Headshot of Dr.David Giancaspro

Dr. David Giancaspro

Associate Professor of Spanish
  • Profile

    David's research explores a number of multilingualism-related topics ranging from second- and third-language acquisition to code-switching and Spanglish. His primary research interest, however, is heritage bilingualism, that is, the case of native Spanish speakers who grow up in the United States and often come to prefer English rather than Spanish. More specifically, David utilizes experimental methodologies to investigate how heritage speakers of Spanish use—and understand—Spanish verbs, especially less frequent forms like the subjunctive and the present perfect. By probing heritage speakers' knowledge of these relatively less common forms, David sheds new light on the nature of inter-generational language change, as well as the creativity and resourcefulness of second-generation heritage speakers, who face the challenge of constructing and maintaining their home language in an English-dominant societal context. In most of his projects, David collaborates directly with undergraduate students, many of whom are themselves heritage speakers of Spanish. David earned a BA in Romance Languages (Spanish) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MA in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D in Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition from Rutgers University.

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    • Grants and Fellowships

      GAANN Fellowship (2015-2017)

    • Awards

      2016    Most Promising Young Scholar Award, 3rd Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, University of Oregon

      2013    Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Outstanding MA Student, University of Florida

      2011    Sterling A. Stoudemire Award for Spanish Excellence, UNC-Chapel Hill

    • Presentations

      Invited Talks

      2023    'Ha visto mucho cambio': Innovation and flexibility in second-generation US Spanish. Rutgers University.

      2022    Within-sight: Illuminating heritage variability via intra-group and intra-speaker analyses. Wake Forest University. 

      2021    Your Spanish: Una conversación lingüística sobre su español. University of Georgia

      2016    Binomial Logistic Regression in Bilingualism Research: An Introduction, Rutgers University

      2016    The Effects of Community and Complexity on Heritage Speakers' Production of Subjunctive, Texas Tech University

      Conference Presentations

      2024    Subject pronoun variation in Honduran Spanish: Insights from Northern Virginia Spanish Linguistics. North Carolina/Southeast, Charleston, SC (w/ J. Mendoza Meza & R. Martínez).

      2023    Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina, Davidson, NC
      Linguistic insecurity in Round Lake, IL: 'Estoy olvidando cómo se habla de verdad'

      2022    Bilingualism Forum, Chicago, IL
      Version of the future: Shifting strategies for future expression in Round Lake Spanish (w/ M. Consuelo)

      2022    9th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Tallahassee, FL
      Alternative Futures? Generational Change in the Spanish of Round Lake, IL (w/ M. Consuelo)

      2022    9th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Tallahassee, FL
      First Things Third: Innovation in Heritage Speakers' Knowledge of Person on Present Perfect Verb Forms (w/ J. Higdon)

      2021    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Winston-Salem, NC (virtual)
      Not a perfect person? Innovation in heritage speakers' knowledge of agreement morphology (w. J. Higdon and N. Ramírez Véliz)

      2021    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Winston-Salem, NC (virtual)
      Workshop: On mindsets and metas: Positive psychology and personal progress in the heritage language classroom

      2021    8th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, New York, NY (virtual)
      Metas and mindsets in the heritage Spanish classroom

      2021    Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina, Raleigh, NC (virtual)
      Encouraging a growth mindset in the heritage language classroom

      2020    Twelfth Heritage Language Research Institute, State College, PA
      Mood swings: Effects of verb regularity on heritage speakers' knowledge of subjunctive morphology in Spanish (w. S. Perez-Cortes & J. Higdon) 

      2020    Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Albuquerque, NM
      Frequency and regularity effects in heritage speakers' knowledge of mood in Spanish (w. S. Perez-Cortes & J. Higdon)

      2019    7th Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, McAllen, TX
      Proficiency and age of acquisition of English affect heritage speakers’ subjunctive usage 

      2019    Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World, Leiden, Netherlands
      Agreeing to agree (but disagreeing how): Innovation in heritage speakers’ expression of possession (w. L. Sánchez) 

      2018    Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, Toronto, Canada
      Inalienable possession in heritage speakers: Evidence for the activation hypothesis (w. L. Sánchez)

      2018    5th Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Iowa City, IA
      More than just mood: Heritage speakers’ lexically-limited subjunctive knowledge

      2018    5th Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Iowa City, IA
      Innovation in heritage speakers’ production of inalienable possession (w. L. Sánchez)

      2018    Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina, Winston-Salem, NC
      Not in the MoodP: Lexical variability in heritage speakers’ subjunctive knowledge

      2017    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Lubbock, TX
      Verb frequency effects in heritage speakers' knowledge of subjunctive mood

      2016    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Washington, DC
      Heritage speakers' production and comprehension of subjunctive mood morphology

      2016    GALANA 7, Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America, Urbana-Champaign, IL
      Development in L3 acquisition: is native language transfer harder to overcome? (w. J. Cabrelli-Amaro, M. Iverson & B. Halloran)

