Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies

Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies is currently a Senior Lecturer (Tenure Contract Lecturer, Profesora Permanente Laboral) within the Department of Spanish, Modern and Classic Philology at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). Since 2016, she has been working at the Faculty of Tourism where she teaches several English for Specific Purposes courses. From February 2020-February 2024, she was one of the Erasmus+ exchange coordinators at the Faculty of Tourism; she was in charge of incoming students, staff visits and the Erasmus+ Traineeship KA131 programme for outgoing students. As from 16th February 2024, she is the Vicedean of Coordination and Projection at the Faculty of Tourism. Since 2023, she is also the IP for the GRALing research group (Grupo de investigación en análisis lingüístico). Yolanda obtained a BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2008 and an MA in English Linguistics in 2010 at the same university. She defended her PhD dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez in January 2016, obtaining the highest grade (Sobresaliente Cum Laude). Her dissertation was devoted to the role that pronunciation has in EFL classes and teaching materials in Spain. She was awarded two research grants by the Xunta de Galicia: a) Beca de Terceiro Ciclo (a two-year grant to complete her MA Studies in English Linguistics) and, b) Beca Predoutoral (a three-year research grant to develop her PhD and work as a teacher-assistant at the University of Santiago de Compostela). She is currently the coordinator of the modules English 1 and English 3 (degree in Tourism and double degrees in Tourism and Business Administration / Economics). Yolanda has been invited to teach some teacher innovation courses and seminars on: a) giving presentations in English at international conferences (University of Castilla la Mancha, Extremadura 2021), b) the teaching of English pronunciation (University of Santiago de Compostela, 2019; University of la Rioja, 2021) and, more recently, on c) the use of AI tools in the language classroom (University of la Rioja, 2024; University of Santiago de Compostela, 2024). She has actively taken part in several teacher innovation projects (either as IP or member) at the University of the Balearic Islands and the University of la Rioja. She is interested in language teaching (particularly in the teaching of pronunciation and speaking), the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (especially English for Tourism), new varieties of English (ELF, EIL) and the use of ICTs in the language classroom (mobile apps, social networks, AI, videos, podcasts, Moodle tools etc). Yolanda has presented papers in over 50 international conferences and has some experience in the organisation of conferences (ICSE 2014, ICNICE and ELC4). She was one of the plenary speakers at the 2nd International UCM Predoctoral Conference on English Linguistics (UPCEL) in September 2017. She also actively collaborated in the organization of several conferences at the University of Santiago de Compostela (ICELTL1, XXXIX SEL International Conference, ICAME34) and the University of the Balearic Islands (GALA13). Yolanda has published several articles in refereed journals (Revista Electrónica de Lingüística Aplicada (RAEL), Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (RAEI), Language Value, Human Review, Greta Journal, Language Studies Working Papers (LSWP), Odisea, etc). She also has published quite a few book chapters in international publishing houses (Peter Lang, Springer, Palgrave MacMillan, Dykinson). From February 2013-May 2013, Yolanda carried out a three-month research stay at the University of Reading at the Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics and in February-March 2020 she did some research at the Universitat Jaume I with Mercedes Sanz Gil. Since 2020, she has been an Assistant Editor for the Journal Atlantis and until the beginning of 2024, she was also Assistant Editor in the journal RAEL.

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Contact information:
Departamento de Filología Española, Moderna y Clásica
Facultad deTurismo - Edificio Arxiduc Lluís Salvador - Office 7
Universidad de las Islas Baleares
Carretera de Valdemossa, km. 7,5
07122 Palma de Mallorca , SPAIN
Telephone number: 0034 971172613
E-mail: yolandajoy.calvo@uib.es

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