2021 MISTRAL PROJECT
Lead/Author for the MISTRAL project: Dr. Francesca Nicora
funded by the University of Galway, Ireland and winner of OER grant
The MISTRAL project aims to maximise students’ success in online language learning by creating an open book that supports them to develop appropriate strategies and skills in order to become successful online learners. MISTRAL takes its name from the cold wind which blows strongly into the northern Mediterranean sea. Similarly, this project will promote a fresh and innovative perspective on e-learning by enhancing students’ active participation, motivation and engagement in learning foreign languages online (https://libguides.library.nuigalway.ie/oer/MISTRAL).
2021 MARIN PROJECT
Lead/Author for the MARIN project
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The MARIN – Maximising teachers’ success in teaching foreign languages online - initiative comes from the lack of specific training in online language teaching and it proposes the creation of an open book designed to assist teacher trainers and language teachers in the transition from face-to-face teaching environments to e-teaching environments. MARIN aims at maximising teachers’ success in teaching foreign languages online. More specifically, it will help teacher trainers to cope with new digital challenges and train language teachers to respond to the rapidly changing e-learning environment. MARIN takes its name from the warm and humid wind which blows gently onshore from the Mediterranean sea creating fine and pleasant weather. Similarly, this project will foster teachers’ psychophysical wellbeing by providing them with all the necessary tools and skills to build up their e-teaching confidence and create a warm and pleasant e-learning environment.
2020 TRA-BALLIAMO PROJECT: ITALIAN FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
PI/Coordinator: Prof Laura McLoughlin
Researchers and teachers: Dr. Francesca Nicora, Michela Dianetti (PhD Candidate)
funded by the Department of Education – Post-Primary Language Initiative (PPLI)
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This project aims to embed language into performing arts experiences thus encouraging TY students to expand their imagination, find joy in self-expression and promote psychological wellbeing (https://traballiamo.wordpress.com/).
2019-2021 LILAC PROJECT
PI: Prof. Laura McLoughlin
Research Assistants: Dr. Francesca Nicora, Oriana Bologna
funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
The T&L initiative relates to the teaching of languages online. It proposes the creation of Open Educational Resources designed to assist teacher trainers, language teachers and students in the transition from the traditional face-to-face to the online environment (https://www.lilac-project.com/)
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Aims to:
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Train language teachers and trainers to transform new digital challenges into opportunities and provide a model for structuring, delivering and assessing e-learning language courses.
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Provide language students with the digital proficiency necessary to participate in and maximise the benefits of eLearning.
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Create and offer an online module to train teachers to teach online and to introduce students to online language learning.
2014-2019 PhD PROJECT
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“Prosodic training in foreign language. A study with Hiberno-English learners of Italian”
funded by the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies (University of Galway, Ireland)
Winner of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL) postgraduate award in 2019
Winner of the European Doctorate Award (University of Galway) in 2020
Winner of the Grant-in-Aid of Publication Fund (Moore Institute, University of Galway) in 2021
Main topics and tasks:
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Design, administration and analysis of an explicit prosodic training, including pre-, post- and delayed test, and questionnaires.
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Conduct data collection and data analysis on Galway/ Letterkenny/Cork Irish-English varieties and La Spezia Italian variety.
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Develop speech corpora: learners speech corpus of foreign language (FL) Italian; the Irish English Speech (IES) corpus; the Italian speech corpus (STRINA).
2017-2018 VISITING PhD STUDENT
Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare sul Linguaggio (CRIL)
Visiting PhD researcher
Supervisor: Professor Barbara Gili Fivela
As a visiting PhD student at the Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare sul Linguaggio (CRIL- Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy) I carried out data analysis of the intonational features of La Spezia Italian and Galway Irish-English. This research experience allowed me to gain skills in the application of methods and tools for analysing the phonology of intonation within the Autosegmental Metrical (AM) framework with reference to the Tone and Break Indices (ToBI) system.