& by appointment
Borbala (Borbi) Gaspar earned her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (language use, pedagogy and an interdisciplinary minor in Italian literature). She also holds an MA degree in ELL (UofA), and a B.A. degree in Teaching Italian as a Foreign language from Szeged, Hungary. She has been teaching Italian for more than fifteen years at all four undergraduate levels at the University of Arizona.
Her research focuses on how (underrepresented) language learners maneuver through social and symbolic power as they gain agency, use their imagination and engage in pedagogies such as project-based learning, task based, (multi)literacies, living literacies and social justice.
Besides her teaching and research interest she has been regularly organizing Italian movie nights, cooking nights, and Italian mini poster conferences for learners of Italian. She is the faculty advisor of the student-run Dolce Vita Italian club.
As a Slat (Second Language Acquisition and Teaching) affiliate faculty, she takes on the role of mentoring first year Phd students.
PUBLICATIONS:
Negretto G., Gaspar B. (2023): Transformative Experiences of Beginner L2 Learners in the Italian Classroom for Social Justice
Link: https://www.scolt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Dimensions2023.pdf#page=36
Gaspar B., Negretto G (2022): Incorporating Social justice materials and technologies into existing curricula to enhance the experience of undergraduate, first year, Italian learners LINK: https://italian.rutgers.edu/docman
Gaspar B. ; Warner C. (2021): Project-based Learning as Living Literacy: Imagining Transcultural Subjectivities in the Italian classroom (https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/69855)
Warner C., Gaspar B.; Wenhao D. (2021): Enterprising and Imagining Multilingual Subjects beyond Commodity-Centered Discourses of FL Teaching and Learning (https://cms.arizona.edu/index.php/multilingual)
Gaspar, B. (2020). Shifting Goals in Italian Learning: Imagination, Multilingualism, and Agency in the Narratives of Underrepresented Foreign Language Learners.
Gaspar B., Timlin C., Wany Y., (2018). Technology Use in Collegiate Foreign Language Program; Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
Gaspar B., (2011) Cengage Learning on First year grammar review to accompany the Ponti Italian language textbook by Tognozzi and Cavatorta
BOOK CHAPTER:
Gaspar B. (2022): The effect of Multilingual Communication on the Development of New Types of Learner Imagination
Gaspar B., & Berti M., (2020). A project-based approach for oral assessment Gorsuch G. (2020) “Tests that Second Language Teachers Make and Use”
WORK IN PROGRESS:
Cavatorta B.; Bellocchio L.; Gaspar B. (forthcoming): Italian in Wonderland online textbook