BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Mrak received her Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Houston. Her areas of concentration are Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition. She specializes in the Spanish of the U.S. She has presented papers and published articles on theoretical and pedagogical issues related to Spanish heritage speakers. She has had her work published in A Romance Perspective on Language Knowledge and Use, Plurilingüisme I educació: els reptes del segle XXI, Mi Lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States and Southwest Journal of Linguistics. She is currently working on ¡Conozcámonos!, a textbook designed for intermediate college-level heritage speakers of Spanish.

CLASSES TAUGHT

• SPAN 1401 / 1402 – Elementary Spanish I and II
• SPAN 2311 / 2312 – Spanish for Native Speakers
• SPAN 3320 – Professional Oral Communication
• SPAN 4310 – Spanish Linguistics