Estefania Tamayo Pineda

I am a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). My current research focuses on the acquisition of Spanish prepositional constructions by second language learners. 

Prepositions - linguistic particles that commonly precede a noun or pronoun and express a relation to another word or element in the sentence - are often challenging for second language learners due to their multiple meanings and uses. To tackle this challenge, I intend to apply concepts and principles from Cognitive Linguistics to develop a methodologies to facilitate language acquisition. Cognitive Linguistics is a framework which proposes that language knowledge is embodied; that is, it is acquired thanks to our sensory experiences and interaction with the world. Research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) shows that cognitive-inspired language instruction can be beneficial in the acquisition of highly polysemous structures such as prepositions. 

My research project is supervised by Dr Susana Afonso (University of Exeter) and Dr Minna Kirjavainen-Morgan (University of the West of England - Bristol) and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s South-West and Wales Doctoral Partnership (SWWDTP).

I hold an MA in Applied Linguistics from University College London and I am a member of the Bristol Centre for Linguistics at the University of the
West of England. My research interests include cognitive linguistics, semantics, (bio)semiotics, second language acquisition, multilingualism and intercultural communication.