About

Professor Teresa Satterfield Linares is a linguist specializing in child bilingualism, first language acquisition, and language contact phenomena within the context of U.S. (Afro-)Latinx identity and culture. Her research explores the roles of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors in developing grammars, with a particular focus on syntactic development and literacy in bilingual children. She collaborates extensively on studies utilizing fNIRS brain imaging techniques to inform theories of language development and cognitive processes in bilingual populations. She is the founder and director of the community-based Saturday Spanish academic program for Spanish-speaking children in grades Pre-K to 5, called "En Nuestra Lengua" (ENL). Her research interests include bilingualism, syntactic theory, language variation and contact, and computational models of language. She has contributed to the understanding of language as a Complex Adaptive System and has published extensively on topics related to multilingualism, language contact, and bilingual brain development.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Linguistics
• Developmental psychology
• Cognitive psychology

Selected publications

• Morphological and phonological processing in English monolingual, Chinese-English bilingual, and Spanish-English bilingual children: fNIRS and Behavioral Dataset (T1-T2)

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access

  In a broad sense, this project explores morphological and phonological processing in English monolinguals and two bilingual populations, Chinese-English and Spanish-English, using a battery of standardized and self-developed behavioral measures, as well as fNIRS neuroimaging. (T1=NEW PARTICIPANTES -TESTED BEHAVIORAL AND fNIRS-, T2= RETURNING PARTICIPANTS -JUST TESTED WITH BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENTS)

  OA PDFDOI

• Neural tracking of surprisal in Spanish-English bilingual children during naturalistic heritage language listening

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Can the Simple View of Reading Inform the Study of Reading Comprehension in Young Spanish Heritage Language Learners?

  Reading Research Quarterly · 2025-05-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT This study examines the development of reading comprehension (RC) in Spanish heritage language (HL) learners in the Midwest United States. While extensive research exists on RC in monolingual English‐speaking populations, applying reading science models such as the Simple View of Reading (SVR) in HL or bilingual contexts remains under‐researched. Additionally, orthographies labeled as phonologically transparent—where grapheme‐to‐phoneme correspondences are relatively more consistent—such as Spanish, have not been thoroughly investigated within these frameworks. This study applies the SVR framework to a unique population of 74 Spanish‐English bilingual children, centering the Spanish HL rather than the majority language at two reading stages: early readers and pre‐readers. Using Structural Equation Modeling, we assess (1) concurrent roles of decoding and linguistic comprehension as SVR's cognitive bases for RC development in early readers and (2) exploratory relationships between decoding and linguistic comprehension predictors in pre‐readers. Results for Spanish HL readers indicate that linguistic comprehension, but not decoding, predicts significant unique variance in Spanish RC; however, the two components share significant variance and, combined, explain most of the variance in RC. Results for Spanish HL pre‐readers show a high correlation between linguistic comprehension and decoding predictors, indicating the interwoven nature of the two SVR components at earlier reading stages. The findings advance the discussion on the relevance of the SVR in phonologically transparent orthographies and across different stages of reading development, bridging minority and majority language research and informing educational strategies for Spanish HL learners.

  PublisherDOI

• The bilingual reading brain: insights from young bilingual learners

  Advances in child development and behavior · 2025-01-01

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Neural specificity for semantic and syntactic processing in Spanish-English bilingual children

  Brain and Language · 2024-01-31 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What's in the Sound? Common and Language‐Specific Patterns in Brain Activation and Functional Connectivity for Phonological Awareness in <scp>Spanish–English</scp> Bilinguals

  Mind Brain and Education · 2024-03-27 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Phonological awareness is the stepping‐stone to learning to read as it helps children map language sounds onto letters. Theories of bilingualism posit that phonological awareness is a language‐common literacy skill. However, bilingual learners are also thought to build language‐specific representations. To illuminate common and specific dual‐language processes, we asked bilingual Spanish–English heritage language speakers ( N = 60, M age = 8.2) to complete a phonological sound‐matching task in Spanish and English during functional Near Infrared Neuroimaging (fNIRS). The left perisylvian activation was common across bilinguals' two languages, including similar active regions and functional connections. The findings further revealed language‐specific modulation of the system with more robust engagement of the temporal networks for Spanish and frontal networks for English. We interpret the results in the context of analytically demanding reading experiences in English and more informal home‐based Spanish language experiences typical of heritage language speakers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nadie Me Ve Como Latinx

