Estela Garcia Alcaraz holds a PhD in Spanish (Hispanic Linguistics) from the University of Ottawa and a PhD in Linguistic Communication and Multilingual Mediation from the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain).

Her current research focuses on the study of bilingualism in individuals with (a)typical language development. Among non-typically developing individuals, she is interested in shedding light on the effects of bilingualism on the cognitive and linguistic abilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities due to genetic disorders. 

Research Projects:

2022-2026              

Proyecto: Attrition and Ultimate Attainment (LAUA)

Tipo de proyecto: Plan Nacional I+D+i.

Referencia: PID2021-122127NB-I00)

Entidad financiadora: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

IP: Pedro Guijarro Fuentes (Universitat de les Illes Balears, España).

2022-2025            

Proyecto: Efectos bidireccionales del bilingüismo en distintas edades (BIBA)

Tipo de proyecto: Plan Nacional I+D+i.

Referencia: PID2020-114276GB-I00.

Entidad financiadora: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

IP: Aurora Bel y Silvia Perpiñán (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, España).

2019-2021             

Proyecto: Bilingualism and intellectual disabilities: The cognitive and metalinguistic abilities of Prader-Willi Syndrome bilingual and monolingual speakers.

Tipo de proyecto: equivalente al Plan Nacional I+D+i en el contexto canadiense.

Referencia: SSHRC# 430-2019-01116.

Entidad financiadora: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Federal Government of Canada (Insight Development Grants).

IP: Dra. Juana M. Liceras (University of Ottawa, Canadá)

2019- 2022          

Proyecto: Los indicadores de competencia lingüística en lengua de herencia y no-nativa: aspectos lingüísticos, psicolingüísticos y sociales del bilingüismo inglés-español.

Tipo de proyecto: Plan Nacional I+D+i.

Referencia: PGC2018-097693-B-100.

Entidad financiadora: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional.

IP: Dra. Raquel Fernández-Fuertes (Universidad de Valladolid, España)

2017- 2019         

Proyecto: The linguistic abilities of a simultaneous English-Spanish bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS): Three case studies of morphosyntactic, narrative and metalinguistic knowledge.

Tipo de proyecto: Interno de universidad.

Entidad financiadora: Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa (New Directions Funding).

IP: Dra. Juana M. Liceras (University of Ottawa, Canadá)

Publications (Last 5 years):

• Garcia-Alcaraz E. y M. Liceras J. (2024). Bilingüismo y discapacidad intelectual: habilidades lingüísticas y metalingüísticas, en castellano y en catalán, de hablantes con el síndrome Prader-Willi. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia, 14(2), e91035. https://doi.org/10.5209/rlog.91035 

• Garcia-Alcaraz, E., & Liceras, J. M. (2024). The linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of monolingual and bilingual speakers with Prader–Willi syndrome. Lingua, 304, 103724. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384124000536?via%3Dihub 

• Guijarro Fuentes, P., Bello Viruega, I., García-Alcaraz, E. & Viveros Guzmán, S. (2023). Chapter 2 Ultimate attainment in long-immersed heritage Italian immigrants: Syntactic and semantic knowledge of direct object clitics and partitive ne. In F. Romano (Ed.), Studies in Italian as a Heritage Language (pp. 33-64). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110759587-003

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2019). Grammatical gender in atypical language development: A case study on the interpretation and production of sentence internal code-switching by a Spanish-English bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 1(2), 225-247.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Bel, A. (2019). Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression. Applied Linguistics Review, 10(4), 491-515.

Conference Presentations (Last 5 years): 

Oral presentations

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2023). ‘Subject-Verb switches and the “Phonetic Form Interface Condition”: the view from French-Spanish code-switching’. The Romance Turn, 19-21 septiembre, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, España.

• Guijarro-Fuentes, P.; Bello-Viruega, I.; García-Alcaraz, E. & Sánchez Masià, M. (2022) ‘Measuring the bi(dialectal) competence: Null object constructions’. VI Encuentro sobre dialectos del español (VI Spadisyn), 24- 25 octubre, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, España.

