Sylvie de Cock
Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, Centre for English Corpus Linguistics, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
I fell in love with English as a teenager – it was love at first sound! After starting to learn about the workings of the English language within the framework of my degree in English and German (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium), I decided I wanted to find out more and I embarked on an MA in Language Studies (Lancaster University) and a PhD in English Linguistics (Université catholique de Louvain, 2003). I've been a member of the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics since 1996 and I've been particularly interested in the sequences of words that native speakers and learners of English appear to use as their preferred ways of saying things. My other areas of interest include monolingual learners' dictionaries (I just could not imagine life without them!), spoken English and business English. I'm currently a lecturer in English language, business English and English linguistics at the Université catholique de Louvain and at the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis (Belgium).
Beside listening to, using, teaching and analysing English, I love dancing (all kinds of, ranging from ballet to Latin American folk dancing) and spending time with my family and friends.