Acknowledgements

This website was designed and created by Julie Sykes, a doctoral student in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Dr. Andrew D. Cohen, Director of the Language Resource Center and Professor in the MA in TESL Program at the University of Minnesota. This project has received financial support from the federally-funded Learning Resource Center through the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA).

As with any project, we could not have done this without the help of many others. It is here we would like to thank all who have contributed to this project.

First of all, we must extend a special thank you to J. César Félix-Brasdefer, the expert advisor for this project. César spent countless hours reviewing the site prior to, and during, a visit to the University of Minnesota to work with us. His expertise, insight, and observations as a native speaker of Spanish were invaluable.

We would also like to acknowledge:

• The native speakers who volunteered their time and effort to make the recordings used for the learning modules.
• All of the staff at CARLA, especially Karin Larson and Marlene Johnshoy for their administrative and technical support.
• Elaine Tarone, the director of CARLA, for her consistent and positive support of this project.
• Noriko Ishihara, whose Japanese website has served as an excellent model, and whose expertise in the field has added to our website as well.
• María Eugenia Mujica for the hours spent transcribing and Hannah Olson-Martínez for the hours spent copyediting.
• All of the expert evaluators of the site who spent their time giving valuable feedback for improving the website.
• All of the Spanish instructors at the University of Minnesota who helped pilot and use the website long before it was in its final format.
• All of the Spanish students at the University of Minnesota who used the website and offered valuable feedback.
• All who have given valuable feedback during presentations and training sessions. These ideas contributed have contributed to improving the website.
• We must also thank those who will have provided feedback by the time this site is launched: those experts in Spanish pragmatics, CALL, SLA, and distance learning. Your insights will make the site an even more valuable resource. We would especially like to thank Nieves Hernández-Flores, Stella Hurd, Noriko Ishihara, Celeste Kinginger, Dale Koike, Barbara Lafford, Virginia LoCastro, Rosina Márquez-Reiter, María Elena Placencia, Rafael Salaberry, Gila Schauer, Cynthia White, and Inma Alvarez and the rest of the Spanish team at Open University. Their detailed comments and extraordinary efforts are greatly appreciated.

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