Her research concerns the diversity of English, especially transcultural and transnational phenomena like English as a Lingua Franca and translanguaging. She focuses on the tensions between the use of different linguistic resources and the impact of attitudes, identities and ideologies on linguistic practices. She is currently working on super-diversity and internationalization in migration and business contexts, as well as pedagogical applications and implications.
ELF and critical language pedagogy among language teachers in Brazil
This project aims to explore the connections between English as a Lingua Franca and critical language pedagogy among pre-service and in-service language teachers in Brazil. The project is partly funded by Erasmus + and UK Research Agency. A preliminary study, which provided the foundations for this project, was published in Englishes in Practice 2017, vol 4/3
English as a Lingua Franca in The Year's Work in English Studies
This project aims to review research on English as a Lingua Franca produced every year as part of the yearly publication The Year's Work in English Studies. The team includes PhD students in this area who regularly take on the leading role to edit the research and section of the YWES. For more information: https://academic.oup.com/ywes
EMI in Brazilian Higher Education Institutions from a lingua franca perspective: a study with two state-funded universities
In this project, in collaboration with Universidade Estadual de Londrina & Universidade Estadual de Maringá, we investigate the English-Medium Instruction (EMI) provision and compare the situation in these two institutions from an ELF perspective. The project is funded by British Council Brazil until August 2019 and dissemination is undergoing.
Alessia teaches on the following modules:
EN52230A Varieties of English
EN52296A Language Learning and Teaching
EN71078B English in a Multilingual World
EN71097A English as a Lingua Franca and Language Teaching
Areas of supervision
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF pragmatics, attitudes and identity)
Multilingualism and translanguaging
ELF and critical pedagogy
Internationalization and English-Medium Instruction in higher education
Featured work
If you’d like to know more about Alessia’s work on English as a Lingua Franca, you can read an introductory paper on ELF here:
Invited plenary speaker at the University of Évora (Portugal) 39th Conference of the Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies (APEAA), 26-28 April 2018. “Why Should We Engage with ELF as a Field of Research? Language, Culture and Pedagogy”
Invited plenary speaker at The 30th IATEFL BESIG Annual Conference 10 - 12 November 2017 (Malta) “Evidence-based practices: what the data tell us about business English”.
Invited colloquium contribution at Lleida university (Spain) for the 9th International conference on “Framing English within multilingual policies and practices”, June 27-29, 2016. “Repertoires and boundaries: questioning multilingualism in ELF”.
Special Keynote speaker at the International Workshop on English as a Lingua Franca, Waseda University (Japan), 13-14 November 2015. "Conceptualizing the multilingual approach to ELF: a corpus-driven investigation".
Invited keynote speaker at the University of Verona (Italy), 4 November 2014. “Super-diversity and ELF: a focus on multilingual practices”.
Invited plenary speaker at the Sixth International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, University of Roma tre (Italy), 4-7 September 2013. “Fluidity and repertoires: the superdiversity of ELF in professional contexts”.
Invited plenary speaker at the Third International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, May 2010, University of Vienna (Austria). “Constructing and negotiating understanding in ELF”.
Cogo, Alessia. 2018. ELF and multilingualism. In: Jennifer Jenkins; Will Baker and Martin Dewey, eds. The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 357-368. ISBN 9781138855328
Cogo, Alessia and House, Juliane. 2018. The pragmatics of ELF. In: Jennifer Jenkins; Will Baker and Martin Dewey, eds. The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 210-223. ISBN 9781138855328
Cogo, Alessia. 2016. Visibility and absence: ideologies of ‘diversity’ in BELF. In: Marie-Luise Pitzl and Ruth Osimk-Teasdale, eds. English as a Lingua Franca: Perspectives and Prospects. Contributions in Honour of Barbara Seidlhofer. 24 Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 39-48. ISBN 978-1-5015-0317-7
I am interested in ELF sociolinguistic description and conceptualisation, as well as the language ideologies and identities intercultural users construct in different contexts. I have done empirical work on the communication processes and strategies that intercultural speakers use in different contexts, especially accommodation and multilingual resources. I am now developing this across different communication areas, especially workplace, migration and educational contexts.
I have worked on the attitudes towards the notion of ELF, ELF communication and speakers, the links with language ideologies and identities, and their implications for language policy and language learning. At the moment I am also working on the discursive construction of identities in ELF professional and migration contexts, especially translanguaging and the construction of professional identity in naturally occurring conversation, interviews and focus groups.
I am co-founder and co-coordinator, with Marie-Luise Pitzl from the University of Vienna, of the AILA Research Network on ELF (for more information see the ReN on ELF website).
Multilingualism and Translanguaging
Multilingualism from a sociocultural and sociolinguistic perspective. I am particularly interested in translanguaging practices in spontaneous talk and the speakers’ construction of identities through these practices. I have worked on the interface between English as a Lingua Franca and multilingualism from various perspectives. From 2008 to 2010 I worked on a European FP7 project on multilingualism, LINEE (Languages in a Network of European Excellence) and investigated English in Europe, especially the learning, use, and perception of ‘multicompetence’ and ‘English as a lingua franca’ in educational contexts.
Internationalization and EMI
I am interested in the processes and practices of internationalization at university from a linguistic and critical perspective. I am conducting a project concerning internationalization of the curriculum and teaching/assessment practices.
I am also interested in the broader internationalization agenda in higher education institutions across the world and the phenomenon of English Medium Instruction (EMI).
