BILL VANPATTEN is Professor and Director of Applied Linguistics and Second Language Studies at Texas Tech University. His areas of research are input and input processing in second language acquisition, sentence processing and parsing in a second language, and the effects of formal instruction on acquisition processes. He has published widely in the fields of second language acquisition and second language teaching and is a frequent conference speaker and presenter. His publications include Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen (with James F. Lee, 2003, McGraw-Hill), From Input to Output: A Teacher’s Guide to Second Language Acquisition (2003, McGraw-Hill), Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Practice (2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) and most recently, Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction (with Jessica Williams, 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). In addition to being lead author of Vistazos and ¿Sabías que... ?, he is also the lead author and designer of both Destinos and Sol y viento. He has recently published his first work of fiction, a collection of short stories titled Chicago Tales, published by Outskirts Press.

JAMES F. LEE is Head of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of second language reading comprehension, input processing, and exploring the relationship between the two. His research has appeared in a number of scholarly journals and publications, including the co-authored books with Alessandro Benati Second Language Processing: Theory, Problems and Possible Solutions (2007, Continuum) and Delivering Processing Instruction in Classrooms and Virtual Contexts (2007, Equinox). Other publications include the book Tasks and Communicating in Language Classrooms (2000, McGraw-Hill) and the co-authored book Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, Second Edition (2003, McGraw-Hill). He has also co-authored several textbooks, including Vistazos, ¿Sabias que... ?, Ideas: Lecturas, estrategias, actividades y composiciones, and ¿Qué te parece?: Intermediate Spanish. He and Bill VanPatten are series editors for the McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series.

TERRY L. BALLMAN is Professor of Spanish and original faculty member and chair of Spanish/Languages at California State University, Channel Islands. Her teaching experience includes Spanish language and linguistics courses as well as methods courses for foreign language, ESL, and bilingual teachers. She has also coordinated lower-division language programs and supervised student teachers. A recipient of several teaching awards, Dr. Ballman is a frequent presenter of workshops and papers. She has published articles in research volumes and journals. She is a co-author of Vistazos and ¿Sabías que... ? as well as project leader and co-author of The Communicative Classroom, a volume of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series for K–16 Teachers.

ANDREW P. FARLEY is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Texas Tech University. He received his Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His areas of research are input processing in second language acquisition, the effects of instruction on second language acquisition, lexical access in early bilinguals, and the acquisition of second language morphology. He has taught a variety of courses ranging from beginning Spanish language courses to graduate seminars on applied linguistics and second language acquisition. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles and book chapters and is the author of Structured Input: Grammar Instruction for the Acquisition Oriented Classroom (2005, McGraw-Hill), a book in the McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series.