Ada BIER

Academic Education

Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics (SSD L-LIN/02)

University: Ca’ Foscari, Venice

Title of Dissertation: La questione della motivazione nell'insegnamento in CLIL. Una ricerca su insegnanti e studenti nella scuola secondaria superiore [trans. “The issue of motivation in CLIL teaching. A research on teachers and students in upper-secondary schools”]
Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan
Date: 25/01/2017

Result: Graduation with Honours 

Master of Arts (MA) in Language Sciences (curriculum: Foreign Language Teaching)
University: Ca’ Foscari, Venice
Title of MA Thesis: The motivation of adolescent students in rural schools in the North of Pordenone to learn English as a foreign language
Supervisor: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan
Date: 25/02/2013
Result: 110/110 with Honours

MaDiLS, 1st level Master program in Foreign Language Teaching
University: Ca’ Foscari, Venice
Title of Master Thesis: Assessment of young-adult learners: Reflections upon the process of grading oral performances
Supervisor: Prof. Graziano Serragiotto
Date: 24/08/2010
Result: 110/110

Bachelor's degree (BA) in Sciences and Technologies of Communication
University: IULM, Milan
Title of BA Thesis: illycaffè: sostenibilità e arte [trans. “illycaffè: sustainability and art”]
Supervisor: Prof. Alessandra Mazzei
Date: 19/11/2008

Result: 110/110 with Honours

Training

Summer school on “Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and fuzzy sets” (Instructor: Prof. Charles C. Ragin)

Organised by: Global School in Empirical Research Methods (GSERM), University of Ljubljana

Period: 28/08/2017 - 01/09/2017

Training course on “Textual Analysis with NVivo” (Instructor: Martina Lippolis))

Organised by: CorisLab, University La Sapienza, Rome

Period: 26/04/2017 - 28/04/2017

Certificate for Teaching Italian as a Second Language (CEDILS)

Issued by: ItaLS Lab, Ca’ Foscari, Venice
Date: 28/04/2014

Score: 82/100

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL, internet-based)
Issued by: Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Date: 30/05/2009

Score: 111/120 (Reading: 28/30; Listening: 30/30; Speaking: 26/30 ; Writing: 27/30)

Research activity

Period: 01/03/2018 - 28/02/2019

Activity: Post-doc Research Fellow within the European Interreg Project Eduka2 – For a cross-border governance of education (Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020) with a research project entitled “CLIL in MOOC: a pilot project for the distance training of CLIL teachers using a minority vehicular language”

Tutor: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan

University: Ca' Foscari, Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies

Period: 06/07/2018 - 31/01/2019 

Activity: Research assistant within a collaborative research project – Transition from Secondary CLIL to Tertiary EMI (in collaboration with the British Council and the University of Oxford)

Tutor: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan

University: Ca' Foscari, Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies

Period: 01/07/2017 - 28/02/2018

Activity: Post-doc Research Fellow with a project entitled “Language and teaching methodology in lecturing through English”

Tutor: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan

University: Ca' Foscari, Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies

Work experience

Period: 18/05/2016 - 31/10/2019

Role: EMI expert

Activity: Academic Lecturing: methodological and language support for lecturers who deliver their courses through English 

Editions of the Course: all Departments – Autumn 2019 (05/09/2019–31/10/2019); all Departments – Autumn 2018 (04/10/2018–29/11/2018); all Departments – Spring 2018 (03/05/2018–21/06/2018); all Departments – first edition (04/10/2017–06/12/2017); Dept.s of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, Statistics and Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems (03/05/2017–28/06/2017); Dept. of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (03/11/2016–26/01/2017); Dept. of Economics (18/05/2016–30/09/2016).

