ALLEN R. WOODALL III
201F Jones Hall
3706 Alumni Ave.
Memphis, TN 38152-3380
Phone: (470) 318-2820 | Email: a.woodall@memphis.edu | allen.woodall@icloud.com
Online Professional Portfolio

SUMMARY

Assistant Professor of Teaching of Spanish and Hispanic Linguistics at The University of Memphis, specializing in Spanish Second Language Acquisition (SLA), instructional design, and the integration of AI tools such as ChatGPT in language instruction. Research interests include computational methods for linguistic analysis, AI literacy in education, and task-based learning for language for specific purposes (LSP). Committed to fostering equity, inclusion, and diversity in education and actively engaged in community outreach and student recruitment and retention.

EDUCATION

PhD | Applied Linguistics (in progress) | The University of Memphis
MA | Applied Hispanic Linguistics | New York University
BA | Spanish Language and Literature | The University of Georgia

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Assistant Professor of Teaching
Department of World Languages and Literatures | The University of Memphis (2021–Present)

  • Courses Taught:

    • Elementary Spanish II (avg. 21 students)

    • Intermediate Spanish I (avg. 23 students)

    • Intermediate Spanish II (avg. 25 students)

    • Spanish Conversation (avg. 15 students)

    • Spanish Composition (avg. 14 students)

    • Spanish Conversation & Composition II (avg. 15 students)

    • Applied Spanish Linguistics (avg. 6 students)

  • Incorporates communicative, cooperative, and task-based learning strategies to facilitate autonomous language acquisition, with a particular focus on the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT.

  • Conducts ongoing action research to explore pedagogical outcomes and student potential in AI-assisted learning environments.

  • Designs course content and instructional materials emphasizing professional language use and application (LSP).

  • Prioritizes recruitment and retention through personalized instruction and community-focused outreach.

Instructor
Department of Romance Languages | The University of Georgia (2019–2021)

  • Taught elementary and intermediate Spanish courses.

Instructor
UCETAM | Madrid, Spain (2016–2018)

World Language Instructor
Private Instruction | Madrid, Spain (2018–2019)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Publications

  • Under Review: AI Literacy at the Threshold: Axiological Labor and the Wicked Ethics of Teaching Writing, co-authored with Dr. Will Duffy, Critical AI.

Grants

  • NEH Grant Proposal: AI Literacy Workshops for K-12 Teachers in the Memphis-Shelby County Area (decision pending for 2024 cycle).

Conferences

  • ACTFL Convention 2024: Enhancing Spanish SLA via ChatGPT: Pedagogical Potentials & Outcomes.

  • The University of Memphis Graduate Student Conference on Applied Linguistics, 2024: ChatGPT in Spanish SLA: Interrogative Subject-Verb Inversion.

  • The University of Georgia – Crossroads Conference, 2020: Syntactic Ambiguity in VP-DP-DP Structures in L2 Spanish.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • AI and computational methods for SLA research and curriculum design.

  • Statistical and corpus-based approaches to linguistic analysis (e.g., frequency distributions, syntactic complexity, training language models).

  • AI literacy for educators and students, particularly in multilingual and multimodal contexts.

  • The application of task-based learning and LSP methodologies in SLA.

  • Equity, inclusion, and diversity in educational technology and course design.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Media & Communications Coordinator | Department of World Languages & Literatures, The University of Memphis (2023–Present).

  • Intermediate Spanish (2010–2020) Coordinator & Instructional Designer | The University of Memphis (2022–Present).

  • Conversation & Composition Co-Coordinator & Instructional Designer | The University of Memphis (2024–Present).

  • Departmental AI Policy Committee | The University of Memphis (2024-Present)

  • Recruitment & Retention Committee | The University of Memphis (2022–2023).

  • International Education Week (IEW) Committee | The University of Memphis (2023).

TECHNICAL SKILLS

  • Programming Languages & Tools:

    • Python (data organization, statistical analysis, regressions, corpus analysis, web scraping, language modeling).

    • JupyterLab for computational linguistics research.

    • AntConc, Sketch Engine, SPSS, and R for linguistic and statistical analyses.

    • NVivo for qualitative data analysis.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

  • English: Native Language

  • Spanish: Near-native proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking

PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES

Dr. Brianna Butera
Assistant Professor | Spanish Basic Language Program Coordinator
Department of World Languages and Literatures | The University of Memphis
201B Jones Hall | 3706 Alumni Ave. | Memphis, TN 38152-3380
Phone: (901) 678-2507 | Email: bjbutera@memphis.edu

Dr. Robert Kelz
Professor | Department Chair
Department of World Languages and Literatures | The University of Memphis
108 Jones Hall | 3706 Alumni Ave. | Memphis, TN 38152-3380
Phone: (901) 678-2506 | Email: rkelz@memphis.edu

Dr. J. Elliott Casal
Assistant Professor | Department of English
Applied Linguistics | The University of Memphis
Office: Patterson 469
Phone: (901) 678-4495 | Email: j.casal@memphis.edu