Expertise: Spanish heritage language learners' literacy development and collaboration mediated by social tools (i.e., Google docs, Wikis, blogs).
In class, Dr. Valentin-Rivera and her students focus on exploring the cognitive representation of the grammatical system of Spanish in the U.S., thus analyzing how differently heritage speakers process the inherent elements of the language (e.g., morphology, syntax, pragmatics, phonology and phonetics), especially when compared to native speakers.
The main focus of Dr. Valentín-Rivera’s research is literacy development, especially among heritage language learners, that is, individuals who are exposed to Spanish from birth at home.
