Ashton Rooney

Education

Bachelor of Arts at UNC Chapel Hill 2014

Master of Arts at UNC Chapel Hill 2024

About Ashton

Ashton is interested in languages in contact Spanish across the Americas. The languages of the Americas are understudied as are the Spanish varieties in contact with them. Ashton is particularly interested in the sounds of language: phonetics and phonology. Recently, Ashton finished his thesis on prosodic transfer between Yucatec Maya and Yucatecan Spanish. This project demonstrated that the two languages differ in rhythm and explored how rhythm varied within each language based on age, gender, and bilingual status. This project started while he was studying Yucatec Maya in Mexico thanks to FLAS funding.

After completing his Bachelor’s from UNC Chapel Hill, Ashton taught English in various Spain, Ecuador, and Colombia for 5 years. While trying to learn and teach languages, his interest in language acquisition and linguistics was piqued. Pronunciation was always a focus in his classes and thus became a natural focal point for his research. During his time abroad, he completed certificate (CELTA) and diploma (DELTA) in teaching English language from Cambridge University. Before starting his Master’s at UNC Chapel Hill he taught English online for migrants to the US trying to gain citizenship and gainful employment.

In a PhD, Ashton is excited to teach Spanish for the first time. This will involve applying the pedagogy learned for teaching English to Spanish. Ashton is passionate about education and learning and is thrilled to have the opportunity to help people learn Spanish. This classroom experience will undoubtedly inspire some research projects in second language acquisition during his PhD in addition to study variation in Spanish phonetics and phonology.