Kirsten Drickey, PhD

Senior Instructor of Spanish, Curriculum Coordinator, Spanish, Employee Language Program

About

Kirsten's academic background is in 20th- and 21st-century film and narrative fiction in Latin America, particularly Mexico and the Caribbean.

With colleagues in OCE, including Andrew Blick, she has worked to develop and manage Western's Employee Language Program.

She also collaborates with Jordan Sandoval in Linguistics and a team of rotating undergraduate researchers on the Curriculum Development Team (CDT). This teams works to design and implement pedagogical activities for use in helping intermediate Spanish students understand and produce the sounds of Spanish more precisely

Selected Publications

Drickey and Sandoval. “Why Teach Linguistics to L2 Learners of Spanish: Evidence from the WWU Spanish Program.” Linguistic Foundations for Second Language Teaching and Learning. Eds. Lynn Santelmann, Marnie Petray, Gail Clements, and Kathy Sands. Cambridge UP. Forthcoming 2024. 

“Including Linguistic Perspectives to Increase Learner Confidence.” Presentation with Jordan Sandoval. American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Annual Conference, Salamanca, Spain, June 2023. 

“Perspectives: Best Practices for K-12 and Extracurricular Language Programs.” Panel presentation with facilitators from WWU’s Employee Language Program on their work in several community-based language programs. Washington Association For Language Teaching (WAFLT) Regional Conference, Bellingham, WA, April 22, 2023.

“Collaborative Mentorship: Resetting student/teacher expectations and improving our learning and teaching through unconventional teacher training.” Panel presentation with María José Palacios Figueroa, Brahm van Woerden, and Jordan Sandoval. American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 2022.

“Improving student willingness to communicate through explicit L2 phonological instruction.” Panel presentation with Jordan Sandoval and student researchers Spencer de Vries, Brahm van Woerden, and María José Palacios Figueroa at the 2021 Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference, held online and at Brock University. June 18-19, 2021.

“More, better, earlier: Developing Targeted Linguistics Strategies for Spanish Pronunciation.” Poster presentation at the 2019 Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference in Flagstaff, AZ and paper of the same title in the published conference proceedings. Presented with student researchers Brahm van Woerden and Nancy Brill. September 12-14, 2019. 

“Sí se puede: Moving Toward Pronunciation Accuracy and Confidence through Early Phonology Intervention in Spanish-Language Classrooms.” Panel presentation at Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association annual conference, November 9, 2018. Presented with student researcher María José Palacios Figueroa. 

Blick and Drickey. “Constructing Language-Learning Communities in the University Setting: An Experiment in Flipping the Teaching and Learning Paradigm.” Language Learning beyond the Classroom. Jann Purdy, editor. Cambridge Scholars P. Print. 2018.

“Mi clase es su clase: Forging Meaningful Connections through Student-Led Conversational Workshops for University Faculty and Staff.” Round table discussion with facilitators from Western’s Employee Language Program. Latin American and Latino/a and Iberian Studies Association (LALISA) of the Pacific Northwest conference, April 12, 2019. 

“Language-Centered Employee Program for Community Engagement: Western’s Employee Language Program.” Co-presenter with Andrew Blick. University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), March 2019.

“Experiential Language Teaching and Learning as Professional Development,” co-presenter, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Portland, OR, November 2015

“Perspectives on Western Washington University’s Employee Language Program.” Co-presenter at the Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT) Annual Conference, Vancouver, WA, October 2014.