Summer Language Institute for Spanish Teachers
2008 SLI Faculty
Winter Session: On-Line course
Dr. Dennie Hoopingarner - Michigan State University
Dennie Hoopingarner is the Director of the Language Learning Center, and Associate Director for Technology Implementation at the Center for Language Education And Research at Michigan State University. Hoopingarner earned his M.Ed in Secondary and Adult Education at Grand Valley State University, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics at Michigan State University. He has been teaching at the college level since 1994. Previous to returning to the United States, he taught English and Chinese in the Republic of China. Hoopingarner has created numerous software programs for language teaching, applying technology and linguistic and learning theory to create innovative applications for language learning. He frequently partners with faculty in Michigan State University's Second Language Studies program to conduct research in second language acquisition using software tools for data elicitation and collection. As part of his position at Michigan State, Hoopingarner conducts workshops on the effective use of technology for language teaching for language teachers across the country and abroad.
Summer 2008 - Session 1
Dr. Scott Rex - Southern Oregon University
Scott Rex holds a PhD in Spanish Linguistics from the University of California at Davis and is currently Assistant Professor of Spanish at Southern Oregon University, where he directs the foreign language teacher education program. Previously, he directed the Self-Instructional Language Program at the University of South Alabama and developed linguistics courses for education students. He has worked in teacher training and preparation at Sacramento State University and the University of South Alabama. His research interests include theoretical syntax and second language acquisition.
Dr. Jim Cassidy - Mount Angel Seminary
Jim Cassidy is an associate professor of Spanish at Mount Angel Seminary. In addition to coordinating Mount Angel's undergraduate language program, he has worked extensively in the development and application of a range of direct and computer-mediated language assessments. He is a trainer, tester, and rater in the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test, the Peace Corps Language Proficiency Interview (LPI), and ACTFL's newly introduced computer-mediated version of the OPI (OPIc). He has conducted and collaborated in a variety of research and assessment projects involving the OPI, served as an outside evaluator of language programs & curricula, and is currently an active collaborator in the ongoing development of online oral assessments.
Dr. Howard Wescott - SUNY Fredonia
Howard B. Wescott is Professor Emeritus of Spanish at SUNY Fredonia. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University. His early work is on the poetry of Jorge Guillén and he is the translator of José Ortega y Gasset’s Meditations on Hunting. In recent years he has lectured and published on the Eclogues of Garcilaso de la Vega and other aspects of Spanish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. Before joining the faculty at Fredonia he taught at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Dr. Jeff Stokes - Weber State University
Jeff Stokes holds an M.A. in General Linguistics from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. in the Instruction of Hispanic Language and Literature from Indiana University. He has been at Weber State University for 23 years. Dr. Stokes has taught many courses in language, linguistics and pedagogy, and has conducted seminars for language teachers on the national Standards and teaching for proficiency. His main research interests are in the areas of phonetics, second language acquisition and pedagogy. He has published a number of articles, including articles co-authored with Stephen Krashen, and has published a textbook on Spanish phonetics and phonology. Professor Stokes co-founded the Golden Spike Empire Language
Dr. Anne Connor - Southern Oregon University
Anne Connor received her PhD in Spanish from Vanderbilt University and is Associate Professor of Spanish at Southern Oregon University, where she currently directs the Summer Language Institute. She teaches intermediate through advanced Spanish courses and is particularly interested in Contemporary Latin American Literature, U.S. Latino Literature and Culture, Women Writers of Latin America, and Music and Culture of Latin America.
Summer 2008 - Session2
Dr. Troy Crawford - Universidad de Guanajuato
Troy Crawford, BA (Southern Oregon University), MBA (University of Guanajuato), MS (University of Guanajuato), MA (University of London), PhD (University of Kent, Canterbury) teaches courses on discourse analysis, techniques for teaching reading, writing, and grammar, and qualitative research methods. He has published articles in the area of second language writing and co-authored Close-up (Reading Comprehension). He is an Oral Examiner for University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and an Expert Translator for the Guanajuato State Supreme Court. He is the department head of Language Studies at the University of Guanajuato.
Dr. Tom Mathews - Weber State University
Tom Mathews received his MA from Middlebury College in Madrid, Spain, and then completed a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Delaware. He has been teaching at the university level for 24 years. He taught methods and graduate courses at BYU for five years before he moved to Weber State University in 1996. At Weber State, he is now Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Tom has published articles on language teaching and assessment in Foreign Language Annals, Hispania and Connections, among other places. He has twice been president of the Utah Foreign Language Association and is currently the Utah representative on the SWCOLT Board.
Dr. Julia Wescott - Canisius College NY
Dr. Julia Wescott earned her A.B and A.M degrees in Spanish Language and Literature from Brown University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Her Ph.D. dissertation was on the novels of the Spanish novelist Juan Benet, on whom she has published various articles. In more recent years she has focused on Mexican literature and culture, and has become highly involved in Puerto Rican community affairs in Buffalo, New York, where she is Professor of Spanish at Canisius College. Throughout her career she has established and directed exchange programs in Spain and more recently Mexico. One of her current interests is Mexican crafts. With a colleague in International Business at Canisius College she markets Mexican crafts primarily to make known Mexican culture in the northeast USA. Profits from their sales defray the cost of student trips to Mexico. Her current academic interests center around interdisciplinary work in Spanish and International Business.
Dr. Francisco Cabello - Concordia College
Francisco Cabello, a native of Spain, graduated from the University of Seville and later earned his master’s degree in English at Claremont Graduate University in California and his doctorate in Spanish from the University of California at Davis. Currently he is Professor of Spanish and Hispanic Studies, and department chair at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota. He teaches language, culture and drama courses. His students at Concordia regularly stage Spanish language plays as part of their ongoing study of the culture, history, philosophy, and dramatic literature of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America. Earlier in his career, Dr. Cabello was involved in the independent theatre movement in Spain and subsequently staged Spanish language dramas at universities in California, Texas, Oregon, and West Virginia. He has also researched and published articles on renowned Spanish dramatists, and presented at the National Symposium of Theater in Academe (Washington and Lee University, 2004).
