Jeffrey Steele

Born and raised in Winnipeg, I have been interested in language, particularly French, from a young age. I hold a BA (University of Manitoba) in French, an MA (Queen’s University) in French linguistics, and a PhD (McGill University) in Linguistics. I am also a musician (ARCT, Premier prix – Conservatoire de Paris) and, on occasion, teach a course on music & language.

Refereed publications

A. Articles

In press. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Synchronic evidence of a diachronic change: voicing and duration in French and Spanish stop-liquid clusters. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 56(2). 31pp.

2008. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Integrating articulatory constraints in models of L2 phonological acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29(1), 1-46.

2007. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Acquiring /R/ in context. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29(3), 381-406.

2003. Goad, H., White, L. & Steele, J. Missing inflection in L2 acquisition: Defective syntax or L1-constrained prosodic representation? Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 48(3/4), 243-263.

1997. Les études de performance de L2 en grammaire générative: implications pour l’enseignement. Revue Frontenac, 13, 89-103.

B. Books and/or Chapters

2007. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French. In P. Prieto, M. J. Solé & J. Mascaró (Eds.), Segmental and prosodic issues in Romance linguistics (109-129). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2006. Steele, J. & Brousseau, A.-M. Parallels in process: Comparing creole and second language phonologies. In C. Lefebvre, C. Jourdain & L. White (Eds.), L2 acquisition and creole genesis: dialogues (331-352). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2006. A representational licensing-based account of asymmetries in the L2 acquisition of place. In R. Slabakova, S.A. Montrul & P. Prévost (Eds.), Inquiries in linguistic development in honor of Lydia White (189-211). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2006. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Native-like attainment in the L2 acquisition of Spanish stop-liquid clusters. In C. A. Klee & T. L. Face (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (59-73). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

2005. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J.. Phonetically-driven epenthesis asymmetries in French and Spanish obstruent-liquid clusters. In R. S. Gess & E.J. Rubin (Eds.), Theoretical and experimental approaches to Romance linguistics (77-96). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

2002. Steele, J. & Auger, J. A constraint-based analysis of intraspeaker variation: Vocalic epenthesis in Vimeu Picard. In T. Satterfield, C. Tortora & D. Cresti (Eds.), Current issues in Romance languages (317-335). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2000. Auger, J. & Steele, J. Vowel epenthesis in Vimeu Picard: A preliminary investigation. In Selected papers from New Ways to Analyze Variation (NWAVE). University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 6(2): 1-15.

C. Books edited

2008. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Selected proceedings of the 3^rd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, v+181pp.

Non-Refereed Publications

A. Articles

2005. Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. Liquid asymmetries in French and Spanish. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 24, 1-14.

2001. Ultimate attainment in L2 prosodic phonology. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 15(2), 105-119.

B. Books and/or Chapters

2005. Position-sensitive licensing asymmetries and developmental paths in L2 acquisition. In L. Dekydtspotter & R. Sprouse (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition conference (GASLA 2004) (226-237). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

2003. Goad, H., White, L. & Steele, J. Missing surface inflection in L2 acquisition: A prosodic account. In B. Beachley, A. Brown & F. Conlin (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Boston University conference on language development (264-275). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

2002. L2 learners’ modification of target language syllable structure: Prosodic licensing effects in interlanguage phonology. In A. James & J. Leather (Eds.), New Sounds 2000: Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on the acquisition of second-language speech (315-324). Klagenfurt, Austria: University of Klagenfurt, pp. 315-324.

2001. Phonetic cues to phonological acquisition: Evidence from L2 syllabification. In A. H.-J. Do, L. Dominguez & A. Johansen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Boston University conference on language development (732-743). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

2001. English pronunciation for second language learners. Montréal: École de langues modernes, Université du Québec à Montréal. 206pp.

