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Professor Janice Carruthers

Professor of French Linguistics/AHRC Leadership Fellow for Modern Languages

School of Arts, English and Languages (AEL)

Professor Carruthers is a world-leading expert on the French language (variation and change; the structure of oral French) and on Language Policy.

Professor Carruthers is a sociolinguist, working mainly on the French Language, particularly on the structure of spoken varieties of the language (including storytelling), on temporal features (e.g. tense, aspect, connectives) and on linguistic variation. Professor Carruthers lead a large AHRC-funded research project on Language Policy which focuses on Modern Languages and Community Languages in the UK, particularly in the devolved jurisdictions (https://www.modernlanguagesleadershipfellow.com/ ). She leads the Queen’s strand of an AHRC project on Multilingualism (www.meits.org), which centres on languages in France and Ireland, the former including minoritised languages such as Breton and Occitan. Recent publications include the Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics (with W. Ayres-Bennett, 2018) and two Policy Briefings (also co-authored with Ayres-Bennett), Policy Briefing on Community Languages and Social Cohesion (2017) and Policy Briefing on Modern Languages Educational Policy in the UK (2018).

Fields

French Language Policy Modern languages

Areas of Expertise

Modern Languages in the UK, Language Policy, French language

Media Experience

Professor Carruthers has extensive experience with broadcast, print and online media.

Notable coverage

Just speaking English won’t get us very far in the world – The Guardian – 28/08/2017
The big issue: after Brexit, fluency in German will be a vital tool for success – The Guardian – 09/07/2017
Discussion on the BBC languages survey on BBC Newsline – 27/02/2019
BBC Radio Ulster Good Morning Ulster – 27/02/2019
TalkRadio – 27/02/2019
BBC One Yorkshire and Lincolnshire – 27/02/2019