Dr. Paul Mandell
Dr. Paul Mandell
Associate Professor of SpanishHistory, Humanities, and LanguagesBiography
Dr. Mandell holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Applied Linguistics and a certificate in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He also holds a B.A. in Latin American Cultural Anthropology and Spanish and an M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics from Emory University. He has taught at the following institutions: Emory University (Lecturer), DeKalb College, University of Wyoming, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Houston Main, and Houston Baptist University.
Degrees Earned
Doctorate degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D. ) in Spanish (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996)
Courses Taught
- SPAN 1401 Elementary Spanish I
- SPAN 1402 Elementary Spanish II
- SPAN 2301 Intermediate Spanish I
- SPAN 2302 Intermediate Spanish II
- SPAN 3360 Spanish Grammar
- SPAN 4365 Teaching Spanish
Experience Qualifications
Dr. Mandell holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Applied Linguistics (with a concentration in Spanish syntax and second language acquisition). His dissertation reported a study he conducted in the fields of theoretical linguistics, second language acquisition and Spanish syntax; the results of which were subsequently published in the journals Spanish Applied Linguistics and Second Language Research. He has over 30 years of experience teaching Spanish, linguistics, and second language acquisition. In August 2014, Dr. Mandell published the co-authored work The Development of Spanish as a Second Language: A Guide for Teachers in the prestigious McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series and in 2001 he coauthored the volume The Communicative Classroom by invitation of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese as one of this national organization’s Professional Development Series.
More Information
Dr. Mandell research interests include questions regarding Universal Grammar and its accessibility in adult second language acquisition, verb movement, and the processing of morphology by L2 learners of Spanish. He has presented work related to this research at the annual meetings of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) and the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL).
Books Published:
- Ballman, T.L. & Mandell, P.B. (2014). The Development of Spanish as a Second Language: A Guide for Teachers. Second Language Professional Series. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Ballman, T.L, Liskin-Gasparro, J., & Mandell, P.B. (2001). The Communicative Classroom. American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Professional Development Series. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Refereed Articles Published:
- Mandell, P.B. (2013). Do L2 Spanish learners attend to verb morphology? The TFLTA Journal, 4, pp. 20-28.
- Mandell, P.B. (2002). On the background and motivation of students in a Basic Spanish Language Program. Foreign Language Annals, 35 (5) 530-542.
- Mandell, P.B. (1999). On the reliability of grammaticality judgment tests in second language acquisition research. Second Language Research, 15, pp. 73-99.
- Mandell, P.B. (1998). The V-movement parameter: Syntactic properties and adult L2 learners of Spanish. Spanish Applied Linguistics, 2, pp. 169-197.
Grants applied for:
- July, 2014, Urban Deserts & Oases, co-researcher with Kirk L. Hagen, Edmund Cueva, Edwin Padilla, Deborah Shelley, National Endowment for the Humanities.
Grants awarded:
- January, 2011, Organized Research Committee Grant, First Noun Principle (FNP) vs. Verb Morphology (VM) Project, University of Houston-Downtown
- November, 1999, Faculty Research Initiation Grant, Grammaticality Judgment and Reaction Times Project, University of Houston
- Spring, 1997, Basic Research Grant, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Wyoming