Staff Profile

I was born in Venezuela where I did a degree in Humanities (Licenciatura en Letras - Universidad Católica Andrés Bello) and studied a Marster’s Degree in Literatura Latinoamericana Contemporánea (Universidad Simón Bolívar).

20 years ago, I started teaching Literature and Language Accuracy to native Spanish speakers; first in High Schools, and later at Higher Education Level (Universidad Simon Bolivar – Caracas). 

I arrived to the UK in 2006, where I trained as a Teacher of Spanish as a Second Language in Instituto Cervantes and did a PGCert in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (Durham University). I worked for 15 years at Durham University in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures as a Module Leader for a variety of Modules and Year Abroad Coordinator.

For me, teaching is a multidirectional activity, where the views, feelings, abilities, ideas and knowledge of students and colleagues are the avenues where the learning process takes place. I think it is in this exchange with students that we can create a dynamic and inclusive learning experience.

Among my interests are:

L2 Language acquisition

Caribbean Studies and Latin American Studies

Film Studies 

Feminism and Gender Studies

Memberships and Professional Associations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

ELEUK - Association for the Teaching of Spanish in Higher Education in the United Kingdom – Member

Conference Papers

II Encuentro del Instituto Cervantes con los departamentos de español de las universidades del norte de Inglaterra, Escocia e Irlanda del Norte (16th July 2020)

UK LINGUA 2016 – Multilingual Language Learning and Teaching Colloquium (23 & 24 April 2016), Durham University. 

¿Hasta qué punto es posible ser creativo a la hora de enseñar gramática española (2015) 

ELE –UK (UK Association for the Teaching of Spanish in Higher and Adult Education) University of   Nottingham.

Using authentic videos in Language Laboratories with post A-level students (2015) 

North East Workshop in Language Learning and Teaching. Newcastle University.

La evaluación del año en el extranjero (2013) 

V encuentro de profesores de ELE en centros universitarios del Reino Unido. Instituto Cervantes, Instituto Cervantes.

Venezuela: Tierra de Gracia (June 2007)

Instituto Cervantes/Royal Grammar School, Manchester, UK.

El narrar heterogéneo de Mario Bellatin (March 2006) 

Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Mario Bellatin: Del fotomontaje al texto (October 2005)

Integrated Postgraduate Programmes in Literature. Caracas, Venezuela.

Organizer and Moderator of Cinema-Forum: Dogville (April 2005)

Simón Bolívar University / Trasnocho Cultural Cinema, Caracas-Venezuela. 

Researcher, Curator and Artist (November 2003 – June 2004)

Project: Textual and visual research: i-textual 

Exhibited in the National Library, Caracas-Venezuela. 

Book Reviews 

Exacto! A Practical Guide to Spanish. Ane Ortega; Beaven, Tita; Cecilia Garrido; Sean Scrivener. (New edition) Published by Routledge Routledge. (2017)

Access Spanish. A first language course, (1st Edition) María Utrera Cejudo, Patricia Garcia.  Published by Routledge (2017) 

Book proposal:   'Lengua y vida’ by Raysa Elena. (Routledge) (2017)