Amy Rossomondo

Amy Rossomondo received a BA from the University of Notre Dame, MA from the University of Georgia, and PhD from Indiana University. Before joining the faculty at KU she was a Visiting Professor at Miami University of Ohio. Her principal areas of research are second language acquisition, the intersection of foreign language pedagogy and technology, and foreign language teacher development. Research articles by Professor Rossomondo have appeared in journals such asStudies in Second Language Acquisition and Hispania, and she recently contributed a chapter to the 2011 American Association of University Supervisor and Coordinators (AAUSC) volume, Educating the Future Foreign Language Professoriate for the 21st Century. In her role as the Director of the Spanish Basic Language Program, Professor Rossomondo has redesigned the curriculum of first and second year Spanish language courses to focus on the development translingual and transcultural competence, as recommended by the MLA 2007 Ad hoc Committee's Report on Foreign Languages. She created and implemented Project Conexiones, a virtual intercultural exchange between Spanish students at KU and English language students at the University of Costa Rica and in 2007 was chosen as a Mortar Board Outstanding Educator of the Year. Professor Rossomondo's current research and pedagogic focus is the Acceso project, an open access, Web-based platform for intermediate-level Spanish study that structures critical exploration of the culturally diverse Spanish-speaking world to promote foreign language development and awareness, critical cultural literacy, and opportunities to relate to and reflect on differing cultural perspectives. Under her leadership, graduate teaching assistants, lecturers, faculty and the staff of the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center have collaborated to create this highly interactive digital learning environment, which instantiates a literacy-based approach to foreign language study and fosters a connection between instructors' research interests and cultural experiences with their classroom teaching to benefit undergraduate education in the Humanities. The open-access platform, which structures and directs student interaction with a complete set of authentic, media-rich materials and broad support for instructors, is currently available at no cost for use at other secondary and post-secondary institutions. Acceso also welcomes collaboration from teaching professionals and graduate students at other institutions who would like to contribute to the project. Interests Second Language Acquisition, Foreign Language Pedagogy, Applications of Technology to Foreign Language Learning, Foreign Language Teacher Development, Hispanic Sociolinguistics