I am an applied linguist, researching bilingualism and second language learning.
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) and a Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham (UK).

   

NEWS

1 January 2023 — New job!

I am now working as an Associate Professor at UniMORE, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. I am also a Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

8 April 2022 — Two articles published in my co-edited special issue on International Journal of Bilingualism

I co-edited a special issue on Language effects on cognition in bilinguals for the International Journal of Bilingualism, and co-authored the article ‘Researching language and cognition in bilinguals‘ with Prof Luna Filipovic (University of East Anglia), which presents the state-of-the-art and a research agenda for research on linguistic relativity in multilinguals and language learners.
My own article Language and counterfactual reasoning in Chinese, English and Chinese-English reasoners found that Chinese and English reasoners, as well as Chinese reasoners tested in L1 Chinese or L2 English, use different cues to make inferences in counterfactual reasoning (of the type ‘had X happened, then Y would have happened).
The special issue also contains articles by Jeannette Altarriba and colleagues, Luna Filipovic, Elena Nicoladis and Helena Hong Gao, Jyotsna Vaid and colleagues, Viorica Marian and colleagues. The articles report empirical studies of language effects (linguistic relativity) on attention, memory, decision-making, reasoning and emotion in speakers of more than one language.

31 March 2022 — I completed my one-month Visiting Professorship at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

I spent a month as an invited Visiting Professor at UniMORE. This was a great experience, I worked with great colleagues and postgraduate students, and enjoyed every minute.

24 March 2022 — New article in Applied Psycholinguistics
The efficacy of grapheme-phoneme correspondence instruction in reducing the effect of orthographic forms on second language phonology

We found that teaching about orthography-phonology correspondences may not reduce the effects of orthographic forms on second language phonology. Specifically, Italians continued producing long consonants  in L2 English words, and believing that English contrasts long and short consonants, after a teaching session where they learnt that double consonant letters do not represent long consonants in English. We found also no effects of teaching about vowel length and vowel digraphs on the production and categorisation of long vowels. With Tania Cerni and Jackie Masterson.