Curriculum Vitae
CASILDE A. ISABELLI
Home Address Office Address
880 Lyman Ave. Foreign Languages and Literatures
Reno, Nevada 89509 241L Edmund J. Cain Hall
(775) 322-3591 Reno, NV 89557
E-mail: isabelli@unr.edu (775) 682-8917
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 2001
Fields: Spanish, Second Language Acquisition Theory and Pedagogy
Dissertation: “The impact of a study-abroad experience on the acquisition of L2 Spanish syntax: The null subject parameter.” Director: Prof. Bill VanPatten
Certificate in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. August 2001.
M.A. University of Iowa, Iowa City, May 1994
Fields: Hispanic Linguistics and Literature and Sociolinguistics
B.S. Illinois State University, Normal, May 1992
Fields: Spanish and Mathematics, focus on Computer Science
University of Illinois Excellent Teachers List (1995-1997, 1998-2000)
Associate Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics 2008-present
Visiting Associate Professor of Spanish
Department of Foreign Languages, Sonoma State University. Summer 2008.
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics 2001-2008
Department of Foreign Languages, University of Nevada, Reno
Instructor of Spanish
Department of Foreign Languages, University of Nevada, Reno, 2000-2001
Graduate Teaching Assistant of Spanish and Italian
Dept. of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1995-2000
Department of English University of Barcelona, Spain, 1997-1998
Instructor of Spanish
Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1994-1995.
Graduate Teaching Assistant of Spanish
Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1992-1994
SUPERVISING/COORDINATING POSITIONS
Department of Foreign Languages, University of Nevada, Reno, August 2001-present
Dept. of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Univ. of IL, Urbana-Champaign, 1996-1997, 1998-1999
Spring 2001 Business Spanish
Wells Fargo Bank, Reno, Nevada
Taught conversational business Spanish with a focus on banking.
1995 –1997 Graduate Research Assistant
University of Illinois, Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, Urbana, IL
Researched and developed a survey on academic differences study-abroad students face when abroad. Research, administrative, and clerical work on literature and film studies.
Fall 1997 Graduate Assistant to the Resident Director
University of Barcelona, California and Illinois Center
Director at the time: Prof. Milton Azevedo (mazevedo@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Administered oral placement interviews and evaluated writing for course placement.
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Articles
Isabelli, C. 2008. First Noun Principle or L1 Transfer Principle in SLA? Hispania 91(2): 463-476.
---. 2007. Development of the Spanish Subjunctive by advanced learners: Study-abroad followed by at-home instruction. Foreign Language Annals 40(2): 330-341.
---. 2006. Mood Selection: Northern Nevada Latinos. Academic Exchange Quarterly 10(1): 18-22.
---. 2004. The acquisition of the Null Subject Parameter properties in SLA: Some effects of positive evidence in a natural learning setting. Hispania 87: 150-162.
Selected Proceedings (Refereed)
Isabelli, Casilde A. & Nishida, C. 2005. Development of Spanish subjunctive in a nine-month study-abroad setting. Selected Proceedings of the 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages, ed. by David Eddington, 78-91. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Book Chapters (Refereed)
Isabelli, Casilde A. 2004. Study abroad for advanced foreign language majors: Optimal duration for developing complex structures. In Advanced Foreign Language Learning: A Challenge to College Programs (AAUSC series), ed. by H. Byrnes and H. Maxim, 114-130. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Invited papers in Journals
Isabelli, Casilde A. 2006. Use of Spanish among the Latino community in Northern Nevada. Border-Lines: Journal of the Latino Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno 1(1): 16-35.
Book Reviews
Isabelli, Casilde A. Review of J. Gibbons and E. Ramirez. 2004. Maintaining a Minority Language: A Case Study of Hispanic Teenagers. (NY: Multilingual Matters LTD, 240 pp.). Spanish in Context, 3(2) (2005): 273-276.
---. Review of A. Wray. 2002. Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. (UK: CUP, 332 pp.). Language Problems and Language Planning, 28(1) (2004): 85-89.
---. Review of J. Hamers and M. Blanc .2000. Bilinguality and Bilingualism 2nd Edition. (UK: CUP, 468 pp.). Language Problems and Language Planning, 26(3) (2002): 328-330.
---. Review of M. Ehrman and Z. Dornyei. 2000. Interpersonal Dynamics in Second Language Education: The Visible and Invisible Classroom. (CA: Sage Publications, 329 pp.). Language Problems and Language Planning, 24(3) (2000): 292-293.
Manuscripts under Review in Refereed Journals
• The Heritage Language speaker: reevaluating the norm in SLA research. Heritage Language Journal.
Studies in progress:
• Contextual effects in processing L2 input sentences: post target context on sentence interpretation.
