Sara I. Roca-Ramirez received her honours BA in Spanish and minor in English from York University, an MA in Foreign Languages with a concentration in Bilingual/Multicultural Spanish Education from George Mason University, and an MS in Spanish Linguistics from Georgetown University.
Before entering the Ph.D. program at Georgetown, she worked as a Spanish Instructor in both public and private education settings. She experienced first-hand the growing number of heritage language learners inside university second language classrooms, which developed her interests in second and heritage language curriculum development, language ideologies surrounding heritage speakers’ varieties, students’ internalization of such ideologies, and demotivation resulting from factors both inside and outside the classroom.
Her research interests include critical language awareness in the Spanish heritage language classroom, specifically teachers' perspectives on language variation, language ideologies, and heritage language instruction. She is also interested in how critical language awareness supports heritage speakers' linguistic confidence, identity development, and agency, and how teachers can foster classroom environments that promote linguistic inclusion and heritage language maintenance.
In her free time, Sara enjoys going out for brunch, doing yoga, traveling with her husband, Joe, and spending time with her grumpy cat, Luna.