Dr Nadia Mifka-Profozic

Profile

Career

I am currently a Honorary Fellow in the Department of Education, having retired as a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in June 2025.

I joined the Department in 2014, after holding the post of a Lecturer/Assistant Professor and Chair of Applied Linguistics and English Language at the University of Zadar (Croatia). Prior to that, I taught at the University of Auckland (Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics), and at high schools in New Zealand as a fully licensed high school teacher.

I hold a PhD in Applied Linguistics (Language Learning and Teaching) from the University of Auckland (2012), where I also obtained a Masters in TESOL (2006), a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (2003), and a Cambridge CELTA (2002). My BA was in Comparative Literature and English Language and Literature from the University of Zagreb (Croatia). Prior to embarking on my teaching and research career I was a journalist and editor in a daily paper in Croatia, working in the sections of arts and culture.

Departmental roles

I was chair of the Education Ethics Committee from 2017 to 2020, and a member of the University Standing Academic Misconduct Panel (STAMP) from 2015 to 2019.

Research

Overview

My research has been in the area of second language acquisition (SLA) with a view to language pedagogy. I am interested in exploring the possibilities and applications of SLA research findings in language teaching, especially in foreign language classroom contexts.

My particular interest has been in the role of input and interaction, i. e. how these variables contribute to language learning in classroom settings and how they interplay with learner characteristics, language processing and the specifics of the target language. To that end I investigated the relationship between motivation and noticing in collaborative tasks, and the effects of corrective feedback on the acquisition of particular language targets (for example, past aspectual distinctions in French as a foreign language and past tense in English as a foreign language). I used self-paced reading tasks to examine how L2 learners process modal auxiliary verbs in English.

Further to this I have been interested in investigating the role of cognitive factors in language learning (language aptitude, analytic ability and working memory) and their relationships or dependency on the type of task in terms of cognitive demands posed to language learners. All of my research has been conducted within the framework of task-based language teaching (TBLT).

Research group(s)

• Centre for Advanced Studies in Language and Education (CASLE)

Supervision

Over the past ten years I supervised six PhD theses to completion and was a Thesis Advisory Panel member for nine PhD theses in the Education Department.

I supervised more than sixty MA dissertations and twenty UG dissertations.

Teaching

Other teaching

During the years 2014 to 2025 I was teaching and leading on a range of postgraduate modules in language studies and education: English Linguistics: Grammar/Syntax and Semantics, Research Methods in Education, Research methods in Language Education, Theories of Learning and Development, Motivation in Education, TESOL Methods, Contemporary Issues in Teaching.

Publications

Selected publications

Mifka-Profozic, N., O’Reilly, D., & Lovrovic, L. (2023). Unpacking L2 explicit linguistic knowledge and online processing of the English modals may and can: A comparison of acceptability judgments and self-paced reading. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263123000475.

Mifka-Profozic, N., Behney, J., Gass, S. M., Macis, M., Chiuchiù, G., & Bovolenta, G. (2023). Effects of form‐focused practice and feedback: A multisite replication study of Yang and Lyster (2010). Language Learning, 73 (4), 1164–1210. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12623.

Mifka-Profozic, N. (2023). Interactive alignment in L2 learning: The link between social interaction and psycholinguistic phenomena. Education Sciences 13, 792. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080792

Mifka-Profozic, N., O'Reilly, D. and Guo, J. 2020. Sensitivity to syntactic violation and semantic ambiguity in English modal verbs: a self-paced reading study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(5), 1017-1043. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716420000338

Mifka-Profozic, N. 2020. Recasts versus clarification requests: the relevance of linguistic target, proficiency, and communicative ability. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2019-0149

Mifka-Profozic, N. 2017. Processing epistemic modality in a second language: a self-paced reading study. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 55(3), 245-264. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2017-0107

Mifka-Profozic, N. 2015. Effects of corrective feedback on L2 acquisition of tense-aspect verbal morphology. Linguistics, Interaction and Acquisition (LIA)/Acquísítíon et Interactíon en Langue Étrangère, 6(1), 149-180. https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.6.1.05mif

Mifka-Profozic, N. 2014. Effectiveness of implicit negative feedback in a foreign language classroom: the role of input, frequency and saliency. EUROSLA Yearbook, 14(1), 111-142. https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.14.05mif

Mifka-Profozic, N. 2014. Differential role of language analytic ability in two distinct learning conditions. In J. Connor-Linton, & L. W. Amoroso (Eds.), Measured Language: Quantitative Studies of Acquisition, Assessment, and Variation (pp. 141-155). GURT. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.

Ellis, R. and Mifka-Profozic, N. 2013. Recasts, Uptake, and Noticing. In J. M. Bergsleithner, S. N. Frota, & J. K. Yoshioka (Eds.), Noticing and Second Language Acquisition: Studies in Honor of Richard Schmidt (pp. 61-80). National Foreign Language Resource Center, University Of Hawai'i at Manoa.

External activities

Overview

I am a member of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA) and the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL).

I was external examiner for the modules MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL at the University of Greenwich from 2021 to 2025.

I have been a reviewer for the journals Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Memory and Cognition, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Language Cognition and Neuroscience, Language Teaching Research, Languages, System, Routledge books and Springer Nature.

Since 2010 to date I have regularly presented at international conferences worldwide.