Alessia IURATO

Current position

March 2023-February 2025: Post-Doc Research Fellow (Assegnista di ricerca) for the PRIN 2020 National research project: "The acquisition of Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Combining learner corpus and experimental data" (2022-2025): https://pric.unive.it/projects/achieve/home, directed by Prof. Bianca Basciano. Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, SSD L-OR/21. Tutor: Prof. Bianca Basciano.

EDUCATION 

Sept. 2019-March 2024: Cotutelle PhD in Asian and African Studies (XXXV Cycle), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen. PhD awarded with cum laude distinction and Europaeus Doctor Certificate. 

Cotutelle Program between Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Universität Bremen:

- Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North African Studies - Supervisor: Prof. Bianca Basciano

- Universität Bremen, Dept. of Linguistics and Literary Studies - Supervisor: Prof. Marcus Callies

Thesis title: "The acquisition of the Chinese shì...de cleft construction by L1 Italian learners: Triangulating corpus and experimental data"

Sept. 2015-March 2018: Double Degree Program between Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Capital Normal University, Beijing, PRC

- Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North African Studies: M.A. in Language and Civilization of Asia and North-Africa

  Grade: 110/110 cum laude (first class honours)

  Thesis Title: "The acquisition of Chinese shì...de clefts by Italian L2 Chinese learners: An error analysis". Supervisors: Prof. Franco Gatti, Prof. Magda Abbiati

- Capital Normal Univeristy, Beijing, PRC, Dept. of International Education: MA in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages

  Thesis title: "The acquisition of Chinese shì...de clefts by Italian L2 Chinese learners: An error analysis" (thesis written and defended in Chinese). Supervisor: Prof. Yang Yulin 

Sept. 2012-July 2015: BA in Language, Culture and Societies of Asia and North-Africa, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North African Studies. Grade: 110/110 cum laude (First class honours)

Sept. 2007- July 2012: Grammar High School Degree - Institute of Higher Education (liceo classico). Liceo Classico S. Cannizzaro, Vittoria (RG)

FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

June 2021: Lancaster Summer School in Corpus Linguistics – Language learning, teaching and learning. Courses: Corpus Linguistics and Language Learning Research (Dana Gablasova); Statistics in Corpus Linguistics (Vaclav Brazina); Developing wordlists (Dana Gablasova); Building own corpus (Vaclav Brazina, Dana Gablasova & Gavin Brookes); Innovation in Corpus Linguistics (Tony McEnery, Fanny Meunier, Vaclav Brazina); Corpus-based approaches to language testing (Lorrae Fox); Developing corpus-based teaching materials (Dana Gablasova). 21-25 June, Lancaster, Lancaster University.

Oct. 2020-Dec. 2021: Research colloquia held by Prof. Marcus Callies. Universität Bremen. Courses: Research methods in second language acquisition; Data collection in Second Language Research; Second language pragmatics; The role of learner corpora in the analysis of Interlanguage Pragmatics; Basic statistics in second language acquisition and learner corpus linguistics. 

Febr. 2020: International PhD student workshop "Asian and North-African Studies in a Globalized and Interconnected World", Rome, University of Rome "La Sapienza".

Sept. 2019: XI EACL (European Association of Chinese Linguistics ) Summer School in Chinese Linguistics, Naples, "L'Orientale" University (30 h): Facts and fallacies in the Syntax of Mandarin Chinese (Waltraud Paul); Sinitic Morphology (Giorgio Arcodia); Dunhuang texts and the study of Vernacular Chinese (Christoph Anderl); Sources and Methodology for Chinese history of linguistics and historical linguistics (Mandarin and Cantonese) (Luisa Paternicò).

Jan-April 2019: Advanced Training Course in Methods and Approaches of Modern Teaching and Learning [Formazione Insegnanti - PF 24 CFU (DM 270/2004)]. Courses: General Pedagogy, Second and Foreign Language Teaching and Methods, Cultural Anthropology, Cognitive and Developmental Psychology. Ca' Foscari University of Venice. 

August 2015-July 2017: MA in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages. Capital Normal University - College of International Education. Beijing, PRC. 

August-Dec. 2014: Exchange Student (Overseas Program), Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute, Changchun, Jilin, PRC, courses in advanced Mandarin Chinese.

July-August 2013: EF International Language School, Beijing, PRC, course in Mandarin Chinese.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

November 2021: Winner of the 2022 Hawai'i International Conference on Chinese Studies (HICCS) graduate student award (paper chosen by the HICCS committee in a blind review). Paper title: Linking learner corpus and experimental data in studying the acquisition of the Chinese 是 shì...的 de construction by L1 Italian learners: A triangulated approach. 

