Biography

My current research interests in languages for specific purposes and professional bilingualism and biliteracy originated from my experiences as a biologist and agricultural engineer (”ingénieur agronome “). As a student of biotechnological and agricultural sciences at France’s Institut National Agronomique, I enrolled in German, Spanish, and English language courses, and became aware of the difficulty for native language teachers trained in literature and translation to address the specific language needs of engineering and science students. As I completed a master’s degree in plant pathology in France and then conducted molecular biology research in the US, I also became aware of the importance and the difficulty for francophone science students to learn how to read and write in their discipline in both English and French. I thus began to nurture the idea that I could complement my science education with training in applied linguistics in order to develop an expertise in the teaching and learning of English for science and engineering. As a result, I enrolled in graduate studies in second language education at McGill University in Montréal in 1996.

Early in my MA program, I took particular interest in English for Specific Purposes for insights into the teaching of scientific and professional writing. However, I soon realized the importance of drawing on other fields such as L2 writing, L1 composition and rhetoric, bilingual education, language teaching, literacies studies, technical and written communication, and socio-cultural theory in order to understand how scientists and other professionals learn to write and communicate in both their first and their second languages for professional purposes. My graduate research work in the Faculty of Education at McGill University and my postdoctoral work at the Modern Language Centre, OISE/University of Toronto focused on the development of academic biliteracy within university contexts in Québec, Ontario, and France. More recently, I have become interested in the development of professional bilingualism and biliteracy in workplace contexts such as federal departments within the National Capital Region. My current research aims to identify the second language needs of federal employees and the conditions for second language use and retention in the federal workplace after language training. I hope that the research findings will help improve the design of language-training programs and work environments conducive to the use of both official languages for written and oral professional communication in the public service.

Research Interests

• Professional and Academic Biliteracy
• Second Language Writing
• Languages for Specific Purposes
• Corpora in Applied Linguistics
• Identity and Language Learning.

Courses

Current course information for this faculty member can be found by searching the Carleton Central/Public Schedule by Term and Name.

Courses previously taught

• ALDS 2202: Analysis of Written Language Use
• ALDS 2704: Bilingualism
• ALDS 3701: Corpus Linguistics
• ALDS 3405 / ALDS 5705: Second Language Writing
• ALDS 4208 / ALDS 5208: Languages for Specific Purposes
• ALDS 5002: Inquiry Strategies in ALDS
• ALDS 5905: Special Topic: Language and Identity
• FYSM 1612: Language, Identity, and Canadian Nation Building

Selected Publications

Gentil, G. (2013). Bilingual corpus-assisted discourse analysis: Promises, challenges, and ways forward. In D. Belcher & G. Nelson (Eds.). Critical and corpus-based approaches to intercultural rhetoric (pp. 97-125). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Gentil, G. (2011). A biliteracy agenda for genre research. Journal of Second Language Writing. 20(1), 6-23. (reproduced in “The Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals, 2011” and awarded an honourable mention for the Best Article of the Year for 2011 for the Journal of Second Language Writing).

Freake, R., Gentil, G., Sheyholislami, J. (2011). A bilingual corpus-assisted discourse study of the construction of nationhood and belonging in Quebec. Discourse & Society, 22(1), 21-47. 

Gentil, G., Bigras, J., & O’Connor, M. (2010). Achieving bilingualism in the Canadian federal public workplace: Does language training matter? In B. Apfelbaum, & M. Meyers (Eds.), Multilingualism at work [Hamburg Series on Bilingualism] (pp. 81-105). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gentil, G., Bigras, J., & O’Connor, M. (2009). Le maintien du français chez les fonctionnaires fédéraux: impact d’un programme de formation linguistique. Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues modernes, 65(5), 841-867.

Gentil, G. (2006). EAP and Technical Writing without borders: The impact of departmentalization on the teaching and learning of academic writing in a first and second language. In P. Matsuda, C. Ortmeier-Hooper, & X. You (Eds.), The politics of second language writing: in search of the promised land (pp. 147-167). West Lafayette: Parlor Press.

Gentil, G. (2006). Variation in Goals and Activities for Multilingual Writing. In A. Cumming (Ed.), Goals for Writing in University: English as a Second Language Students and Their Instructors (pp. 142-156), Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gentil, G. (2005). Commitments to academic biliteracy: Case studies of francophone university writers. Written Communication, 22, 421-471

Recent or Forthcoming Conference Papers

Gentil, G., & Meunier, F. (2012, June). Nominalization use and genre knowledge: an exploratory longitudinal study. Paper presented at Genre 2012: Rethinking genre 20 years later, an international conference on genre studies. Carleton University, Ottawa.

Gentil, G. (2010, June). Bilingual Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis: Promises, Challenges, and Avenues. Invited Plenary at the 6^th conference on Intercultural Rhetoric and Discourse, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Gentil, G. and Smith, V. (2010, June). Toward an Administrative Word List in French and in English. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, Montréal.

Gentil, G. (2010. May). Parallel genres across languages: Insights for multilingual writing pedagogy. Paper presented in a Special Session by Ann Johns (Organizer), Genre pedagogy in international contexts, at the 2010 Symposium on Second Language Writing, Universidad de Murcia, Spain.

Gentil, G. (2009, November). A biliteracy agenda for genre research. Paper presented in an Invited Colloquium by Christine Tardy (Organizer), the Future of Genre in Second Language Writing, at the 2009 Symposium on Second Language Writing, Arizona State University, Tempe.

Gentil, G., Bigras, J., & O’Connor, M. (2008, August). Professional bilingualism and biliteracy: The contexts and practices of bilingual communication in the Canadian public service. Paper presented in B. Apfelbaum, & M. Meyers (Co-Chairs), Multilingualism in the workplace. Research Network Symposium conducted at the 15^th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Essen, Germany.

Recent Graduate Supervisions

MA Thesis. Matthew Falconer (co-supervision with Graham Smart) Tutor training in Carleton University’s Writing Tutorial Service: An Ethnographic study of pre-service training and socialization of junior tutors. (completed May 2013)

MA Research Essay. Sara Potkonjak The English as an additional language scholar and the imperative to publish in English: Identifying challenges and exploring resources for reconfiguring the publication landscape. (completed December 2012)

MA Research Essay (ALDS 5908). Jentje Smith. Title: Toward greater understanding of structural errors in French L2 writing produced by Congolese writers (completed May 2012)

MA Research Essay. Tara de Pratto. Title: The Role of Metalinguistic Awareness in the L3 Italian Written Production of Students with English as a First Language and French as a Second Language (completed May 2010)

MA Thesis, David Cooper. Situating teacher written feedback in an EAP classroom: How context influences responding practices. (completed June 2009)

MA Thesis, Rachelle Freake. The role of language in the popular discursive construction of belonging in Quebec: A corpus assisted discourse study of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission briefs (completed May 2009, with distinction)

Memberships

• American Association of Applied Linguistics
• Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics
• TESOL