Anne-Laure Besnard

Anne-Laure Besnard is a Lecturer-Researcher in English Linguistics at the University of Rennes 2, where she has been employed since 2017 as a Maître de Conférences. She is a member of the ACE Research Unit (Anglophonie: Communities, Writings) and has held significant administrative roles including Head of the 3rd Year LLCER English Degree (2020-2024) and Head of the 2nd Year LLCER English Degree (2018-2020), as well as L1 Remediation Coordinator (2018-2024).

Her educational background includes a Doctorate in English Linguistics from the University of Nantes (2016) with a thesis on Support in journalistic discourse and its evolution: The case of BE X TO structures in contemporary British English, an English Aggregation with linguistics option (2013), a Master of Research in English Linguistics (2012), and an LLCE English Spanish degree (2010), all from the University of Nantes.

Dr. Besnard's research focuses on (quasi-)modality and evidentiality, semi-auxiliaries and grammaticalization, point of view and taking charge in discourse, journalistic discourse analysis using corpus methods, and enunciation theory based on Culioli's Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations. Her work primarily examines BE X TO constructions and their modal and evidential properties in English. She has presented numerous conference papers on these topics since 2014, with recent presentations in 2024 on UP TO constructions and nominalizations.

Her publication record reveals a consistent research trajectory centered on modality in English, particularly examining quasi-modal constructions. She combines corpus linguistics with theoretical frameworks to analyze how these structures function in journalistic discourse. Additionally, she has collaborated on interdisciplinary projects exploring adaptive e-learning solutions for language instruction, demonstrating her engagement with educational technology applications in linguistics.

Dr. Besnard serves on important academic committees, including as a member of the jury for the external English aggregation (2022-2024) and the internal English aggregation (2019-2020). She was also an alternate member of CNU section 11 (2019-2023) and has participated in organizing major academic conferences including the 62nd SAES Congress (2023) at Rennes 2 University.

She is actively involved with the ACE Research Unit at Rennes 2, co-organizing research events as part of the "Common Places" research cycle. Currently on leave for the 2024-2025 academic year, she remains engaged in scholarly activities with conference presentations as recent as May-June 2024.