Mariela Lopez Conference Summary

Mariela Lopez

Ph.D. Candidate

Second Language Acquisition & Teaching GIDP

International Symposium on Bilingualism

Alberta, Canada

June 23-28, 2019

I received the Herbert E. Carter Award in the Summer of 2019. This opportunity allowed me to participate in 12th edition of the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB), celebrated at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The ISB is an international academic event that brings together scholars who study bilingualism across different disciplines to share their original work.

At the ISB 12, I presented a talk entitled, “Sociophonetic Variation in the L1 affects L2 Phonological Development.” In this presentation, I shared the results obtained from the third study in my dissertation project. In this study, I explored the effects on life-long dialect experience on the acquisition of nonnative sounds. More specifically, the study investigates the effects of language experience on the acquisition of English sounds by Sonoran Spanish speakers. The presentation was very well received among the audience. In addition, I had the opportunity to discuss my results and exchange ideas with graduate students and faculty members from national and international institutions.

My participation at the 12th edition of the International Symposium on Bilingualism was crucial for my academic and professional development. Most importantly, however, by presenting my work at the ISB 12, the University of Arizona became the first institution to address the question of dialect experience and language processing with a Mexican dialect at an international event.