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Professor Leigh Oakes

Leigh

Professor of French and Linguistics

Email: l.oakes@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 8319
Room Number: Arts One 1.05A

Profile

Originally from Adelaide, Australia, I completed my BA at the University of Melbourne, majoring in French, Swedish and Linguistics. My PhD, also from the University of Melbourne, was on language and national identity in France and Sweden. Thanks to a scholarship from the Swedish Institute, I spent 18 months at the Centre for Research on Bilingualism at Stockholm University as part of my PhD. Since I began at Queen Mary in January 2000, I have developed a broader expertise in language policy and planning (LPP), continuing to work on France and Sweden, but focusing now especially on Quebec. In recent years, I have become particularly interested in the linguistic justice debate in political theory and philosophy and have been involved in promoting the emerging interdisciplinary field of ‘normative language policy’.

Professional activities:

Teaching

  • FRE6200 Language and Society in the French-Speaking World (level 6)
  • FRE5201 The Sounds of French (level 5)
  • SML/COM4006 Culture and Language (linguistics block) (level 4)
  • FRE4200 French 1 (level 4)

Research

Research Interests:

Language policy and planning; language and nationalism/national identity (especially in France, Québec and Sweden); language attitudes and ideologies; French sociolinguistics

Current projects

The Ethics of Linguistic Integration (ELI)

In an age of increased immigration, learning the language of the host community is commonly portrayed as the key to successful integration. However, little attention has been devoted to the practical and moral implications of linguistic integration for newcomers and their host societies, including in settings where more than one language can serve as a language of integration. Funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, the project aims to fill this gap by offering the first systematic interdisciplinary study of the ethics of linguistic integration. Fruitfully combining insights and methods from applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and normative political theory, it will offer a nuanced and grounded form of ethical analysis that considers the multifaceted nature of policies, experiences and perspectives on linguistic integration in England, Quebec and Wales.

Publications

Books

Oakes, L. & Peled, Y. (2018). Normative Language Policy: Ethics, Politics, Principles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oakes, L. & Warren, J. (2009). Langue, citoyenneté et identité au Québec. Ste-Foy: Les Presses de l'Université Laval. (Translation of title below)

Oakes, L. & Warren, J. (2007). Language, Citizenship and Identity in Quebec. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Winner of the 2008 Pierre Savard prize (category: book in English or French) awarded by the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS).)

Lockerbie, I. Molinaro, I., Larose, K. & Oakes, L. (2005). French as the Common Language in Québec: History, Debates and Positions. (New Perspectives in Québec Studies 2). Montréal: Éditions Nota bene.

Oakes, L. (2001). Language and National Identity: Comparing France and Sweden. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Edited volumes and special issues

Wide, C., Norrby, C. & Oakes, L. (eds.) (2021). Neue Perspektiven auf Plurizentrizität / New perspectives on pluricentricity / Nouvelles perspectives sur la pluricentricité. (Sociolinguistica 35).

Articles and book chapters

Oakes, L. (forthcoming). Normative language policy: a new interdisciplinary framework for LPP research. In J. Lo Bianco and A. Lundberg (eds.) Research in Language Policy and Language Planning. London: Bloomsbury.

Oakes, L. (2024). The historical development of language policy and planning. In M. Gazzola, F. Grin, L. Cardinal & K. Heugh (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning. Abingdon: Routledge, 35-48.

Howard, M. & Oakes, L. (2024). Motivation for LOTE learning: a cross-country comparison of university learners of French. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 45(2): 427-443.

Oakes, L. & Howard, M. (2022). Learning French as a foreign language in a globalised world: an empirical critique of the L2 Motivational Self System. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 25(1): 166-182.

Oakes, L. & Peled, Y. (2021). Pluricentric linguistic justice in Quebec: an attitudinal study of the politics of norm setting in French. Language Problems and Language Planning 45(3): 331-356.

Oakes, L. (2021). Pluricentric linguistic justice: a new ethics-based approach to pluricentricity in French and other languages. Sociolinguistica 35, 49-71.

Oakes, L. (2017) Normative language policy and minority language rights: rethinking the case of regional languages in France. Language Policy 16(4): 365-384.

Oakes, L. (2016). Droits et obligations linguistiques au Québec: apports d’une approche éthique. In G. Potriquet, D. Huck & C. Truchot (eds). « Droits linguistiques » et « droits à la langue ». Identification d’un objet d’étude et construction d’une approche. Limoges: Lambert-Lucas, 179-188.

Oakes, L. (2013). Foreign language learning in a 'monoglot culture': Motivational variables amongst students of French and Spanish at an English university. System 41(1): 178-191.

Oakes, L. (2013). Beyond diglossia? Language attitudes and identity in Reunion. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 34(1): 30-45.

