Miguel A. VELA-TAFALLA


I am a lecturer at the Department of English and German, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. My current interests are the role and status of English in the domain of academic communication. I am interested in the analysis of academic spoken genres for research communication purposes, especially in digital environments. In my PhD, I specifically looked at genres as tools in the dissemination of scientific knowledge and my research seeks to describe phonological features of international scientific English and the role of intonation in such contexts. Connected research interests are English phonetics and pronunciation teaching, corpus linguistics, and computer science.

You can follow my updates on Twitter and ResearchGate.

Publications

  • Guillén-Galve, I. and Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2021). Taking the ethnomethodological lens to enquire into academic literacy development in graduate students. In L. M. Muresan and C. Orna-Montesinos (eds.) Academic Literacy Development: Perspectives on Multilingual Scholars’ Approaches to Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham: pp. 101-121. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62877-2_6
  • Guillén-Galve, I. and Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2020). New research genres and English prosody: an exploratory analysis of academic English intonation in Video Methods Articles in experimental biology. Language Value 12, 1-19. http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/index.php/languagevalue/article/view/4722/4762

Presentations

  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2024). Genre networks through hyperlinking in science and technology articles written by experts for non-specialized audiences. XII National BIFI Conference, 17-19 January 2024, Zaragoza, Spain.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. & Villares, R. (2023). Researchers’ skills in the digital era: insights from the GENCI 2.0. and DILAN projects. The 11th International Conference Synergies in Communication, 26-27 October 2021,  Bucharest, Romania / online event. Invited roundtable.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2022). A Look at the Interaction Between Intonation and Genre Moves in Academic Spoken English. 5th International Symposium Language for International Communication (LINCS), University of Latvia, Riga, 28-29 April. Online conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2022). Almost Done! Reflections at the End of the PhD Journey, Friday PhD Talks, Programa de Doctorado en Estudios Ingleses, Universidad de Zaragoza, 24 March. PhD Seminar.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2021). Speaking Science: Teaching the Pronunciation of English for International Contexts. Internationalisation of Higher Education, 4th Webinar of INDELT (International Dialogue on English Language Teaching), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, and Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersay University, Turkey, 23 June. Online invited talk.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2021). Making Multimodal Data Available: Annotation of Intonational and Genre-Specific Features in English for Academic Purposes. 6th International Conference of Asia-Pacific LSP & Professional Communication Association, Hong Kong, 3-5 June. Online conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2021). Investigating Language and Genre Contexts: Dos and Don’ts in Questionnaire Design to Enquire into Researchers’ Spoken Communication Practices. III Seminar in English Studies (SEING 2021): Building Bridges and Filling Gaps in English Studies Research. Zaragoza, 27-28 May. Online conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. and Gimeno, P. (2021). Automatic Speech Recognition and Language for Specific Purposes: Research Application and Pedagogical Implications. 38 International AESLA Conference, Coruña, 14-16 April. Online conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2019). Analysing Intonation in video articles in English for Academic Purposes. Seminario Internacional Psylex V, Zaragoza, 24-25 October. Poster presentation.
  • Guillén-Galve, I. and Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2019) Genre innovation and English prosody: Exploratory analysis of English intonation in Video Methods Articles in experimental biology. 18 AELFE Congress, Pamplona, 20-21 June. Conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2019). Oral Research Genres: Why explore them and how to do it. I Seminar in English Studies (SEING 2019): Research in a Globalised World. Zaragoza, 10 May. Conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M.A. (2018). Should I(t) Be Personal? Variation in the use of personal pronouns in novice and expert academic writing practices. 1st Literacy Summit – European Literacy Network, Porto, 1-3 November. Conference presentation.
  • Vela-Tafalla, M. A. (2018). The Occupations Post: A learning landscape proposal for English as a Foreign Language in Secondary Education. CIMIE 18, Zaragoza, 5-6 July. Conference presentation. http://amieedu.org/actascimie18/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CIMIE-2018-paper-MODIFICADO.pdf
  • Vela-Tafalla, M.A. (2018). The (un)teachability of pronunciation: A critical approach to present-day English pronunciation teaching methodologies in the EFL classroom. 36 International AESLA conference, Cadiz, 19-21 April. Conference presentation.

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