French Language Studies Co-ordinator

Room: Arts 1.42
Office hours: Tues 12-1pm and Thurs 2-3pm (during term time)
Tel: 0207 7882 2859
Email: e.petit@qmul.ac.uk

Areas of Specialisation

Sociolinguistics, especially language and gender, language and culture, language and identity, spoken language in general (in particular discourse structures and conversation analysis) and the ethnography of communication. French linguistics: French phonetics, the French writing system, regional and social varieties of spoken French, language planning and policy in France, French as a national language, supranational organisations (la Francophonie). Strong interest in: second language acquisition, adult language learning, the relationships between Language teaching/learning and the new media and technologies, E-learning, blended learning.

Background

I am a graduate of the University of Lille III, Nord, France. I have a Licence (BA equivalent) in English Language, Literature & Civilisation with FLE (Teaching of French as a Foreign Language) and a Maîtrise (MA equivalent) in Linguistics (Phonetics; Sociolinguistics; Language, Identity & Social Culture; Experimental Methods in Speech & Language Research). I have done my PhD here at QMUL. I studied Sociolinguistics, examined sex differences in communicative competence in the French language and studied conversational strategies in single-sex friendship groups.

I have developed my academic career at the Universities of Leeds (as a French Lectrice from 1994 to 1995), Royal Holloway University of London (as a French Language Assistant from 1995 to 1999 and as a Visiting Lecturer from 2004 to 2008), King's College London (as a French Language Tutor from 1998 to 2003) and Queen Mary University of London (as a French language Instructor from 1999 to 2009 and as the French Language Studies co-ordinator since 2009). I've also been an External Examiner on the French BA External Programme ran by Royal Holloway University of London and Senate House since 2004 as well as on the French Language Programme which operates within the Humanities Department at Imperial College since 2011.

Sample publications

• (2005). Topics of Conversation and Gender in French Single-Sex Friendship Groups. Queen Mary's Occasional Papers Advancing Linguistics #2.
• (2006). Compliments and Gender in French Single-Sex Friendship Groups. Queen Mary's Occasional Papers Advancing Linguistics #7.

Research

My thesis's title is: 'Conversational Strategies in French single-sex friendship groups: the Monteil Study'. This is a sociolinguistic ethnographic study of language use in single-sex friendship groups. It analyses the informal conversations of four groups of French speakers: two all female and two all male, with one group of older speakers and one group of younger speakers in each case. Both a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the natural friendship groups under scrutiny were carried out using a combination of Social Network and Community of Practice approaches. Group Culture Adherence Scores were also designed. The linguistic analysis focuses on the conversational behaviour of both men and women and in particular, on the unfolding of conversation for both sexes: smooth and unmarked topic shifts, overlaps, interruptions, simultaneous speech and latching were all examined, together with topics of conversation, compliments and complimentary remarks, laughter. The data reveal that the male and female speakers drew on the same linguistic resources, but sometimes used them differently. There seemed to be more similarities than differences between the male and female groups and this conclusion illustrates why it is important not to over-generalise or to dichotomise. The complex interaction of different social phenomena such as setting, ethnicity, class, social role, cultural identity, subculture and power relations is not to be ignored nor underestimated. The study of language and gender must be part of a more general study of relations between language and social meaning. Therefore what is needed is a much better understanding of both gender, as a social attribute and how social meaning like gender are expressed in different societies and cultures. I regularly take part in research seminars and conferences on Linguistics and Pedagogy in the UK and abroad.

Modules Taught in 2010-2011

At undergraduate level:

• FRE 403 Translation into French (sem 2)
• FRE 411 French I Grammar (sem 2)
• FRE 239 French II Advanced Speaking (all year)
• FRE 452 French III Translation into French (sem 2)
• FRE303 French Proficiency (all year)
• COM603 Digital Literacy and Intercultural communication (sem 2)

Modules taught previously

At undergraduate level:

• Introductory French Part I and II (Ab Initio Programme Level 4)
• French Intensive (Ab Initio Programme Level 5)
• French I
• French for Law Undergraduates I
• French for Law Undergraduates II
• French II
• French III
• French Foundations (Linguistics component)
• French Phonetics and Phonology
• The Sociolinguistics of French

At postgraduate level:

• I contributed to the Language, Gender and Power Module of the MA in Language, Society and Change in Europe by taking on several sessions on the French language and the question of gender, address forms in French and other European languages and slang and other in-group languages in Europe.
• I also contributed to the Research Methods in Linguistics Module of the MA in Language, Variation and Change by conducting several practical sessions on research methodology introducing sociological tools such as Group Culture Adherence Scores and Sociometric Diagrams, statistical analysis and in particular scaling methods (the Guttman scale), looking at how to carry out a corpus- based study and how to present findings efficiently.
• Together with several colleagues in the School and under the supervision of Dr Falco Pfalzgraf, I’m currently developing an MA in Language Teaching which should be running from September 2012.