Oakes, L. (2011). Regional languages, the European Charter and Republican values in France today. In C. Norrby & J. Hajek (eds.) Uniformity and Diversity in Language Policy: Global Perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 68-85.

Warren, J. & Oakes, L. (2011). Language policy and citizenship in Quebec: French as a force for unity in a diverse society? In C. Norrby & J. Hajek (eds.) Uniformity and Diversity in Language Policy: Global Perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 7-21.

Oakes, L. (2011). Promoting language rights as fundamental individual rights: France as a model? French Politics 9 (1): 50-68.

Oakes, L. (2010). Lambs to the slaughter? Young francophones and the role of English in Quebec today. Multilingua 29 (3-4): 265-288.

Oakes, L. (2008). Language planning and policy in Quebec. In D. Ayoun (ed.) Studies in French Applied Linguistics. (Language Learning and Language Teaching 21). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 345-385.

Oakes, L. (2007). Whose French? Language attitudes and linguistic insecurity in Québec. In M. Howard (ed.) Language Issues in Canada: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 64-85.

Linn, A. & Oakes, L. (2007) Language policies for a global era: the changing face of language politics in Scandinavia. In C. Fandrych and R. Salverda (ed.) Standard, Variation und Sprachwandel in germanischen Sprachen/Standard, Variation and Language Change in Germanic Languages. (Studien zur deutschen Sprache 41). Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 59-90.

Oakes, L. (2006). Le défi de l’ethnicité: modèles de nation et politique linguistique au Québec et ailleurs. In P. Georgeault and M. Pagé (eds) Le français, langue de la diversité québécoise.(Débats) Montréal: Québec Amérique, 107-129.

Oakes, L. (2005). From internationalisation to globalisation: Language and the nationalist revival in Sweden. Language Problems and Language Planning 29 (2): 151-176.

Oakes, L. (2004) Le français comme 'langue publique commune' au Québec. Globe: Revue internationale d'études québécoises 7(2): 155-176.

Oakes, L. (2004). French - a language for everyone in Québec? Nations and Nationalism 10 (4): 539-558.

Oakes, L. (2004). Language, Identity and Globalisation in Sweden. In L. R. N. Ashley and W. H. Finke (eds.), Language and Identity: Selected Papers (from the American Society of Geolinguistics International Conference, October 2-5, 2002). New York: Cummings and Hathaway, 7-20

Oakes, L. (2002). Multilingualism in Europe: An effective French identity strategy? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development23 (5): 371-387.

Oakes, L. (2002). Phonostylistique des annonceurs de la radio: Etude prosodique de textes radiophoniques. Journal of French Language Studies 12 (3): 279-306.

Other publications

Darquennes, J., Oakes, L. & Riehl, C. (2022). Sociolinguistica: past, present and future. Sociolinguistica 36 (1-2): 1-7.

Wide, C., Norrby, C. & Oakes, L. (2021). New perspectives on pluricentricity. Sociolinguistica 35: 1-7.

Oakes, L. & Howard, M. (2019). Foreign language motivation in a globalised world: the case of languages other than English (LOTEs). In P. Maguire (ed.) Foreign Language Learning and Ireland’s Languages Connect Strategy. Reflections following a symposium organised by the National University of Ireland with University College Cork (Education and Society, Occasional Papers No. 1). Dublin: National University of Ireland, 26-34.

Oakes, L. (2019) Regional language policy for a 21st-century Republic. Preface to Harrison, M. & A. Joubert (eds.) French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, v-ix.

Oakes, L. & Howard, M. (2019). Foreign language motivation in a globalised world: the case of languages other than English (LOTEs).

Oakes, L. (2015). Parrots, pasta and the politics of language. The Ninth Eccles Centre for American Studies Plenary Lecture given at the British Association for Canadian Studies Annual Conference, 2014. London: British Library.

Oakes, L. (2003). Svenskan och svenskheten. Språkvård 3/03: 30-35.

Supervision

I have supervised a number of PhD students in a range of sociolinguistic topics both within and outside the French-speaking world.

I welcome applications from candidates wishing to undertake doctoral research in the following areas:

  • Language policy and planning
  • Language and nationalism/national identity
  • Language ideologies
  • Language attitudes
  • French sociolinguistics

Current PhD Students:

Scott Kunkel - Bidialectal French speakers' language attitudes and perception of gradient acoustic differences

Chiara Ardoino - Code-Switching in the French Caribbean Media: Negotiation and Accommodation in a Linguistic Continuum

Past PhD students:

Sujin Lee - The making of multilingual South Korea: Inter-discourse of neo-nationalism and transnationalism

Rachelle Vessey - Language ideologies and discourses of national identity in Canadian newspapers: A cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse study

Rusudan Amirejibi-Mullen - Language policy and national identity in Georgia

Ruth Kircher - Language attitudes in Quebec: A contemporary perspective

Jon Orman - Language and nation-building in post-apartheid South Africa

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