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’m a pre-doctoral research fellow at the LASLAB research group within the Department of English Philology, German Philology, and Translation. I’m 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 this process, 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