Sept. 2019-Nov. 2022: 3-year PhD full merit scholarship, Italian Ministery of University/ Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Sept. 2015-August 2016: 1-year MA full merit scholarship, Double MA Degree Program, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

June 2016: Winner of the First Competition of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, Capital Normal University, Beijing, PRC.

August.-December 2014: Overseas Scholarship (Merit Scholarship), Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

PARTICIPATION TO RESEARCH PROJECTS

June 2022 - June 2025: Member of the research unit of the PRIN 2020 National research project: "The acquisition of Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Combining learner corpus and experimental data" (2022-2025): https://pric.unive.it/projects/achieve/home. Project directed by Prof. Bianca Basciano.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES

1 March 2023 - 28 February 2025: Post-Doc Research Fellow (Assegnista di ricerca) for the PRIN 2020 National research project: "The acquisition of Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Combining learner corpus and experimental data" (2022-2025): https://pric.unive.it/projects/achieve/home, directed by Prof. Bianca Basciano. Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, SSD L-OR/21. Tutor: Prof. Bianca Basciano.

2022-Ongoing: Co-Supervisor of MA thesis on Chinese language and linguistics (Courses: Language and Management to China, Lingue e Civiltà dell'Asia e dell'Africa mediterranea), Ca' Foscari Unviersity of Venice.

March-Sept. 2021: Tutor for the courses of Chinese Language 1.2 (30h), Chinese Language 2.2 (30 h), Chinese Linguistics (40 h), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies.

November 2019-Sept. 2020: Teaching Assistant for the courses of Chinese Language 1.1, Chinese Language 1.2, Chinese Language 2.1, Chinese Language 2.2, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies.

November 2019-Sept. 2020: Tutor for the courses of Chinese Language 1.1 (30 h), Chinese Language 1.2 (45 h), Chinese Linguistics (42 h), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies.

October 2019-Febr.2021: Adjunct professor of Chinese language, SSML CIELS, Bologna, Italy.

Courses: Chinese-Italian Translation and Chinese Language 1 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Translation and Chinese Language 2 (48 h); Chinese-Italian Translation and Chinese Language 3 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Dialogic Interpretation 2 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Dialogic Interpretation 3 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Consecutive Interpretation 2 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Consecutive Interpretation 3 (24 h).

Supervisor of BA thesis on Chinese language and culture

May-July 2019: Internship, marketing and communication specialist. Edizioni Ca' Foscari s.r.l., Venice.

February-September 2019: Adjunct professor of Chinese language, SSML CIELS University, Bologna, Italy.

Courses thought: Chinese-Italian Translation and Chinese Language 1 (24 h); Chinese-Italian Interpretation 1 (24 h).

October 2018-January 2019: Chinese language and culture teacher, Foreign Language High School (Liceo Linguistico) "G. Carducci", Ferrara, Italy.

April-December 2018: L2 Italian teacher to Chinese learners, Sino-Italian International High School, Padova, Italy.

October-December 2016: L2 Italian teacher to Chinese learners. Convitto Nazionale Marco Foscarini, Venezia

October-December 2016: L2 Italian teacher to foreing learners. Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Luzzatti. Mestre, Venezia. 

February-June 2015: Internship, Administrative Assistant, 150 hours work experience program, Confucius Institute at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (peer-reviewed presented papers)

2024: (accepted) The pragmatic annotation of an L2 Chinese learner corpus of L1 Italian learners. The 7th Learner Corpus Research International Conference, organized by the Learner Corpus Association (LCA). Septemeber 26-28, University of Tartu, Estonia.

2024: (accepted) The Chinese shì...de proper cleft sentence: A proposal for a pragmatic analysis. The 12th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL- 12). September, 19-20, Roma Tre University.

2024: (accepted) Chinese resultative verb compounds in L2 writing: a preliminary analysis of L1 Italian learners’ output (con Bianca Basciano e Marco Casentini) The 12th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL- 12). September 19-20, Roma Tre University.

2024 (accepted) The acquisition of Chinese resultative verb compounds by L1 Italian learners: Preliminary results (with Bianca Basciano and Marco Casentini). The 30th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-30). May, 25-27, Yonsey University, Seoul. 

2023: BILCC: A new resource for exploring L2 Chinese pragmatic competence.The 2nd Learner Corpus Research (LCR) Graduate Student Conference 2023. October, 25-27, Institute for Applied Linguistics at Eurac Research. 

2023: Una proposta metodologica per lo studio dell’acquisizione dei composti risultativi da parte di apprendenti italofoni di cinese L2/LS (A methodological proposal for studying the acquisition of resultative compounds by L1 Italian learners of L2 Chinese) (with Bianca Basciano and Marco Casentini). Rome, University of Rome La Sapienza XIX Convegno AISC, 2023.

