Dr Michael Pickles

Current Teaching

• FREN101 : First Year Advanced French
• FREN201 : Second Year French Language (Advanced): written and reading skills
• FREN201i : Second Year French Language (Intensive): written and reading skills
• FREN233 : Shaping Contemporary France: Culture, Politics and the Legacy of History
• DELC320 : Final Year Dissertation (full unit)

Office Hours

Lent Term 2013: Wednesday 10.00-11.00; Friday 10.00-11.00

Research Interests

Variation, especially phonological, within current sociolinguistic strands - regional and local varieties, standardisation, gender, identity, the incomer.

Additional Information

Responsibilites and Affiliations

Convenor for Second Year French Language courses: FREN200/201/290/291/200i/201i/290i/291i

DELC Examinations Officer

Vice-Principal of Lonsdale College. College Tutor and College Syndicate representative to Court

Member of the French Variation Forum

Member of the Association for Language Learning

Member of the Association for French Language Studies.

Former Roles

Head of Modern Languages, Derby: 1978-1991

Director of the Languages Development Centre, St Martin's College, Lancaster: 1991-1993

Lecturer in French Language and Linguistics, University of Cambridge: 2000-2001

Other Interests and Hobbies

My principal leisure activities are music and Christian involvement.

I have been a member of several choirs over the years, including the Palestrina Choir (Reading University), the Derbyshire Singers, the Lancaster Singers.

I am an active organist and pianist. I have an appreciation of a wide variety of composers and styles, both classical and popular.

I enjoy concerts, theatre and cinema, food and wine, and am (reputedly) a competent cook.

I am a Church Elder, Worship Leader and Preacher.

I am a Member of the College of Preachers.

From March 2010 to March 2012 I was Interim Moderator for Forton, Garstang and Preesall United Reformed Churches. I continue to act as Pastoral Link for Forton & Garstang United Reformed Churches within the Forton, Garstang & Trinity, Lancaster pastorate.

Qualifications

BA (Reading) French with Linguistics; PGCE
(Southampton); CertTEFL (St Martin's College, Lancaster); PhD (Lancaster)

Thesis Title

The spoken French of teenagers in Perpignan: a study of phonological variation

An investigation based on a corpus of recordings of thirty-seven collegiens in spontaneous group conversations and individual interviews; focussed on three phonological features - schwa, nasalisation of vowels, /R/ - in correlation with social variables of gender, ethnolinguistic background and socio-economic status.

Additional Information

Conference papers

I have presented papers on my doctoral research at the following conferences:

AFLS, University of Surrey, Identités et Politiques Linguistiques, June 1996;

University of Lancaster, Postgraduate Colloquium, November 1997;

AFLS, University of Sheffield, Postgraduate Conference, May 1998;

AFLS, London Guildhall University, Les accents des Français, October 1998;

The Burn Conference, Scotland, October 1998;

University of Lancaster, Postgraduate Colloquium, February 1999;

ESRI, University of Salford, Beyond Boundaries II, February 1999;

University of Durham, International Graduate Conference, April 1999;

University of Bradford, Black, Blanc, Beur II: La langue des jeunes Français, June 1999;

Sociolinguistics Symposium, University of the West of England, April 2000;

French Linguistics Seminar, University of Cambridge, May 2001;

University of Lancaster, Postgraduate Colloquium, April 2003.

Citations of Research

Carton, Fernand. 1999. L'épithèse vocalique et son développement en français parlé. Faits de langue no 13: 35-45. Paris: Editions OPHRYS.

Pooley, Timothy. 2001. Les variantes sociolinguistiques feminines: essai de synthèse. In La langue française au féminin. Paris: L'Harmattan. pp. 53-73.

Blanchet, Philippe and Armstrong, Nigel. 2006. The sociolinguistic situation of 'contemporary dialects of French' in France today: an overview of recent contributions on the dialectalisation of Standard French. Journal of French Language Studies, vol. 16, no. 3, 251-275. Cambridge: CUP.

Jamin, Mikaël, Trimaille, Cyril and Gasquet-Cyrus, Médéric. 2006. De la convergence dans la divergence: le cas des quartiers pluri-ethniques en France. Journal of French Language Studies, vol. 16, no. 3, 335-356. Cambridge: CUP.

Armstrong, Nigel & Pooley, Timothy. 2010. Social and Linguistic Change in European French. Palgrave Macmillan.

Pooley, Tim & Mostefai-Hampshire, Zoubida. 2012. Code-crossing and multiligualism among adolescents in Lille. Journal of French Language Studies, vol. 22, no. 3, 371-394. Cambridge: CUP