Marcelo Tano

Marcelo Tano is an Associate Professor of Spanish and French for Specific Purposes at the National School of Engineers of Metz (ENIM), an engineering school within the Collégium L-INP and University of Lorraine in France. With over two decades of tenure, he teaches Spanish and French as foreign languages to engineering students while coordinating academic cooperation with Spanish-speaking countries and supervising student internships in the Hispanic world. He also serves as an associate researcher at the LAIRDIL inter-university laboratory for language didactics.

Education: After completing undergraduate studies in French Philology, Public Relations and Journalism in Argentina, he earned a Master’s in Communication Sciences and further diplomas at the University of Nancy. He holds a PhD in Spanish from Université Paris Nanterre and has dual accreditation from the French Conseil National des Universités in Language Sciences and Romance Studies.

Research Interests: His scholarly work centers on Spanish for Specific Purposes (ESP), problem-based learning (PBL/ABP), language needs analysis, cross-disciplinary skills and demolinguistics. He explores how active methodologies can enhance professional communication competence among engineers and other specialists, and he systematically studies the sociolinguistic presence of Spanish in higher education and the labor market.

Publications & Trends: Since 2009 he has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and conference proceedings, plus several pedagogical textbooks. A clear trajectory emerges: early work on task-based and action-oriented approaches evolved into robust PBL models tailored for ESP classrooms. Recent output (2021-2024) increasingly addresses institutional language policies, teacher professionalization, and demolinguistic mapping of Spanish in France and Europe.

Scientific Awards & Leadership: From 2011 to 2019 he served as elected president of the GERES (Specialized Spanish Study & Research Group), directing its international conferences, web portal, and the journal Les Cahiers du GÉRES. He is also active in UPLEGESS and SHF, key French associations promoting language education.

Research Projects & Labs: As a core member of LAIRDIL he contributes to interdisciplinary projects on language didactics. He frequently leads or co-organizes national and international seminars and webinars on innovation in ESP teaching, always aiming to bridge research findings with classroom practice.