Alicia Peña Calvo teaches Spanish language and Applied Linguistics. Her interests lie in the fields of language learning and teaching, curriculum and materials design and development, first and second language acquisition and bilingualism and biculturalism. Alicia has dedicated part of her academic career to teacher education and training and materials development for language learning. She has collaborated with The Open University as a consultant, materials writer, external examiner and critical reviewer, as well and has published various articles on aspects of second language acquisition, including vocabulary learning at different levels, the impact of study abroad on language development and the use of language learning strategies. She has recently finished co-writing an ELT book for reading, In a Strange Land: Teaching Reading Creatively with Short Stories to be published by Lingua Books, which aims to develop extensive reading and an integrated-skills approach. Her research interests are second language acquisition and learning. She is currently studying the acquisition and development of narrative competence in Spanish and English within a cognitive framework.