Rate My Professor Sonia Colina

Colina's research focuses on Spanish phonology in the Optimality Theory framework, with emphasis on syllable structure, glides, diphthongs, resyllabification, spirantization, and the phonology of Galician, integrating theoretical insights with empirical laboratory work. In Translation Studies and Applied Linguistics, she investigates translation pedagogy, translator competence acquisition, quality assessment using functionalist approaches, and applications in health care research, language teaching, and bilingual speech acquisition. Her major publications include Fundamentals of Translation (Cambridge University Press, 2015), The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Phonology (Routledge, 2020, co-edited with Fernando Martínez-Gil), Spanish Phonology: A Syllabic Perspective (Georgetown University Press, 2009), Optimality-Theoretic Studies in Spanish Phonology (John Benjamins, 2006, co-edited with Fernando Martínez-Gil), and Translation Teaching: From Research to the Classroom (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Peer-reviewed articles appear in Lingua, Linguistics, Target, The Translator, and others, such as 'Spirantization in Spanish: The Role of the Underlying Representation' (Linguistics, 2020) and 'Translation Quality Assessment in Health Research' (Evaluation & the Health Professions, 2016). Colina has contributed to NIH-funded projects including Oyendo Bien (2014-2018) on hearing care for limited English proficiency populations and developed workshops for professional translators and educators. Named the first Regents Professor in her department in 2021, her scholarship bridges theory and practice, influencing translation education and phonological research.