Chiara Bruzzano

Chiara Bruzzano (BA, MA, DELTA M1, PhD) is an experienced EFL teacher, teacher trainer and instructional designer. She started blogging for English Teaching professional back in December 2019, and is now blogging for the new look Modern English Teacher following its launch in January 2022 where she continues to write about teaching and teaching training issues, impacts of research on teaching/teacher training and a lot more besides. Chiara teaches at the University of Milan, the University of Leeds and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She also designs and delivers teacher education programmes and is the founder of LanguagEd, a professional development company. Chiara holds a doctorate in language education and her interests include listening pedagogy, teacher and learner cognition and migration. She is currently conducting research funded by the British Council on the consequential validity of IELTS.

Leaving learners to their own devices? The potential of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning

Technology, and mobile devices in particular, is a huge part of our lives, so should we be incorporating mobile devices into language learning? Chiara Bruzzano reviews some of the evidence on MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning) and its impact on vocabulary acquisition in particular.

Taking stock and looking ahead

What are some current trends in English Language Teaching (ELT)? How might our profession evolve in the near future? Let’s examine the evidence available – from assessment and student numbers to precarity and English as a Medium of Instruction – to come up with some answers.

SLA: how can it support teachers of non-language subjects?

Can simple second language acquisition (SLA) concepts be used to support teaching in subjects other than languages? And if so, should we encourage their use and why? Chiara recently used her SLA expertise to work with teachers of non-language subjects with success, much to her surprise. Read on to find out more.

Using literature in the classroom

How often do you use literature in ELT? Do you find it difficult to incorporate literature into your lessons? In this post, Chiara considers the advantages and challenges of using literature in class and shares ways to make those lessons more engaging.

Understanding the reasons behind our successes and failures: insights from Attribution Theory

Why do learners sometimes seem to think they ‘just can’t do’ something or that a task is ‘just too difficult’? In this blog post, Chiara Bruzzano explores Attribution Theory, a model that can help explain why we and our learners believe we fail/succeed, and how this can help us in the classroom.