- Title：Professor
- Degree：Ph.D. & Habilitation in Language Sciences (University of Toulouse II)
- Directed Research：Second Language Education
- Research Field：Applied Linguistics, with a focus on plurilingual speech perception and education
Biography
I hold a Habilitation (HDR) in Language Sciences from the University of Toulouse (France). After a Baccalauréat in Science, I studied Mathematics, Physics and Engineering before obtaining a BA in English studies, an MA in French Applied Linguistics and a PhD in Language Sciences with a focus on L2 speech education, psycholinguistics and phonology among Japanese learners of French. A full-time Lector at Salford University (UK), then an Adjunct Lecturer at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), I got a tenured position as an Associate Professor (Maître de Conférences) in the Linguistics Department at the national University of Rouen (France), before joining Waseda University in 2009. In 2016, I received the Waseda Reseach Award for my High Impact Publication research activity.
I specialize in Applied Linguistics (L2 speech education, corpus phonology, variation and corpus sociolinguistics), with a focus on French, Japanese and English. Co-director of the international research project (Inter)Phonology of Contemporary French (63 researchers, 41 universities, 26 countries), I co-edited several volumes (Paris, Oxford, Tokyo) on the varieties of spoken French in the world with the support of the French national agency for linguistic social and educational policies (DGLFLF), of which I have been appointed as a scientific expert member. Positioning myself at the interdisciplinary interface between cognitive and social sciences, I work with phonologists, phoneticians, psycholinguists, sociolinguists and computer scientists interested in linguistic policies, research methodologies and educational tools.
My current research interests are: 1) Input and L2 speech learning; 2) Norms and variation in L2 speech learning; 3) Linguistic educational policies; 4) Plurilingualism and internationalization in higher education; 5) Contrastive pragmatics; 6) Communicative handicap.
In 2023, I published my first monography (416p) entitled “Savons-nous vraiment parler? Du contrat linguistique comme contrat social” (Paris: Armand Colin) (Do we really know how to speak? The linguistic contract as a social contract) and I was awarded the title of “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques” by the French Republic (Knight in the Order of the Academic Palms).
For details: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sylvain_Detey
Major Works / Publications Awards
Link to the Waseda Researcher Database
Directed Research
My supervision aims at nurturing young researchers and university-level teachers specializing in the field of Second Language Acquisition / Second Language Education, with a particular focus on speech perception-production, variation, corpora and multimodality. Students may join some of the research projects I am currently involved in, especially about corpus (inter)phonology (L1 and L2 French, but also L2 English, L2 Japanese, etc.) and computer-assisted pronunciation training programs. The objective of the course is to offer an advanced comprehensive view of the core framework of
the discipline, examining the linguistic, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and pedagogical aspects that must necessarily be taken into account in any research project devoted to second language learning. The focus is set on specific research issues and projects from which students can draw academic knowledge and methodological insights connected to their own research objectives.
Some of my current academic research interests are: 1)Input and L2 speech learning; 2) Norms and variation in L2 speech learning; 3) Linguistic educational policies; 4) Plurilingualism and internationalization in higher education; 5) Contrastive pragmatics; 6)Communicative handicap.
Inquiry for Prospective Applicants (not for current students)
