François Grosjean
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François Grosjean is a
Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
and former Director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory at the
University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking public research university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, ...
(
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
). His specialty is
psycholinguistics Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind ...
and his domains of interest are the perception, comprehension and production of language, be it
speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
or
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
, in monolinguals and bilinguals. He also has interests in
biculturalism Biculturalism in sociology describes the co-existence, to varying degrees, of two originally distinct cultures. Official policy recognizing, fostering, or encouraging biculturalism typically emerges in countries that have emerged from a histo ...
,
applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...
,
aphasia Aphasia, also known as dysphasia, is an impairment in a person's ability to comprehend or formulate language because of dysfunction in specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine, but aph ...
,
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
, and
natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...
. He is better known for his work on bilingualism in which he has investigated the holistic view of bilingualism, language mode, the complementarity principle, and the processing of
code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. These alternations are generally intended to ...
and borrowing. In one of his most-cited papers, Grosjean argues that hearing-impaired children have the right to grow up bilingual, learning two languages—namely,
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
and
oral language A spoken language is a form of communication produced through articulate sounds or, in some cases, through manual gestures, as opposed to written language. Oral or vocal languages are those produced using the vocal tract, whereas sign languages are ...
. Grosjean was born in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
(
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
) in 1946, son of Roger Grosjean, a French archaeologist and double-agent during World War II, and of Angela (Jill) Shipway Pratt, a British top model in Paris and then race horse breeder in Italy. Grosjean spent his youth in France (Villiers-Adam), Switzerland ( Aiglon College in Chesières) and
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, where he attended Ratcliffe College. He received his degrees up to the Doctorat d'Etat from the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
, France. He started his academic career at the University of Paris 8 and then left for the United States in 1974, where he taught and did research in psycholinguistics at
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
. While at Northeastern, Grosjean was also a Research Affiliate at the Speech Communication Laboratory at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
. In 1987, he was appointed professor at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland; he founded the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory and headed it for twenty years. In addition to his academic appointments, Grosjean has lectured occasionally at the Universities of Basel,
Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
and
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. In 1998, he cofounded '' Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'', a Cambridge University Press journal. In 2019, Grosjean published his autobiography, "A Journey in Languages and Cultures: The Life of a Bicultural Bilingual" (Oxford University Press).


Books

*Grosjean, F. (1982). ''Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism''. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. *Lane, H. and Grosjean, F. (Eds.). (1982). ''Recent Perspectives on American Sign Language''. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. *Grosjean, F. and Frauenfelder, U. (Eds.). (1997). ''A Guide to Spoken Word Recognition Paradigms''. Hove, England: Psychology Press. *Grosjean, F. (2008). ''Studying Bilinguals''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Grosjean, F. (2010). ''Bilingual: Life and Reality''. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. *Grosjean, F. & Dommergues, J-Y. (2011). ''La statistique en clair''. Paris, France: Ellipses Edition. *Grosjean, F. (2011). ''Roger Grosjean: Itinéraires d'un archéologue''. Ajaccio, France: Editions Alain Piazzola. *Grosjean, F. & Li, P. (2013). ''The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism''. Malden, MA & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. *Grosjean, F. (2015). ''Parler plusieurs langues: Le monde des bilingues''. Paris, France: Albin Michel. *Grosjean, F. (2015). ''Bilinguismo. Miti e Realtà''. Milan, Italy: Mimesis. *Grosjean, F. (2016). ''A la recherche de Roger et Sallie''. Hauterive, Switzerland: Editions Attinger. *Grosjean, F. & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2018). ''The Listening Bilingual: Speech Perception, Comprehension and Bilingualism''. Hoboken, NJ & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. *Grosjean, F. (2019). ''A Journey in Languages and Cultures: The Life of a Bicultural Bilingual''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Grosjean, F. (2021). ''Life as a Bilingual: Knowing and Using Two or More Languages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Grosjean, F. (2022). ''The Mysteries of Bilingualism: Unresolved Issues''. Hoboken, NJ & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. *Grosjean, F. (2024). ''On Bilinguals and Bilingualism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


References


External links


François Grosjean's HomepageHis blog on Psychology TodayThe right of the deaf child to grow up bilingual
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosjean, Francois Living people University of Paris alumni Northeastern University faculty Bilingualism and second-language acquisition researchers Academic staff of the University of Neuchâtel Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Aiglon College