Estefanía G.

Research

Estefanía Galindo-Navarro

I am a linguist with research interests in bilingualism, second language acquisition (SLA), language contact, sociophonetics, and the phonetics and phonology of languages such as English, French, and—most prominently—Spanish. As a Colombian, I have a strong passion for studying and bringing greater visibility to Colombian Spanish. My work focuses on investigating native Colombian Spanish intonational patterns and the sociolinguistic factors that influence its variation.

Using mixed-method approaches, I have been studying the intonation of Colombian Spanish, particularly in the Caribbean region. My primary goal is to deepen our understanding of these intonational patterns and their social motivations by collecting data through tools such as discourse completion tasks (see Vanrell, Feldhausen & Astruc, 2018) and semi-structured interviews. I analyze this data using two standard frameworks of intonational phonology for Spanish: the Autosegmental-Metrical (AM) model and the Spanish Tones and Breaks Indices (Sp_ToBI) framework (Beckman et al. 2002, Hualde & Prieto, 2025), alongside acoustic analysis in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2011).

Through this research, I aim to contribute to the fields of Spanish linguistics, intonational theory, sociolinguistics, and language variation and change. Additionally, I hope to create spaces where Colombians can learn about the distinctive features of their speech and understand the social dynamics behind linguistic variation—an important step toward embracing and valuing our country’s rich linguistic diversity.

Doing fieldwork in Cali, Colombia during summer 2023.

Publications

Specht, K., Galindo-Navarro, E., & Rao, R. (2025). Shaping language attitudes: An exploratory look at the impact of discussing bilingualism in the language classroom. The Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (JSLAT) 31, 125–146. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jslat.7903

Galindo-Navarro, E., Wallander, A., & Rao, R. (2025). The impact of L2 Spanish learners’ attitudes toward Spanish sociophonetic variation on use and belonging. Language Teaching, 1–4. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444825000187

Galindo-Navarro, E. and Rao, R. (Accepted). Coastal Caribbean Colombian Spanish intonation: Acoustic analysis and sociolinguistic considerations. Hispanic Studies Review. The College of Charleston.

Rao, R., Mazzaro, N., Galindo-Navarro, E., Minjarez, N. (Submitted). Heritage Bilingual Question Intonation in El Paso, Texas. In Rao, R. (ed.) The Acquisition of Spanish Intonation – Heritage, L2, and Pedagogical Perspectives, Multilingual Matters, an imprint of Channel View Publications Ltd, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.

Galindo-Navarro, E., Wallander, A., & Rao, R. (Submitted). Exploring sociophonetic attitudes among advanced L2 Spanish learners. Language Teaching.

Galindo-Navarro, E. and Rao, R. (Under review). Women’s Polar Question Intonation in Coastal Caribbean Colombian Spanish. Conference Proceedings. University at Buffalo, New York.

Galindo-Navarro, E. and Rao, R. (Under review). Women’s Polar Question Intonation in Coastal Caribbean Colombian Spanish. Conference Proceedings. University at Buffalo, New York.

Galindo-Navarro, E. and Rao, R. (In progress). Polar Question Intonation in Coastal Caribbean Spanish: Insights from an Acoustic, Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Study of Female Speakers. Conference Proceedings. 55th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages – Caribbean Spanish Linguistics (LSRL55-LEC), edited volume with De Gruyter-Brill.

Projects

Undergoing projects:

Colombian Spanish Intonation Online Atlas – version September 2025 (still in progress)

Supplemental materials:

Coming soon!

Conference Presentations

*Indicates proposals have been accepted and/or talks are scheduled, but not yet presented.

2026

*Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía & Rao, Rajiv. «The Intonation Patterns of Polar Questions in Colombian Caribbean Spanish:  A Sp_ToBI and Sociolinguistic Analysis» has been accepted to 12th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (WSS12). Georgetown University. (Washington, DC, United States. [Oral presentation]

*Etchart, Martiniano, Galindo-Navarro Estefanía, & Rao, Rajiv “Exploring speaker effects on the perception of L2 Spanish emotional prosody: An Acoustic analysis”. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference 2026, AAAL. (Chicago, IL, United States) [Individual paper]

*Galindo-Navarro Estefanía, Mazzaro, Natalia, & Rao, Rajiv “Spanish-English Bilingual Question Intonation:  The Case of El Paso, Texas, U.S.”. The Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World (BHL 2026) Conference, Reading University. (Reading, United Kingdom) [Oral presentation]

2025

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía, Mazzaro, Natalia, & Rao, Rajiv “Bilingual Prosody at the U.S.-Mexico Border:  A Sp_ToBI Analysis of Spanish Question Intonation in El Paso”. Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2025, The University of Arizona.  (Tucson, AZ, United States) [Oral presentation]

