Danielle Daidone

Trained in both second language acquisition and Hispanic linguistics, my research focuses on three main areas: second language phonology, input in the language classroom, and sociolinguistic variation. Within second language phonology, I investigate techniques for improving the perception of second language sounds as well as factors explaining the storage and processing of second language words. I also examine what tasks and analysis techniques can most accurately predict the difficulty of sound contrasts for non-native speakers. My research on input in the language classroom looks at characteristics of the oral input provided by Spanish instructors to their students (“teacher talk”) from a usage-based perspective, since understanding patterns in the linguistic input that learners receive yields insights into why their grammatical systems develop in certain ways. Finally, my sociolinguistic work has examined phonetic and morphosyntactic variation in both first language and second language Spanish. I incorporate the expertise gained from my education and research into the courses I teach in Spanish language, linguistics, and second language teaching methods.

Education

B.A. in Linguistics and Hispanic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
M.A. in Second Language Studies, Indiana University
M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics, Indiana University
Ph.D. in Second Language Studies and Hispanic Linguistics, Indiana University

Specialization in Teaching

With my specialization in second language acquisition, I work hard to incorporate insights from language pedagogy into my courses. One teaching initiative that I am particularly proud of is creating a collection of graded readers for Spanish learners at various levels, which is available at Randall Library. If you're an instructor interested in incorporating extensive reading into language courses or you're a student who wants to know more about the books available, please contact me!

Courses I've taught at UNCW:

Undergraduate
• Introductory Spanish I
• Intermediate Spanish I
• Reading Strategies for Spanish
• Spanish Phonetics
• Hispanic Linguistics
• Language and the Brain

Graduate
• Current Practices and Research in Teaching Spanish
• Research in Spanish Second Language Acquisition

Research Interests

If you're a student interested in working with me on research (e.g., DIS, honors thesis), feel free to reach out. I work in the following areas:

• Methodology and theory in second language speech learning
• Training second language perception
• Second language mental representations of words
• Individual differences
• Non-native perception tasks
• Input in the language classroom
• First and second language variation in Spanish

Here are some of my recent publications. See my website for the full list:

Sanders, N., & Daidone, D. (2025). Physical and online games for phonetics and phonology. In V. Kogan (Ed.), Teaching linguistics with games. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003630487-2

Zahler, S. L., Daidone, D., & Kuder, E. (2025). University Spanish instructors’ trill production within and outside of the language classroom. In M. Solon, M. Kanwit, & A. Gudmestad (Eds.), Research at the intersection of second language acquisition and sociolinguistics: Studies in honor of Kimberly L. Geeslin (pp. 144-177). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.43.06zah

*Farrell, V., & Daidone, D. (2023). Effects of orthography and cognate status on second language Spanish lexical encoding. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 9(2), 167-191. https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.22036.far
(*student collaborator!)

Daidone, D., Lidster, R., & Kruger, F. (2023). Free classification as a method for investigating the perception of nonnative sounds. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 45(4), 1104-1130. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263123000050

Daidone, D. (2023). The relationship between self-rated vocabulary knowledge and accuracy of phonological forms. In I. Checa-García & L. Marqués-Pascual (Eds.), Current perspectives on Spanish lexical development (pp. 49-72). de Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730418-003

Honors & Awards

UNCW Rising Research Excellence Award, 2024
Ferenc Kiefer Award for best early career presentation at the 21st International Congress of Linguists, September 8-13, 2024, Poznań, Poland (co-presented, 1st place)
Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Award to do research at the University of Barcelona, Spain, January 2026-June 2026