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Dr. Stephen Hawes

Photo of Dr. Stephen  Hawes
Associate Professor Emeritus
Morrison Hall 127 • M/S 1301
603-358-2927

Stephen Hawes describes himself as incurable linguist. He loves languages, the study of language processing, teaching language and understanding language change. His areas of interest are in second language acquisition, learning, dialectology and methodologies of teaching language.

His research interests are in theoretical and applied linguistics. Of particular interest is how second language learners process the language they are learning, having their brain fully hard-wired for their mother tongue. He looks closely at the language learner’s syntax and morphology. His research papers are theoretical and attempt to explain the cognitive processes used by English-speaking students who learn Spanish as a second language.

His research linguistically and culturally enriches his classes at all levels, and has spawned an introduction to linguistics class that has been received with great enthusiasm by students at Keene State College. His students benefit from his expertise on the dialectal variation throughout the Spanish-speaking world and when they leave are well-prepared for the different ways of speaking Spanish in Spain and the 19 Latin American countries after taking his SP 405 Contemporary Spanish Usage course.

Since his research on second language learning contributes to the best methodologies used to teach second language, all his students in his language classes, as well as his world language teacher candidates in his Methods I and II classes, reap the benefits.

Aside from linguistics and teaching, Professor Hawes is happily married to his lovely Puerto Rican wife. He has a son and a daughter who are bilingual. He is an avid pilot and has flown everything from Cessnas to Falcon jets. He loves to travel, play tennis and fly fish in the summer and snowmobile and ski in the winter.

Language Classes Taught:

  • Elementary Spanish I
  • Elementary Spanish II
  • Elementary Spanish III
  • SP 201 Intermediate Spanish
  • SP 315 Conversation and Composition I

Linguistics Classes Taught:

  • SP 298 Peninsular Dialectal Variation
  • SP 405 Contemporary Spanish Usage (course on different Spanish dialects)
  • SP 498 Sevillian Dialect and its departure from Standard Spanish
  • ML 199 Human Language and its Systems (taught in English)

Teacher Certification Classes Taught:

  • EDUC 331 Methods I
  • EDUC 431 Methods II
  • EDUC 400 Student Teaching Supervision

Education:

  • PhD, Hispanic Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
  • MA, Hispanic Literatures and Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
  • BA, Spanish and Certification in Secondary Education, Keene State College, Keene, NH
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