Osmer Balam
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Biography
Areas of Interest
- Hispanic Linguistics
- TESOL
- Spanish Sociolinguistics
- Bi/Multilingualism in the Spanish-speaking World
- Fundamentals of Language Contact
- Spanish and Spanglish in the U.S.
- Theory and Practice in Second Language Acquisition
- Spanish Phonology
- Spanish Pragmatics
- Central American Spanish
- Spanglish in U.S. Latino Literature
- Metaphors in English free verse poetry
Courses Taught
- Beginning Spanish
- Intermediate Spanish
- Spanish Phonology
- Structure of Modern Spanish
- Spanish and Spanglish in U.S. Media (FYS)
Selected Publications & Presentations
- Balam, O., (2025). . Languages, 10(11), 283.
- Balam, O., & Carroll, K. (2025). . In Romanowski, P. (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education (pp. 809-827). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Balam, O., Ross, D., & Bravo, A. (2024). . Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, 10(1), 14, 1-27.
- Baird, B., Balam, O., & Parafita Couto, M. C. (2023). . Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.
- Balam, O., Parafita Couto, M. C., & Stadthagen-Gonz谩lez, H. (2020). . International Journal of Bilingualism, 24(5-6), 952鈥�967.
For further details on scholarly work:
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Independent Study Advising
- 鈥淭rade, aid, and dependency: The impact of U.S. bilateral food aid on trade and welfare in Mexico,鈥� by Rayan Dos Passos. 2025. (Double major in Global & International Studies in Economics and Spanish)
- 鈥淏ilingual compound verbs: A comparison of Orange Walk, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico,鈥� by Lidia P茅rez Leutza. 2023. (Latin American Studies major at Leiden University, the Netherlands) *External supervisor
- 鈥淯n an谩lisis l茅xico y socioling眉铆stico del shesheo en la canci贸n 鈥淟a Mushasha Shula鈥� de Espinoza Paz,鈥� by Penelophe Pintor. 2023. (Spanish major)
- 鈥淓l lenguaje es la hoja de ruta de la diversidad: La brecha digital en la comunidad latina inmigrante antes y durante la pandemia,鈥� by Berenice Hern谩ndez. 2023. (Spanish major)
- 鈥淟a percepci贸n de la variaci贸n socioling眉铆stica en los dialectos de espa帽ol en los Estados Unidos,鈥� by Catherine Baker. 2022. (Spanish major)
- 鈥淎 gag tied too tight becomes liberty鈥檚 noose: A linguistic analysis of vagueness in Spain鈥檚 Ley Mordaza,鈥� by Jacob Shelton. 2022. (Double major in Spanish and History)
- 鈥淟as emociones y el cambio de c贸digo: Un estudio sobre c贸mo las emociones provocan el cambio de c贸digo en biling眉es espa帽ol-ingl茅s,鈥� by Camryn Bragg. 2021. (Spanish major)
- 鈥淢ultilingual literature of the New World: A literary and semantic study of Spanglish in Susana Ch谩vez-Silverman鈥檚 Killer Cr贸nicas,鈥� by Justin Garibotti. 2021. (Double major in Spanish and English)
- 鈥淓l espa帽ol en contacto con el maya: Un an谩lisis de las actitudes e identidades ling眉铆sticas de los kaqchikeles en San Jorge la Laguna, Solol谩, Guatemala,鈥� by Tristan Donohoe. 2020. (Spanish major)
Want to learn more?
Interested in Spanish or have questions about courses? Feel free to reach out!
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