Jeffrey Steele is a Professor in French Studies at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on second language acquisition, laboratory phonology, and bilingual literacy. He explores how phonological and phonetic factors influence language learning, particularly the acquisition of French and Spanish segmental and prosodic features by Mandarin, Japanese, and English speakers. Steele also investigates the role of phonological awareness in bilingual children's literacy development. PhD in Linguistics, McGill University MA in French Linguistics, Queen’s University BA Hons in French, University of Manitoba Steele’s work employs electropalatography (EPG) to analyze articulatory timing, assimilation, and cluster simplification in native and non-native speech. His publications address topics like cross-linguistic influence on coda voicing, syllable position effects, and the impact of phonetic input variability on L2 learning. Recent studies highlight gradient and categorical effects in bilingual phonology, phonological licensing asymmetries, and prosodic prominence acquisition. He co-developed the University of Toronto Test of French and maintains the Romance Phonetics Database (2004–Present). SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2022–2027) on Reading Comprehension in French Immersion Learners Steele teaches courses in French language skills, linguistic analysis, and individual differences in language acquisition. His collaborations with researchers like Colantoni and Kochetov bridge theoretical linguistics and applied pedagogy.
