Paola Sagastuy

Paola Sagastuy serves as a Lecturer in the Department of English Studies at Trier University, Germany since October 2023. Holding dual degrees from the University of Barcelona (BA in Linguistics with English/Spanish, MSc in Cognitive Science and Language) and Cambridge University certification in English teaching, she brings over 20 years of international teaching experience across Mexico, Spain, the US, and UK to her current role.

Academic Background:

• Master of Science in Cognitive Science and Language, University of Barcelona (2013-2015)
• BA in Linguistics with English and Spanish, University of Barcelona (2009-2013)
• Certificate for Overseas Teachers of English (CELTA equivalent), Anglia Centre (2002-2003)

Her research centers on phonetic phenomena in second language acquisition, particularly prosody patterns in Spanish varieties and their pedagogical applications. She investigates how phonological awareness impacts English pronunciation learning, bridging theoretical linguistics with classroom practice through empirical studies on Mexican Spanish intonation and pronunciation teaching methodologies. Her work demonstrates significant implications for speech technology development and language education frameworks.

Publication analysis reveals consistent focus on prosodic modeling across Spanish dialects and innovative pronunciation pedagogy. Her research integrates phonetic analysis with practical language teaching, showing particular expertise in contextual speech variation and cross-linguistic transfer phenomena. The AMPER project contributions establish her specialization in empirical prosody research with applications in NLP and language learning tools.

Recognition:

• Beca General y de Movilidad Scholarship from Spanish Ministry of Education (2012)

She teaches undergraduate courses including Academic Writing, Advanced Grammar, and North American Culture Studies across multiple sections. Previously holding leadership roles as Head of Faculty at Ashford School (2015-2021) and Deputy Head at Lincoln Minster School (2022-2023), she maintains active research connections with the University of Barcelona Phonetics Laboratory through the ongoing Project AMPER collaboration.

Her professional profile combines extensive classroom experience with technical phonetic research, focusing on translating prosodic analysis into practical language teaching applications while contributing to dialectological classification and speech technology development.