He obtained his B.A. in English and Spanish, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in TESOL from the University of Mississippi. Dr. Raines also obtained his second M.A. in Romance Languages–Spanish from the University of Alabama. During his tenure at UA, he was responsible for administering a Federal OELA (Office of English Language Acquisition) Grant and was in charge of the ESL and Foreign Language Education programs in the School of Education. Dr. Raines currently teaches courses in TESL, Linguistics and ESL. His research interests include ESL, American and Mexican culture, and linguistics.