Elena Schoonmaker-Gates
Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages & Cultures, and Chair of the Department of World Languages & Cultures
Department: World Languages and Cultures
Email: egates2@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5648
Professional Expertise
Brief Biography
Profe Elena is an Associate Professor in World Languages and Cultures and has taught Spanish at Elon since 2012. She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from Indiana University and a Master's degree from Middlebury College. Her research interests and publications focus on Second Language Acquisition and its intersection with foreign accent, dialect perception and production, and sociophonetics, with a special interest in how research can inform language pedagogy.She teaches all levels of Spanish, but especially enjoys offering Spanish linguistics classes at the 300 and 400 levels, and mentoring student research related to linguistics. Profe Elena has presented her research at local, national, and international conferences and published work in a variety of journals specializing in Spanish, Spanish linguistics, and language pedagogy.
News & Notes
Education
Ph.D. Indiana University, 2012
Hispanic Linguistics
Major: Second Language Acquisition
Minor: Phonology and Phonetics
M.A. Middlebury College in Madrid, Spain, 2004
Spanish Language and Culture
B.A. Bishop’s University, Canada, 2003
Major: Spanish and French, cum laude
Minor: Psychology
Leadership Positions
Department Chair of World Languages and Cultures (2024-present)
Associate Department Chair of World Languages and Cultures (2022-2024)
Spanish Major Coordinator in the World Languages and Cultures department (2018-2022)
Grants Awarded
CATL Co-Scholar with Dr. Ketevan Kupatadze and two student partners (Mara Waskiewicz and Jake Silverman), Elon University. Project: “Student and Faculty Perceptions and Experiences with Machine Translation.” (2022-2024)
Publications
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2025). Second Language Learner Attitudes Towards Peer Use of a Variable Sociophonetic Cue. Languages, 10(7), 164.
Hanson, S. & Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2025). Interlocutor perceptions of regional phone use in L2 Spanish: The Castilian Spanish /θ/. Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (Special Issue: Research at the intersection of second language acquisition and sociolinguistics: Studies in honor of Kimberly L. Geeslin), 43, 178-202.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2024). Dialect-Specificity in L2 Sociophonetic Perceptual Learning Abroad and At Home. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 9(3), 362-383.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2022). Socially Driven Second Language Pronunciation. In K. Geeslin (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics (pp. 165-173). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2020). The Acquisition of dialect-specific phonology, phonetics, and sociolinguistics in L2 Spanish: Untangling learner trends. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 8(1), 80-103.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2018). Dialect comprehension and identification in L2 Spanish: Familiarity and context of exposure. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 11(1), 193-214.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2017). Regional Variation in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Mapping Learners’ Developing Dialectal Competence. Foreign Language Annals, 50(1), 177-194.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2015). On VOT as a cue to foreign accent in Spanish: Native and nonnative perceptions. Hispania, 98(4), 771-783.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2015). Measuring Foreign Accent: How Much Does VOT Really Matter? In E.W. Willis (Ed.), Selected Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology, 95-105. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2013). The Interplay Between Native Spanish Dialect Exposure and Foreign Accent Perception. In A.Carvahlo & S. Beaudrie (Eds.), Selected Proceedings from the 6th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, 169-176. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2012). Foreign accent perception in L2 Spanish: the role of proficiency and L2 experience. In. J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 84-92. Ames, IA: Iowa State University.