Coordinators
Teachers
Marta Albadalejo
Marta has a degree in Philology and a master’s in Business Communication Management from the University of Barcelona (UB). Following her doctoral courses in linguistics, she specialized in the analysis of workplace conversations. She has been an oral communication coach since 1994, in the Audiovisual Communication program at UPF (1994-2001) and in various public and private organizations. Marta currently offers her services as a communication coach and is a writer and speaker.
Mar Arcos
Mar has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, in the area of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment at the University of Barcelona (UB) since 2010. She teaches in both the bachelor’s and master’s programs in General Health Psychology in the School of Psychology (UB). Mar is a psychologist in the Behavioral Therapy Unit (UB) and she teaches communication skills and public speaking at the university level. She also leads therapeutic groups for people that have a fear of public speaking.
Gemma Balaguer
Gemma has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Barcelona (UB) since 2003. She teaches in both the bachelor’s and master’s programs in General Health Psychology in the School of Psychology (UB). She is a psychologist and supervisor in the Behavioral Therapy Unit (UB). Postgraduate Initiation to University Teaching from the Institute of Education Sciences (UB). Gemma teaches communication skills and public speaking at the university level. She also leads therapeutic groups for people that have a fear of public speaking.
Caterina Canyelles
High school teacher and glossator. She has taught 17 semester-long courses in improvised singing to high school students. These students have participated in meetings and performances in Sabadell, Barcelona and Reus. She has trained trainers to introduce improvised singing in schools and institutes. She has advised and trained teachers of music, of Catalan, of newcomers program and of language support classrooms. She has also coordinated 25 primary schools and 4 secondary schools (Corrandescola and Improversem) that do improvised singing and a final singing contest. In training for adults she has carried out various occasional workshops (Institut del Teatre, Correllengua…), as well as quarterly and yearly workshops.
Josefina Carrera
Josefina is a Professor in the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics at the University of Barcelona (UB). She is the principal investigator for the consolidated teaching innovation group in Catalan Phonetics – FONCAT. Her teaching and research focuses on aspects of sociophonics, Catalan pronunciation and oral language teaching. She has co-managed the website Els sons del català (http://www.ub.edu/sonscatala) and runs the website Guies de pronunciació del català (https://www.guiesdepronunciacio.cat). Josefina co-directs the collection of pronunciation teaching materials from the publishing house Graó: L’ensenyament de la pronunciació del català (Teaching the pronunciation of Catalan), Eines per a l’aprenentatge del català com a L2 i LE (Tools for learning Catalan as L2 and LE), Nous horitzons del mètode verbotonal: millorar la pronúncia holísticament (New horizons of the verbotonal method: improve pronunciation holistically).
Josep M. Castellà
Josep is a Professor of Catalan Philology and Discourse Analysis in the Department of Humanities at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). He has researched and given numerous courses on formal and public speaking, and its didactics. He is co-author, along with Mariona Casas and Montserrat Vilà, of the books Els secrets de parlar en public, Guia pàctica (The secrets of public speaking. Practical guide) and L’oratòria a l’abast de tothom (Oratory available to everyone), both published by Eumo.
Vivian Figueras
Catalan philologist with training in interpretation. She is a professor in the Department of Arts and Humanities at the Escola Betània Patmos. She gives talks on public speaking and dialectics in Secondary Education to raise awareness in the educational community about the importance of oral communication in secondary school classrooms.
David Guzmán
David has a degree in General Health Psychology from the University of Barcelona (UB) and a master’s in Clinical and Health Psychology from ISEP. He is a University Specialist in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Childhood and Adolescence from UNED. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology at the UB. In addition, David is a psychologist in the Behavioral Therapy Unit of the UB and in the Psychological Research and Counseling Cabinet (GRAP).
