Jeffrey Steele

Graduate appointment: Graduate French Program

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Jeffrey has had a passion for language – French, in particular – since a very young age. Trained as a formal linguist with a special interest in sound structure, his research investigates both the ways in which people acquire second languages as well as various aspects of the French sound system. He is also a musician and holds two performer’s diplomas (Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto; Premier prix, Conservatoire international de musique, Paris).

Current Courses

Fall/Winter 2024-25:

• FRE180 (French Language Skills and Learning Strategies for University Study)
• FRE272 (A Linguistic Introduction to the French Language)
• FRE384 (Second Language Acquisition of French)

Graduate Course

• CTL3010 (Second Language Learning)

Education

• PhD, Linguistics, McGill University
• MA, French Linguistics, Queen’s University
• BA Hons, French, University of Manitoba

Areas of Teaching and Research Interests

• Second language acquisition
• Laboratory phonology
• Language assessment
• Evidence-based pedagogy
• Pronunciation instruction
• Bilingual literacy

Selected Publications

Books

• Colantoni, L., Steele, J., & Escudero, P. (In preparation). Second language speech: Theory & practice (2^nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Steele, J. (Ed.) (In preparation). Second language acquisition of French: Linguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Articles & Book Chapters

• Steele, J. (In press). Acquisition of segmental phonology in adult bilingualism. In M. Amengual (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press.
• Colantoni, L., Kochetov, A., & Steele, J. (2023). Pathways to depalatalization of the French palatal nasal in Quebec & Hexagonal French: An EPG study. Journal of French Language Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269523000212.
• Patience, M., & Steele, J. (2022). Relative difficulty in the acquisition of the phonetic parameters of obstruent coda voicing: Evidence from Mandarin-speaking learners of French. Language & Speech. 238309221114143–238309221114143. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309221114143

Other

• Steele, J., & Collaborators. (2013–22). University of Toronto Test of French. https://uttf.artsci.utoronto.ca/login
• Colantoni, L., & Steele, J. (2004–Present). University of Toronto Romance Phonetics Database. https://rpd.artsci.utoronto.ca

Selected Grants, Fellowships and Awards

• SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Co-investigator, 2022–2027, Reading Comprehension among Majority and Minority Language Children in French Immersion: The Contribution of Oral Language Skills and Reading Strategies