Texas Tech University

Comfort Pratt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction

Email: c.pratt@ttu.edu

Phone: 806-834-5710

Office: Education 354

Dr. Comfort Awotwi Pratt is an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education and Secondary Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is from Ghana, West Africa. She attended the University of Ghana, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, Texas A&M University, and Louisiana State University. Her areas of specialization include Spanish, French, linguistics, foreign language education, and sociolinguistics, and her research focuses on teaching strategies and student motivations. She is the director of four study abroad programs in Salamanca, Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, and Ghana. She has received numerous awards including: President's Excellence in Teaching Award, Teaching Academy Award for Meritorious Achievement in Teaching, Professing Excellence Award, and American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. She teaches Spanish, bilingual education, ESL, and language acquisition courses and is the Program Coordinator for the M.Ed. in Bilingual Education and ESL program. She is also the advisor for Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. She serves on the leadership team of the TExES Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test and is the National Vice President for the Southwest of Sigma Delta Pi as well as the National Chair of the Graduate Research Grant Program of the Society. She was honored with an endowment in 2011 and an endowed study abroad scholarship was established in her name in 2015 (http://ttusigmadeltapi.wix.com/texastechuniversity#!dr-pratt-scholarship/cbox).

She was a fellow in the 2018-2019 President's Leadership Institute. She was elected Chair of the Executive Council of the Texas Tech University Teaching Academy for the 2018-2019 academic year. She was also elected College/University Representative on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) for the 2019-2021 triennium. She is currently serving as Guest Editor for the Transformative Pedagogy Special Feature of the AATSP's flagship journal Hispania.

On March 3, 2022, Dr. Pratt was inducted into the YWCA Women of Excellence Academy, and in May 2022, she was named recipient of the College of Education President's Academic Achievement Award.

In April 2023, she was honored with the Texas Tech University President's Academic Achievement Award, and in May 2023, she was named an Integrated Scholar.

Comfort Pratt, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Romance Linguistics, Louisiana State University. Dissertation: El español del Río Sabinas: Pervivencia de un dialecto amenazado.
  • Master of Arts in Spanish, Texas A&M University. Thesis: La variedad lingüística de la mujer del área metropolitana de San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  • Graduate Certificate in Translation. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
  • Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Spanish and French. University of Ghana.

Areas of Expertise

  • Spanish
  • French
  • Foreign Language Education
  • Applied Linguistics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Study Abroad
  • Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language

Selected Publications

Pratt, C. (2023). Spanish teachers' perceptions about their positive impact on their students to maintain their interest. Journal of Language Teaching, 3(5), 1-11.

Pratt, C., & Rodríguez García, V. (2022). Creencias de autoeficacia y principales desafíos docentes de profesores de español como segunda lengua. Hispania, 105(3), 437-454.

Pratt, C., Zaier, A., and Wang Y. (2021). Foreign language teachers' sense of efficacy regarding the maintenance of their students' interest. Journal of language teaching and research, 12(1), 12-22.

Pratt, C., Wang, Yanlin, and Zaier, A. (2020). Factors that indicate foreign language teachers' impact on students to maintain their interest. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 10(10), 1-13.

Pratt, C. (2019). Spanish teaching assistants' training, implementation, and beliefs about the appropriateness of communicative language teaching. Southern Journal of Linguistics 43(1), 57-100.

Pratt, C. (2017). Envisioning a future of re-examination of foreign language teacher education. Hispania, Centenary Issue 100(4), 268-269.

Pratt, C. (2016). Factors that motivate high school students to study French. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 6(9), 9-19.

Pratt, C. et al. (2014). Investigating the primary orientations and principal majors of learners of less commonly taught languages. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4(3), 41-53.

Pratt, C. (2012). Are African American high school students less motivated to study Spanish than other ethnic groups? Hispania 94(1), 116-134.  

Pratt, C.,Lluna, F., & Dan, Y. (2011). Improving second language learners' understanding of the preterite/imperfect dichotomy. Southern Journal of Linguistics 35(1), 1-28.

Pratt, C. (2010). Maintaining the momentum of students of Spanish from high school to college. Hispania 93(4), 671-685.

Pratt, C., Agnello M., & Santos, S. (2009). Factors that motivate high-school students' decisions to study Spanish. Hispania, 92(4), 800-813.

Pratt, C. (2008). In-class communicative projects. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Pratt, C. (2008). Dialect death: The case of Adaeseño Spanish in Northwest Louisiana. In A. Balestra, G. Martinez, & I. Moyna (Eds.), Recovering the U.S. Hispanic linguistic heritage (pp. 191-214). Houston: Arte Público.

Pratt, C. (2004). El español del noroeste de Luisiana: Pervivencia de un dialecto amenazado. Madrid: Editorial Verbum.

College of Education

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