Special Materials
2005 Wrote test bank (two versions for 13 exams) for Identidades (Intermediate Spanish Textbook). Prentice Hall.
Textbook Reviews (not published) for Publishers
2008 Punto y aparte (Intermediate Spanish Textbook). Third edition. McGraw-Hill.
2008 Mosáicos (Beginning Spanish Textbook). Fifth edition. Prentice Hall.
2007 Sol y viento. (Beginning Spanish Textbook). Second edition. McGraw-Hill.
2007 Mosáicos (Beginning Spanish Textbook). Fourth edition. Prentice Hall.
2006 Diálogos (Intermediate Spanish Textbook). Prentice Hall.
2006 Avanti! Spanish version (Beginning Spanish Textbook). McGraw-Hill.
2006 ˇAdelante! (Beginning Spanish Textbook). McGraw-Hill.
2003 Avanti! (Beginning Italian Textbook). McGraw-Hill.
2002 Modelos (Spanish Composition Textbook). Prentice Hall.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
October 2008. “Contextual effects in processing L2 sentences.” The Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Conference. Reno, NV.
October 21, 2006. “First Noun Principle in SLA: Transfer from L1 or Universal Strategy?” The Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
October 7, 2006. “Post target contextual effects in processing L2 input sentences.” The Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) 2006. University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
March 25, 2005.“The use of Spanish subjunctive among the Latino community in Reno, Nevada.” The 20th Conference, Spanish in the US and 5th International Conference on Spanish in Contact with Other Languages. The University of Illinois, Chicago.
July 31, 2004. “Development of the Spanish Subjunctive in Temporal Clauses by Advanced Learners: Study-Abroad Followed by At-Home Instruction.” American Association of Teachers of Spanish & Portuguese (AATSP). Acapulco, Mexico.
October 18, 2003. “Spanish Language Use in Reno, Nevada.” The 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as an L1 and L2. Special Session: Spanish in the United States. The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
October 18, 2003. “Development of Spanish Subjunctive Morphology in a Study-Abroad Setting.” The 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as an L1 and L2, with Prof. Nishida. The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
November 21, 2002. “Study-abroad: Implications for Language Programs and Language Majors.” American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Foreign Language Programs (AAUSC) session at American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Salt Lake City, UT.
October 22, 2002. “On the Nature of Multicompetence: Should L2 Learners Also be Compared to L1/L2 Bilinguals?” The 5th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as an L1 and L2. University of Iowa, Iowa City.
October 22, 2002. “Multi-competence in SLA research.” The 4th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as an L1 and L2. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
September 1999. “A New Look at the Null Subject Parameter in SLA.” The 9th Second Language Research Forum (SLRF), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
June 1999. “Acquisition of the Spanish Null Subject Parameter Properties by American L2 Learners in Spain.” The 9th Annual Conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA9), University of Lund, Sweden.
INVITED TALKS
January 12, 2007. Fundación Ortega y Gasset. Madrid, Spain. “First Noun Principle.”
January 10, 2007. Fundación Ortega y Gasset. Madrid, Spain. “How to get the most out of your study-abroad stay.”
February 16, 2006. Panelist. “The impact of the foreign accent in the classroom, in employment and the workplace, and in the wider Reno/Sparks community.” Multi Ethic Committee at UNR.
May 8, 2003. “Study abroad: One summer, one semester, or one year?” Invited lecture given at Notre Dame University, Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures.
November 2001. “Spanish second language acquisition in the study-abroad setting.” Fall Faculty Colloquium, Department of Foreign Languages.
SEMINARS ATTENDED
2008. Bill VanPatten (Texas Tech University) and Scott Tinetti (editor, McGraw-Hill publishers) be Processing Instruction training sessions on Sol y Viento 2e, via WebEx.
2006. Workshop 2: Finding Funding and Writing Wining Proposals. UNR-Sponsored Projects.
2006. Using the Wimba/VOICE Board feature on WebCT, TLT.
2005. Conducting effective classroom observations. Excellence in Teaching Program. UNR.
2005. Creating a Teaching Portfolio. Excellence in Teaching Program. UNR.
2008. Grant. ($2,068) award by the UNR Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee for work on the “Interpreting that-trace distinctions in Spanish as a heritage language” study.
2007. Grant. ($2,000) award by the Honors Undergraduate Research Award with Trevor Hartzell.
2006. Grant. ($1,400) award by the UNR Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee for work on the “First Noun Principle” study.
2006. Grant ($1,600) awarded by the UNR Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee for work on the “First Noun Principle” study.
