Ana Fernández Dobao received her PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 2005. She taught at Brown University and the University of Montreal (Canada) before joining the University of Washington in 2007. Ana's area of specialization is applied linguistics with a focus on second language acquisition and foreign language teaching methodology. Her research interests center on learner-learner interaction, task-based language teaching, and the use of the first language in second language learning. In her most recent work she has examined the opportunities that collaborative writing tasks offer for learners to focus their attention on language, to collaborate in the solution of their linguistic problems, and to co-construct language knowledge. Currently, she is also working on a project that studies peer interaction within the context of the Spanish heritage language classroom.