Elena Nuzzo graduated in Lettere from the University of Milan in 1999. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics in 2006 from the University of Verona. Since January 2016 she has been Associate Professor of Second language teaching at Roma Tre University, where her activity includes research, teaching and teacher training in the field of applied linguistics, with a specific interest in Italian as a second language. Her main research areas cover cross-cultural, intercultural and interlanguage pragmatics, and Task-Based Language Teaching. She is editor of the international journal Instructed Second Language Acquisition, vice-president of the Italian Association of Applied Linguistics, member of the scientific committee of the publishing series Studi AItLA and of the research group Pragmática (inter)linguística, cross-cultural e intercultural.