2005. Grant ($1,500) awarded by The Latino Research Center to carry out a sociolinguistic study on Latinos in Reno
1997. Scholarship to go on graduate student exchange for one year to the University of Barcelona to teach English and carry out research. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
· Basic and Intermediate levels of Spanish language (UIUC, UMN, UI, UNR)
www.unr.edu/cla/fll/BSLP/BSLP.html
· Spanish Composition (UIUC, UNR) SPAN 305, 306
· Spanish Phonetics (UNR) SPAN 312
www.unr.edu/cla/fll/isabelli/SPAN312/SPAN312.html
· Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (UNR) SPAN 441/641
www.unr.edu/cla/fll/isabelli/SPAN441/SPAN441.html
· Introduction to Romance Applied Linguistics (UNR) FLL 455/655
www.unr.edu/cla/fll/isabelli/FLL455655/FLL455655.html
Graduate
· Methods in Teaching of Foreign Languages (UNR) FLL 703 www.unr.edu/cla/fll/isabelli/FLL703/FLL703.html
www.unr.edu/cla/fll/BSLP/BSLP.html
Joanna Slapska-Gelleri, Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at UNR (2004-2005). Did not serve on defense due to her defending during the summer when I was away. “False recognition with mixed language lists: Lexical code switching and verbatim/Gist processing in Spanish/English bilinguals”
Adine Holbrook (M.A., Spanish, in progress, UNR). Chair.
Jayme Miller (M.A., in progress, UNR). Member.
Megan Nohr (M.A. School Counseling, in progress, UNR). Member.
Melissa Pringle (M.A. Spanish, 2008, UNR). Member.
Audry Martin (M.A. Speech Communication 2006, UNR). Member. Department of Speech Comm.
Elisa M. Storke (M.A. TESOL 2005, UNR). Member. Department of Educational Specialties.
Vanessa Burch (M.A. Spanish 2004, UNR). Member. Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
SENIOR HONORS THESES COMMITTEES
Trevor Hartzell. Chair. (B.A. in progress, UNR). In progress.
Rebekah Kreiger. Chair. (B.A. 2003, UNR). A comparison of Spanish and South American Literature During the 19th Century
UNDERGRADUATE INDEPENDENT STUDIES
Heather Naut (2006) Ladino: A dialogue on the history of the language and its connection to the Spanish speaking world and Jewish population.
Mihaela Neagos (2005) Contemporary Social Issues of the Multilingual Communities: Europe and US.
María Luquin (2004) Day of the Dead.
Erin Michaud (2004). Grammar Review. Met once a week.
2008 - Consultant Evaluator for Yale University Press (Reviewed textbook Contornos del habla)
- Consultant Evaluator for Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Journal. (article)
- Upward Bound Workshop. Presented a 90-minute workshop for 22 high school students who are part of the UNR Upward Bound program on Spanish Phonology and Phonetics.
- HURA review panel. Reviewed 26 six-page Honor’s Undergraduate Research Award ($2,500) proposals and ranked them for the Office of Undergraduate Research in collaboration with the Honor’s Program.
- Foreign Language Bowl. Judge for Italian language portion of High School competition.
- World Languages Training Advisory Board Member for McGraw-Hill Publishers. Train instructors at other institutions with McGraw-Hill World Languages learning materials.
2007 - Annual Evaluation Committee – member, Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures.
2006 - HURA review panel. Reviewed 27 proposals for the Honors Undergraduate Research Awards
- Consultant Evaluator for Hispania (Peer reviewed journal)
- Latino Research Center – Member of the Steering Committee
2005-06 - Served as a liaison with the Latino Community in Reno, Nevada.
2005 - Japanese Lecturer Search Committee UNR, member
- Was invited to serve in three-day Introductory Spanish Symposium for McGraw-Hill.
- Invited guest speaker, Prof. Bill VanPatten (Professor at Univ. of Illinois, Chicago).
2004-present
- Network of Faculty for Undergraduate Research UNR (NFUR), member
2004 - Japanese Lecturer Search Committee, Assisted the German Lecturer Search. UNR
2003 - Invited guest speaker, Prof. Andrew Farley (Assistant Professor at Notre Dame University)
2002 - Assessment Committee member – Spanish Section, FLL, UNR
- Certificate of Translation Committee UNR
- Spanish Lecturer Search Committee UNR
- Served in Focus Groups for Prentice Hall and McGraw-Hill
2000-04 - Book Reviewer - Language Problems & Language Planning Journal
2000 - Proofreader - for Spanish Applied Linguistics Journal
• American Association for Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP)
• American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
• American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Foreign Language Programs (AAUSC)
• Linguistic Association of the Southwestern States (LASSO)
• South West Organization of Language Teachers (SWCOLT)
English: Native speaker
Italian: Near-native speaker
Spanish: Near-native speaker