About

Cecilia Montes-Alcalá is the Director of the Spanish Program and an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Modern Languages. Her research focus includes Spanish linguistics and language studies, contributing to the academic understanding of Spanish language and linguistics. She is involved in teaching and program development within the modern languages department, supporting language education and intercultural studies.

Research topics

• Linguistics
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Computer science
• Humanities

Selected publications

• Introduction

  Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics · 2025-05-15

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
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• Code-Switching in ¿Qué Pasa, USA?

  2025-05-06

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Code-switching serves as a valuable tool for depicting bilingualism and biculturalism in media, as it can reflect the authentic communication patterns of bilingual individuals and communities. Although the presence of Spanish in mainstream US television has increased since the 1950s, bilingual programming and use of code-switching are still unusual. Instead, contemporary sitcoms often incorporate stereotypical or mock Spanish language, usually to elicit humor accessible to English monolingual audiences rather than to portray real-life bilingualism. ¿Qué Pasa, USA? pioneered in 1977 as the first true bilingual show to air on US public television. Initially intended for Cuban-American teenagers living in exile, the sitcom transcended its Miami roots to captivate audiences nationwide. Over 40 years later, it is still regarded as a seminal representation of US Latinos on mainstream television and its realistic depiction of bilingualism and biculturalism remains unmatched. Surprisingly, despite its huge success and lasting impact, limited research has focused on this show. In order to address such gap, the present study examines the significance of code-switching and bilingualism in the sitcom as an accurate reflection of a number of linguistic patterns and communicative strategies traditionally attested in natural bilingual communities. Through the analysis of selected episode scripts spanning its four seasons, I argue that code-switching serves as a credibility tool to portray bilingualism and biculturalism as essential aspects of the characters’ identity while avoiding stereotypes. Carefully scripted, ¿Qué Pasa, USA? provides an authentic and respectful representation of the linguistic practices and the intergenerational language shift that occur in bilingual Latino communities across the US

  PublisherDOI

• Bilingual Texting in the Age of Emoji: Spanish–English Code-Switching in SMS

  Languages · 2024-04-15 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Technology and computer-mediated communication (CMC) have quickly transformed the means of interaction among monolingual and bilingual individuals alike, especially in the younger generations. While e-mail once replaced traditional “snail mail”, today’s youth networks mainly via social media and short message services (SMS). Digital communication has thus become a fertile ground for sociolinguistic research. The present study aims to contribute to the field of “electronic” code-switching, specifically in the emerging area of text messaging. To this end, I analyze The Bilingual Youth Texts Corpus, a collection of text messages among urban emergent Spanish–English bilinguals in New York City. The main findings indicate that (1) although it is not the most common practice, participants do engage in code-switching when texting each other; (2) their language mixing obeys most of the socio-pragmatic and communicative patterns attested in oral production (such as emphasis, elaboration, lexical need and, especially, tag switches) along with other functions (textisms) which are idiosyncratic to CMC; and (3) the language choices made by these bilinguals reveal a linguistic and a cultural belonging to two worlds where they may and must use both languages to fully express themselves online just like in real life.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Dual Role of Code-Switching in Alejandro Morales’s <i>Reto en el paraíso</i>

  Forum for Modern Language Studies · 2024-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Although most contemporary Chicano authors tend to write exclusively in one language, English or Spanish, they have a range of linguistic options available to them – as would any member of a bilingual community – including code-switching. Code-switching in US literature dates back to the Mexican–American War and has been employed to establish aesthetic or stylistic credibility and to communicate biculturalism or ethnic identity. This article examines the dual role of code-switching in Alejandro Morales’s only bilingual novel, Reto en el paraíso. It explores how code-switching serves as a narrative technique to develop character identity in a bilingual and bicultural context, while also performing some of the socio-pragmatic and communicative functions commonly attested in natural bilingual discourse. Morales’s linguistic choices exemplify how Chicano writers living between two cultures may, and often must, use both languages to depict accurately the intricate cultural and linguistic realities of their characters.

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• Introduction

  Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics · 2020-03-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Bilingualism and biculturalism

  2018-08-06

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chicana/o bilingualism has been characterized as &quot;natural&quot; and typically shows a diglossic pattern where English is the formal language associated with school, work, and public spaces while Spanish is relegated to the home, family, and more intimate contexts. References to Spanglish can be found in dictionaries, printed press, Internet sources, and scholarly articles but they are occasionally vague and inaccurate. The lack of universal agreement on what Spanglish really is has triggered a great deal of discussion and controversy. Perhaps the most notable admirer and promoter of Spanglish has been Ilan Stavans, who accused Antonio de Nebrija's grammar of being an imperial tool. Critics of Spanglish abound among linguists, journalists, educators, and the general public. Even in its origins the term was born with a negative connotation. The chapter offers an overview and detailed discussion of the different linguistic phenomena that occur in Spanish-English bilingual and/or bicultural settings in the United States, including Chicana/o and Latina/o communities.

