Speaking Atlas of French Varieties in Canada
French-speaking participants across Canada are invited to record their reading of a short story, tell us about the role the French language plays in their lives, upload these audio files to our webpage, and fill out a demographic questionnaire. These files will be used to create the sound map and people will be able to click on different cities, towns and villages in Canada to hear the local French accents. (This project is funded by UBC Language Sciences Institute, SSHRC Explore Grant, UBC Arts Undergraduate Research Awards, and UBC Open Educational Innovation Grant.)
If you are Canadian and a native speaker of French, you can participate here.
To use the Speaking Atlas, click here.
French-speaking youth of Vancouver
The goal of this project is to investigate how the youth is shaping the variety of French spoken in Vancouver. By highlighting the linguistic features and practices of French-speaking youth, we aim to raise awareness of the key role they play in the vitality of the Francophone (and multilingual) community in British Columbia. Ultimately, this research will enhance our understanding of the variety of French spoken in Vancouver and how the French-speaking youth of Vancouver experience and define their feelings of inclusion in the Francophonie. (This project is funded by an Insight Development Grant from SSHRC.)
The use of anglicisms in Quebec French
This project explores variation in the use of English-origin nonce borrowings in Quebec French. These lexical borrowings are usually grammatically integrated to the receiving language, for example in il va crasher and elle m’a ghosté in Quebec French. However, a new lexical insertion strategy for English-origin verbs has been observed in the past few years: Verbal borrowings can lack overt morphological integration ; il va crash and elle m’a ghost. This project examines this innovative use of verbal borrowings in Quebec French from a variationist perspective by focusing on 1) possible correlations between speakers and their evaluation of this innovative use, and 2) the social factors that constrain this new practice. Results from quantitative analyses based on 675 participants indicate that young Quebecers from Montreal with a high level of proficiency in English use this innovative form the most and evaluate it more positively. (This project is funded by the SSHRC Explore Grant.)
Language attitudes and their social consequences in diverse contexts
This project is a collaboration with Amanda Cardoso (PI), Marie-Eve Bouchard, Molly Babel, and Erez Levon. Given the harmful long-term effects of biases resulting from language attitudes towards marginalised populations across languages, it is essential to create a platform where language attitudes researchers working in diverse contexts can share research findings and interventions with positive outcomes, where appropriate. This is the main goal of the research project. In 2022-2023, a series of activities will be organised for scholars, students, and the public in order to raise awareness and combat the unequal outcomes that disproportionately affect marginalised individuals and groups. (This project is funded by UBC Language Sciences Institute, SSHRC Explore Grant, UBC WorkLearn, and Canadian Linguistic Association.)
Language attitudes among learners of French in higher education
Language is a powerful social force that does more than merely communicate content. Language learners can show preference for certain varieties over others due to linguistic stereotyping and awareness that accents can lead to an array of social and professional disadvantages. This study explores the hierarchisation of different varieties of French within Canada and the interplay of variety and race. (This project is funded by UBC Hampton Fund Research Grant.)