Manel Jiménez
A professor in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Manel graduated in Audiovisual Communication (UPF) and Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature at the University of Barcelona (UB). He has developed several audiovisual projects, working on scripts as well as production. In 2013, he launched a strategy for new educational formats and MOOCs at UPF, as the person responsible for incorporating new technologies into teaching. He was academic director of the CLIK (Center for Learning Innovation and Knowledge), the unit responsible for educational innovation at Pompeu Fabra University, commissioned by Education and Communication projects at UPF and is currently vice-rector of Educational Transformation, Culture and Communication at UPF.
Roser Martínez
Roser is a philologist and secondary education teacher. She is currently part of the CESIRE team (Center for Specific Resources to Support Innovation and Educational Research) working at the service of teachers in search of meaningful learning. She is a reflective practice trainer, an editor, interested in communication, languages and culture. She has coordinated the contests “Story Sprint” and “Scene Sprint”, and the training “Holistic methodologies for learning languages” in early childhood, primary and secondary education. Currently Roser is also working on various knowledge integration projects promoted by CESIRE such as the “Literature and Science” working group in secondary school or the didactic proposal “Elementary secrets: escape room from the periodic table”, among others.
Josep Vicenç Mestre
Josep is the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Government of Catalonia and an Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University. He has been a communication advisor to the President of the Parliament, the first Vice President of the Parliament, as well as head of the Office of Institutional Relations for the Department of Business and Knowledge. In addition, Josep wrote his doctoral thesis on oral discourse and history, after having graduated in Humanities, in Political Sciences, and having completed his master’s degree in World History at UPF.
Ingrid Mora (UB)
A professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and English Studies at the University of Barcelona (UB), Ingrid’s line of research focuses on the acquisition of second languages and, specifically, the learning, training and teaching of (L2) English phonetics and phonology to Catalan and Spanish speakers. She investigates the design of speaking activities for pronunciation learning, and has been trained in the creation and design of visual aids for public presentations. Ingrid is part of the L2 Speech Research Group and the Research Group on Language Acquisition (GRAL) at the UB.
Joan C. Mora (UB)
Joan C. is an Associate Professor in the English Linguistics section of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and English Studies at the University of Barcelona (UB). Since 2013, he has been the coordinator for the Barcelona L2 Speech Research Group dedicated to research in the field of second language pronunciation. Joan’s research mainly focuses on the teaching of pronunciation and the acquisition of phonology and oral fluency in English as a second language.
Josep Pedrals
He dedicates himself to poetry from several perspectives: he writes research books on genre (novel essays on poetics and life), recites poetry professionally (he has performed in Europe, America and Asia), explains poetry in courses and at conferences (in Universities and primary and secondary schools), disseminates poetry in various media (currently in Betevé and El País), has organized poetry events of all kinds and periodicity (he led the historical poetic cycle of the Horiginal bar for 13 years and currently directs the Barcelona Poetry festival), puts verses to the music of several composers, expands the theatricality of verse and includes verses in the dramaturgies of others.
Pilar Prieto (UPF)
Pilar is an ICREA research professor in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). Since 2009, she has led the Prosody Study Group and coordinates the Master’s Program in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. Her research focuses on understanding the role of prosody and body language in human communication. Pilar has written, in collaboration with Ïo Valls, several workshops for the publisher Teide to promote speaking and reading aloud skills for lower and upper secondary students.
Jaume Rafecas
Teacher at the EP Estalella i Graells, from Vilafranca del Penedès, throughout his working life (42 years). Specializing in language, Catalan mainly, he has worked with older students (7th and 8th of EGB, 5th and 6th of Primary), preferably. He was director of the school for ten years (1990-2000), during which Ràdio Estalella was born, one of the pedagogical jewels of the school, of which he has always been a promoter, collaborator and coordinator.
Gemma Reguant
Gemma is a voice and oral expression teacher for actors, teachers, speech therapists, singers … She is an actor and stage director. She has published research on the use of our senses to improve voice and expression.