  PublisherDOI

• Socio-pragmatic functions of codeswitching in Nuyorican &amp; Cuban American literature

  Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics · 2016-08-26 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter emphasizes the social, pragmatic, and cultural nature of codeswitching (CS) over the search for grammatical constraints on the phenomenon. While the bulk of research performed on language mixing has concentrated on spontaneous oral production, the present investigation focuses on CS in literary writing. Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of a selection of contemporary Nuyorican and Cuban American bilingual literature (poetry, drama, and fiction) the goal of the study is to determine the extent to which literary CS reflects ordinary bilingual speech and performs socio-pragmatic functions similar to those ascribed to natural bilingual discourse. It also seeks to establish whether literary CS displays any substantial differences across genres and/or between the two groups analyzed.

  PublisherDOI

• iSwitch: Spanish-English Mixing in Computer-Mediated Communication

  Journal of Language Contact · 2015-12-19 · 39 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Technology, and the Internet in particular, have rapidly transformed the means of communication in the 21 st century, opening the door to a novel and fertile ground of research. What takes place when bi- or multilingual individuals sit at the keyboard has been the focus of several studies exploring computer-mediated communication ( cmc ). However, there appears to be a lack of research dealing specifically with Spanish-English language mixing online, a surprising fact given that Spanish is the third language of the Internet and its use has grown 800% in the last decade. The present work analyzes and compares data from three different sources of cmc (e-mail, blogs, and social networks including Facebook and Twitter) among Spanish-English bilinguals in an attempt to further explore the still relatively new field of “electronic code-switching”. The study aims to outline the reasons behind bilingual individuals’ language mixing online, hypothesizing that it will accomplish many of the socio-pragmatic functions traditionally ascribed to oral code-switching along with, perhaps, other uses idiosyncratic of cmc . Furthermore, it intends to emphasize the cultural nature of code-switching, a crucial component that has often been overlooked in the search for grammatical constraints.

  PublisherDOI

• Code-switching in US Latino literature: The role of biculturalism

  Language and Literature International Journal of Stylistics · 2015-08-01 · 34 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  While mixing languages in natural speech production has often been inaccurately ascribed to illiteracy or lack of linguistic competence, doing so in writing is a long-standing practice in bilingual literature. This practice may fulfill stylistic or aesthetic purposes, be a source of credibility and/or communicate biculturalism, humor, criticism, and ethnicity, among other functions. Here, I analyze a selection of contemporary Spanish–English bilingual literature (poetry, drama, and fiction) written by Mexican American, Nuyorican, and Cuban American authors focusing on the types, and significance, of code-switching (CS) in their works. The aim of the study is to determine to what extent the socio-pragmatic functions that have been attested in natural bilingual discourse are present in literary CS, whether it is mimetic rather than rhetorical, and what differences exist both across literary genres and among the three US Latino groups. I also emphasize the cultural aspect of CS, a crucial element that has often been overlooked in the search for grammatical constraints.

  PublisherDOI

• El uso contextual del pronombre sujeto como factor predictivo de la influencia del inglés en el español de Nueva York [English influence on Spanish in New York: Evidence from subject pronouns in context]

  Sociolinguistic Studies · 2014-07-21 · 53 citations

  articleSenior author

  The role of English in shaping US Spanish is widely debated. Evidence for English influence has been found in New York where greater familiarity with English correlates with changes in subject pronoun use (Otheguy & Zentella 2012). The present study further examines the impact of English by studying divergent contexts, where pronoun omission is common in Spanish, but not English, as well as convergent contexts, in which omission is common in both Spanish and English (imperatives, e.g. Ø sit down, and coordinate clauses maintaining reference, e.g. we came in and Ø sat down). Analyses of over 25,000 verbs in the speech of two generations of Latinos in New York indicate that English acts not only as a promoter of pronoun use in Spanish, but also as an inhibitor of pronoun use in contexts where both languages tend to omit pronouns.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Naomi Shin

  2 shared

• Lindsey Sweetnich

  1 shared

• Talia Bugel

  Secretaria de Estado de Segurança Pública

  1 shared

• Susana de los Heros

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Awards from Emory University
• Awards from the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Awards from the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid)