I am a Chair Professor of English Language and Language Acquisition at the Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), currently as Honorary professor, where I have taught courses in English linguistics, advanced English grammar, and Language Acquisition and Bilingualism (undergraduate degrees in Translation and Applied Languages; Master’s degree in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics; Master’s Degree in ESL Teacher Training for Secondary Schools and Language Schools). I am also an Official Interpreter and Sworn Translator of French and English. In my free time, I dance, sing and play music. 

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, including a recent COST action on Study Abroad in European Perspective (SAREP), and earliest projects, i.e. the IntClass project, the MOLAN network, the ALPME, 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.

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.

Lines of research

  • 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 classroom.
  • Bi/tri/lingual language acquisition in infancy and adolescence.
  • Institutional multilingual language policies (secondary and tertiary education). 

Prior engagements

I was professor in secondary education, where I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to adolescent learners, and served as an appointed teacher trainer of the Generalitat de Catalunya, till I received my PhD on child bilingualism in English and Catalan in 1995, and entered UPF. I also hold an M. A. in Applied Linguistics from Reading University (UK), and a degree in Spanish philology (UAB, Spain) and in English Philology (UB, Spain).