AMEP Research Centre
Ficorilli, Laura
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Formal Name: Laura Ficorilli Personal Title: Mrs Position: Research Assistant, Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre Qualification: BA (Hons) University “La Sapienza” of Rome, MPhil – University of Sydney Telephone: +61 2 9850 6335 Email: laura.ficorilli@nceltr.mq.edu.au Location: W6C 125 |
Profile
Laura is a research assistant with the AMEP Research Centre. Laura has taught languages in a variety of contexts, specialising in language training in industry.
She has lived and worked in Europe, Africa and Australia. Her ESL teaching experience in Australia has expanded through working with AMEP and TAFE.
Her interest in research dates back to her undergraduate studies. Her Honors dissertation was based on an empirical research on the motivational implications of economic investment in language training in private business. The research shows that beyond the effective use of a second language, language training on the job, favours not only the exchange of knowledge but also the integration of “foreign” concepts into one’s home culture.
Laura's MPhil research has focused on language practices and attitudes in a large multilingual multicultural Australian workplace where a significant part of management and staff have an Italian background. The study highlights how language attitudes and practices reflect the individuals’ identity construction in relation to the role they have within the workplace and its cultural value system. It also shed lights on the effective use of bi-cultural bi-lingual individuals’ communication strategies at work.
Thesis
An Analysis of Directive Speech Acting by a first and a second generation Italian-Australian in the workplace
Research interests
Laura’s interests lie in pragmatics, language at work, cross-cultural communication, language and identity, second language training and migration settlement processes.