Amanda LaFleur was born in Ville Platte in 1957. Her career spreads over more than thirty years during which she taught in elementary and secondary schools but also at a university level. Active in promoting the Louisiana Francophonie since 1970, LaFleur hosted French-speaking programs on the radio, TV and theater. She is a pioneer in the French-language and ancestral culture integration but also in the teaching of French by leading various workshops on the subject for teachers. Author of Tonnerre mes chiens: A Glossary of Louisiana French Figures of Speech and co-author of The Dictionary of Louisiana French: As spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian Communities, she is also co-director with Tom Klingler of the Louisiana section of the Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone (www.bdlp.org), an international-scale project showcasing the lexical variations of the French language around the world. Since 1998, she is in charge of the cadienne study at the Louisiane State University.