Daniel Batten

Daniel Batten is a PhD Candidate in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky, serving as Spanish Instructor and Assistant Director of the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. His research focuses on cross-linguistic influence in L2 Spanish vowel perception/production, supervised by Dr. Alan V. Brown. He holds an MA in Spanish Language and Linguistics from Middlebury College and a BA in Spanish and International Studies cum laude from the University of Richmond.

His teaching portfolio includes courses ranging from elementary to advanced Spanish language instruction, including grammar and syntax. Batten actively contributes to academic service through leadership roles in the Hispanic Studies Graduate Student Association and managing the Atlas Lingüístico Guaraní-Románico research project. His research interests span applied linguistics, second language acquisition, phonetics, and colonial literature.

Recent work explores sociolinguistic variation in media (Eurovisión analysis), digital language practices among Latinx YouTubers, and innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching Spanish sociolinguistic variation. His methodologies include experimental tools like mouse tracking to study L2 vowel identification processes.