My current research can be grouped in 4 strands:

1) I am interested in the role of variation on bilingual acquisition and socialization processes in Italy (Veneto) and in immigrant France; I am currently working with an American anthropologist, Kate Riley (Rutgers University) and we are comparing our socialization data from 4 field sites.

2) As part of my current involvement in the INEXDEB project (Dir. C. Cohen, Univ. of Lyon), I have created and am working on a database quantifying bilingual family language policy and socialization practices.

3) I am now also investigating language attitudes and testing experimental protocols, in collaboration with V. Arnaud (Univ. de Québec à Chicoutimi).

4) I have been collaborating with Giovanni Depau (Université Grenoble-Alpes) on minority languages, education and revitalization.

Thematic areas covered

I have explored different facets of the social dimensions under-pinning bilingual acquisition. I started my career by using mainly quantitative methods of data analysis. I soon developed skills in conducting ethnographical investigations collecting and analyzing interactional data. I acquired competencies enabling me to adopt ethnographically informed approaches to interaction and bilingual acquisition. This has led to mobility across thematic areas and also across methodological approaches: Adopting both quantitative to qualitative approaches through an ethnographic perspective has allowed me to embrace both the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic dimensions of language development. In particular, I have focused on the processes of bilingual socialization in areas of language contact and in contexts of migration. Parallel to this research, I have tapped into minority language policies, education and revitalization, in particular in Veneto and Sardinia, two Italian regions. This has led me to study family language policies through quantitative and qualitative approaches. Recently, I have expanded my research interests by investigating language acquisition and attitudes via the implementation of experimental protocols.