MY RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Prosodic aspects of L2 speech learning
- Second language acquisition
- Use of digital resources in teaching foreign languages
- L2 emotional speech as a mirror of learners’ cultural adaptation
- Teaching Japanese as a foreign/second language
ONGOING PROJECTS
Individual Differences in L2 Japanese Pronunciation Development
The joint role of affective, conative, behavioral, and strategic learner factors
This project investigates individual differences in L2 Japanese pronunciation development by examining the joint role of learner-related factors, particularly affective, conative, behavioral, and strategic ones. It explores how multiple factors (e.g., motivation, cultural interest, perceived difficulty with various aspects of target-language pronunciation, learning engagement, and the use of digital resources) interact and contribute to variation in pronunciation development and L2 speech outcomes.
L2 Emotional Prosody as a Mirror of Cultural Adaptation
A study of emotional expression in Italian learners of Japanese
This project investigates the development of emotional speech in L1 Italian–L2 Japanese through quantitative acoustic analysis and qualitative data on learners’ cross-cultural experience. This L1–L2 combination is particularly interesting given the considerable differences between Italian and Japanese in emotional expression. It examines how acoustic patterns in L2 emotional expression compare with those in L1 Japanese and L1 Italian, and explores how learners' emotional expression in L2 speech may reflect their long-term experience with the target language and culture.
Cross-Linguistic Influence on L2 Japanese Quantity Contrasts
Phonological and phonetic influences of L1 Italian on L2 Japanese consonant and vowel length
This project investigates L1 Italian–L2 Japanese speech at both phonological and phonetic levels, focusing on the acquisition of Japanese consonant and vowel length contrasts. While Japanese has phonemic length contrasts in both consonants and vowels, Italian has a phonemic length contrast only in consonants. It explores how this difference, together with phonetic durational patterns in Italian speech, shapes developmental patterns in L2 Japanese length contrasts and their phonetic realization.