      2015    3rd Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language, Eugene, Oregon
      The effects of community and complexity on heritage speakers' production of subjunctive forms

      2015    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, IL
      Heritage speakers' production of intensional and polarity subjunctive

      2015    Lost in Transmission: the role of attrition and input in heritage language development, Reading, UK
      Heritage speakers' variable (and systematic) production of subjunctive forms

      2015    GASLA 13, Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition, Bloomington, IN
      The acquisition of scalar implicatures in L2 Spanish (w. D. Miller, M. Iverson, J. Rothman & R. Slabakova)

      2014    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, West-Lafayette, IN
      L2 learners' judgments of code-switching at the subject-predicate boundary

      2013    95th AATSP (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) Conference, San Antonio, TX
      Transfer in L3 acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese: the case of differential object marking in Spanish-English bilinguals (w. B. Halloran & M. Iverson)

      2012    Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Gainesville, FL
      Examining L3 transfer: the acquisition of differential object marking in L3 Brazilian Portuguese

      2012    Third Language (L3) Acquisition: A Focus on Cognitive Approaches, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
      Examining transfer models: the acquisition of differential object marking in L3 Brazilian Portuguese (w. B. Halloran)

       

  • Publications
    Journal Articles

    Giancaspro, D. & *Higdon, J. (2024). First things third? The extension of canonically third-person singular inflections to first-person singular subjects in adult heritage Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 17(2), 251-290. https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2024-2011

    Perez-Cortes, S. & Giancaspro, D. (In)frequently asked questions: On types of frequency and their role(s) in heritage language variability. (2024). Frontiers in Psychology (Special issue: "The next phase in HL studies: Methodological considerations and advancements"), 13, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1002978

    Giancaspro, D., Perez-Cortes, S., & *Higdon, J. (2022). (Ir)regular mood swings: Lexical variability in heritage speakers' oral production of subjunctive mood. Language Learning, 72(2), 456-496. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12489

    Giancaspro, D. & Sánchez, L. (2021). Me, mi, my: Innovation in heritage speakers' knowledge of inalienable possession. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 6(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1240

    Giancaspro, D. (2019). The late(r) bird gets the verb? Effects of age of acquisition of English on adult heritage speakers’ knowledge of subjunctive mood in Spanish. Languages, 4(3), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4030069

    Giancaspro, D. (2019). Over, under, and around: Spanish heritage speakers’ production (and avoidance) of subjunctive mood. Heritage Language Journal, 16(1), 44-70.  https://doi.org/10.46538/hlj.16.1.3

    Giancaspro, D. (2015). Code-switching at the auxiliary-VP boundary: a comparison of heritage speakers and L2 learners. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 5(3), 379-407.  https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.5.3.04gia

    Giancaspro, D., Halloran, B., & Iverson, M. (2015). Transfer at the initial stages of L3 Brazilian Portuguese: A look at three groups of Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 191-207.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728914000339

    Book Chapters

    Austin, J., Sánchez, L., Perez-Cortes, S. & Giancaspro, D. (2021). The development of person and number agreement in child heritage speakers of Spanish learning English as a second language. In G. Martohardjono & S. Flynn (Eds.), Language in Development and Use: A Crosslinguistic Perspective. (pp. 103-129). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Giancaspro, D. (2020). Not in the mood: frequency effects in heritage speakers' knowledge of subjunctive mood. In B. Brehmer & J. Treffers-Daller (Eds.), Lost in Transmission: The Role of Attrition and Input in Heritage Language Development (pp. 72-97). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Cabrelli, J., Iverson, M., Giancaspro, D., & Halloran, B. (2020). The roles of L1 Spanish versus L2 Spanish in L3 Portuguese morphosyntactic development. In K.V. Molsing, C.B. Lopes Perna & A.M. Tramunt Ibaños (Eds.) Linguistic Approaches to Portuguese as an Additional Language (pp. 11-33). Amsterdam: John Benjamins

    Miller, D., Giancaspro, D., Iverson, M., Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R. (2016). Not just algunos but indeed unos: L2ers can acquire scalar implicatures in Spanish. In A. Alba de la Fuente, E. Valenzuela, & C. Martínez-Sanz (Eds.), Language Acquisition Beyond Parameters: Studies in Honour of Juana Liceras (pp. 125-145). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

    Rothman, J., Giancaspro, D., & Halloran, B. (2014).On the structural basis of non-redundant acquisition: Evidence from Spanish bilingual L3 Portuguese. In P. Amaral & A.M. Carvalho (eds.), Portuguese-Spanish Interfaces: Diachrony, Synchrony and Contact (pp. 318-334). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

    Giancaspro, D. (2013). L2 learners' and heritage speakers' judgments of code-switching at the auxiliary-VP boundary. In J. Cabrelli-Amaro, G. Lord, A. Prada Pérez, & J. Aaron (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 16th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 56-70). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 

    Reviews

    Giancaspro, D. (2021). The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language, edited by Kim Potowski. Heritage Language Journal, 18(1), 1-8.