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía & Rao, Rajiv “Polar Question Intonation in Coastal Caribbean Colombian Spanish: An acoustic and sociolinguistic analysis”. The 55th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages with a special focus on Caribbean Spanish (LSRL55-LEC), The Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) [Oral presentation]

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía, Mazzaro, Natalia, Minjarez Oppenheimer, Natalia, & Rao, Rajiv “Bilingual Question Intonation in El Paso, Texas”. The 55th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages with a special focus on Caribbean Spanish (LSRL55-LEC), The Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) [Oral presentation]

Specht, Kiley, Galindo-Navarro Estefanía & Rajiv Rao“How discussing bilingualism influences language perspectives: Measuring Spanish learners’ attitude towards bilingualism in the Midwest”. 15th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB15). (Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain) [Poster presentation]

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía & Wallander, Annika “Exploring sociophonetic attitudes and belonging among advanced L2 Spanish learners”. 2025 SLA Symposium, Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Madison, WI, United States) [Oral presentation]

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía & Wallander, Annika “The impact of L2 Spanish learners’ attitudes toward Spanish sociophonetic variation on use and belonging”. Diálogos   XXVII, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Indiana, Bloomington. (Bloomington, IN, United States) [virtual – Oral presentation]

Galindo-Navarro Estefanía & Wallander, Annika “The impact of L2 Spanish learners’ attitudes toward Spanish sociophonetic variation”. The 2025 American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference in Denver, Colorado. (Denver, CO, United States) [Poster presentation]

Specht, Kiley & Galindo-Navarro Estefanía “Metalinguistic Knowledge is Power: Teaching about Bilingualism to enhance L2 Students’ Language Attitudes”. SLAT Roundtable: Interdisciplinarity in Language Research, Leadership and Pedagogical Practices. The University of Arizona. (Tucson, AZ, United States) [Oral presentation]

Presenting one of my projects with my co-author Annika Wallander at the 2025 SLA Symposium

2024

Specht, Kiley & Galindo-Navarro Estefanía “Metalinguistic Knowledge is Power: Teaching about Bilingualism to enhance L2 Students’ Language Attitudes”. SLAT Roundtable: Interdisciplinarity in Language Research, Leadership and Pedagogical Practices. The University of Arizona. (Tucson, AZ, United States) [Oral presentation]

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía & Rao, Rajiv. “Colombian Spanish Intonation: A comparison between Colombian Caribbean Spanish intonation in cities and towns”. 11th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (WSS11). University at Buffalo, New York. (Buffalo, NY, United States) [Oral presentation]

Presenting one of my projects on Colombian Caribbean Spanish Intonation at the WSS11

2023

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía “Colombian Spanish Intonation: A comparison between Colombian Caribbean Spanish intonation in cities and towns”. Coloquio de Lingüistica, Sociolinguistic study group, Universidad de Antioquia. (Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia) [virtual – Oral presentation] 

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía “Colombian Spanish Intonation: A comparison between Colombian Caribbean Spanish intonation in cities and towns”. The 28th Midcontinental Phonetics and Phonology Conference, Purdue University. (West Lafayette, IN, United States) [Poster presentation]

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía “Colombian Spanish Intonation: A comparison between Colombian Caribbean Spanish intonation in cities and towns”. 17th Annual Kaleidoscope, Navigating Shifts in Space, Time and Topics, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Madison, WI, United States) [Oral presentation]

Sharing for the first time my findings on Colombian Caribbean Spanish (CCS) intonation at UW-Madison in 2023

Workshops

2023

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía A 40-minute lesson titled “Dance with Us! Colombia’s Most Popular Festivity – The Carnival of Barranquilla”. Languages of the World Day. The Language Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sharing insights about Colombia with curious high school minds during Languages of the World Day 2023

Invited talks

2017

Galindo-Navarro, Estefanía Francophonie de l ́année. Universidad del Atlántico. (Barranquilla, Atlántico, Colombia)

Additional Images: Conferences and Research

First day of AAAL 2025, Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Presenting new insights from our Bilingualism project at the SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, University of Arizona.
Discussing how bilingualism shapes language perspectives in the U.S. Midwest—presented with my co-author Kiley Specht at BiUNED (Bilingualism, Bilingual Education, and Social Conflict), Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain (2024).
Presenting my research on Colombian Caribbean Spanish Intonation at the 28th Midcontinental Phonetics and Phonology Conference, held at Purdue University in October 2023.
An invitation to share my MA research on Colombian Caribbean Spanish (CCS): a first step into sociolinguistic inquiry.
Recruitment flyer designed by the phonetics lab team for my fieldwork at the University of Antioquia (Summer 2023)
Recruitment flyer designed by myself for my fieldwork at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Bogotá (Summer 2023)