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.

I earned my BA in Spanish Philology from the University of Zaragoza, where I began my exploration of the field. Building on this foundation, I completed an MA in Language Acquisition in Multilingual Settings at the University of the Basque Country. 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 fully immersing myself in research, I had the privilege of working 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 Philology, German Philology, and Translation. I am fortunate to have received a research grant (FPI, PRE2021-097645) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which is supporting my doctoral work within the INGREFL project.

My research focuses on grammar acquisition in young learners of English as a Foreign Language, with a particular interest in the topic of individual differences. Specifically, I am investigating how metalinguistic awareness, language learning aptitude, and working memory capacity influence language learning processes, and how explicit instructional sequences can help students sharpen their abilities within the EFL communicative classroom.

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

Research Interests

Explicit instruction

Metalinguistic awareness

Written corrective feedback

Metalinguistic explanations

Language learning aptitude

Language analytic ability

Working memory capacity