Thais Mena Orduña is a PhD student from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Universitat de Lleida (UdL), and an adjunct lecturer at Universitat de Lleida and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the field of applied linguistics.
She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Studies (Universitat de Lleida) and she specialised in the teaching of foreign languages, obtaining a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Màster Oficial en Formació del Professorat de Secundària i Batxillerat, Formació Professional i Ensenyament d’Idiomes, Universitat de Lleida) and a Master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (Máster Oficial en Enseñanza del Español como Lengua Extranjera y otras Lenguas Modernas, Universidad de Sevilla).
In November 2020, she was awarded a predoctoral scholarship by the University of Lleida and she was member of the project The Global Competence of University Students: A Pilot Study in the Internationalisation of the Curriculum (GLOCIC). In December 2025, she submitted her doctoral dissertation (defense date: 29 April 2026). Her research follows a mixed-methods approach and focuses on multi/plurilingualism, interculturality, foreign language teaching and assessment, language development, and learners’ ideologies and attitudes.
She is also currently participating in the projects The development of glocal competence through study abroad in non-English-speaking countries: Applying the Experience Sampling Method by means of a smartphone application (GLOCALSA) (Universitat de Lleida) and Digital Time Use, Adolescent Well-Being and Social Inequalities (DIGINEQ) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics).