Home Department: French and Italian
Affiliate Professor, Department of Linguistics
SLAT Areas of Specialization: Cognitive Dimensions of L2 Learning, Linguistic Dimensions of L2 Learning
Dr. Ayoun teaches French language as well as theoretical and applied linguistics courses. Her research interests lie in the second language acquisition of morpho-syntax (tense-aspect-mood/modality, grammatical gender), theoretical and applied French linguistics from a generative/minimalist perspective. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Linguistics department
Background: B.A. in English (Université de Nice); Certificate in Translation/ Interpretation (French, English, Spanish) and M.A. in International Studies (University of Nebraska at Kearney); Ph.D in French linguistics specializing in second language acquisition at the University of Florida. She was previously assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Ayoun, D. (2025). The Second Langage Acquisition of English Tense, Aspect and Modality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ayoun, D. (2024). Morphological variability in the L2 acquisition of French gender and number agreement: a longitudinal study. In Oxford Handbook of French Language, M. McLaughlin & W. Ayres-Bennett (eds), pp. 658–684. Oxford University Press. Invited submission.
Ayoun, D. (2022)(Ed.). The Acquisition of Gender. Cross-linguistic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ayoun, D. (2022). Indeterminacy in French L1 grammars: the case of gender and number agreement. Journal of French Language Studies, 1-33.
Ayoun, D. and Maranzana, S. (2022). The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and number in Italian. In The Acquisition of Gender. Cross-linguistic perspectives, D. Ayoun (ed.), pp. 97-126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.