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Dalila Ayoun

  • Professor, French and Italian
  • Faculty Director, Hiring, Compliance and Faculty Relations
  • Professor, Linguistics
  • Professor, Second Language Acquisition / Teaching - GIDP
  • Member of the Graduate Faculty
Contact
  • (520) 621-3720
  • Modern Languages, Rm. 582
  • Tucson, AZ 85721
  • ayoun@arizona.edu
  • Bio
  • Interests
  • Courses
  • Scholarly Contributions

Biography

I teach French language as well as theoretical and applied linguistics courses. My research interests lie in the second language acquisition of morpho-syntax (tense-aspect-mood/modality, grammatical gender), theoretical and applied French linguistics from a generative/minimalist perspective. I also hold a courtesy appointment in the Linguistics department

Background: B.A. in English (Université de Nice); Certificate in Translation/ Interpretation (French, English, Spanish) and M.A. in International Studies (University of Nebraska at Kearney); Ph.D in French linguistics specializing in second language acquisition at the University of Florida. I was previously assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Degrees

  • Ph.D. French Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition
    • University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States

Work Experience

  • Université de Nantes (2017)
  • Université Paris Diderot (2016 - 2017)
  • University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (1996 - Ongoing)

Awards

  • College of Humanities Teaching & Outreach Grant
    • College of Humanities, UofA, Fall 2017
  • One month invitation
    • Bureau des relations internationales, Université Paris Diderot, Spring 2016
  • USPC (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité)
    • USPC, Spring 2016 (Award Finalist)
    • USPC (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité) and Université Paris Diderot, Spring 2016 (Award Finalist)

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Interests

Research

French applied linguistics, second language acquisition of morpho-syntax (e.g., tense, aspect, mood/modality, grammatical gender) from a generative perspective

Teaching

French language, theoretical and applied linguistics, second language acquisition, foreign language pedagogy, translation, interpretation

Courses

2025-26 Courses

  • French Linguistics
    ANTH 461A (Fall 2025)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2025)

2024-25 Courses

  • French Translation
    FREN 432 (Spring 2025)
  • French Translation
    FREN 532 (Spring 2025)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Fall 2024)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Fall 2024)

2022-23 Courses

  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2023)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2023)
  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Fall 2022)
  • Intro Fren Lang,Ling+Cul
    FREN 280 (Fall 2022)
  • Written Fren Cultr Contx
    FREN 320 (Fall 2022)

2021-22 Courses

  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Spring 2022)
  • French Translation
    FREN 432 (Spring 2022)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    ENGL 467 (Spring 2022)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2022)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2022)
  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Fall 2021)
  • French Linguistics
    ANTH 461A (Fall 2021)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2021)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 561A (Fall 2021)

2020-21 Courses

  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Spring 2021)
  • French Translation
    FREN 432 (Spring 2021)
  • French Translation
    FREN 532 (Spring 2021)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2021)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2021)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    LING 467 (Spring 2021)
  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Fall 2020)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2020)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 561A (Fall 2020)
  • Spoken Fren Cltrl Contxt
    FREN 310 (Fall 2020)

2019-20 Courses

  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Spring 2020)
  • Intro Fren Lang,Ling+Cul
    FREN 280 (Spring 2020)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2020)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2020)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2019)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 561A (Fall 2019)
  • French Translation
    FREN 432 (Fall 2019)
  • French Translation
    FREN 532 (Fall 2019)

2018-19 Courses

  • Independent Study
    FREN 599 (Spring 2019)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2019)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2019)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    LING 567 (Spring 2019)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    SLAT 567 (Spring 2019)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2018)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 561A (Fall 2018)
  • Independent Study
    FREN 599 (Fall 2018)

2017-18 Courses

  • Tops French Linguistics
    ENGL 567 (Spring 2018)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 467 (Spring 2018)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    FREN 567 (Spring 2018)
  • Tops French Linguistics
    SLAT 567 (Spring 2018)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 461A (Fall 2017)
  • French Linguistics
    FREN 561A (Fall 2017)

2015-16 Courses

  • Dissertation
    SLAT 920 (Spring 2016)
  • Intro Fren Lang,Ling+Cul
    FREN 280 (Spring 2016)
  • Thesis
    FREN 910 (Spring 2016)

Related Links

UA Course Catalog

Scholarly Contributions

Books

  • Ayoun, D. (2022). The acquisition of gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives.. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D., Celle, A., & Lansari, L. (2018). Tense, aspect, modality and evidentiality: cross-linguistic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
    More info
    Edited volume from a selection of the papers presented at the international conference we organized in Paris Diderot in the Fall 2016
  • Ayoun, D. (2015). The Acquisition of Present Tense, Temporality and Aspect. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D. (2015). The acquisition of the present. Amsterdam: John Benjamin's.

Chapters

  • Ayoun, D. (2024).

    Morphological variability in the L2 acquisition of French gender and number

    agreement: a longitudinal study. In The Oxford Handbook of the French Language(pp 658–684). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Ayoun, D. (2022). Introduction. Gender, geslag, Geschlecht, γένος, ਲਿੰਗ, 性別.. In The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives(pp 1-12). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D. (2022). Introduction. Gender, geslag, Geschlecht, γένος, ਲਿੰਗ, 性別. In The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives(pp 1-12). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D., & Maranzana, S. (2022).

    The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and number in Italian

    . In The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives,(pp 97–126). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Maranzana, S. (2022).