Emma Rodero
Emma is Director of Media Psychology in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where she is a tenured professor. There she teaches Public Speaking and Media Psychology. She has doctorates in both Communication and Psychology, and she is a specialist in Voice Pathology and Cognitive Psychology. Emma’s research focuses on analyzing the cognitive and emotional processing of sound and speech in public.
Ïo Valls (UPF)
Ïo is a professor in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). She has a degree in Humanities and a master’s in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (2018-19) from UPF. She has been training students in speaking skills and storytelling since 2012 with her personal project Parla Per Tu. Her research focuses on oral communication and the use of virtual reality to reduce fear of public speaking and build an effective oral discourse. Ïo has written, in collaboration with Pilar Prieto, a workshop promoting reading aloud, aimed at upper secondary school students, for the texbook Ressons from the Teide publishing house. She has also written the article “Oral communication in digital educational environments” for Guix magazine.
Developers
Álvaro Arroyo
Graduated in Audiovisual Communication, he has developed his professional career in technological consulting linked to incentives and loyalty, and in the area of entrepreneurship and the development of digital and marketing projects. He has been in charge of the design, architecture and development of this website.
Nil Bernat
Nil is an audiovisual producer at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where he also received his degree in Audiovisual Communication. He is part of a group initially dedicated to creating massive online courses (MOOC), that has gone on to make videos of all kinds for professors and other university entities.
Jake Butler
Jake has a master’s in Translation Studies from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and a bachelor’s in Spanish and French Philology (with Catalan, Italian and Portuguese) from the University of Manchester (2015-2019). He is an aspiring football and education entrepreneur and a language enthusiast, especially of Romance languages. Translator, language teacher and football coach in England.
Gabriela Horton
Gabriela holds a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and Language Acquisition in Multilingual Contexts from the University of Barcelona (UB). Her academic interests include heritage language transmission, language preservation, child language development, bilingualism, and sociolinguistics. At the moment Gabriela works as an English teacher and translator.
Josep Maria Solé
Josep is a graphic artist, digital composer and audiovisual post-producer. He has worked in television (graphic designer for El Hormiguero 3.0), as well as in productions for Mediaset, Antena3 or MTMad. He has experience in production companies and advertising agencies for national and international clients, and as a digital composer for works of fiction (La Trinchera Infinita, Patria, Vergüenza, El Ministerio del Tiempo, Parot …). Josep was the senior composer for Madrid 2120, which was awarded the Goya for Best Animated Short in 2020. Currently he combines freelance work with teaching audiovisual education specialized in post-production.
Marcos Taboada
Marcos graduated in Audiovisual Communication from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). He specializes in 2D and 3D Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Digital Matte Painting, Narrative Video Mapping and Editorial Editing. Marcos currently works as part of the Multimedia Production team within La Factoria at UPF.
Justí Torn
A graduate of Audiovisual Communication from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Justí has coordinated the university’s audiovisual and multimedia production to support learning and teaching since 2016. His work centers around helping professors carry out their teaching through audiovisual language, facilitating hybrid or online learning. The services he coordinates produce around 220 teaching videos a year.
Irene Vílchez
Irene graduated in Translation and Interpretation and Applied Languages from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). While her professional path has yet to be laid, she defines herself as a lover and champion of youth literature, which has led her, since 2018, to be part of the editorial staff of the youth literature magazine El Templo de las Mil Puertas. She has also worked to promote related projects, such as the Joves Lectors Conference or the Associació de Joves Lectors Catalans. In addition, Irene is a member of the AETI (Spanish University Association of Translators and Interpreters in Training) and actively collaborates in the Neology Observatory of the Pompeu Fabra University.
Funding
Web and audio-visual materials funded by the RecerCaixa 2019-2021 program (project “Oral abilities for future professions: an intervention in the secondary curriculum in Catalonia”), by the PlaCLIK program at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and by the Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (program “Tenim la paraula”).