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Guillaume Gentil

Image of Guillaume Gentil

Professor (Applied Linguistics & Discourse Studies/French)

Biography

My current research interests in second language writing and bi/pluriliteracy development in professional and postsecondary settings originated from my academic literacy experiences in France, the USA, and Canada. As a student of biology and agricultural sciences (M. Sc. in plant pathology, Institut National Agronomique, Paris; 16-month research internship, University of Wisconsin Madison), and then a student of applied linguistics (M.A. and Ph.D. in second language education, McGill University, Montr茅al; postdoctoral internship with Alister Cumming, University of Toronto), I experienced firsthand the challenges of plurilingual academic writers who must shuttle back and forth between languages and discourse communities, writing in one language while reading in another, and alternating the language of composing while negotiating divided linguistic loyalties. This interest has resulted in several case studies and institutional ethnographies of academic and professional bi/pluriliteracy over the last twenty years with a threefold focus on multilingual writers鈥 motivations for bi/pluriliteracy, individual and institutional strategies for bi/pluriliteracy, and ways to design enabling contexts for bi/pluriliteracy.

This research work has appeared in Canadian Modern Language Review, Discourse & Society, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Journal of Second Language Writing, Written Communication, and several co-edited books. The theoretical and programmatic piece 鈥淎 biliteracy agenda for genre research,鈥 originally published in JSLW, was reproduced in .

Initially, I turned to English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes for insight into the teaching of scientific and professional writing. While I have remained interested in these fields, I soon realized the importance of cross-pollinating them with other areas of research, such as second language writing, bilingual education, translation studies, and academic literacies, in order to design instructional strategies that prepare student and professional writers for work in multilingual contexts. I also turned to corpus linguistics as offering useful tools for the study of specialized discourses and writing development. My co-editorship of the (2014-2017) further rekindled my interest in multilingual scholars鈥 publishing practices and the geopolitics of academic publishing. Given the spectacular progress of AI-powered tools, my research interests have recently expanded to the potential of neural machine translation and AI tools in facilitating and disrupting multilingual writing practices, as well as in enabling writing and language development.

Research Interests

Recent/Ongoing Research

Supervision

I have supervised students at the BA, MA, and PhD levels on a variety of topics, but my preference is to supervise projects related to my current research interests.

Courses

Current course information for this faculty member can be found by searching the  by Term and Name.

Courses Recently/Frequently Taught

Selected Publications

(See also ).

Selected Journal Articles

Gentil, G., & S茅ror, J. (2025). Affordance, agentivit茅 et engagement : Trois cl茅s pour comprendre l鈥檈mploi de la traduction automatique par les apprenants de langues. , 28(3),

Priven, D., Gentil, G.,听Pinchbeck, G. G., & Strong, B. (2024). 鈥淎 thought group is a group, not a thought!鈥 results of a teaching intervention on complex noun phrases in Canadian EAP programs. System, 125, Article 103450. 听

S茅ror, J., & Gentil, G. (2020). Cross-Linguistic Pedagogy and Biliteracy in a Bilingual University: Students鈥 Stances, Practices, and Ideologies. Canadian Modern Language Review, 76(4), 356-374. doi:

Gentil, G. (2019). Translanguaging and multilingual academic literacies: How do we translate that into French? Should we? Pour en faire quoi ? (et pourquoi s鈥檈n faire?). Cahiers de l鈥橧LOB/OLBI Working Papers, 3-41. doi:

Gentil, G. (2019). D鈥檜ne langue 脿 l鈥檃utre: pour une didactique plurilingue et translangagi猫re de l鈥櫭ヽrit. Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues modernes 75(1), 65-83. doi:10.3138/cmlr.2018-0168

Gentil, G. (2018) Across the Disciplines 15 (3), 114-129.

Gentil, G. & S茅ror, J. (2014). 鈥淐anada has two official languages鈥攐r does it?  Case studies of Canadian scholars鈥 language choices and practices in disseminating knowledge.鈥 Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 13(1),17-30. 

Gentil, G. (2011). A biliteracy agenda for genre research. Journal of Second Language Writing. 20(1), 6-23. (reproduced in 鈥溾 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鈥機onnor, M. (2009). Le maintien du fran莽ais chez les fonctionnaires f茅d茅raux: impact d鈥檜n programme de formation linguistique. Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues modernes, 65(5), 841-867.

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

Selected Book Chapters

Gentil, G. (2023). Good writing: Learning to see how others see it. In R. Kohls & C. P. Casanave (Eds.). 鈥淕ood鈥 writing in applied linguistics and TESOL: Neglected but necessary scholarly conversations (pp. 239-253). Michigan University Press.

S茅ror, J. & Gentil, G. (2023). . In R. M. Manch贸n & J. Roca de Larios (Eds). Research methods in the study of L2 writing processes (pp. 141-160). John Benjamins.

Gentil, G. (2023). Remapping writing instruction at the borders of Modern Languages, Bilingual Education, and Translation Studies: A Canadian proposal for a transnational conversation. In J. Hall & B. Horner (Eds.), Toward a transnational university: WAC/WID across borders of language, nation, and discipline (pp. 59-83). The WAC Clearinghouse.

Gentil, G. (2022). On becoming a bilingual gatekeeper: The journey of a francophone editor for an English language journal. In P. Habibie & K. Hultgren (Eds.), The inner world of gatekeeping in scholarly publication (pp. 63-81). Palgrave Macmillan.

Gentil, G. (2022). Multicompetence and L2 writing. In R. M. Manch贸n & C. Polio (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and writing (pp. 109-122). Routledge.

Gentil, G. (2018). Multilingualism as a writing resource. In J. Liontas (Ed). , Liontas, J. (Vol. Teaching Writing, co-edited by D. Belcher & A. Hirvela). New York: Wiley.

Gentil, G., Bigras, J., & O鈥機onnor, 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. (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. (2019, May 17). Academic pluriliteracies in an age of technological acceleration: New tools, new research methods. Invited plenary keynote given at the Ethnography of Academic Writing: Research and Pedagogy, an international symposium convened at University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Gentil, G. (2018, May 4). Translanguaging and multilingual academic literacies” How do we translate that into French? Should we?/Approche translangagi猫re 禄 et 芦 litt茅raties universitaires plurilingues 禄 : Barbarismes, oripeaux modernes ou mati猫re 脿 repenser la didactique de l鈥櫭ヽrit ? Invited plenary keynote at , Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI), University of Ottawa (the plenary can be viewed on YouTube at ).

Gentil, G. (2018, February 2). Du plurilinguisme 脿 la plurilitt茅ratie: Enjeux, d茅fis, strat茅gies. S茅minaire AEFE de la Zone Am茅rique du Nord. Invited plenary talk as part of the 2018 annual conference of the school directors and head masters of the 54 French international schools (lyc茅es fran莽ais) in North America (FISNA) recognized by France鈥檚 Agence pour l鈥檈nseignement fran莽ais 脿 l鈥櫭﹖ranger ().

Gentil, G. (2017, April 26). D鈥檜ne langue 脿 l鈥檃utre: pour une didactique plurilingue et translangagi猫re de l鈥櫭ヽrit. Invited plenary keynote at the /6猫me rencontre sur l鈥檈nseignement des langues (ReEL), UQAM, Montr茅al

Gentil, G. (2016, September 24). Why only English? Rethinking monolingual writing instruction for the multilingual demands of today鈥檚 global communication. Invited plenary keynote at the 10th International Symposium of the China Association of Teaching and Researching EFL Writing, , Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, China.

Gentil, G. (2015, March). Helping multilingual writers: A biliteracy perspective. Invited Speaker Presentation at the TESOL 2015 International Convention, Toronto.

Recent Conference Papers

Bin, L, &听Gentil, G. (2025, June 3). AI-assisted research writing in English by Chinese doctoral students: A survey and case study. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, George Brown College, Toronto.

Gentil, G. & S茅ror, J. (2024, June 12). Affordance et agentivit茅, deux cl茅s pour comprendre l’emploi de la traduction automatique par les apprenants de langues. In E. Nissen et al. (Organizers) Activit茅, engagement et apprentissage en (didactique des) langues secondes dans des contextes num茅riques. Universit茅 Grenoble Alpes, France.

Gentil, G. & S茅ror, J. (2024, May 16). ChatGPT et Antidote : compl茅mentarit茅 ou concurrence? Recherche-action dans un cours universitaire de perfectionnement de l鈥櫭ヽrit en fran莽ais langue seconde. In M-J. Hamel, C. Caws, N. Guichon, & M. Lugli (Organizers). Colloque 519 – [Symposium]. 91st ACFAS Congress, Universit茅 d鈥橭ttawa, ON.

S茅ror, J. & Gentil, G. (2023, June 8). Visualiser le plurilinguisme en action : R茅flexion sur l鈥檈mploi de la traduction automatis茅e en didactique des langues. In N. Auger et al. (Organizers), : Plurilinguisme, enseignement-apprentissage, complexit茅 et int茅grit茅 : perspective 茅pist茅mologiques, didactiques et politiques [Symposium, June 7-10, 2023]. Universit茅 Paul-Val茅ry, Montpellier 3, France.

Gentil, G. (2023, May 10). Machine translation: A welcome disruption in writing for publication? In MJ. Curry & T. Lillis (Chairs), Reflections on the AAAL Roundtable, Writing for Publication Globally [a one-hour follow-up to the invited colloquium sponsored by Language Learning at the AAAL 2022 conference with the same presenters but a new audience].

Gentil, G. (2023, March 19). On becoming a bilingual gatekeeper: The journey of a francophone editor for an English language journal. In P. Habibie & K. Hultgren (Organizers), The inner world of gatekeeping in scholarly publication [Symposium]. Annual Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Portland, Oregon.

S茅ror, J., & Gentil, G. (2023, March 18). Machine translation and crosslingual wordsmithing: Case studies of biliteracy development. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Portland, Oregon.

Gentil, G., S茅ror, J., Nemes, E., & Thibert, A. (2022, May 13). Machine translation and L2 writing: Insights from case studies of biliteracy development. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, online.

Thibert, A., S茅ror, J., Gentil, G. (2022, May 13). Struggling for legitimacy: Discourses of nativeness and pre-service bi/plurilingual French language educators. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, online.

Gentil, G. (2022, March 20). Machine translation: A welcome disruption in writing for publication? In MJ. Curry & T. Lillis (Chairs), Writing for publication globally: Evaluation regimes, knowledges, professional practices [Invited Colloquium Language Learning Roundtable], 2022 Annual Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Pittsburgh, PA (presented online).

Gentil, G. S茅ror, J. (2021, August 17). Beyond parallel monolingualism: Case studies of pluri-and translingual literacy development in a bilingual Canadian university. In M. Kuteeva, K. Kaufhold., N. Hynninen (Organizers), Tensions between monolingualism and multilingualism across university contexts. [AILA Symposium S169]. Association internationale de linguistique appliqu茅e (AILA) World Congress 2021, University of Groningen, Netherlands (convened online).

Gentil, G. (2021, August 19). Translangageons sur le translanguaging: Exploring the adoption of a new notion into French academic discourse. In S. Whyte & H. Tyne (Organizers), Foreign/Second Language Education in Europe: post-war history and crosslinguistic perspectives [AILA Symposium S057]. Association internationale de linguistique appliqu茅e (AILA) World Congress 2021, University of Groningen, Netherlands (convened online).

Academic Affiliations and Services

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