Founder and PI of the competitively funded research group ALLENCAM (Language Acquisition from Multilingual Catalonia) (2005-2015), a task which I combined with the participation in the Age Factor research programme at the Universitat de Barcelona, and in about 15 different European projects and networks dealing with multilingualism. They included a recent COST action on Study Abroad in European Perspective (SAREP), in which I acted as Vice-President, and earliest projects, i.e. the IntClass project, the MOLAN network, the ALPME - which I myself coordinated - the CLIL Compendium, The Thematic Network in the Area of Languages,  FABULA, etc...  Within ALLENCAM I was principal investigator of the research programme on Study Abroad and Language Acquisition (SALA) (2004-2017) through 6 competitive projects. SALA was a pioneer initiative in Spain, and had a great impact in Europe and internationally.

Current research interests: They include second and foreign language acquisition by young and adolescent learners; bi/multilingualism; individual differences, and the effects of different learning contexts, i.e. Study Abroad (SA), immersion (CLIL/EMI), formal instruction (FI), and more recently virtual environments.

Research lines:

  • Bi/tri/lingual language acquisition in infancy and adolescence, with a special interest in English, but not only.
  • The impact of Study Abroad periods spent in the target language country, on the acquisition of English lexis, formulaic language, pragmatics, and writing and listening skills.
  • Content and language integrated learning (CLIL/EMI) in the primary and secondary school classroom, and at university level.
  • Institutional multilingual language policies (in primary, secondary and, most centrally, tertiary education).
  • Individual differences in the acquisition of second and foreign languages.

Prior engagements: I was professor in secondary education, where I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to adolescent learners. I gained a Chair in 1989. I also served as an appointed teacher trainer of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1985-1989), till I obtained a PhD on child bilingualism in English and Catalan in 1995, and entered UPF, where I gained a Chair in English and Language Acquisition in 2018. I also hold an M. A. in Applied Linguistics from Reading University (UK) (1983), and a degree in Spanish philology (UAB, Spain)(1971) and in English Philology (UB, Spain) (1982).