Assistant Lecturer in Spanish / Spanish at Secondary Schools Programme Co-ordinator
- BA (English Studies – University of Oviedo, Spain)
- MA (Applied Linguistics. Teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language – Nebrija University, Spain)
- MA (Bilingualism – Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
- DEA (Hispanic Linguistics – University of Oviedo, Spain)
- PhD Candidate (Applied Linguistics – University of London, UK)
Profile
Mr. Acosta joined HKU in 2011 after having taught at the Universities of Leicester (UK), Oviedo (Spain) and Massachusetts at Amherst (USA). He also worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Leeds (UK) and has been a guest lecturer at Universities in Italy, Greece, Malta, and Spain, where he has contributed to training programmes for prospective teachers of Spanish.
His academic interests and research areas are Spanish language teaching and teacher training, Spanish in the US and Hong Kong (with a particular focus on bilingualism and heritage language acquisition), and the implementation of content-based language programmes in educational institutions through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). He is also interested in the development of autonomous learning programmes, the implementation of reflective self-assessment practices in language learning and the development of technology-based materials for language teaching. He is an accredited examiner for the DELE exams (the Spanish official proficiency exams, issued by the Instituto Cervantes) and occasionally acts as a supervisor of MA dissertations for the Masters in Applied Linguistics (Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language) and the Masters in Bilingual Teaching for Primary and Secondary School Teachers at Nebrija University (Spain). He has acted as reviewer for journals such asEducational Research.
Since January 2014 he has also been serving as co-ordinator for the Spanish at Secondary Schools Programme with a joint appointment as part-time lecturer at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Hong Kong.
Teaching responsibilities (2015-16)
- SPAN 2021 The Sounds of Spanish: An Introduction to Spanish Phonetics and Pronunciation
- SPAN 2028 Spanish for Professional Purposes
- SPAN 3001-02 Spanish III
- SPAN 3026 Spanish in Latin America and Bilingualism in the U.S.
- SPAN 3027 Developing Autonomy in Spanish Language Learning
- SPAN 4001 Spanish IV (Final year)
Publications
Articles in peer-reviewed journals:
- Acosta Court, Á. (Forthcoming) "The language of the speaker of inheritance as different idiosyncratic dialect of the interlanguage of non-native speaker, or why the student inheritance needs a differentiated classroom instruction in Spanish."
- Acosta Court, Á. (Under review) "Characterization of speech the speaker of heritage and the role of explicit instruction and focus on how the (re) acquisition of the heritage language".
- Acosta Corte, Á. (2012) “Heritage speakers of Spanish. How can research help in teaching them?”, Vida Hispánica, 45, pp.10-16.
Articles in conference proceedings:
- Acosta Court, Á. (2013) "The acquisition and development of linguistic heritage speakers: a case study based on action research in the classroom." Nebrija I Proceedings of Congress in Applied Linguistics Language Teaching: In Road to Multilingualism. Nebrija Journal of Applied Linguistics.
- Acosta Court, Á. (2013) "Children of Spanish speakers abroad: heritage speakers who acquire Spanish surrounded by other languages." Proceedings of the Second Congress of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language in Asia Pacific (CELEAP), pp.131-44.
Book reviews:
- Acosta Corte, Á. (2012) “A review on Language Use and Language Learning in CLIL Classrooms (ed. by C. Dalton-Puffer, T. Nikula and U. Smit)”. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15 (5), pp. 621-24.
Selected conference papers, guest lectures and workshops:
- June 2015. "The Language Profile Bilingual Latinos in Spanish classes Study Abroad Programs". First International Congress of the Spanish Study Abroad Programs (Franklin Institute, UAH - Alcala de Henares, Madrid).
- May 2015. “Spanish in Contact with English as the Mainstream Language in Society, or as a Lingua Franca. The Case of a Group of Transitional Bilinguals”. Languages in the Globalised World (Leeds Beckett University – Leeds, UK).
- June 2014. “The Development of Autonomy in Foreign Language Learning. Experiential Learning through a Capstone Course in Higher Education”. Doing Research in Applied Linguistics 2 / Independent Learning Association Conference 2014 (King Mongkut’s University of Technology and Macquire University – Bangkok, Thailand).
- November 2013. “Spanish in the U.S., Spanglish and Code-Switching as Morphosyntactic and Sociolinguistic Phenomena”. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Guest Lecture).
- July 2013. "The horizontal development of communicative competence through a hybrid course dialectología and ELE in blended-learning methodology." VIII International Congress of the Asian Association of Spanish scholars (Shanghai - China).
- July 2013. "Analysis of the interlanguage of a group of heritage speakers to discursive lexical level, morphosyntactic and. Implications for teaching Spanish bilingual ". 4th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society and 6th International Conference of Hispanic Linguistics (Birkbeck, University of London - UK).
- June 2013. "From Spain to Latin America, from Latin America to the United States and the United States back to Spain. Teaching bilingual Spanish who want to finish purchase, repurchase and / or literate in their mother tongue. " III International Congress of the Spanish in Castilla y Leon: The Spanish Global (Salamanca - Spain).
- June 2013. "The Spanish in the United States and its teaching bilingual heritage speakers". Menendez Pelayo International University (UIMP). Santander - Spain (Guest lecture).
- September 2012. "The acquisition and development of linguistic heritage speakers of Spanish: a case study based on action research in the classroom." I Nebrija Congress in Applied Linguistics Language Teaching: In Road to Multilingualism (Madrid - Spain).
- July 2012. "American heritage speakers of Spanish classes as a second language in Spain. What should I tell the teacher? ". XLVII International Congress of Teachers of Spanish AEPE (Gijón - Spain).
- November 2011. "Children of Spanish speakers abroad: language development of heritage speakers who acquire Spanish surrounded by other languages." II Congress of the Spanish Language Teaching in Asia-Pacific (CELEAP) (Manila - Philippines).
- May 2011. "Errare Humanum Est. The role of mistakes in the interlanguage of second language learners and error analysis as a tool in the language classroom." University of Malta (Guest lecture).
- May 2011. "The role of motivation and affective factors in learning Spanish Foreign Language". University of Malta (Guest lecture).
- May 2011. "The teaching of pronunciation and the role of phonetics in the language classroom." University of Malta (Guest lecture).
- April 2011. "cognitive and affective language learning in Variables. Findings in cognitive styles and individual differences between learners. " National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - Greece (Guest lecture).
- April 2011. "The Common European Framework of Reference and the Cervantes Institute Curriculum: Standards for teaching - learning Spanish." National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - Greece (Guest lecture).
- June 2010. "The speakers of Spanish heritage: a new reality in the language classroom." I International Conference on Bilingual Teaching in Educational Institutions (Madrid - Spain).
- April 2010. "The Erasmus program in England: An Introduction to the educational system and the English way of life". University of Salerno - Italy (Invited talk).
- April 2010. "This morning sung the man who sang the day I sang: last expression in Spanish". Università di Salerno - Italy (Guest lecture).
- April 2010. "The imperfect in Spanish: a grammatical reflection for linguists and future teachers of Spanish". Università di Salerno - Italy (Guest lecture).
- November 2009. “How students learn vocabulary: from the never-ending lists of words to new trends in the teaching of vocabulary”. Aimhigher – Education Leeds (UK).
Contact details
Álvaro Acosta Corte Assistant Lecturer in Spanish HKU Spanish at Secondary Schools Programme Co-ordinator School of Modern Languages and Cultures 521, 5/F, Run Run Shaw Tower – Centennial Campus The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Tel. (+852) 3917 1072 E-mail: