Francesca Foppolo

persone_0006_foppolo_francesca

Francesca Foppolo is Associate Professor in Linguistics in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where she also teaches Psycholinguistics and Applied Psycholinguistics.

Her research focuses on the processing of syntactic ambiguity and on the experimental investigation of the semantic/pragmatic interface in typically and atypically developing children, bilinguals, and adults. She employs off-line and on-line techniques, with a particular focus on eye-movement recordings during the on-line processing of linguistic ambiguity in the visual context and in reading. She investigates different aspects of language: the processing of morphological cues (such as gender/number agreement features on articles and verbs); syntactic complexity and syntactic ambiguity, and the use of parsing heuristics in processing; semantic and pragmatic features of conversations (such as inferred and presupposed content).

She actively collaborates with some of her colleagues in the Department of Psychology and with other researchers in Europe and US, in particular: Caterina Donati (LLF, Université Paris Cité), Adrian Staub (UMass at Amherst), Luisa Meroni (Utrecht University). She is currently the coordinator of two projects on gender inclusive language: the project titled “Gender bias in language: testing INClusive ITAlian language feasibility and impact (INCITƏ)”, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR, PRIN 2022); and the project titled “Reducing gender inequalities through language: efficacy and feasibility of Italian gender-inclusive language”, funded by Fondazione Cariplo (Inequalities research 2022).
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the international network Bilingualism Matters and a member of the Italian branch Bilingualism Matters@Bicocca. She was also part of the project Multilingualmind. She is associate editor of Applied Psycholinguistics.

Upcoming Events

June 18, 2025
  • BIL Seminar - "From Sequence to Hierarchy: Exploring Domain-General and Domain-Specific Mechanisms Underlying Implicit Statistical Learning and the Formation of Recursive Structures", by Arianna Compostella June 18, 2025 @ 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Università degli studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, Edificio U6, Sala Lauree, 3° piano
    See more details
June 30, 2025
  • BIL Seminar "Global challenges in education. Bridging from policy to practice in inclusive education", by Joao Costa June 30, 2025 @ 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Università degli studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1, Milano, Edificio U6, Sala Lauree, 3° piano

    Abstract: 
    "In spite of the local and national issues discussed in each country, there are global challenges prioritized as requiring action and reflection that are common to all education systems. After sharing some of the burning issues for the education systems, including teacher shortage, the digital revolution and the place of AI, among others, this conference will focus on the theme of equity and inclusion, building on the ongoing work at the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EASNIE).Inclusive education is a shared goal for the construction of a fair, cohesive and resilient society. Several countries have been embracing the goal of transforming education systems, by adopting new legislation to achieve this purpose. In spite of this alignment, a constant clarification of the key principles of inclusive systems is required. EASNIE’s member countries have approved and revised a position paper on the characteristics of inclusive education, which constitutes a robust starting point for legislative reforms.
    If agreement on the principles is a requirement, the biggest challenge is the move from policy to practice. Member countries identified implementation, monitoring and sustainability of inclusive education as one of the main priorities for joint action. This presentation will present a summary of lessons learned from the Country Cluster Activities, and highlight main areas for a positive implementation and monitoring, focusing on areas such as the role of collaboration, learner and parent participation, leadership, teacher preparation and professional development, communication between policy-makers, stakeholders and the society. Effective monitoring and evidence-based decisions for the sustainability of the legislative procedures will also be illustrated through practical examples."

    See more details

Contacts