Fachbereich 05: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur - Anglistik - Lehramtsstudiengang L 3

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Help your pupils dive into the world of short stories! Authentic literary texts can enrich with their broad potential the EFL lesson in various ways. By strongly engaging the personal-affective dimension of the learner, they foster linguistic-communicative, intercultural as well as literary competences. In this course, we want to explore this potential by focusing on a literary genre which could appeal to learners of all groups as well by examining the didactic-methodological principles of narrative literature in foreign language teaching and learning. Besides providing practical strategies for classroom implementation and motivating examples with suitable text types for learners at different levels, we will also be working with our own selected Anglophone literary texts for which we will design tasks and activities accordingly.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class, microteaching presentation; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

: ICC is one of the key competencies in modern EFL classes. In this course we will examine aspects of teaching ICC for different anglophone countries and their cultures, such as the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa and India and work out the crucial aspects the learners need to acquire. This course focuses on teaching ICC by using films in the EFLC. Students will create readers including teaching material and essential information which they will be able to use in their subsequent teaching career, and explore the possibilities of including other skills as well by planning relevant and motivating tasks for the EFLC.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

Welcome! This lecture serves as an introduction to cognitive literary studies (CLS). It addresses the question of how readers process literature through cognitive parameters and mechanisms that are derived from their real-world experiences. More specifically, we will discuss experientiality; the creation of mental models like storyworlds (including top-down and bottom-up processes); knowledge structures (such as frames and scripts); mechanisms of perception (figure vs. ground; primacy and recency effects); processing mechanisms (such as the principle of minimal departure, naturalization, and blending); the worlds of text-world theory; character models; theory of mind; hypothetical intentionalism; storyworld possible selves; as well as important differences between first- and second-generation approaches within cognitive literary studies. At the end of the term, we will move towards empirical literary studies (ELS) to demonstrate that empirical investigations are essential if we want to get a sense of what flesh-and-blood readers do when they process literary texts. Most of the readings will be taken from the new Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies (ed. Alber/Schneider, 2026).

This lecture course surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of American and British accents. The lecture focuses on the characteristic articulation of English sounds (esp. speech organs, sound classes, places and manners of articulation) as well as the systems used for the phonetic description of vowels and consonants. We will also have a look at phonemes and allophonic distribution, phonological processes and connected speech phenomena such as word stress and intonation. Attention is also paid to those areas of articulation that tend to be problematic for German speakers. Students will also learn to read and broadly transcribe English sounds using International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription.

Course book:
Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics and English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag. (available as e-book through universitay library)

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 14.07.2026

This lecture course surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of American and British accents. The lecture focuses on the characteristic articulation of English sounds (esp. speech organs, sound classes, places and manners of articulation) as well as the systems used for the phonetic description of vowels and consonants. We will also have a look at phonemes and allophonic distribution, phonological processes and connected speech phenomena such as word stress and intonation. Attention is also paid to those areas of articulation that tend to be problematic for German speakers. Students will also learn to read and broadly transcribe English sounds using International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription.

Course book:
Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics and English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag. (available as e-book through universitay library)

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 16.07.2026

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Help your pupils dive into the world of short stories! Authentic literary texts can enrich with their broad potential the EFL lesson in various ways. By strongly engaging the personal-affective dimension of the learner, they foster linguistic-communicative, intercultural as well as literary competences. In this course, we want to explore this potential by focusing on a literary genre which could appeal to learners of all groups as well by examining the didactic-methodological principles of narrative literature in foreign language teaching and learning. Besides providing practical strategies for classroom implementation and motivating examples with suitable text types for learners at different levels, we will also be working with our own selected Anglophone literary texts for which we will design tasks and activities accordingly.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class, microteaching presentation; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

: ICC is one of the key competencies in modern EFL classes. In this course we will examine aspects of teaching ICC for different anglophone countries and their cultures, such as the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa and India and work out the crucial aspects the learners need to acquire. This course focuses on teaching ICC by using films in the EFLC. Students will create readers including teaching material and essential information which they will be able to use in their subsequent teaching career, and explore the possibilities of including other skills as well by planning relevant and motivating tasks for the EFLC.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Help your pupils dive into the world of short stories! Authentic literary texts can enrich with their broad potential the EFL lesson in various ways. By strongly engaging the personal-affective dimension of the learner, they foster linguistic-communicative, intercultural as well as literary competences. In this course, we want to explore this potential by focusing on a literary genre which could appeal to learners of all groups as well by examining the didactic-methodological principles of narrative literature in foreign language teaching and learning. Besides providing practical strategies for classroom implementation and motivating examples with suitable text types for learners at different levels, we will also be working with our own selected Anglophone literary texts for which we will design tasks and activities accordingly.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class, microteaching presentation; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

