Research
Active Projects
Morphosyntactic variation in early Spanish-English bilinguals
This project explores the variation of forms in the expression of perfective past time reference, futurity, and epistemic modality among early Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States. In addition, it compares the results from bilinguals to those of Spanish monolinguals in order to examine the potential role of bilingualism and language contact situations. Data are currently being collected using different sociolinguistic corpora and a variety of experimental tasks that target both production and receptive knowledge, and will be analyzed following Bayesian regression methods. The findings from this project will inform theories of grammaticalization, language change and variation, language contact, bilingualism, and heritage language acquisition, as well as educational programs and language policy.
Language attitudes of Catalan-Spanish bilinguals
This project examines the covert attitudes by Catalan-Spanish bilinguals toward a less Catalan-like production of a given sound, focusing on intervocalic alveolar fricatives, lateral approximants, and velar fricatives. Data were collected using a experimental task that followed a between-subjects design, and is being analyzed through hierarchically nested linear regression models. The results from this study will inform discussions on language policies, social integration, and linguistic diversity in bilingual populations.
Attitudes towards a standardized written norm for Andalusian Spanish
This project examines the attitudes towards Ettandâ pal Andalûh (Colectivo EPA, 2018), an alternative ortographic norm for Andalusian Spanish, a variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in southern Spain. Data were collected from Reddit and analyzed following a discourse analysis approach (Walsh, 2022) combined with a stancetaking framework (Du Bois, 2007; Hilliard, 2023). The findings from the present project have several implications for internet sociolinguistics and for theories on language ideologies and political affiliations.
Spanish in central New Jersey
This project focuses on the Spanish spoken in New Jersey, in particular, in the greater New Brunswick area, with the aim of documenting its linguistic features and investigating language variation and change in this area. The outcome of this project will be the creation of a corpus of the Spanish language as currently used in central New Jersey. This project is lead by Dr. Kendra V. Dickinson.
Previous Projects
Initiative on immigration and education, CUNY-IIE
This megaproject investigated the intersections between immigration and education in New York by focusing on mixed-status immigrant communities and education stakeholders, specifically their strengths, experiences, and needs. Through the lens of grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990), I analyzed a part of the education stakeholders data with Julissa Dilone and Teresita Goyeneche, under the supervision of Dr. Ariana Mangual Figueroa. You can find more information about CUNY-IIE in the official website.
Alternative approaches to the teaching of Spanish to adult immigrants and refugees
This project tested ‘non-traditional’ approaches (task-based learning, cooperative learning, and writing as a social task) for teaching upper-beginning Spanish in an immigrant setting in Barcelona, Spain. This study addressed a significant research gap in the literature regarding this population, despite being Spain one of the main destinations for international migration (Consejo Económico y Social, 2019). You can read about this project here and in Boletín ASELE, núm. 66.
Publications and Works In Progress
Casillas, J., Constantin-Dureci, G., Andreu Rascón, I., Shao, J., Rodríguez, S., Gadamsetty, A., Minetti, A., Laungani, K., Thatcher, J., Gardere, R.T., Taveras, K., Chang, I., Rodríguez, N., Parrish, K., Feliu-Ribas, M., and Esposito, R. (2025). Opening open science to all: Demystifying reproducibility and transparency practices in linguistic research. Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0249
Feliu Ribas, M. (2022). Aprendiendo a escribir cartas de solicitud de empleo con los compañeros en un curso de E/L2 dirigido a un colectivo inmigrante. Boletín de la Asociación para la Enseñanza del Español como Lengua Extranjera, Núm. 66, 69-82.
Feliu Ribas, M. (2020). Aprendiendo a escribir cartas de solicitud de empleo con los compañeros: la expresión escrita en un curso de E/L2 dirigido a un colectivo inmigrante. [Master’s thesis, Universitat de Barcelona.] Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/172322
Feliu-Ribas, M. (accepted with minor revisions). “Cateto tú… que no’ntiendê l’andalûh”: Attitudes towards a framework for the spelling of Andalusian Spanish. Refereed Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. Babel Publishing.
Casillas, J., Esposito, R., Shao, J., Feliu-Ribas, M., Corregidor Luna, E.M., Rodríguez, S., Rascón Andreu, I., & Vargas Mutizabal, J.L. (in preparation). Code and Data Sharing Increases Citation Rates in Linguistics but Remains Uncommon.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (in preparation). Variation in Perfective Past Time Reference: Insights from Spanish in Contact with English.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (in preparation). Futurity and Probability in Contact Spanish: What Can Early Spanish-English Bilinguals Tell Us.
Conference Presentations and Posters
Feliu-Ribas, M. (November 2025). “Navigating Future-Time and Epistemic Modality Variation in Spanish Heritage Speakers” [Presentation]. Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (HLS) 2025. The University of Arizona, Arizona.
Casillas, J., Corregidor, E., Esposito, R., Shao, J., Andreu Rascón, I., Gardere, R.T., Laungani, K., Feliu-Ribas, M., & Rodriguez, S. (November 2025). “(Un)available upon request: Data and code sharing practices in (Hispanic) linguistics” [Presentation]. Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2025. The University of Arizona, Arizona.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (November 2025) “Futurity and Probability in Contact Spanish: Insights from Heritage Speakers” [Poster]. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 53. University of Michigan, Michigan.
Feliu Ribas, M. (November 2024). “Bailé or he bailado? Variable Perfective Past Time Reference among Spanish-English Early Bilinguals” [Presentation]. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 52. Florida International University and University of Miami, Florida.
Feliu Ribas, M. (April 2024). ““Cateto tú… que no’ntiendê l’andalûh”: Attitudes towards a framework for the spelling of Andalusian Spanish” [Presentation]. 11th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. State University of New York at Buffalo, New York.
Invited Talks and Workshops
Feliu-Ribas, M. (November 2025). “A Story of Power, Loss, and Identity: The Case of Catalan”. On Bilingualism in the Spanish-Speaking World (Instructor: Eva Maria Corregidor Luna). Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (October 2025). “Living Language: A Sociolinguistic Program for Young Heritage Speakers”. Research Colloquium, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (April 2025) “Experimental Methods in Sociolinguistics: A Practical Introduction”. Sociolinguistic Analysis Group (SlAnG Lab), Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Feliu-Ribas, M. (April 2025). “Time, Tense, and Variation: The Acquisition of the Past Perfective Forms by Early Spanish-English Bilinguals”. NYU Sociolinguistics Lab, New York.
Feliu Ribas, M. (March 2024). Methodology and methods in (socio)linguistic research on the Internet. On Research Methods in Spanish Linguistics (Prof. Kendra V. Dickinson). Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Dilone, J., Feliu Ribas, M., and Goyeneche, T. (December 2023). A Matter of Empathy and Resources: Navigating the Mindset of Educators in New York City Public Schools. On Intersections between Immigration and Education (Prof. Ariana Mangual Figueroa), City University of New York, New York.
Feliu Ribas, M. (May 2020). Aprendizaje Cooperativo en el aula de ELE. Qué es y cómo aplicarlo. Fundació Servei Solidari, Barcelona, Spain.