language beyond the confinements of the classroom.