2023: La costruzione passiva con 被 bèi nel cinese L2 di apprendenti italofoni: uno studio preliminare (The Chinese 被 bèi passive construction in L1 Italian learners' L2 Chinese: A preliminary study) (with Laura Locatelli). Rome, University of Rome La Sapienza XIX Convegno AISC, 2023.

2023: Progettazione e compilazione di un corpus di apprendenti italofoni di cinese L2. Difficoltà metodologiche e aspetti critici. [Designing and compiling a corpus of Italian learners of L2 Chinese. Methodological challenges and critical issues]. Sfide e criticità nelle ricerche sulla Cina. Metodologie, fonti e approcci teorici. Workshop per il gruppo di coordinamento giovani studiosi AISC (Associazione Italiana Studi Cinesi). March 27, online workshop. 

2022: Compiling a corpus of written and spoken L2 Chinese: Combining pragmatic and error annotation to study the Chinese shì 是…de 的cleft construction. 6th Learner Corpus Research Conference (LCR 2022). September 22-24, University of Padua, Italy. 

2022: Exploring the pragmalinguistic knowledge of the shì...de cleft construction in L1 Italian learners' L2 Chinese: a parallel corpus approach. VII Edition of the Study Days on Chinese Linguistics, promoted by the Italian Association of Chinese Linguistics (AILC). September 9-10, University of Bergamo, Italy.

2022: The Chinese passive 被 bèi construction in Italian learners' L2 Chinese: A preliminary study based on experimental data (with Laura Locatelli). VII Edition of the Study Days on Chinese Linguistics, promoted by the Italian Association of Chinese Linguistics (AILC). September 9-10, University of Bergamo, Italy.

2022: Investigating the grammatical and pragmatic knowledge of the 是shì…的de cleft construction by L1 Italian learners: A learner corpus-based approach. 24th Biennal Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS 2022). August 24-27, Palacky University, Olomuc, Czech Republic. 

2022: Triangulating corpora and experimental approaches to study the grammatical and pragmatic knowledge of the 是shì…的de cleft construction by L1 Italian learners. 11th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL-11). July 1-2, Palacky University, Olomuc, Czech Republic.

2022: The shì是...de的 cleft construction in L1 Italian learners’ written and spoken Chinese: A triangulated approach. 8th Annual Symposium on Language Research. May 26, University of California, Davis. 

2022: The acquisition of the Chinese shì…de construction by L1 Italian learners: Combining corpora and experimental data. American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference. March 19-22, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (USA). Conference organized by the AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics). 

2022: Linking learner corpus and experimental data in studying the acquisition of the Chinese 是shì...的de construction by L1 Italian learners: A triangulated approach. 2022 Hawai‘i International Conference on Chinese Studies (HICCS). January 3-5, Center of Chinese Studies, University of Hawai'i, Mānoa. 

2021: L’acquisizione della costruzione 是shì…的de da parte di apprendenti italofoni: un’analisi preliminare basata sulla compilazione di un corpus di apprendenti scritto e orale e su dati sperimentali [The acquisition of the Chinese 是shì……的de construction by L1 Italian learners: A preliminary analysis based on the compilation of written and spoken learner corpora and experimental data]. XVIII Convegno AISC. November 18-20, University of Torino. Conference organized by the AISC (Italian Association of Chinese Studies).

2021: Combining Corpora and Experimental Data in Studying the Acquisition of the Chinese 是shì…的de Construction by L1 Italian Learners: A Triangulated Methodological Approach. 2nd PhD Student Symposium organised by Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Sapienza University of Rome. November 17-18, Ca' Foscari Unviversity of Venice. 

2021 Linking learner corpus data and experimental data to analyze the acquisition of the Mandarin Chinese 是shì……的de construction: Methodological pluralism and preliminary analyses. The Graduate Student Conference in Learner Corpus Research. October 11-12, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Conference organized by the LCA (Learner Corpus Association).

2021: A mixed-method approach to analyze the acquisition of the Chinese 是shì……的de construction: A preliminary analysis based on a self-compiled learner corpus and experimental data. 6th International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR-6). 30 July-1 August, The George Washington University.

2021: The acquisition of the Chinese 是shì……的de construction by L1 Italian learners: A preliminary analysis based on learner corpus data and experimental data. VI Edition of the Study Days on Chinese Linguistics. 23-25 June. Forlì, University of Bologna. Conference organized by the AILC (Italian Association of Chinese Linguistics).

2018: La costruzione "shì...de" dalla prospettiva della didattica acquisizionale: analisi degli errori e strategie didattiche [The Chinese 'shì...de' Clefts from the perspective of Second Language Acquisition: Error Analysis and Teaching Implications]. V Edition of the Study Days on Chinese Linguistics. 23-24 November. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano. Conference organized by the AILC (Italian Association of Chinese Linguistics)

OTHER LECTURES (invited as guest lecturer)

2024: Error and pragmatic annotation for a learner corpus: Methodological stages and challenges in the tagging process. Workshop "A digital turn in the Humanities: Methodologies and issues". March 12, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice. 

