Hispanic Studies

Marta García-Balsas holds a PhD. in Translation and Language Sciences from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). She earned a Master’s Degree in Secondary School Teacher Training in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Barcelona and holds dual degrees in Translation and Interpretation and Journalism from the University of Murcia. This academic year, she is a visiting professor in the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University.

Her primary research interests focus on the development of intercultural competences and critical approaches in language teaching and learning (especially in Spanish as foreign language). Moreover, she is deeply interested in discourse analysis and genre pedagogy, particularly in the teaching and assessment of oral and written argumentation. She has published in various specialized journals on language teaching and learning.

Dr. García-Balsas has taught Spanish as a foreign language at academic institutions in Italy, Ireland, and Australia. She has also taught extensively Spanish Language and Linguistics courses across various degree programs including Bachelor's degree in Teacher in Early Childhood Education (University of Barcelona), Bachelor's degree in Applied Languages, Bachelor's degree in Translation and Interpreting (Pompeu Fabra University), and Bachelor's degree in Hispanic Languages (Autonomous University of Barcelona).

She coordinates the course Assessment and evaluation in Foreign Languages in  the Master's Degree for Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language at the European University of Madrid and she has also taught  the course “Writing Skills in Second Languages” within the Master's Degree in ELE at the Comillas Foundation (University of Cantabria). 

Since 2011, she is an accredited examiner for the DELE certifications of the Instituto Cervantes and she has participated in different examiners committees in Rome, Milan and Madrid.

She had  been a research member of the IN-MIGRA3CM project at Nebrija University (Madrid), focusing on teaching Spanish in migration and refugee contexts.

Currently she is a member of the research project  Inter_ECODAL  Interculturality Assessing Plurilingual Discourse Competence (Inter_ECODAL) at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). This Project aims to answer three questions: 1) how can students be helped to benefit from the feedback received in the assessment of different discourse genres, 2) how do digital tools contribute to the development of that skill?, and, therefore, 3) how can students be made literate in the feedback for learning? 

PUBLICATIONS

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marta-Garcia-Balsas-2 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3440-2310 

LANGUAGES

Spanish (native)

Catalan (advance)

English (advance)

Italian (advance)

Arabic (basic)