Zahaira Cruz Aponte

47 Burrowes, Cubicle 6
University Park, PA 16802
Office Phone: (814) 865-0035

Research Interests:

Reading Comprehension, Language Comprehension, Language Processing, Memory, Morphology, Language and the Brain, Second Language Acquisition, Different background conditions affecting reading comprehension

Biography

Zahaira J. Cruz Aponte is a Master’s student in Spanish Linguistics at the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at Pennsylvania State University. She obtained a Master at the Graduate Program in Linguistics at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras (UPR-RP) in 2021. Her Master’s project is “Que le pongan salsa”: La comprensión de lectura bajo el efecto de la música conocida y desconocida de fondo en universitarios. Her committee was composed of Dr. Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo, Dr. Sunny Cabrera Salcedo and Dr. Alma Simount. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a major in Spanish Linguistics and a minor in Information and Journalism in 2018 at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.  Her main interest is Psycholinguistics, specifically language comprehension. She is interested in different cognitive abilities such as reading comprehension, memory, and comprehension of different morphemes in the Spanish language. One of the topics that fascinates her is how different cognitive abilities such as reading comprehension, memory, and the comprehension of different morphemes are affected by background conditions. During the MICHHERS, she was working on a literature review about the effects of music on reading comprehension under the mentoring of Dr. Marlyse Baptista. She is also continuing to expand her experiences while pursuing her Ph.D. in Spanish at Pennsylvania State University.

If you would be interested in reading, I include some of my work during my years at the university in different genres.

Publications

Research

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2021). “Que le pongan salsa”: La comprensión de lectura bajo el efecto de la música conocida y desconocida de fondo en universitarios [Monografía presentada como requisito para obtener el grado de Maestría en Lingüística, Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Río Piedras]. UPR Repository.    https://repositorio.upr.edu/handle/11721/2516

Short Stories

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2018). Llamas sobre la piel. Revista Trasunto de Arte y Literatura. Retrieved from: https://revistatrasunto.com/2018/03/30/llamas-sobre-la-piel/

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2019). A buscar a papá. Revista INGenios, (5), 2. Retrieved from:  https://www.ingeniosupr.com/vol-5-2/2019/4/13/a-buscar-a-pap

Journalism

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2016). Vivir sin límites sobre una silla de ruedas. Diálogo UPR. Retrieved from: https://dialogo.upr.edu/vivir-sin-limites-sobre-una-silla-de-ruedas/

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2018). Háblame de tus fuentes: una guía de lecciones para periodistas de investigación. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. Retrieved from:            https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2018/03/hablame-de-tus-fuentes-una-guia-de-lecciones-para-periodistas-de-investigacion/

Essays

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2016). Desmintiendo el mito sobre los dialectos. Revista Trasunto de Arte y Literatura. Retrieved from: https://revistatrasunto.com/2016/03/28/desmintiendo-el-mito-sobre-los-dialectos/

Cruz Aponte, Z. (2018). Both sides of the coin: the effects of the spread of English as a global language. Revista INGenios, (5), 1. Retrieved from:   https://www.ingeniosupr.com/vol-5-1/2018/10/13/both-sides-of-the-coin-the-effects-of-the-spread-of-english-as-a-global-language

Opinion

Cruz Aponte, Z. “Ni una más”. Diálogo UPR [San Juan, PR], 26 May. 2021.  https://dialogo.upr.edu/ni-una-mas/

“No te detengas en el pasado salvo para analizar tus decisiones. Continúa hacia el presente que te hará sonreír”.  – Zahaira Cruz Aponte