Megan is the Coordinator of the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program. She holds a PhD in Hispanic and Italian Studies from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research focuses on the role of sociocultural contexts in heritage language maintenance and language acquisition for learners of Spanish as an additional language.
Megan believes that the languages we speak are an essential part of our individual and community identities. She knows that speaking Spanish opens the door to a rich world of music, art, pop culture, news, comedy, poetry, and literature spanning time and geographic space, with something for everyone, and wants each of her students to explore and define their own authentic connection to the Spanish-speaking world. Her teaching prioritizes exploring and deepening the connections students have to other Spanish speakers and Spanish-speaking communities, with a focus on using language in meaningful communication. More traditional aspects of language instruction, such as grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary, are incorporated as important tools that help students organize, understand, and use language more effectively in support of these communication goals.
Apart from teaching and research, Megan provides professional development workshops for teachers and parents of bilingual children on a variety of topics related to language development in schools and at home. She is also a founding member of the Dual Language Bilingual Education collective at the University of Illinois, Chicago. As part of this collective she participates in outreach to Latine families in Chicago, sharing information about dual language education programs available through Chicago Public Schools and advocating for the creation of new programs to serve the communities that would benefit most from them.
Megan believes that everyone has the right to maintain and develop their heritage language. She is committed to advancing equitable access to high-quality heritage language instruction and to creating and sharing high-quality instructional materials through open-access publication. Her first collaboration “Voces que cruzan fronteras- nuestra comunidad y la identidad multilingüe,” a university level text book for heritage learners of Spanish that centers Chicago area latinx communities, was published on the LibreTexts open access platform in 2026.
Selected Publications
- Aguilera, L., Marshall, M. T., & Domínguez-Fret, N. (2024) Yo sí digo haiga: A critical approach to teaching Latina/o/e Spanish heritage speaking students. In O. Silverman Andrews & A. Tomlin (Eds.), When we hear them: Tools to attune teachers’ ears to voices of language-diverse learners. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Martínez Vera, G., López Otero, J. C., Sokolova, M. Y., Cleveland, A., Marshall, M. T., & Sánchez, L. (2023). Aspectual se and telicity in heritage Spanish bilinguals: The effects of lexical access, dominance, age of acquisition, and patterns of language use. Languages, 8(3), 201.
Recent courses in RLL
- SPAN 10402 Heritage Spanish: Developing Foundational Skills (Autumn 2024, Autumn 2025, Winter 2026)
- SPAN 20102 Language, History, and Culture for Heritage Speakers I (Winter 2025, Spring 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026)
- SPAN 20302 Language, History, and Culture for Heritage Speakers II/III (Winter 2025, Autumn 2025, Spring 2026)
- SPAN 20402 Curso de redacción académica para hablantes nativos (Autumn 2024)
- SPAN 20602 Discurso académico para hablantes nativos (Spring 2025)