• Liceras, J.; García-Alcaraz, E. & K. Ayala-Nájera (2022). ‘Subject-Verb code-switching between French and Spanish: does the strong-weak pronoun divide provide evidence for language dominance?’. Fourth international Psychology of Language Learning Conference (PLL4), 22-25 junio, Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nueva Escocia, Canadá (congreso híbrido).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2022). ‘The metalinguistic abilities of bilinguals and monolinguals with intellectual disabilities: The case of Prader-Willi Syndrome’. Fourth international Psychology of Language Learning Conference (PLL4), 22-25 junio, Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nueva Escocia, Canadá (congreso híbrido).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2022). ‘The executive control capacity of monolingual and bilingual individuals with Prader–Willi syndrome versus the typically-developing population: Simi- lar trends despite the differences’. 4th Bi/multilingualism and Specific Language Impairment (Developmental Language Disorder), 9-11 mayo, Leibniz-Center General Linguistics (ZAS), Berlín, Alemanía (congreso híbrido).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2022). ‘Is not losing winning? On the narrative abilities of monolingual and bilingual speakers with Prader-Willi Syndrome’. 52th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 52) , 21-23 abril, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, E.E.U.U (congreso virtual).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2022). ‘The narrative abilities of monolingual and bilingual speakers with Prader-Willi Syndrome: Not losing is winning’. International Symposium on Monolingual and Bilingual Speech (ISMBS) 2022, 6-9 abril, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, E.E.U.U (congreso híbrido).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2021). ‘Bilingualism and cognition: the Executive Control capacity of individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome’. 30th Annual Conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA30), 30 junio-3 julio, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, España (congreso virtual).

• Liceras, J.; García-Alcaraz, E. & K. Ayala-Nájera. (2021). ‘Subject-verb code-switching in the Spanish-French bilingual grammar of Heritage Spanish speakers: can the status of weak and strong pronouns be a diagnostic for language dominance and language literacy?’, Thirteenth Heritage Language Research Institute, 7-10 junio, University of North Carolina, North Carolina, E.E. U.U (congreso virtual).

• Garcia-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. M. (2021). ‘Bilingualism and intellectual disabilities: The view from Metalinguistics’. Colloque 50 ans de linguistique à l'UQAM: Regards croisés sur les enjeux de la linguistique, Université de Québec à Montreal (Virtual). 22-24 abril 2021.

• Liceras, J.M., Garcia-Alcaraz, E. & Ayala-Nájera, K. (2021). ‘Code-switching and the status of the different grammatical classes of pronouns in the bilingual grammar’. Colloque 50 ans de linguistique à l'UQAM: Regards croisés sur les enjeux de la linguistique, Université de Québec à Montreal (Virtual). 22-24 abril 2021.

• García-Alcaraz, E & Liceras, J.M. (2020). ‘The metalinguistic abilities of Spanish-Catalan bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals: Non-typically developing speakers in the spotlight’. Virtual 50th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, 1-3 & 6-8 2020. 

• García-Alcaraz, E & Liceras, J. (2019). ‘Bilingualism and Executive Control: the PWS population on the spotlight and… doing well’. 10th International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation Conference (IPWSO 2019), 13-17 noviembre, Centro de convenciones de Cojimar, La Habana, Cuba.

• Liceras, J., García-Alcaraz, E.  & Ayala-Nájera, K. (2019). ‘Subject-Verb code-switching between French and Spanish: putting strong pronouns to the test’. International Symposium on Monolingual and Bilingual Speech 2019 (ISMBS 2019), 27-30 agosto, Great Arsenali Conference Center, Chania, Creta, Grecia.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2019). ‘Bilingualism and non-typical language development: code-switching as an indirect way of investigating the status of grammatical gender in the Spanish grammar of an English-Spanish bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome’. The 12th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB12), 23-28 junio, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canadá.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2019). ‘Bilingualism and non-typical language development: can code switching production and acceptability judgments tasks shed light on the linguistic abilities of individuals with Prader-Willi-Syndrome?’.  37th Conference of the Spanish Association for Applied Linguistics (AESLA 2019), 27-29 marzo, Universidad de Valladolid, España

• Ayala-Nájera, K., García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2019). ‘Weak, strong and DP subject-Verb code-switches: The view from language dominance and formal linguistics’.            37th Conference of the Spanish Association for Applied Linguistics (AESLA 2019), 27-29 marzo, Universidad de Valladolid, España.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2018). ‘The narrative abilities of a heritage speaker with Prader-Willi Syndrome: A case for bilingualism’. 37th Second Language Research Forum (SLRF 2018), 26-28 octubre, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canadá.

