Fiona Dalzie

Biography

Fiona Dalziel is Associate Professor of English Language and Translation at the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies (DiSLL) of the University of Padova, Italy, where she teaches on the BA and MA degree programmes in Modern Languages. She has held a number of institutional roles, such as head of the University Language Centre, where she set up the LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes) Project, whose aim was to provide support for lecturers teaching their content courses through English. She has also been Department Erasmus coordinator and delegate of Impact and Outreach, which has involved the organisation of large-scale cultural events. At present she is coordinator of a group entitled Unipd4people at risk, which supports a number of university initiatives to enable both scholars and students whose academic freedom is threatened in some way to pursue their studies in a safe environment. Her research interests include: promoting metacognitive learning strategies and learner autonomy; English Medium Instruction (EMI); translanguaging in the language classroom; and performative approaches to language learning. She first became interested in drama thorough running the University English theatre group, but more recently has focused her practice and research on multilingual settings, working with both adult migrants and international students. She has co-organised three summer schools about the use of drama in language learning and inclusive practices, two in Padua and one at the University of Grenoble. Drawing on research in the area of Applied Linguistics and Drama in Education, she adopts embodied translanguaging practices with a focus on agency, motivation and belonging, as explored in the Sorgente project.