  Language Culture and Society · 2024-09-12 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Studies on how observers’ perceptions affect youth Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) formation focus on adolescents, and typically fail to consider non-English language use as a salient ERI marker. The current research examines two novel dimensions by examining employing Spanish-language mixed methods to study Midwestern heritage Spanish-speaking Latinx children, ages 7–13. Study outcomes correlate skin tone to ERI such that children identified by observers as ‘phenotypically’ Latinx reported higher levels of ethnic exploration compared to peers identified as ‘phenotypically’ non-Latinx. Children’s phenotypic self-identification and ERI exploration correlated highly with level of understanding of their ethnic group, and in turn with reported higher linguistic discrimination. Qualitative results further highlight that “white-presenting” Latinx children more strongly affirm their Latinx identity through high Spanish language competence. Findings suggest that healthy ERI development in Latinx children may be uniquely aided by bilingualism and biliteracy.

  PublisherDOI

• Where is <i>Mi Gente</i> ? Codeswitching (Afro)Latinidad in the music classroom

  International Journal of Music Education · 2023-12-04 · 7 citations

  articleSenior author

  Musical codeswitching (CS) entails mixing musical ideas and genres. The term CS originated in linguistics, based on language alternations attested in bilinguals. Switches in sociocultural behaviors also now receive scholarly attention as CS. The current multiple case study explores CS domains (music, language, and behavior) in the context of music education programs, where CS remains under-researched. This study also fills a gap by examining historically underrepresented individuals’ (HURIs) participation in music education. Here, a CS-based account provides a deeper understanding of the complex sociocultural capital, linguistic resources and lived experiences that HURIs navigate. As part of an interpretive qualitative study design, semi-structured interviews were carried out with a HURI subpopulation (bilingual, [Afro]Latina/o/x faculty, and students) in music education. Findings show participants perceive CS to be mandatory for accessing dominant U.S. music school culture. Additional findings reveal HURIs must master CS in musical, linguistic, and behavioral domains to avoid negative outcomes, yet sustained multi-CS scenarios may have psychological and even physical costs. Insights from CS are thus critical for pinpointing institutional barriers to greater HURI involvement in music education.

  PublisherDOI

• Issue Information

  Language Learning · 2023-12-01

  paratextOpen access

  Wiley's Corporate Citizenship initiative seeks to address the environmental, social, economic, and ethical challenges faced in our business and which are important to our diverse stakeholder groups.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Neurocognition of Child Second Language Development

  2023-12-05

  book-chapterSenior author

  For young children, second language (L2) acquisition comes at a time when emergent language systems, and the neural mechanisms that support them, are in the active process of development. This chapter examines the multifaceted complexity of early L2 acquisition experiences and reviews key literature to better articulate the relationship between the young learner’s brain and language development. First, the chapter sheds light on the mechanisms that make early dual-language acquisition possible by considering theoretical frameworks on language, bilingualism, and brain development. Second, experience-based plasticity of the developing brain is discussed in relation to the vast variation in children’s L2 experiences. To conclude, the chapter demonstrates why a cohesive framework of childhood bilingualism and L2 development best informs our understanding of the developing mind and brain while recognizing the value that concentrated neurocognitive research on child L2 development and processing (at present largely lacking) would add to the field.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ioulia Kovelman

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  14 shared

• Maria M. Arredondo

  The University of Texas at Austin

  9 shared

• Xiao‐Su Hu

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  8 shared

• Rebecca A. Marks

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  8 shared

• Nia Nickerson

  4 shared

• Xin Sun

  University of British Columbia

  4 shared

• Chi‐Lin Yu

  Michigan United

  3 shared

• Rachel L. Eggleston

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  3 shared