Alessandro Zannirato received his PhD from the School of Languages and Literatures of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He also holds a graduate degree in conference interpreting (working languages: A: Italian, B: English, B: French, C: Spanish), and a master certificate in foreign language teacher education. He joined the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures in 2005.

Before coming to Hopkins, he worked as a middle and high school teacher, TEFL teacher trainer, academic director, interpreter, and translator for various institutions in Africa, North America, and Europe. His interests revolve around foreign language pedagogy and teacher training, the interface between language learning and conference interpreter training, and program evaluation. 

Taught at Johns Hopkins

1. Italian Foreign Language Teaching Practicum I and II (graduate)
2. Methodology and Instructional Practices in Foreign Language Teaching I and II (co-taught with Profs. Sánchez- Serrano and McGee Mifflin, graduate)
3. Reading and Translating Italian for Academic Purposes (graduate)
4. Corso di Perfezionamento (graduate and undergraduate)
5. Italian Independent Study – Language and Linguistics (undergraduate)
6. Advanced Italian I and II (undergraduate)
7. Intermediate Italian I and II (undergraduate)
8. Italian Elements I and II (undergraduate)
9. Online Italian Elements I and II (undergraduate)
10. Italian Elements I and II for music students (undergraduate, hybrid course, taught at the Peabody Conservatory)

Taught at Other Institutions 

University of Cape Town

1. Italian Language: Honours Programme (graduate)
2. Introduction to Interpreting I and II (undergraduate, part of Advanced and Intermediate French)
3. Elementary Spanish I and II (undergraduate)
4. Intermediate Italian I and II (undergraduate)
5. Advanced Italian I and II (undergraduate)
6. Italian for Opera Singers I (undergraduate)

Stellenbosch University

1. Elementary French I (undergraduate)
2. Intermediate French I (undergraduate)

British Institutes

TEFL Modules

1. The Common European Framework (CEF) for Languages and the European Language Portfolio
2. An historical perspective on language teaching: from the grammar-translation method to an eclectic approach
3. Finding your way through theory: making the most of SLA research
4. Using multiple strategies to foster language learning
5. Teaching absolute beginners: verbal and nonverbal communication in the language classroom
6. The Andragogical approach: teaching adults
7. The Italian educational system: differences and similarities with the British and American systems
8. Affect in language learning
9. A closer look at 'alternative' methods: Lozanov's Suggestopedia

Language Courses

1. Elementary Italian (A1)
2. Business Italian (A2)
3. Advanced Italian (C1)
4. Elementary French (A1)
5. Pre-Intermediate French (A2)
6. Advanced French (C1)
7. DELF and DALF Preparation Courses
8. Business French (B2)
9. Elementary English (A1)
10. Pre-Intermediate English (A2)
11. Intermediate English (B1)
12. Upper-Intermediate English (B2)
13. Elementary French in Middle Schools (Lingue 2000 project)
14. Elementary English in Middle Schools (Lingue 2000 project)
15. Intermediate (equivalent of K9 and K10) English and French in High Schools

Zannirato, A. (2015). Using evaluation to promote change in ‘two-tiered’ departments of foreign languages and literatures: An analysis of conflict and empowerment levels among language and literature faculty, in Norris, J. & Mills, N. (Eds.), Innovation and Accountability in Foreign Language Program Evaluation (pp. 154-182). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Sánchez-Serrano, L., Zannirato, A., Mifflin, D., (2014a). An evaluation on the language/literature training divide. ADFL Bulletin 43(1), 101-111.

Zannirato, A., (2014b). Teaching transcultural emotional expression in the L2 classroom. In M. B. Paradowski (Ed.), Teaching Languages Off the Beaten Track (pp. 297-312). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang.

Zannirato, Alessandro (2013). The quest for 'perfection': multidisciplinary reflections on aptitude and affect in interpreter selection and training. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 7(1), 107-127.

Zannirato, Alessandro & Sánchez-Serrano, Loreto (2009). Using evaluation to design foreign language teacher training in a literature program. In J. M. Norris, J. McE. Davis, C. Sinicrope, & Y. Watanabe, (Eds.), Toward useful program evaluation in college foreign language education (pp. 98-118). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

Zannirato, A. (2008). Teaching Interpreting and Interpreting Teaching: a Conference Interpreter’s Overview of Second Language Acquisition. In J. Kearns, (Ed.), Translator and Interpreter Training: Ideas, Methods, Debates (pp. 19-38). London: Continuum Press.

Zannirato, A. (2007). What can language teachers learn from interpreter trainers? (and the other way round). In F. Boers, J. Darquennes and R. Temmerman (Eds.), Multilingualism and Applied Comparative Linguistics, Vol. 1: Comparative Considerations in Second and Foreign Language Instruction (pp. 69-88). London: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Zannirato, A. (2007). Review of Fundamental Aspects of Interpreter Education, by D. B. Sawyer, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 1:2, 312-315.

Zannirato, A. (2015) Colori d’Italia: testi e attività per corsi avanzati. Co-authored with P. Quadrini. Rome, Italy: Edilingua.