Matthew Cook

Matthew Cook was born and raised in Southern Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks. He holds one BA in French, International Political Science and European History and another BA in Spanish. He earned his first MA in Romance Languages and Literature (French) from the University of Chicago in 2002, and a second MA in Romance Linguistics (Spanish) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. His literature focus was in WW II era writing and existentialism, and his linguistics focus was in SLA and Sociolinguistics (although he is also very interested in language contact, creolization, and dialect variations). He has taught French, Spanish and ESL since the year 2000, and has taught for several different institutions including the Universities of Nebraska, Chicago and Texas. Before coming to the English Language Center, he spent five years teaching academic English courses at Texas Intensive English Program in Austin. He has lived, studied and taught in France and Mexico, has traveled to several other countries, and he enjoys fishing, hiking and watching squirrels and birds with his son and daughter. He is fluent in French and Spanish, is studying German, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, and Mandarin.