The Department of Italian Studies Research Seminar Series presents

Book launch

Introduced by Professor Umberto Ansaldo, Head of the School of Literature, Art and Media, and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney

Identity Trajectories of Adult Second Language Learners: Learning Italian in Australia by Cristiana Palmieri

About the book

This book explores the motivations of adult second language (L2) learners to learn Italian in continuing education settings in Australia. It focuses on their motivational drives, learning trajectories and related dynamics of identity development triggered by the learning process. Central to the study are adult L2 learners, who are still a largely under-researched and growing group of learners, and readers will gain a better understanding of the learning process of this specific group of learners and ideas for sustaining L2 adult learning motivation in continuing education settings. Furthermore, the book discusses the role played by the Italian migrant community in Australia in making Italian a sought-after language to learn. It explores how a migrant community may influence motivation, and highlights and expands on the notion of L2 learning contexts, showing the existence of sociocultural environments where second language learning trajectories are affected by the presence of migrant groups.

About the author

Cristiana Palmieri is research affiliate at the School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney, where she completed her doctorate in Sociolinguistics and Adult Education, conducting a research on the motivations to learn Italian as a second language in Australia within the Department of Italian Studies. Her main research interests are motivation for language learning in multicultural and multilingual contexts, language learning and identity and adult learning. She is the Head of the Learning and Development Division at The Royal Australasian College of Physician where she conducts research on innovation in medical education. Cristiana has presented at several national and international conferences on second language learning motivation and medical education and is currently working on publishing her most recent research on the use of a multi-dimensional theoretical framework to support the learning needs of medical specialists.

For more information, contact: A/Prof Francesco Borghesi – francesco.borghesi@sydney.edu.au