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Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

Dr Dora Alexopoulou

Photo of Dora Alexopoulou
Position(s): 
Associate Professor in First and Second Language Acquisition and Language Typology
PI of EF Lab on Applied Language Learning
Alan Turing Fellow (2021-2023) Member of Humanities and Data Science Special Interest Group
Editor of Languages, Society and Policy
Co-Founder of the º£½ÇÉçÇø Bilingualism Network
Member of Marie Curie Alumni Association
Department/Section: 
Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics
Contact details: 
Telephone number: 
+44 (0)1223 767392
College: 
Location: 

DTAL 3rd Floor, 9 West Road º£½ÇÉçÇø Sidgwick Avenue CAMBRIDGE, CB3 9DA

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About: 

After a BA in Greek philology at the University of Athens, Dr Alexopoulou went to Edinburgh to obtain an MSc in Natural Language and Speech Processing and then a PhD in Linguistics. Before coming to º£½ÇÉçÇø, she worked at the Universities of Edinburgh and York and held an Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Lille III, France.

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Teaching interests: 

ÌýLanguage Typology and Cognition, Second Language Acquisition, Corpus Linguistics

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Research interests: 

Dr Alexopoulou is interested in natural language syntax, as a manifestation of the human cognitive capacity for language, and in Ìýthe way syntax shapes language learning. Her research looks at variation and diversity across languages andÌýcrosslinguistic influence in second language learning. One central question is ÌýÌýhowÌýthe similarityÌý between a learner’s mother tongue and their second language Ìýinfluences the way they process and interpret it, how it impacts on their learning, even predicting proficiency scores in exams.Ìý Her practical goal is to develop learning methods and tools that can address learning challenges and improve outcomes.ÌýÌýIn this context she leads an research partnership withÌý .ÌýShe approaches questions on language typology and cognitionÌýthrough Chomsky’s generative syntax and a combination of experimental and corpus data, in particular big data from online foreign language learning platforms.

Current research topics:Ìýlanguage typology and cognition, L2 learnability, natural language processing for learner data, input processing instruction, child L2 acquisition, linguistic complexity in L2 development, crosslinguistic influence onÌý semantic processing.

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Recent research projects: 

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Crosslinguistic influence in L2 semantic word processing; the role of L1-L2 phonological distance, (with FrancescaÌý Branzi PI and Yang Cheng Co-I), º£½ÇÉçÇø Language Sciences Incubator Fund.

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Published works: 
  • Oksuz, D. C., Derkach, K., Alexopoulou, T., & Tsimpli, I. M. (2025, February 26). The influence of L1 typology on the acquisition of the L2 English article: A large-scale corpus study.ÌýOSF Preprints.Ìý

  • Ntalli, A., Alexopoulou, T., Hendriks, H., & Tsimpli, I. M. (2025). The acquisition of verbal morphology by child classroom EFL learners in Russia and China: The effect of age and L1.ÌýJournal of Child Language, 1–28.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S030500092500008X

  • Sato, M., Thorne, S. L., Michel, M., Alexopoulou, T., & Hellermann, J. (2025). Language, people, classrooms, world: Blending disparate theories for united language education practices.ÌýThe Modern Language Journal, 109, 15–38.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12976

  • Michel, M., Atkinson, D., Ribeiro, A. C., Alexopoulou, T., Cappellini, M., Eskildsen, S. W., Gao, X., Hellermann, J., Kayi-Aydar, H., Lowie, W., Mejía-Laguna, J. A., Ortega, L., Pekarek Doehler, S., Sasaki, M., Sato, M., Thorne, S. L., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Forging common ground in second language acquisition and teaching: A combined synergy statement.ÌýThe Modern Language Journal, 109, 90–103.Ìý

  • Shatz, I., Murakami, A., & Alexopoulou, T. (2024). The potential influence of crosslinguistic lexical similarity on lexical diversity in L2 English writing.ÌýCorpora, 19(2), 131–156.Ìý

  • Shatz, I., Alexopoulou, T., & Murakami, A. (2023). Examining the potential influence of crosslinguistic lexical similarity on word-choice transfer in L2 English.ÌýPLOS ONE, 18(2), e0281137.Ìý

  • Alexopoulou, T., Chen, X., & Tsimpli, I. M. (under review). Syntactic distance and learnability in L2 English relative clauses.