Course Directors: Prof. Paolo Pellizzari, Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan 

Courses organised by: Ca’ Foscari Human Resources Office (ARU), Ca' Foscari School of International Education (CFSIE), Venice

Period: 06/10/2016 - 31/05/2018

Role: EMI expert
Activity: Koinè project: methodological and language support to promote innovative teaching in courses delivered through English 
Past editions: Koinè 2 (A.Y. 2016/17), Koinè 3 (A.Y. 2017/18)

Director: Prof. Chiara Saccon
Organised by: Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari, Venice

Period: 17/11/2014 - Present

Role: teacher trainer

Activities: tutoring of online modules on CLIL methodology and action research (in Professional development courses for primary school CLIL teachers - LaDiLS Lab); tutoring of online modules on action research and class observation (in Professional development courses for teachers of Italian as a FL/SL - ItaLS Lab)

Course Directors: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan (LadiLS), Prof. Graziano Serragiotto (ItaLS)

Course Coordinators: Prof. Marcella Menegale (LadiLS), Elena Lazzaro (ItaLS)

Courses organised by: Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, LaDiLS Laboratory (Foreign Language Teaching) and ItaLS Laboratory (Italian as a Second Language)

Period: 12/09/2016 - Present

Role: teaching assistant

Activity: tutoring of online activities (on Moodle) for two blended courses, Methodology of research in language teaching and learning (A.Y. 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21) and Psychological aspects of language education (A.Y. 2016/17). These courses are part of the curriculum of the MA Degree in Language Sciences (curriculum: Foreign Language Teaching)

Course Director: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan

University: Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies

Period: 08/04/2016 - Present

Activity: lessons in presence and tutoring of online modules on CLIL methodology (in Professional development courses for upper-secondary school CLIL teachers)

Course Director: Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan

Course Coordinators for the Veneto Region: Edoardo Menegazzo (Venice); Hilary Creek (Padova)

Course Coordinator for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region: Philip Tarsia (Trieste, Udine)

Courses organised by: Ca’ Foscari, Venice, on a mandate from the Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR) for the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regions 

Conferences

XVIII International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML), Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, online, 24-26/3/2021.

Title of presentation (with Marcella Menegale): "CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in MOOC (Massive Open Online Course): A Pilot Project for the Distance Training in CLIL for Friulian Language Teachers"

La formazione linguistica quale veicolo di internazionalizzazione degli Atenei italiani (Convegno CRUI), Università Ca' Foscari Venezia & Università di Parma, online, 25-26/2/2021.

Titolo della presentazione (con Elena Borsetto): "Un esempio di buona pratica per l'assicurazione della qualità nell'internazionalizzazione: Academic Lecturing a Ca' Foscari"

Multilingualism and Multimodality in Higher Education (ICLHE Conference 2019), Universitat Jaume I, Castellò (Spain), 15-18/10/2019.

Poster presentation (with Elena Borsetto): "On the need to support lecturers who embrace the challenge of ETPs: The Academic Lecturing course experience"

CAIS Congress 2019, Canadian Association for Italian Studies, Orvieto (Italy), 13-16/6/2019.

Panel su "Italian academic discourse as used abroad and in Italian universities", organizzato da Paolo Nitti ed Elena Ballarin

Titolo della presentazione (con Elena Borsetto): “Una ‘buona pratica’ di supporto all’insegnamento accademico: l'esperienza di Academic lecturing a Ca’ Foscari”

A Plurilingual Mindset in European Education Contexts, University of Primorska, Koper (Slovenia), 12/4/2019.

Title of presentation (with Marcella Menegale): “Il modello CLIL nell’insegnamento delle lingue minoritarie: un progetto pilota per la formazione docenti”

EMI Practices in Europe, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (Denmark), 4-5/4/2019.

Title of presentation: “Towards a definition of the language-teaching methodology interface: Some preliminary findings from Italy”

Bilateral meeting Italy-Slovenia on the role of research in the society, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 18/4/2018.

Presentation on the participation of Ca’ Foscari (Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies) in the Interreg Italy-Slovenia European Project “Eduka2 - For a cross-border governance of education”.

Social Sciences and Humanities (ERC SH sector) parallel session.

Focus on Language - FOL 2018 Conference, University of Education, Freiburg (Germany), 22-24/3/2018.

Title of presentation: “Language and teaching methodology in lecturing through English: two sides of the same interface”.

IV Language in Focus - LIF 2017 Conference, Çukurova University, Famagusta (Cyprus), 2-4/3/2017.

Title of presentation: “Student motivation for learning in CLIL and teacher motivation for teaching in CLIL: reflections on their reciprocal behavior”.

9th International CLIL Conference THINKCLIL2014, Ca’ Foscari, Venice, 28-30/8/2014.

Title of presentation: “Teacher motivation in CLIL environments”.

Social profiles

Academia: https://unive.academia.edu/AdaBier 

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ada_Bier

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2794-9019