Paloma Delgado-Garza

I am Paloma, a PhD candidate in Language Acquisition under the supervision of Professor Dr María del Pilar García Mayo at the University of the Basque Country (EHU). My research focuses on grammar acquisition in young learners of English as a Foreign Language, with a particular interest in individual differences. Specifically, I investigate how individual variables such as metalinguistic awareness and language learning aptitude influence learning processes, and how explicit instructional sequences embedded within a Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) framework can help students sharpen these abilities in the EFL communicative classroom.

I earned my BA in Spanish Philology from the University of Zaragoza. Building on this foundation, I completed an MA in Language Acquisition in Multilingual Settings at the University of the Basque Country (EHU). I also got an MA in Education Training for Professional, Secondary, and Language Teachers specialising in English as a Foreign Language at the University of Zaragoza.

Prior to becoming a full-time researcher, I worked as a Spanish as a Foreign Language teacher in various organisations and as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in private language schools throughout Spain, which helped me develop a more nuanced understanding of foreign language teaching and pedagogy. Currently, I am a pre-doctoral research fellow at the LASLAB research group within the Department of English and German Philology and Translation and Interpreting Studies. I received a research grant (FPI, PRE2021-097645) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which supported my doctoral work within the INGREFL project. I have also been part of a Basque Government grant for established research groups (IT1426-22) and am currently involved in a national project (PID2024-155759NB-I00) which expands on our group’s previous findings.

As part of my PhD, I completed a research stay (March-July 2025) at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) under the supervision of Dr Christine Möller-Omrani, Dr Monika Bader and Dr Kaja Haugen. Since 2023, I have served as Web Content Manager at the Early Language Learning Research Association (ELLRA), and in 2026 I joined its Executive Committee as Communications Coordinator. I have also been a reviewer for the journals Language Teaching for Young Learners, Language Teaching Research, Language Awareness, Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics and Journal of English Studies, as well as for an edited Springer volume.

I am always open to exchanging new ideas and collaborating with fellow researchers and educators who share the same passion for these matters as I do. You can contact me at paloma.delgado@ehu.eus 🙂

Research Interests

Explicit instruction

Task-Based Language Teaching

Metalinguistic awareness

Written corrective feedback

Metalinguistic explanations

Language learning aptitude

Language analytic ability

Affective factors