  • Branzi, F., Chang, Y., Gaele, C., & Alexopoulou, T. (2021). The impact of L2 proficiency on cross-language influence during L2 word processing.Ìýº£½ÇÉçÇø Open Engage.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2021-fv5gt-v2

  • Alexopoulou, T. (2021). How our linguistic mind guides language learning.ÌýTEDxº£½ÇÉçÇøUniversity, March 2021.

  • Alexopoulou, T., Murakami, A., & Meurers, D. (in press). Big data and second language acquisition: Advances in methodology and analysis. In M. Gonzalez-Lloret & N. Ziegler (Eds.),ÌýHandbook of SLA and Technology. Routledge.

  • Alexopoulou, T. (2020). Grammatical errors: What can we do about them?ÌýLanguages, Society and Policy.Ìý

  • Huang, Y., Murakami, A., Alexopoulou, T., & Korhonen, A. (2020). Subcategorization frame identification for learner English.ÌýInternational Journal of Corpus Linguistics.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18097.hua

  • Chen, X., Alexopoulou, T., & Tsimpli, M. I. (2020). Automatic extraction of subordinate clauses and its application in second language acquisition research.ÌýBehavior Research Methods.Ìý

  • Ballier, N., Canu, S., Petitjean, C., Gasso, G., Balhana, C., Alexopoulou, T., & Gaillat, T. (2020). Machine learning for learners’ English: A plea for creating learner data challenges. pp. 72–103.

  • Michel, M., Murakami, A., Alexopoulou, T., & Meurers, D. (2019). Effects of task type on morphosyntactic complexity across proficiency: Evidence from a large learner corpus of A1 to C2 writings.ÌýInstructed Second Language Acquisition, 3, 26–33.

  • Alexopoulou, T., & Folli, R. (2019). Topic strategies and the syntax of nominal arguments in Italian and Greek.ÌýLinguistic Inquiry, 50(3), 439–486.

  • Huang, Y., Murakami, A., Alexopoulou, T., & Korhonen, A. (2018). Dependency parsing of learner English.ÌýInternational Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 1, 28–54.

  • Alexopoulou, T., Michel, M., Murakami, A., & Meurers, D. (2017). Task effects on linguistic complexity and accuracy: A large-scale learner corpus analysis employing natural language processing techniques.ÌýLanguage Learning, Special Issue.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12232

  • Murakami, A., & Alexopoulou, T. (2016). Longitudinal L2 development of the English article in individual learners. InÌýProceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 1050–1055.

  • Murakami, A., & Alexopoulou, T. (2015). L1 influence on the acquisition order of English grammatical morphemes: A learner corpus study.ÌýStudies in Second Language Acquisition,ÌýRecipient of the Albert Valdman Award for Outstanding Publication in SSLA 2016.

  • Alexopoulou, T., Geertzen, J., Korhonen, A., & Meurers, D. (2015). Exploring big educational learner corpora for SLA research: Perspectives from relative clauses.ÌýInternational Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 1(1), 96–129.Ìýhttps://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.1.1.04ale

  • Alexopoulou, T., & Keller, F. (2013). What vs. who and which: Kind-denoting fillers and the complexity of whether-islands. In N. Hornstein et al. (Eds.),ÌýExperimental Syntax and Island EffectsÌý(pp. 310–340). CUP.

  • Alexopoulou, T., Yannakoudakis, H., & Salamoura, A. (2013). Classifying intermediate learner English: A data-driven approach to learner corpora. InÌýCorpora and Language in UseÌý(pp. 11–23).

  • Geertzen, J., Alexopoulou, T., & Korhonen, A. (2013). Automatic linguistic annotation of large-scale L2 databases: The EF-º£½ÇÉçÇø Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT). InÌýProceedings of the 31st Second Language Research Forum (SLRF)Ìý(pp. 1–15).

  • Alexopoulou, T., & Keller, F. (2007). Locality, cyclicity, and resumption: At the interface between grammar and the human parser.ÌýLanguage, 83(1), 110–160.

  • Alexopoulou, T. (2006). Resumption in relative clauses.ÌýNatural Language and Linguistic Theory, 24(1), 57–111.

  • Alexopoulou, T., & Kolliakou, D. (2002). On linkhood, topicalisation and clitic left dislocation.ÌýJournal of Linguistics, 38(2), 193–245.

  • Keller, F., & Alexopoulou, T. (2001). Phonology competes with syntax: Experimental evidence for the interaction of word order and accent placement in the realisation of information structure.ÌýCognition, 79, 301–372.

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