Key details
Alessandra Valentini
Lecturer in Psychology
Dr Alessandra Valentini is a Programme Lead for MSc Child and Adolescent Psychology as well as a Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich.
Alessandra obtained a BSc and MSc in Psychology from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy and then a PhD from the University of Reading, UK. She joined the University of Greenwich as Lecturer in 2022. Prior to this, Alessandra was a teaching fellow and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Reading and then teaching fellow at the University of Surrey.
Alessandra’s research spans language development, reading, bilingualism and cognitive development. She is particularly interested in the effect of presentation modality on language comprehension and language acquisition (particularly vocabulary acquisition), and the relationship between cognitive, language and reading skills, in both monolingual and bilingual populations.
Posts held previously
- 2021-2022: Teaching Fellow in Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Surrey
- 2017-2021: Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading
- 2016-2017: Teaching Fellow in Developmental Psychology, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading
Responsibilities within the university
- Programme Lead for Child and Adolescent Psychology, MSc
- Lecturer in Psychology, School of Human Sciences
- Placement lead for Child and Adolescent Psychology MS
Recognition
- Ad hoc reviewer for journals including: Child Development; Journal of Research in Reading; Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.
- Ad hoc reviewer for conferences, including: Child Language Symposium 2018; Child Language Symposium 2019
Research / Scholarly interests
Alessandra’s research spans language development, reading, bilingualism and cognitive development. She is particularly interested in the effect of presentation modality on language comprehension and language acquisition (particularly vocabulary acquisition), and the relationship between cognitive, language and reading skills, in both monolingual and bilingual populations.
During her PhD she explored the effect of story presentation modality on vocabulary acquisition in school-aged children. During her postdoctoral studies she conducted a longitudinal research on the relationship between cognitive and language abilities in bilingual children, specifically exploring predictors of listening and reading comprehension and the longitudinal relationship between vocabulary and grammar.
Key funded projects
- JULY 2017, University of Reading, Research Travel Grant Travel grant for conference attendance (SSSR 2017 - Halifax, Canada)
- JULY 2016, Experimental Psychological Society, Grindley Grant Travel grant for conference attendance (SSSR 2016 - Porto, Portugal)
Recent publications
Article
Valentini, Alessandra , Pye, Rachel E., Houston-Price, Carmel, Ricketts, Jessie , Kirkby, Julie A. (2023), Online processing shows advantages of bimodal listening-while-reading for vocabulary learning: an eye-tracking study. Wiley. In: , , , . Wiley, Reading Research Quarterly ISSN: 0034-0553 (Print), 1936-2722 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.522).
De Luis Sanabria, Amanda , Abdelkhaleq, Maya, Valentini, Alessandra (2023), Comprehension of biology texts in bilingual and monolingual university students: exploring the effect of presentation modality, previous knowledge and topic enjoyment. American Psychological Association (APA PsycNet). In: , , , . American Psychological Association (APA PsycNet), Translational Issues in Psychological Science ISSN: 2332-2136 (Print), 2332-2179 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000376).
Valentini, Alessandra and , Serratrice, Ludovica (2022), Longitudinal predictors of listening comprehension in bilingual primary school-aged children. Wiley - University of Michigan - Language Learning Research Club. In: , , , . Wiley - University of Michigan - Language Learning Research Club, Language Learning, 73 (1) . pp. 5-46 ISSN: 0023-8333 (Print), 1467-9922 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12513).
Valentini, Alessandra and , Serratrice, Ludovica (2021), What can bilingual children tell us about the developmental relationship between vocabulary and grammar?. Wiley - Cognitive Science Society. In: , , , . Wiley - Cognitive Science Society, Cognitive Science, 45: e13062 (11) ISSN: 0364-0213 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13062) NB Item availability restricted.
Valentini, Alessandra , Ricketts, Jessie, Pye, Rachel E., Houston-Price, Carmel (2017), Listening while reading promotes word learning from stories. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 167 . pp. 10-31 ISSN: 0022-0965 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.09.022).