Biography
Dr. Fernández Dobao is a Professor in the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Department and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Linguistics. She is the Director of the UW Spanish Language Program and a core faculty member of the Graduate Certificate in Second and Foreign Language Teaching.
Dr. Fernández Dobao’s area of specialization is applied linguistics with a focus on second language acquisition, heritage language learning, and foreign language pedagogy. In her research, she explores second and heritage language learning in instructed settings. She is currently working on a project that examines positioning practices and language learning opportunities in the interaction between second and heritage language learners in mixed classes. She is also collaborating in a study on the acquisition of the minority language by children in a Spanish/English dual immersion setting.
ResearchGate website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ana-Fernandez-Dobao
Google scholar website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5YnXsYsAAAAJ&hl=en
Research
Selected Research
- Fernández Dobao, A., Herschensohn, J., Vukadinovich, S., & Zhang, W. (2025). Gender and number agreement by Spanish heritage and second language children in dual immersion. Heritage Language Journal, 22(1), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1163/15507076-bja10043
- Alonso Alonso, R. & Fernández Dobao, A. (2025). Adolescents’ informal exposure to English as a second language in the context of Galicia: Effects on vocabulary, grammar, and writing. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 176(1), 76–110. https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.23010.alo
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2024) Discursive positioning in heritage-second language learner interaction: A case study of the dynamic construction of linguistic expertise. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168824126.
- Palacios Martínez, I. & Fernández Dobao, A. (2024). La flexión de género en ELE. Aportaciones e implicaciones didácticas de un estudio de corpus. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 19, 132-147. https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2024.19337
- Fernández–Dobao, A. (2023). “Pero yo también estoy aprendiendo”: Negotiating expert and novice positions in heritage–second language learner interaction. Modern Language Journal, 107, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12882
- Fernández Dobao, A. & Herschensohn, J. (2021). Acquisition of Spanish verbal morphology by child bilinguals: Overregularization by heritage speakers and second language learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24(1), 56–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728920000310
- Fernández Dobao, A. & Herschensohn, J. (2020). Present tense verb morphology of Spanish HL and L2 children in dual immersion: Feature Reassembly revisited. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 10(6), 775–804. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.18026.fer
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2020a). Collaborative writing in mixed classes: What do heritage and second language learners think? Foreign Language Annals, 53(1), 48–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/ flan.12446
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2020b). Exploring interaction between heritage and second language learners in the Spanish language classroom: Opportunities for collaborative dialogue and learning. In W. Suzuki & N. Storch (Eds.), Languaging in language learning and teaching: A collection of empirical studies (pp. 91–110). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.55.04fer
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2018). Code switching in the Spanish heritage language classroom: Communicative and cognitive functions. In R. Alonso Alonso (Ed.), Speaking in a second language (pp. 175–196). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.17.08dob
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2016). Peer interaction and learning: A focus on the silent learner. In M. Sato and S. Ballinger (Eds.), Peer interaction and second language learning: pedagogical potential and research agenda (pp. 33–61). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.45.02fer
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2014b). Vocabulary learning in collaborative tasks: A comparison of pair and small group work. Language Teaching Research, 18(4), 497–520. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1362168813519730
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2014a). Attention to form in collaborative writing tasks: Comparing pair and small group interaction. Canadian Modern Language Review, 70(2), 158–187. https://doi.org/10.3138/ cmlr.1768
- Fernández Dobao, A. & Blum, A. (2013). Collaborative writing in pairs and small groups: Learners’ attitudes and perceptions. System, 41(2), 365–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.system.2013.02.002
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2012b). Collaborative writing tasks in the L2 classroom: Comparing group, pair, and individual work. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21(1), 40–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jslw.2011.12.002
- Fernández Dobao, A. (2012a). Collaborative dialogue in learner-learner and learner-native speaker interaction. Applied Linguistics, 33(3), 229–256. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams002
Courses Taught
Autumn 2024
Autumn 2023
Winter 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025:
- LING 449 A: Second Language Learning
- LING 549 A: Second Language Learning