Ruben Manuel-Oronich

Ruben Manuel has been a Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA since 2021 where he teaches Catalan Studies (Catalan Language and Culture 1 & 2) and Spanish (Elementary Spanish).

Born in the rural Catalunya, in Torrebesses, he graduated in English Studies from the University of Lleida. Due to his interest in the promotion of Catalan language and culture beyond its borders, he completed a Postgraduate Course on Teacher Training For Teachers Of Catalan Working Outside Spain at the University of Barcelona. He complemented his studies with a M.A. on Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at the same university. He is currently studying a M.A. on Technology-Mediated Language Teaching and Learning at the Open University of Catalunya.

His working career has always been developed in foreign, multilingual contexts. His first teaching experiences were at the Instituto Cervantes in New Delhi and in Istanbul as a Spanish teacher. He was then appointed to teach Catalan and Spanish at the University of Manchester. He spent five years in the United Kingdom, where he also worked at the Instituto Cervantes.

With diverse academic interests, he has published articles about learners’ profiles and L2 motivation. Third language acquisition, cross-linguistic influence, plurilingual pedagogy and teaching, and teacher training are also areas of his interest