ProfessorAlessandro Benati

Professor Alessandro Benati is a globally renowned scholar in second language acquisition research, currently serving as the Director of the UCD Psycholinguistic Lab, https://www.ucd.ie/education/research/lab/, the MSc in Multilingual Education, and the PhD in Bilingual Education at University College Dublin (UCD). He is best known for his pioneering research on Processing Instruction, a cognitive-pedagogical model that analyses how language learners process input data and develop grammatical internal representations. At University College Dublin, he directs key multilingual research labs and previously served as the Head of the School of Education from 2023 to 2026. He holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES), University of York and Wilfried Laurier (Canada), and is a faculty member at Anaheim University in the USA. Over his distinguished career, he has held Chair Professor, Head of Department, or Dean roles at institutions including The University of Honk Kong, the American University of Sharjah, University of Portsmouth, University of Greenwich, and Queen Mary University of London.  Alongside James Lee, his ground-breaking SLA frameworks study the specific internal strategies brains use to grasp romance and non-romance languages. His research utilizes state-of-the-art online cognitive measurements, such as eye-tracking, self-paced reading, and neurocognitive reaction times. Professor Benati is leading a newly funded project through the ARC Hub for ICT to build an artificial intelligence-driven software platform tailored for language learning and communication research He is author and co-author of several research monographs and scholarly books on various aspects of second language acquisition and language instruction with noted publishers including Cambridge University Press and Routledge. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in high-ranked journals in his field (Second Language Research, Language Teaching, IRAL, Language Awareness, System,  Language Teaching Research, Ampersand, Applied Linguistics, Applied Psycholinguistics, Languages, Instructed SLA), and his research has been recognised to be internationally excellent (REF 4*) in terms of originality, significance and rigor. His research agenda has led to numerous publications, frequent citations in the field, excellent reviews, and has allowed him to establish a world-leading reputation as a scholar of second language acquisition. He has co- ordinated national and international high-impact research projects on language learning and teaching funded by the EU, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and other research bodies.
The research findings from his work have been applied to situations of language learning and teaching and have been influential in determining educational policy and had an impact on society and people skills in the UK, Republic of North Macedonia, UAE, Hong Kong and Japan. His project in partnership with the Royal Greenwich Teaching School Alliance focused on improving the subject knowledge and teaching skills of Key Stage 3, 4, 5 MFL subject leader and teachers. The project secured a government grant (250,000) from the London School Excellence Fund. The project significantly raised the attainment of pupils taking MFL at GCSE and A level and raise participation rates. He is co-editor of a new series for Cambridge University Press called Elements in Second Language Acquisition, and Editor/Co-Editor/Member of many international book series and academic journals. He was a member of the REF 2021 sup-panel 26 (Modern Languages and Linguistics), and the AHRC review panel. He is Honorary Professor at York SJ University (UK), University of Hong Kong, Anaheim University (USA), and Visiting Professor at Macquarie University (Australia) and Wilfried Laurier (Canada). He is scientific advisor on a number of research projects for the University of Salzburg. He has supervised more that 30 PhD students to completion.