Esperanza Roman

Activist, Blogger, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Idea generator, Technologist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Esperanza Román-Mendoza, Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics and General Linguistics, is Associate Professor of Spanish at George Mason University. She has developed interactive Web-based learning materials for language and culture courses, and for training of language teachers. She has also taught, and authored two handbooks for, courses on social web tools and Web 2.0 pedagogy. She has co-authored several textbooks and published various articles on the instructional use of Web-course management tools and social media services and is the author of Corto y cambio, a blog about instructional technology and its impact on learning and research. Esperanza Román-Mendoza collaborates with professional associations, journals and international publishers such as the American Studies Association, CALICO, Online Information Review, Miríada Hispánica, Edelsa, Edinumen, and Hueber Verlag.

When trying to learn a new language or maintain your heritage language, it is necessary to avoid partial representations of "the other", stereotypes, and other biases. Teachers and students need to become aware of how society and course materials perpetuate stereotypes and fragmented visions of culture and language.

Cultural Studies, Distance Education, eLearning, Linguistics