World Languages and Cultures

Professor Andrea Herrera-Dulcet

Coordinator of Heritage Spanish Program; Applied Linguistics and Teaching Spanish Specializations

Dr. Herrera-Dulcet is from Barcelona, Spain. She grew up bilingual, speaking Catalan and Spanish. She spent a good part of her life traveling the world, living in several European countries, South Africa, and China. In the last fifteen years she has settled in the US, living in Minnesota, Arizona, and Washington. Her hobbies include traveling, reading and writing, eating delicious food, any water sports and, of course, learning languages.

Dr. Herrera-Dulcet holds a PhD in Spanish Linguistics with specialization in Heritage Spanish from the University of Arizona. She joined CWU as an Assistant Professor of Spanish in Fall 2019. Dr. Herrera-Dulcet teaches Spanish as a second language, Spanish as a heritage language, Spanish sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, language pedagogies, and applied linguistics. Her research focuses on bilingual education, foreign language acquisition and the sociolinguistics of language education.

Dr. Herrera-Dulcet is the head of the Heritage Spanish program, and her work is dedicated to supporting bilingual Spanish-English students in our region. At the top of her syllabi always read these words: “You belong here.” Dr. Herrera-Dulcet's commitment to access and belonging in education informs everything she does. Under her leadership Heritage Spanish program has grown, engaged the community, and supported many graduates. In their academic journeys, Heritage Spanish program students connect to their heritage, realize the power of their bilingual potential, and graduate into the job market as fully bilingual professionals - a valuable asset for any career in the U.S.

Dr. Herrera-Dulcet's teaching and research deeply inform each other to the benefit of our students and community. In 2022 she launched a unique project at CWU and in the state of Washington, entitled Corpus del Español de Central Washington (CECWA) - Corpus Linguistics of Spanish spoken in our region. Using linguistic data collection methods and human subject research Dr. Herrera-Dulcet and her students in SPAN 414 class catalog and analyze unique features of Spanish spoken in our region. The project does not merely document Spanish in Central Washington, but celebrates and preserves our local heritage, while empowering students to engage in research and community service learning. You can read more about this award winning project in Crimson and Black.

To offer our Spanish students more hands-on, practical learning opportunities, Dr. Herrera-Dulcet has developed two new specializations within the Spanish BA – Applied Linguistics and Teaching Spanish. Training future teachers is Dr. Herrera-Dulcet's passion; she developed the new curriculum and collaborated with the CWU School of Education to offer our students a streamlined path to becoming certified teachers in our state. Dr. Herrera-Dulcet's innovative and creative approach inspired another unique program she launched at CWU - Wildcat Spanish - Spanish language education for CWU staff. Under Dr. Herrera-Dulcet's mentorship, Spanish teaching majors serve as instructors of the Wildcat Spanish classes, having their very first teaching jobs right here at CWU.

For her outstanding achievements Dr. Herrera-Dulcet was recognized with a number of prestigious awards at CWU:

• President's Diversity Award for developing Wildcat Spanish program for CWU staff;
• Multimodal Education Center's Teaching Innovation Award for integrating undergraduate research with Corpus Linguistics project in a multimodal classroom;
• College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Teaching Award for best teaching practices, curriculum innovation and development of new programs.

The Department of World Languages and Cultures is proud to have a world-class educator like Dr. Herrera-Dulcet on our team. ¡Tenemos la suerte de tenerte!