2023: The PRIN project ACHIEVE - The acquisition of the Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Theoretical and methodological issues (with Bianca Basciano and Marco Casentini). PhD in Asian an African Studies - 2nd Teaching Block. December, 12.Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice. 

2023: Eliciting the production of RVCs: Corpus and experimental task design (with Marco Casentini). First workshop of the PRIN project  “ACHIEVE” L2 Learner corpora and the acquisition of Chinese resultative verb complexes. June 8-9, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice. 

2023: The design and compilation of an L2 Chinese learner corpus: Methodological issues. Lecture for the research group of the PRIN 2020 National project: "The acquisition of Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Combining learner corpus and experimental data" (2022-2025): https://pric.unive.it/projects/achieve/home. 8 March, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice. 

2023: Learner Corpus Research: An overview. Lecture for the research group of the PRIN 2020 National project: "The acquisition of Chinese resultative verbal complexes by L1 Italian learners: Combining learner corpus and experimental data"(2022-2025): https://pric.unive.it/projects/achieve/home. 3 March, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice. 

2022: Come redigere una tesi di linguistica cinese e acquisizione del cinese L2/LS [How to write a dissertation on Chinese linguistics and Chinese second language acquisition]. Lecture for the MA courses in Chinese linguistics and Chinese language, organized by Prof. Bianca Basciano and Prof. Franco Gatti. 18 May, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice. 

2022: The grammatical and pragmatic functions of the shì...de construction in Chinese. Lecture for the BA course in Chinese Language 1.2 organized by Prof. Franco Gatti. 5 May, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

2021: Abstract writing in Leaerner Corpus Linguistics: guidelines for writing conference and paper abstracts. Talk given at the Research Colloquium organized by Prof. Marcus Callies. 9 December, Faculty of Linguistics and Literary studies, Bremen University.

2021: La costruzione 是shì...的 in cinese moderno: aspetti teorici (The Mandarin shì...de construction: theoretical issues). Lecture for the BA course in Chinese Language anf Linguistics organized by Prof. Carlotta Sparvoli. 15 November, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna.  

2021: The acquisition of the Chinese 是shì…的de construction by L1 Italian learners: A preliminary analysis based of learner corpus data and experimental data. Talk given at the Research Colloquium organized by Prof. Marcus Callies. 1 July, Faculty of Linguistics and Literary studies, Bremen University.

2021: Strumenti e risorse per condurre una ricerca: come prepararsi alla stesura di una tesi di linguistica cinese. [Tools and resources to conduct a research: How to write a thesis on Chinese Linguistics]. Lecture for the MA course in Chinese Linguistics organized by Prof. Bianca Basciano. 28 May, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. 

2021: L’utilizzo dei corpora come strumento nella ricerca linguistica. Corpus Linguistics & Learner Corpus Research: un’introduzione. [Corpora as research tools in Chinese linguistics research. Corpus Linguistics & Learner Corpus Research: An introduction] (with Anna Morbiato). Lecture for the MA course in Chinese Linguistics organized by Prof. Bianca Basciano. 28 May, Dept. of Asian and North-African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. 

2020: The compilation of an error-tagged learner corpus to analyze the acquisition of the Chinese 是shì……的de construction by Italian university students. Talk given at the Research Colloquium organized by Prof. Marcus Callies. 18 December, Faculty of Linguistics and Literary studies, Bremen University. 

REFEREEING ACTIVITY

Reviewer for papers submitted to:

Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) (ISSN: 2193-2271)

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (CLLT) (ISSN: 1613-7035)

East Asian Pragmatics [ISSN 2055-7752 (print) / ISSN 2055-7760 (online)]

MEMBERSHIPS IN ASSOCIATIONS

AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics), since 2021

LCA (Learner Corpus Association), since 2020

EACL (European Association of Chinese Linguistics), since 2019

EACS (European Association for Chinese Studies), since 2022

AILC (Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Cinese [Italian Association of Chinese Linguistics]), since 2018

AISC (Associazione Italiana di Studi Cinesi [Italian Association of Chinese Studies]), since 2021

CASLAR (Chinese as a Second Language Research), since 2020

ACADEMIC DUTIES

Nov. 2020- Nov. 2022: Student Representative of the PhD Program in Asian and African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Italian: Native Speaker

English: Advanced

Mandarin Chinese: Advanced

German: Elementary

ADDITIONAL TEACHING SKILLS

CEDILS: Certificate of Teaching L2 Italian to Speakers of Other Languages, Merit Award