Ms Cristina García Hermoso is a Principal Teaching Fellow and the Assessment Officer for the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Southampton.
Cristina completed her degree in Modern Languages at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. She has taught at various institutions in the state and private sector both in Spain and the UK. Cristina joined Southampton University in 2007. In May 2025, Cristina achieved the status of Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In July 2015, she had qualified as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), after completing the course in the Professional Recognition of Educator Practice Framework (PREP). In July 2016, Cristina was awarded the Second prize for the ELE Teacher of the year 2015, for the project "Manos a la obra", (in collaboration with Carmen Martín de León), working with parallel texts. In November 2012, Cristina received a staff achievement award in recognition of her contribution to Santander Language Courses at the University of Southampton, which she led and coordinated. As well as Coordinator for Spanish Stage 5, Cristina teaches various Spanish stages, Translation into English, and Public Service Interpreting (PSI) for undergraduate students. She is currently Thesis Supervisor for postgraduate students of MA Applied Linguistics for Language Learning and was the Programme Lead for the MA Languages and Cultures. Cristina has been Erasmus Coordinator for Spain and has held the position of Senior Tutor for pastoral support for undergraduate students at the Languages Cultures and Linguistics Department of the University of Southampton.
In June 2018 Cristina became a UNILANG assessor by the UNILANG Certification Committee and has acted as External Examiner for the Spanish Department of the School of Management of Cardiff Metropolitan University (Sept. ´14- July ´18), for the Spanish Department of The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University (Oct.´17 – Dec. ´21) and in Sept. ´21 was appointed Module External Examiner for French, German, Italian and Spanish at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Cristina´s research interests are geared towards improving students´ communicative competence and her top priority is creating opportunities for students to develop and exercise autonomy and self-reliance as well as their all-important language skills. Cristina co-wrote a book on the subject, which provides tips and activities for Spanish students to organize texts and use language creatively: Palabras Clave para organizar textos en español (2019) Ed. Routledge.
Her more recent pedagogical research focusses on broadening access to Idiomatic Expressions in Spanish. Cristina has engaged in a multimedia approach aligned with Universal Design for Learning (UDL). For this purpose, Cristina co-created a YouTube Chanel Lo que no te han enseñado en español (Vaya 2, en 2 minutos) - YouTube
In January 2025, Cristina submitted the manuscript for the book she is currently co-writing on Spanish Idioms to Routledge. The book is entitled “Todo va a ir sobre ruedas: expresiones idiomáticas y coloquialismos en español” and explores idiomatic and colloquial expressions across eight Latin American varieties of Spanish, aimed at C1-C2 learners. The book will now undergo peer review for hopeful publication later this year.
Other information on pedagogical research and further publications, please access Cristina´s page on PURE (pure.soton.ac.uk).
