Guadalupe Valdés, Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education and Professor of Spanish & Portuguese

Building 260
650 723 3291
gvaldes@stanford.edu

Guadalupe Valdés is a Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and in the School of Education at Stanford University. She works in the areas of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. Much of Professor Valdés’ work has focused on the English-Spanish bilingualism of Latinos in the United States and on discovering and describing how two languages are developed, used, and maintained by individuals who become bilingual in immigrant communities.

Interests

Language diversity; Bilinguals and Bilingualism; heritage languages among minority populations; the teaching of Spanish to Hispanic bilinguals and monolingual speakers of English

Education

Ph.D., Florida State University, Spanish, 1972

M.A., Florida State University, Spanish, 1970

B.A., University of West Florida, Spanish, 1968

Current Courses

Spanish 204. Second Language/Second Dialect Acquisition
Spanish 206. Language Use in the Chicano Community
Spanish 207. Issues in Bilingualism

Selected Publications

“Nonnative English Speakers: Language Bigotry in English Mainstream Classrooms.” ADFL Bulletin.(1999).
“The Construct of the Near-Native Speaker in the Foreign Language Profession: Perspectives on Ideologies of Language.” ADFL Bulletin (1998)
“Chicano Spanish: The Problem of the “Underdeveloped’ Code in Bilingual Repertoires.” Modern Language Journal.(1998)
“The World Outside and Inside Schools: Language and Immigrant Children.” Educational Researcher.(1998)
"The Development of Listening Skills within a Comprehension Based Program: What Levels of Proficiency Can Learners Reach?” Modern Language Journal, 1988.
“Dual Language Immersion Programs: A Cautionary Note Concerning the Education of Language Minority Students.” Harvard Educational Review. (1997)
Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias (Ablex Publishing Co.,1994) and Con respeto: Bridging the distance between culturally diverse families and schools(Teachers College Press, 1996)
"The Teaching of Minority Languages as 'Foreign' Languages: Pedagogical and Theoretical Challenges" (Modern Language Journal, 1995)
"The Development of Writing Abilities in a Foreign Language: Contributions toward a General Theory of L2 Writing" Modern Language Journal (1992)
"The Role of the Foreign Language Teaching Profession in Maintaining Non-English Languages in the United States." in Languages for a Multicultural World in Transition. National Textbook Company, 1992
Teaching Spanish to the Hispanic Bilingual: Issues, Aims and Methods. (Valdés, Lozano, and García-Moya, eds. Teachers College Press, 1981)
"Teaching Spanish to Hispanic Bilinguals: A Look at Oral Proficiency Testing and the Proficiency Movement." (Hispania, 1989)

Background

Professor Valdés’ research is concerned with examining language use in bilingual settings (e.g. code-switching, language accommodation, language maintenance, and the use of language in school and courtroom settings) and with applying the information obtained from such descriptions to the educational context. Valdés other work on language diversity has focused on language-based discrimination and on the policy problems that confront bilingual individuals who are residents of monolingual nations. Recent publications in this area include: "Bilinguals and Bilingualism: Language Policy in an Anti-immigrant Age” (International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1997) and “Bilingual Individuals and Language-Based Discrimination: Advancing the State of the Law on Language Rights” (forthcoming in Roseann D. Gonzalez, ed. Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English). Since the mid 1970’s, Valdés has been involved in research surrounding efforts to maintain and preserve heritage languages among minority populations. Much of her work has focused on the teaching of Spanish to college and university Hispanophone students in this country.Valdés is also the co-author of two Spanish language textbooks that focus on the teaching of Spanish to Hispanic bilinguals. Español Escrito (first published by Scribners in 1978 and now published by Prentice Hall) is now in its fourth edition. Cómo se escribe: curso de secundaria para estudiantes bilingües was published by Scribners in 1982. Valdés' other work in applied linguistics has concentrated on the teaching of Spanish to monolingual speakers of English. She is a co-author of the popular Spanish composition textbook Composición: Proceso y síntesis (published by McGraw Hill) now in its third edition.

Current Projects

Professor Valdés’ current research includes a project entitled: “Inscription Rich, Computer-Mediated Instructional Materials for English Language Learners in Mathematics” which is funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). Working with Professor Bernard Gifford of UC Berkeley, she is developing design principles for teaching subject matter and English using a computer environment. Valdés’ other current project is funded by the Spencer Foundation and is entitled “The Teaching of Spanish as a Heritage Language: Toward the Development of a Coherent Language-Education Policy,” This project (carried out with the collaboration of Professor Joshua Fishman) examines the Spanish language needs of successful Latino Professionals in California and the ways in which secondary and post-secondary instruction in Spanish has responded to these needs.
Valdés is active in a number of professional associations. Two forthcoming books: Learning and not Learning English (Teachers College Press) and Expanding Definitions of Giftedness: Young Interpreters of Immigrant Background (Lawrence Erlbaum).

Professional Activities

She has been a member of Committee on the Role and Status of Women of the Modern Language Association and the American Educational Research Association and a member of the Task Force on National Standards in Foreign Language Education. She serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Review of Educational Research, Bilingual Review, Written Communication, Modern Language Journal, and Hispanic Journal of the Behavioral Sciences. She is the current chair of the editorial board of the Modern Language Association ‘s series on Teaching Languages, Literatures and Cultures and a member of the Board of Testing and Assessment of the National Academy of Education.