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Elena Schmitt is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT. She received a Ph.D in Linguistics from the University of South Carolina. Elena’s research interest include first language attrition, heritage language studies, bilingualism, and language teacher training. Her recent publications appeared in the International Journal of Bilingualism, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, and Linguistic Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages.

Anastasia Sorokina is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the TESOL program, World Languages and Literatures Department at Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT, U.S. She received a Ph.D. in Education (Applied Linguistics Track) from Temple University. In her teaching, Anastasia works with pre-service and in-service teachers who teach English language learners in K-12 schools. In her research, Anastasia examines issues of L1 attrition and connections between language loss and bilingual autobiographical memory in immigrant communities that are forced to assimilate.