Lorenzo García-Amaya

Research Bio

The impetus of my research is to understand how adults who have already mastered one or more languages become fluent in a completely new language. I am keenly interested in understanding how multilinguals maintain fluency throughout their lives and how their multiple languages interact based on key principles from psycholinguistic theory. 

To address these questions, I collaborate with traditionally-instructed second language (L2) learners and multilingual speakers with minimal or no language instruction. These diverse communities have allowed me to study the interconnected facets of language acquisition.

My work on classroom-instructed L2 learners brings together three key areas: (i) the development of L2 fluency in study-abroad contexts; (ii) the examination of language use across various learning environments; and (iii) the role of audiovisual input in L2 learning. In exploring L2 fluency, I delve into how cognitive abilities, such as lexical access, attention control, and working memory, influence second-language speech development. Additionally, I examine the role of hesitation phenomena as processing mechanisms in the development of syntactic complexity.

I additionally investigate the effects of language-immersion contexts, namely the roles of language use and interaction, in second-language linguistic development. This interest has led me to develop Experience Sampling Methods, such as the Daily Language Questionnaire. Collaborating with colleagues on audiovisual-input research designs, we explore the extent to which textually enhanced captions contribute to the acquisition of novel grammatical structures and vocabulary items.

I am also a core member of an interdisciplinary collaboration examining the relationship between language and cultural identity. This project, entitled From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of displacement, investigates the Patagonian Boers, a community with roots in the South African Boers who settled in Patagonia, Argentina, during the twentieth century. Through this collaborative effort, I have studied bi-directional effects (L1-to-L2 influence, L2-to-L1 influence) in hesitation phenomena such as filled pauses.

As my research journey continues to evolve, I increasingly recognize the importance of collaboration in uncovering connections between seemingly unrelated projects. By working together, we can demystify complex topics and reveal the intricate interconnections that unite our diverse research endeavors.

Selected Recent Publications

[1] García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (Accepted). Investigating the relation between L2 pauses, syntactic complexity, and pause location: Longitudinal data from L2-Spanish study-abroad learners. Second Language Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583231152652

[2] García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2022). An investigation into utterance-fluency patterns of advanced L2 bilinguals: Afrikaans and Spanish in Patagonia. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 12(2), 163–190. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19090.gar

[3] García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2022). Exploring the connection between language use and oral proficiency during study abroad: Results from the Daily Language Questionnaire 2. Foreign Language Annals, 55(1), 198–221. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12587

[4] García-Amaya, Lorenzo & Myrna Cintrón-Valentín*. (2021). The effects of textually enhanced captions on written elicited imitation in L2 grammar. Modern Language Journal, 105(4), 919–935. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12740

[5] Cintrón-Valentín, Myrna*, & Lorenzo García-Amaya. (2021). Investigating textual enhancement and captions in L2 grammar and vocabulary: An experimental study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43(5), 1068–1093. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263120000492

[6] García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2021). A change of setting: Measuring language use in an overseas immersion context. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 6(1), 32–58. https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.19010.gar

[7] Henriksen, Nicholas, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, & Micha Fischer*. (2021). Exploring language dominance through code-switching: Intervocalic voiced stop lenition in Afrikaans-Spanish bilinguals. Phonetica, 78(3), 201–240. https://doi.org/10.1515/phon-2021-2005

[8] García-Amaya, Lorenzo & Sean Lang**. (2020). Filled pauses are susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence: Evidence from Afrikaans-Spanish bilinguals. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42(5), 1077–1015. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263120000169

[9] Szpiech, Ryan, Joshua Shapero, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina Alberto, Victoria Langland, Ellie Johandes**, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2020). Afrikaans in Patagonia: Language shift and cultural integration in a rural immigrant community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2020(266), 33–54. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-2110

[10] Henriksen, Nicholas & Lorenzo García-Amaya. (2019). Falsetto in interaction in Western Andalusian Spanish: A pilot study. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 34, 101–124.

[11] Cintrón-Valentín, Myrna*, Lorenzo García-Amaya, & Nick C. Ellis. (2019). Captioning and grammar learning in the L2 Spanish classroom. The Language Learning Journal, 47(4), 439–459. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2019.1615978

[12] García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2017). Detailing L1 and L2 use in study-abroad research: Data from the Daily Linguistic Questionnaire. System, 71, 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.09.023

Recent Courses Taught

• Spanish 418: Theories of Second Language Acquisition
• Spanish 487: Second Language Acquisition in a Study Abroad Setting
• Spanish 487: The Linguistic Reading of Literature
• Spanish 413: Teaching Methods
• Spanish 298: Introduction to Spanish Linguistics 

Research Areas(s)

• Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Oral Fluency, Psycholinguistics, Second Language Cognition, Study Abroad, Bilingualism, Andalusian Spanish, Sociophonetics

Affiliation(s)

• Romance Languages & Literatures

• Speech Production Lab