Key details
Esther Mediero Durán
PhD Researcher
I am passionate about language learning. As an adolescent, I realised languages helped me develop a more flexible mind and attitude towards other views of the world. What is more important, speaking a foreign language pushed my otherwise limited perspective and allowed to explore new boundaries. The path to becoming a legal translator taught me the beauty of language and soft skills which allowed me to face the real world challenges.
During my career as a teacher, I have worked and learnt about educational systems in USA, UK, France and Spain in varied educational contexts for adults (tertiary and higher education), teenagers and children.
I have experience in curriculum design of new subjects at higher education and as a debate coach for MEP (Model of European Parliament). I have a good eye for detail and strive for excellence. I have acted as an external assessor in official selection of candidates.
I am currently researching the influence of the educational setting on second language learning and in particular how interfaces (semantic, syntactic and discourse) are acquired.
Responsibilities within the university
Bilingualism and second language acquisition have attracted the interest of comparative and generative linguists who study how learners acquire different syntactic alignments (e.g. agreement, case marking, word order) in their mother tongue and the target language (Liceras and Diaz 1999; Buring 1997; Zubizarreta 1998). The difference in flexibility of word orders in English and Spanish is an area of difficulty for L2ers of English but has not been sufficiently explored in the literature (Rutherford, 1989). I will analyse the acquisition of word order: an interface phenomenon governed by focus, information structure and the transitivity pattern of the verb in different educational settings.
Supervisory team includes:
Awards
CAROLE Scholarship
Recent publications
Mediero Durán, M.ª Esther. 2021. “To Be or Not to Be Bilingual, That is the Question”. Poster presentation at ENROPE Online Study Phase #3. Online Symposium by University of Siegen and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
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http://www.uam.es/proyectosinv/treacle/Publications/MacDonaldetal-Error.pdf