    The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and

    number in Italian. In The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives(pp 97-126). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D. (2019). The L2 acquisition of French tense, aspect and modality: refocusing on the input.. In Grammatical Representations and Processing in L2 Acquisition(pp 47-67). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Ayoun, D. (2019). The L2 acquisition of French tense, aspect and modality: refocusing on the input. In Grammatical Representations and Processing in L2 Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Ayoun, D., Celle, A., & Lansari, L. (2018). Introduction: gradients of TAM-E. In Tense, aspect, modality and evidentiality: cross-linguistic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D., & Gilbert, C. (2017). The expression of modality in English by Advanced Francophone learners. In Tense-Aspect-Modality in a Second Language. Contemporary perspectives(pp 181-209). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D. (2015). Conclusion and directions for future research. In The Acquisition of the Present(pp 335-340). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ayoun, D. (2015). There’s no time like the present: a longitudinal case study in L2 French acquisition. In The Acquisition of Present Tense, Temporality and Aspect. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Journals/Publications

  • Ayoun, D. (2020). A longitudinal study in the L2 acquisition of the French TAM system.. Languages, 5(4), n/a.
  • Ayoun, D., & Maranzana, S. (2020). Grammatical gender in Italian: a corpus study. Italica, 97(2), 306-333.
  • Ayoun, D. (2017). Grammatical gender assignment in French: dispelling the native speaker myth. Journal of French Language Studies.

Presentations

  • Ayoun, D. (2019, February). The L2 acquisition of French gender and agreement: a longitudinal study. GSO. Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
  • Ayoun, D. (2019, March). Gender in French: understanding and misunderstanding galore...so, should we just agree to disagree?. GSO Conference. Indiana University, Bloomington.
  • Ayoun, D. (2017, April). The expression of futurity by advanced Francophone EFL and ESL learners. Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. University of Southampton, UK.
  • Ayoun, D. (2017, February). “How do Francophone EFL and ESL learners express the future?”. Departmental colloquium. Sciences du Languages, Université de Nantes.
  • Ayoun, D. (2017, October). The development of a TAM system in the L2 acquisition of French: a longitudinal case study. Second Language Research Forum. Ohio State University.
  • Ayoun, D. (2017, Spring). Le genre grammatical en français et en italien: transparence ou opacité?. Centre de recherches Octogone-Lordat at Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès. Toulouse, France: Centre de recherches Octogone-Lordat.
  • Ayoun, D. (2018, June). Let’s agree to disagree: l’accord en genre chez les locuteurs natifs du français. Association of French Language Studies conference (international). Toulouse, France: AFLS.
  • Ayoun, D. (2018, June). The acquisition of English modal auxiliaries by advanced Francophone learners. Chronos International Conference. Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Chronos.
  • Ayoun, D. (2018, May). Back to basics: refocusing on the input in the L2 acquisition of French morphosyntax. Invited talk, Bilingualism Reading Group. University of Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.
  • Ayoun, D. (2018, May). The acquisition of English modal auxiliaries by advanced Francophone learners. Invited talk, Linguistic Circle, University of Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.
  • Ayoun, D., & Maranzana, S. (2017, October). The L2 acquisition of Italian grammatical gender and number by Anglophone learners. Second Language Research Forum. Ohio State University.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, August). Looking back, looking forward: grammatical gender in L2 and NS French. EUROSLA conference. Jyväskylä, Finland: EUROSLA.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, June). A longitudinal study in the L2 acquisition of French morphosyntax by English NSs, Spanish and French heritage speakers. Chronos conference. Université de Caen: CRISCO Université de Caen.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, June). Le passé simple et le subjonctif font de la résistance…le PQP prend le maquis. Association of French Language Studies conference. University of Belfast: AFLS.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, March). Le genre grammatical en français: particularités et singularités. LingLunch Colloquium. Université Paris Diderot: Department of Linguistics.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, May). Recentrage sur les DLPS: étude longitudinale sur l’acquisition de la morphosyntaxe en français L2. Journée d'étude sur le bilinguisme. Université Paris Diderot: Université Paris Diderot.
  • Ayoun, D. (2016, October). Shouldn’t the input matter? A longitudinal study in L2 morphosyntax. Invited talk. University of Reading.
  • Ayoun, D. (2015, June). Refocusing on the input: a longitudinal study in the acquisition of morphosyntax in L2 French. Annual conference AFLS. Caen, France: AFLS.
  • Ayoun, D. (2015, March). Le genre grammatical en français langue maternel: analyse diachronique. Annual AAAL conference. Toronto, Canada: AAAL.
  • Ayoun, D. (2014, March). The L2 acquisition of French grammatical gender and agreement: a longitudinal study. American Association of Applied Linguistics. Portland: AAAL.
  • Ayoun, D. (2014, Summer). The L2 acquisition of French morpho-syntax: a longitudinal study. Invited talk. York, England: University of York.
  • Gilbert, C. (2014, March). The expression of modality by advanced francophone EFL and ESL learners. SLAT Roundtable. University of Arizona: SLAT.
  • Gilbert, C. (2014, May). The expression of modality by advanced francophone EFL and ESL learners. Colloquium on the Expression of Temporality by L2 Learners of French and English. Montpellier, France: Université Montpellier 3.
  • Maranzana, S. (2014, March). Grammatical gender and agreement in Italian: a corpus study. SLAT Roundtable. University of Arizona: SLAT.

Poster Presentations

  • Ayoun, D. (2018, March). The L2 French acquisition of grammatical gender and phonology: a longitudinal study. American Association of Applied Linguistics international conference. Chicago: AAAL.
  • Ayoun, D., & Maranzana, S. (2016, September). Grammatical gender and agreement in Italian: a corpus study. American Association for Corpus Linguistics Conference. Iowa State University: Iowa State University.

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