TEACHING AND SUPERVISION
COURSES

INTRODUCTION TO HISPANIC LITERATURE
Students gain a broad perspective of Hispanic literature, ranging from Medieval Spain to Colonial America, the literary Avant-Garde movements as well as Boom period. Narrative, poetry, theatre, and essay formats are covered, together with the basics of research methodology and literary analysis. Taught in Spanish.

TRANSLATION AND LITERATURE
Students learn about the main theories and debates concerning contemporary literary translation. They explore the issues that arise during literary translation of a variety of genres, including prose, poetry, and drama, and their specific cross-language, cross-cultural transfer concerns. Taught in English, translation into 10+ languages.
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
Students learn fundamental aspects of linguistics, including syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, and phonetics. Taught in English.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Through a linguistic approach and a focus on the major grammatical categories, students learn about the fundamentals of English grammar. Taught in English.


BEGINNER SPANISH
Students learn basic vocabulary, grammar, sounds of Spanish, as well as introductory aspects of Hispanic culture.

INTERMEDIATE SPANISH
Students further develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish.
ADVANCED SPANISH
Students hone details of the Spanish language, arriving at a near-native or native-like level. This level prepares students to continue with literary or linguistic pursuits in advanced Spanish courses.

ACADEMIC SPANISH FOR NATIVE AND HERITAGE SPEAKERS
Students with a Hispanic background are taken through an accelerated course in orthography, linguistics, some literature and grammar so that they may move onto advanced Hispanic literature and linguistics courses.

TEACHING RELATED WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES
Cruz, Ailén. “Innovating in the ELE Classroom with non-traditional sources: The Hispanic Bestiary as a Window into Grammar, Literary Analysis, and Cultural Studies.” American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). November 9, 2019, Toronto, Canada.
Cruz Ailén. “Quercus Basics: Uploading, setting contents, using chats, setting up quizzes”. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto, July 16, 2020.
Cruz Ailén. “Online Teaching: Basics, Helping Students Succeed, and Common Issues”. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, workshop series, April and May, 2020.
Cruz, Ailén. “Thesis Proposal Workshop”. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto, March 15, 2019.
Cruz, Ailén. “Preparing for Comprehensive Exams”. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto, June 6, 2018.
Cruz, Ailén. “Developing and Evaluating ELE Writing Skills” Language Teaching Workshops at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto, March 9, 2018.
OTHER TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2017
ESL INSTRUCTOR, PADOVA, ITALY
2017-2019