Dalila Ayoun

About

Dalila Ayoun is a Professor of French Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching in the Department of French & Italian at the University of Arizona. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Linguistics department and is a graduate faculty member in the interdisciplinary Second Language Acquisition and Teaching doctoral program. Her teaching encompasses French language as well as theoretical and applied linguistics courses. Her research interests focus on the second language acquisition of morphosyntax, including tense-aspect-mood/modality and grammatical gender, as well as theoretical and applied French linguistics from both generative/minimalist and cognitive linguistic perspectives. In addition to her academic roles, she serves as Faculty Director in Faculty Affairs in the Office of the Provost, where she coordinates faculty recruitment efforts, supports search committees, manages conflict of interest and commitment cases, and reviews career-track faculty promotion dossiers and applications for the Strategic Priorities Faculty Initiative. Professor Ayoun holds a B.A. in English from Université Côte d'Azur, a Certificate in Translation/Interpretation (French, English, Spanish), and an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She earned her Ph.D. in French linguistics specializing in second language acquisition at the University of Florida. Prior to joining the University of Arizona, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Mathematics education
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• The Second Language Acquisition of French Tense, Aspect, Mood and Modality

  AILA applied linguistics series · 2013-07-01 · 133 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Temporal-aspectual systems have a great potential of informing our understanding of the developing competence of second language learners. So far, the vast majority of empirical studies investigating L2 acquisition have largely focused on past temporality, neglecting the acquisition of the expression of the present and future temporalities with rare exceptions (aside from ESL learners), leaving unanswered the question of how the investigation of different types of temporality may inform our unde…

  PublisherDOI

• A Longitudinal Study in the L2 Acquisition of the French TAM System

  Languages · 2020 · 67 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Empirical studies investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of tense, aspect, mood/modality (TAM) systems offer an enlightening window into L2 learners’ linguistic competence because they involve all areas of a language, making them ideal testing grounds for the Interface hypothesis and ultimately whether adult learners may achieve a native-like TAM system. This longitudinal study used a pre-test, repeated exposure, delayed post-test design guided by a main research question—does the L2…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Grammatical gender assignment in French: dispelling the native speaker myth

  Journal of French Language Studies · 2017-07-20 · 61 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT This study highlights the complexity of French grammatical gender as a lexical property at the interface of morpho-phonology and the lexicon. French native speakers (n = 168) completed a gender assignment task with written stimuli illustrating common versus uncommon nouns, vowel-initial versus consonant-initial nouns, compounds and grammatical homonyms; they also indicated the strategies they used to assign a gender to stimuli. The findings showed strong lexical and gender effects sugge…

  PublisherDOI

• The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and number in Italian

  Studies in bilingualism · 2022 · 39 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This cross-sectional empirical study tested the ability of Anglophone L2 learners of Italian ( n = 87) to assign grammatical gender and number to a subset of isolated nouns drawn from a written corpus of current magazine and newspaper articles. Italian native speakers served as controls ( n = 109). We first present a descriptive account of grammatical gender that outlines several idiosyncrasies and complexities than may lead to difficulties for L2 learners, particularly English native s…

  PublisherDOI

• The L2 Acquisition of French Morphosyntax by Anglophone Learners:

  Channel View Publications eBooks · 2019-09-19 · 38 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mari C. Jones

  226 shared

• Francis Cornish

  226 shared

• Yves Roberge

  University of Toronto

  226 shared

• Paul Rowlett

  Université de Lorraine

  226 shared

• Terry Nadasdi

  226 shared

• Georges Daniel Véronique

  226 shared

• Michel Francard

  226 shared

• Julie Auger

  Université de Montréal

  226 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of Florida

  1992

Similar researchers at University of Arizona

• Lucy Swansonh-38
• Linda R Waughh-28
• Jonathan Beckh-9