1997. TOEFL, TWE & TSE preparation course. Vancouver: Medical Recruiters International Canada. 155pp.

C. Other

2010. Review of French, L. M. 2006. Phonological Working Memory and Second Language Acquisition: A Developmental Study of Francophone Children Learning English in Quebec (192pp). University of Toronto Quarterly, 79(1), 412-413.

2009. Review of Bohn, O.-S. & Munro, M.J. (Eds.). 2007. Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning: In honor of James Emil Flege (408pp). University of Toronto Quarterly, 78(1), 151-153.

2004. University of Toronto Romance phonetics database. http://r1.chass.utoronto.ca/rpd/ (w/ L. Colantoni)

2004. Review of Féry, C. & R. van de Vijver (Eds.), The syllable in optimality theory (415pp). Linguist List (http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3072.html).

Supervised Thesis

PHD in progress

• Shahrzad Mirzaei. L’acquisition de l’accent tonique chez les apprenants persanophones du français L2. Études françaises.
• Hilary Walton.  Une analyse de la compétence phonético-phonologique des apprenants issus de programmes d’immersion française. Études françaises.
• Lulu Li. The (un)learning of wh- in situ interrogatives by L1 Mandarin speakers of French. Études françaises.
• Meï-Lan Mamode. Les effets de l’entraînenent perceptuel sur la perception du rythme en français L2. Études françaises.
• Caitlin Gaffney. The effect of intelligence, personality traits, and L1 influency on L2 spoken fluency. Études françaises.
• Stephanie Côté. The independent and combined effects of foreign language anxiety and working memory capacity on the acquisition of grammatical gender agreement in L2 French. Études françaises.
• Matthew Patience. Articulatory difficulty in L2 Spanish. Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Co-Supervisor: Laura Colantoni.

PHD completed

• Simona Sunara 2018. Effets de l’instruction FF et du feedback correctif sur l’accentuation en français L2. Études françaises.

MA in progress

MA completed

- Caroline Mekhaeil. La nature des influences translinguistiques sur l’acquisition des prépositions en français langue seconde. Études françaises.

- Rachel Burns. L’acquisition des compléments objets nuls chez les apprenants du français L2. Études françaises.

- Catherine Giannikopolous. 2015. La structuration grammaticale de l’alternance codique auprès de participants bilingues selon leurs compétences langagières. Études françaises.

- Lulu Li. 2014. La production des voyelles françaises nouvelles et similaires /ø,i,y/ par des apprenantes L3 sinophones avancées au Canada. Études françaises.

- Caitlin Gaffney. 2013. L’acquisition de la sous-catégorisation verbale chez les apprenants L2 avancés: Le cas des verbes à complements introduits par à et de. Études françaises.

- Golnesa Amani. 2013. Repérer la source d’influence translinguistique dans les productions d’occlusives orales espagnoles (L3) chez des apprenants bilingues anglais-français. Études françaises.

- Ewa Gambal. 2011. Transfer in second language perception and production of obstruent coda voicing by adult Polish-speaking learners of English. Department of Linguistics.

- Alysia Vasiliou. 2010. La présence et l’absence des pronoms objets directs et indirects dans le parler de 20 étudiants de français intensif. Études françaises.

- Simona Sunara. 2008. The acquisition of stress placement in L3 French by native Czech speakers. Études françaises.

- Allison Beckett. 2008. Acquérir une prononciation authentique en français L2: Étude des liaisons et des voyelles nasales chez les apprenants anglophones. Études françaises.

- Janna Marsden. 2006. Une étude expérimentale de l’acquisition non native du genre grammatical en espagnol: le rôle du transfert, de la fréquence lexicale, du marquage et des indices pour le genre. Études françaises.

- Adriana Scali. 2003. L’acquisition de la négation en français L2. Études françaises, Co-supervisor: Yves Roberge.

BA completed

- Lulu Li. 2013. Étude comparative de la perception et de la production des voyelles françaises /u, y, ø/ par un apprenant anglophone et une apprenante sinophone. Études françaises.

- Daniel James. 2007. L’acquisition du /R/ français par des apprenants hébreuphones. Études françaises.