Joy K. Saunders
Dr. Joy Saunders is the department’s specialist in Spanish Linguistics, and the courses that she typically teaches include Spanish Phonetics, Contextualized Spanish Grammar, and various Seminars on the linguistic structure of the Spanish language. She also serves as Coordinator of Spanish Language Skills Courses, which include Elementary Spanish, Intermediate Spanish, Contextualized Spanish Grammar, and the various Spanish Communications courses.
Her research focuses on the study of how learners acquire Spanish as a second language. Some specfic areas that she has analyzed include: narrative structure, the use of nouns & pronouns, cohesive devices, and the use of perfective & imperfective aspect.
Dr. Saunders began her Spanish studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she received a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in Hispanic Literature. Although she enjoyed her literary studies there, her real passion has always been in the field of Spanish linguistics. She was awarded a graduate fellowship to study Spanish Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed an M.A. and a Ph.D. Her studies at UT encompassed the entire spectrum of linguistics, but focused on applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and syntax.
After leaving UT, Dr. Saunders taught a wide range of courses in Spanish language, linguistics, and second language acquisition at institutions including Texas Tech University and the University of Dallas, before coming to UALR in Fall 2006.