Dr. Maritza Bell-Corrales

Professor of Spanish
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Dr. Maritza Bell-Corrales is a native of Colombia. She earned a BA in Language Education/Second Language Acquisition from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia. After living abroad in Saudi Arabia and Brunei, Dr. Bell-Corrales earned an MA in Applied Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition from the University of South Florida in August, 1996, and a PhD in Spanish Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition from the University of Florida in August, 2001. Her dissertation on The Role of Negative Feedback in Second Language Instruction reflects her interest in classroom-based research to improve the teaching of Spanish and other languages, as well as her research agenda, which centers on the use of diverse types of feedback in the classroom, the teaching of Heritage Spanish and the role of gender in SLA. Dr. Bell-Corrales is currently an Associate Professor of Spanish at Middle Georgia State University.

Dr. Bell-Corrales has presented at numerous national and international conferences, symposiums and seminars, and have published articles, the most recent of which included: “’ Ya pa’ que dijo la lora’ paremias con estructura de cita en la práctica discursiva y la interacción” at the XI International Linguistic Conference in Havana, Cuba in November 2018; “Dos posibles interpretaciones a la trama de “La última niebla” y su simbología como elemento de enlace” published in ‘Aportaciones eruditasy literarias en homenaje a Gregorio C. Martin, Book Masters Inc., Ashland, OH 2016; Una ecología del dialecto gallego, New Kensington Greeling Press, Pittsburgh, PA 2015 ; La violencia femenina en la ciudad en “Rosario Tijeras”: un an álisis socio-linguístico at the Conference for the Hispanic Association for Humanities, Seville, Spain in June 2009, published in El español integrador de cultura, Orbis Press, 2012; Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Hispánica de Humanidades, Madrid, Spain, June 2006; Estudio Morfosintáctico de Refranes Españoles desde la Perspectiva de la Gramática Verbal at Congreso Internacional de Fraseología y Paramiología, Santiago de Compostela, Spain in September 2006; Negative Feedback in Second Language Instruction: The Effect of Structured Versus Open-ended Tasks ; presented at The Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, at the University of Kentucky in October, 2002 and A Qualitative Analysis of Student Responses to Negative Feedback in L2 Spanish, presented at the Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in October 2001.

Dr. Yunsuk Chae

Professor of Spanish
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Dr. Chae holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Spanish from Vanderbilt University. She has taught courses on the Spanish language, Spanish and Spanish-American culture and civilizations, and Spanish literature. She has done research in the areas of Baroque and contemporary peninsular Spanish poetry, Spanish pedagogy, and teaching Hispanic culture. She has also translated María Paz Moreno’s poetry.

Dr. Chae is passionate about teaching language, literature, and culture and introducing students to new perspectives on the world. She has organized and hosted many co-curricular cultural events, including Mesa de español (Spanish conversation tables), Spanish translation competitions, Hispanic movie nights, and K-Pop presentations.

Paige Crump

Associate Professor of Spanish
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Mrs. Vanessa “Paige” Crump is an Associate Professor of Spanish. She teaches a variety of classes including SPAN 1001, SPAN 1002, SPAN 2001, SPAN 2002, HUMN 2151, and HUMN 1009. She teaches both face-to-face courses as well as online course. She attended Berry College, Georgia Southern University, and Valdosta State University. She holds a BSED and MED in Spanish Education from Georgia Southern University and an ESOL (English as a Second Language) endorsement from Valdosta State University. She also holds an Ed.S. degree in Teaching and Learning with an emphasis in Spanish from Georgia Southern University. She has 22+ years of teaching experience that ranges from K-5 and 9-12 Spanish and ESOL, adult literacy, college-level Spanish and ESOL, online Spanish, and even Immigration Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. She has studied in San José, Costa Rica and Segovia, Spain, while completing her Bachelor's, Master's and Specialist's Degrees.

She is member of multiple organizations including the Foreign Language Association of Georgia, GATESOL, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Lambda Theta, Omicron Delta Kappa, Sigma Delta Pi, ACTFL, and many others. She has presented at multiple conferences for FLAG, the GERA conference, and GATESOL conferences over the years. She works closely with the Foreign Language Workshop that is hosted at MGA each February, and she has built an applied learning relationship with the Gifted Students at Wheeler Country Middle School by writing and publishing bi-lingual books with SPAN 2001. In 2014, she was awarded the “Outstanding Student Researcher Award” by GERA for her Ed.S. thesis entitled “A Comparison of Student Achievement in Second Language Acquisition in both Total Online and Traditional Classrooms.”

Trino Prados

Associate Professor of Spanish
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Trino Javier Prados is from Tampa, Fl where he graduated from Jesuit High School. He attended Florida State University where he received a Master of Arts in Spanish Literature & Linguistics in 2002 and a Master of Arts in International Affairs with a concentration in Geography in 1999. His areas of specialty are Spanish language teaching, Latin American culture and Geography, and Latino culture in the U.S.A. Not only has Professor Prados taught all levels of Spanish for the Foreign Language Associate’s Degree program, but he has also developed a Humanities Special topics class, and an Interdisciplinary Studies class. Currently he is researching more topics for IDS 4030. This academic year Professor Prados chairs the Foreign Language Academic Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents. Other interests include musical performances and participating in community soccer leagues.

Dr. Sabrina Wengier

Associate Professor of French
Coordinator of Modern Languages
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Dr. Wengier is a native of France. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English from the Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France; an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, and a Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Wengier joined MGA in 2012. At MGA, she teaches all levels of French as well as Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies courses. Dr. Wengier is passionate about introducing students to different cultures. She has participated in Study Abroad programs.

Dr. Wengier’s research interests are in the intersection of literature and the arts, second language pedagogy, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.