Madison Wray

• Indiana University-Bloomington – PhD, Hispanic Linguistics
• Indiana University-Bloomington – MA, Hispanic Linguistics
• Indiana University-Bloomington – MA, Second Language Studies
• Lipscomb University – BA, Spanish and French

Bio

Madison Wray, PhD (she/her/hers) joined DFMCH in 2025 as a bilingual research analyst in the Avanzando Su Cuidado Equitable Access Lab. Wray completed her undergraduate degree in Spanish and French at Lipscomb University and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Hispanic linguistics from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Prior to her current role, Wray worked for Fair Schools, an educational consulting company that supports schools in creating thriving environments for their most marginalized communities. In that role, Wray conducted analyses on school- and student-level data on academic outcomes and community engagement, generating data-driven recommendations for school partners. Wray’s work is inspired by her own experiences as a second language learner and the community she has been able to foster because of the gift of speaking another language.

Research Interests

• Mixed methods research
• The acquisition of Spanish as a second language
• Task-Based Language Teaching
• Second language pragmatics
• Promoting second language education access

Wray’s research centers on how learners acquire Spanish as a second language in different contexts, with a primary emphasis on elementary-level Spanish learners in both dual language immersion and once-a-week contexts. She is also passionate about providing equitable access to quality second language education to students of all ages and is proud to have been part of a team creating a K-5 task-based Spanish curriculum for a rural school district in Indiana.

Publications and Presentations

• Gurzynski-Weiss L, Wray M, Coulter-Kern M, Bernardo J. Task-based elementary Spanish in rural Indiana: A practice-based collaboration. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. 03/26 2024;14(1):121-147. doi:10.14746/ssllt.42374 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7214-3268

Honors and Awards

• 2023 MIND (Motivación, Inspiración, Dedicación) Award for Impactful Teaching – Indiana University-Bloomington