Larsen-Freeman worked at the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles and then the SIT Graduate Institute. In 2002, she returned to the University of Michigan to direct the English Language Institute. She was also Professor in the School of Education and the Department of Linguistics. She retired from the University of Michigan in 2012. She has emerita positions at the English Language Institute and in Education and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, and at the SIT Graduate Institute. She is still active in her field, and teaches courses on the structure of English and second language development as a visiting senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.