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2018). ‘Grammatical gender in atypical language development: Inferences from a case study of a heritage speaker’. 2018 UIC Bilingualism Forum (BilForum 2018), 11-12 octubre, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, EE.UU.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2018). ‘The narrative abilities of an English-Spanish bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome: Is there a bilingual cost?’. 2018 UIC Bilingualism Forum (BilForum 2018), 11-12 octubre, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, EE.UU.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2018). ‘Analysis of spontaneous oral data in a bilingual individual with Prader-Willi Syndrome: beyond the “bilingual fallacy’. Conference on Developmental Language Disorders (DevO 2018), 26-28 septiembre, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, España.

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2018). ‘On the status of gender in the grammar of a bilingual with Prader-Willi syndrome: insights from code-switching’. Conference on Developmental Language Disorders (DevO 2018), 26-28 septiembre, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, España.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2018). ‘Bilingualism in individuals with developmental disabilities, hindrance or benefit? A case-study of a simultaneous English-Spanish bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome’. 12th European Conference on psychological theory and research on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (ECIDD 2018), 28-30 junio, University of Padova, Italia.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras, J. (2018). ‘The Narrative Skills of a Bilingual with Prader Willi Syndrome: Debunking the Bilingual Disadvantage Myth’. 2nd International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education (ICMME18), 31 mayo-2 junio, Douglas College, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canadá.

Poster presentations

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2023). ‘Non-typically developing bilingual and monolingual populations with genetic disorders: Macrostructural and microstructural narrative abilities.’ International Symposium on Bilingualism 14, 26-30 junio, Mcquire University, Sydney, Australia (Congreso híbrido).

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2022). ‘The representation of language in the mind of monolingual and bilingual speakers with Prader-Willi Syndrome: The view from metalinguistics’. 11th International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation Conference (IPWSO 2022), 6-10 julio, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.

• García-Alcaraz, E. & Liceras J. (2021). ‘Testing the “bilingual advantage hypothesis” against non-typically developing individuals with genetic disorders’ The XV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics, 22-25 junio, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, España (Congreso virtual).

• Liceras J., García-Alcaraz, E., & Ayala-Nájera, K., (2021). ‘The representation of the different grammatical classes of pronouns in the mind of the bilingual: The view from code-switching’. 9th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALANA9), 7-9 mayo, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland (Congreso virtual).

• Ayala-Nájera, K., Liceras, J. M. & Garcia Alcaraz, E. (2021). ‘Language dominance and code-switching: Insights from French-Spanish code-switched structures’. Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL), 29 de abril-1 de mayo, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canadá (Congreso virtual).

• Garcia-Alcaraz, E & Liceras, J.M. (2020). ‘The metalinguistic abilities of Spanish-Catalan bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals: Non-typically developing speakers in the spotlight’. 50th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 50), 1-3 y 6-9 de julio, University of Texas, Texas, E.E.U.U (Congreso virtual).

• Ayala-Nájera, K., Liceras, J., & García-Alcaraz, E. (2019). ‘Language dominance and code-switching: Insights from French-Spanish code-switched structures’. Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL), 29 abril-1 mayo, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canadá.

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2019). ‘I am bilingual, I am proud… and I am good! Code-switching as a tool to determine the status of grammatical gender in the grammar of a PWS English-Spanish bilingual’. 10th International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation Conference (IPWSO 2019), 13-17 noviembre, Centro de convenciones de Cojímar, La Habana, Cuba.

• Liceras, J., Ayala-Nájera, K. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2019). ‘Subject-Verb code-switching between French and Spanish: The view from language dominance’. The 12th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB12), 23-28 junio, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canadá.

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2018). ‘On the representation of grammatical gender in the mind of a non-typically developing bilingual speaker: Cognitive skills and the bilingual advantage’. 37th Second Language Research Forum (SLRF 2018), 26-28 octubre, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canadá.

• Liceras, J. & García-Alcaraz, E. (2018). ‘The interpretation and production of grammatical gender by a Spanish-English bilingual with Prader-Willi Syndrome: an idiosyncratic cognitive divide?’. 12th European Conference on psychological theory and research on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (ECIDD 2018), 28-30 junio, University of Padova, Padova, Italia.