Anita Thomas

 anita.thomas@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 7971
 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6777-3006

  • Second language acquisition (L2 - SLA) and second language development
  • Teaching and learning French as a Foreign/Second Language
  • Input and interaction
  • Teaching interaction
  • Multilingualism and norms
  • Psycholinguistics, cognitive processes, priming
  • Corpus linguistics

Professor
Department of Multilingualism and Foreign Language Education

MIS 10 bu. 3.15
Rue de Rome 1
1700 Fribourg
MIS 10, 3.15

Biography

Anita Thomas spent the first part of her life in French-speaking Switzerland where she also completed her first studies (University of Geneva). She worked for nearly 10 years in the associative sector before moving to Lund in Sweden, where she studied French and linguistics, and wrote a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Susanne Schlyter. In 2009, she completed her PhD in French linguistics at the University of Lund. She then worked as a senior lecturer in French language and linguistics and collaborated on various research projects, including one on "Age of onset and development of French" and another on "French spoken language in interaction and teaching". In 2012, she received a scholarship from the Birgit Rausing Language Programme that allowed her to spend 7 months at the Department of Linguistics at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). Between 2014 and 2016, she worked as a senior lecturer in French language and linguistics at Dalarna University, where all teaching was online. Since August 1, 2016, she holds the position of full professor of French as a foreign language (FLE) at the University of Fribourg. She was vice-dean of the Faculty 2021-2023 and is currently (since 2024) director of the Institute of Multilingualism.

Research projects:

  • 2021-2024: Digitization and the development of oral interaction skills (DICOI)- https://centre-plurilinguisme.ch/en/recherche/Dicoi
  • 2024-2028: L’influence de la qualité de l’input dans l’enseignement du FLE - https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/219847

Research and publications

Teaching and courses

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