: ICC is one of the key competencies in modern EFL classes. In this course we will examine aspects of teaching ICC for different anglophone countries and their cultures, such as the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa and India and work out the crucial aspects the learners need to acquire. This course focuses on teaching ICC by using films in the EFLC. Students will create readers including teaching material and essential information which they will be able to use in their subsequent teaching career, and explore the possibilities of including other skills as well by planning relevant and motivating tasks for the EFLC.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Current research indicates that fluency is a neglected component of instruction and learning in the EFL classroom. This raises a number of issues and questions: (a) what does fluency mean, and what does it mean to EFL teachers and learners? (b) how familiar are teachers with research findings in foreign language fluency? (c) how confident are teachers in promoting fluency in class? (d) how do they actually go about promoting fluency in the classroom? (e) what practices and formats of interaction are most likely to contribute to fluency development in the EFL classroom? In this course, participants will gain a detailed understanding of fluency and systematic fluency development in various EFL classroom settings. Special emphasis will be given to fostering productive and receptive oral fluency through creative practice and improvisation at the secondary school level.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Diversity and heterogeneity shape national and international education policies (e.g., Global Citizenship Education, Education for Peace), linking directly to Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). In EFL teaching, cultural hybridity is inseparable from ICC development. This seminar uses fictions of migration as contextualized teaching material, guiding participants to design, implement, and evaluate lessons that blend literary analysis, cultural insight, and language skills. By aligning with ICC and global citizenship principles, learners acquire empathy, conflict resolution abilities, and intercultural awareness, preparing them to act responsibly within a globally interconnected world.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

In order to communicate in English, learners need to acquire a broad range of lexico-grammatical competences and skills. For instance, they need to learn the meanings of words, how they are pronounced and written, and how they are used in combination with other words to produce and understand text (in the broadest sense of the term). Based on current national and international research, this course looks at vocabulary learning and instruction from a theme-based perspective. Its central aims are a) to familiarize participants with current concepts and models of lexico-grammatical learning, and b) to advance their professional expertise in teaching vocabulary in thematically based EFL sequences, focusing on secondary schools.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Project-oriented learning refers to communicative classroom settings which are enquiry-, discovery-, task- and solution-oriented. It is also associated with authentic ‘real-life’ encounters with English speakers from around the world (oral or written, face-to-face or virtual, etc.). In this seminar, specific attention is given to the central theoretical and practical aspects of conceptualizing and implementing sustainability education in project-oriented EFL settings. Student learning and work in this course will itself be informed by project-based principles, such as the development of differentiated task learning, learning with course-external relevance, task- and project-based assessment, etc. All participants will be required to develop a sustainability project of their choice in teams and present it toward the end of this course.

Please note that this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, computer-mediated virtual format predominantly. Since asynchronous online courses are not conducted live and in-person, participants are not required to be logged in at the same time as everyone else, for instance, to attend virtual lectures or participate in video conferences and chat sessions. Instead, the instructor will distribute coursework through a virtual learning management system (i.e. StudIP, usually at the beginning of each week). Participants can complete the provided writing assignments and tasks at their own paces, adhering to the deadlines requested by the instructor (usually at the end of each week). This means that they can log on whenever they want, completing the coursework as they would like during each weekly block of learning.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
Readings will be made available in a number of ways (library, the web, StudIP).

Credit:
Ungraded: Active participation, weekly learning logs, forum discussions, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course equips future EFL teachers with foundational AI literacy and hands-on skills in prompt engineering, emphasizing its application in language education. Rooted in professional EFL teaching knowledge, students will learn how to design and refine prompts that align with pedagogical goals, principles, and methodologies, such as communicative language teaching and task-based language learning. A key component involves working with AI tools directly available on the ILIAS learning management system, enabling students to integrate AI seamlessly into their digital teaching environments. Through practical tasks and critical reflection, participants will explore the ethical and legal use of AI, address bias and reliability issues, and develop strategies for effectively prompting AI to support lesson planning and syllabi design, materials and activity development, and assessment and feedback. This course requires you to bring your own device.

This is a TEFLhybrid Course: http://www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/tefl/teflhybrid

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

The study of culture and intercultural communication remains a cornerstone of English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy. Over the semester, the seminar will examine how Indian culture is portrayed in English language course books, analyzing this representation as part of the broader field of world Englishes and its impact on contemporary EFL classrooms. By engaging with literary texts (both print and audio visual), expository writings, authentic cultural artefacts, and textbook materials, participants will collaboratively design, structure, and critically evaluate teaching units and lessons that integrate literary, cultural, and linguistic objectives.

Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

Current research indicates that fluency is a neglected component of instruction and learning in the EFL classroom. This raises a number of issues and questions: (a) what does fluency mean, and what does it mean to EFL teachers and learners? (b) how familiar are teachers with research findings in foreign language fluency? (c) how confident are teachers in promoting fluency in class? (d) how do they actually go about promoting fluency in the classroom? (e) what practices and formats of interaction are most likely to contribute to fluency development in the EFL classroom? In this course, participants will gain a detailed understanding of fluency and systematic fluency development in various EFL classroom settings. Special emphasis will be given to fostering productive and receptive oral fluency through creative practice and improvisation at the secondary school level.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Diversity and heterogeneity shape national and international education policies (e.g., Global Citizenship Education, Education for Peace), linking directly to Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). In EFL teaching, cultural hybridity is inseparable from ICC development. This seminar uses fictions of migration as contextualized teaching material, guiding participants to design, implement, and evaluate lessons that blend literary analysis, cultural insight, and language skills. By aligning with ICC and global citizenship principles, learners acquire empathy, conflict resolution abilities, and intercultural awareness, preparing them to act responsibly within a globally interconnected world.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

In order to communicate in English, learners need to acquire a broad range of lexico-grammatical competences and skills. For instance, they need to learn the meanings of words, how they are pronounced and written, and how they are used in combination with other words to produce and understand text (in the broadest sense of the term). Based on current national and international research, this course looks at vocabulary learning and instruction from a theme-based perspective. Its central aims are a) to familiarize participants with current concepts and models of lexico-grammatical learning, and b) to advance their professional expertise in teaching vocabulary in thematically based EFL sequences, focusing on secondary schools.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Project-oriented learning refers to communicative classroom settings which are enquiry-, discovery-, task- and solution-oriented. It is also associated with authentic ‘real-life’ encounters with English speakers from around the world (oral or written, face-to-face or virtual, etc.). In this seminar, specific attention is given to the central theoretical and practical aspects of conceptualizing and implementing sustainability education in project-oriented EFL settings. Student learning and work in this course will itself be informed by project-based principles, such as the development of differentiated task learning, learning with course-external relevance, task- and project-based assessment, etc. All participants will be required to develop a sustainability project of their choice in teams and present it toward the end of this course.

Please note that this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, computer-mediated virtual format predominantly. Since asynchronous online courses are not conducted live and in-person, participants are not required to be logged in at the same time as everyone else, for instance, to attend virtual lectures or participate in video conferences and chat sessions. Instead, the instructor will distribute coursework through a virtual learning management system (i.e. StudIP, usually at the beginning of each week). Participants can complete the provided writing assignments and tasks at their own paces, adhering to the deadlines requested by the instructor (usually at the end of each week). This means that they can log on whenever they want, completing the coursework as they would like during each weekly block of learning.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
Readings will be made available in a number of ways (library, the web, StudIP).

Credit:
Ungraded: Active participation, weekly learning logs, forum discussions, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course equips future EFL teachers with foundational AI literacy and hands-on skills in prompt engineering, emphasizing its application in language education. Rooted in professional EFL teaching knowledge, students will learn how to design and refine prompts that align with pedagogical goals, principles, and methodologies, such as communicative language teaching and task-based language learning. A key component involves working with AI tools directly available on the ILIAS learning management system, enabling students to integrate AI seamlessly into their digital teaching environments. Through practical tasks and critical reflection, participants will explore the ethical and legal use of AI, address bias and reliability issues, and develop strategies for effectively prompting AI to support lesson planning and syllabi design, materials and activity development, and assessment and feedback. This course requires you to bring your own device.

This is a TEFLhybrid Course: http://www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/tefl/teflhybrid

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

The study of culture and intercultural communication remains a cornerstone of English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy. Over the semester, the seminar will examine how Indian culture is portrayed in English language course books, analyzing this representation as part of the broader field of world Englishes and its impact on contemporary EFL classrooms. By engaging with literary texts (both print and audio visual), expository writings, authentic cultural artefacts, and textbook materials, participants will collaboratively design, structure, and critically evaluate teaching units and lessons that integrate literary, cultural, and linguistic objectives.

Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

Current research indicates that fluency is a neglected component of instruction and learning in the EFL classroom. This raises a number of issues and questions: (a) what does fluency mean, and what does it mean to EFL teachers and learners? (b) how familiar are teachers with research findings in foreign language fluency? (c) how confident are teachers in promoting fluency in class? (d) how do they actually go about promoting fluency in the classroom? (e) what practices and formats of interaction are most likely to contribute to fluency development in the EFL classroom? In this course, participants will gain a detailed understanding of fluency and systematic fluency development in various EFL classroom settings. Special emphasis will be given to fostering productive and receptive oral fluency through creative practice and improvisation at the secondary school level.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Diversity and heterogeneity shape national and international education policies (e.g., Global Citizenship Education, Education for Peace), linking directly to Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). In EFL teaching, cultural hybridity is inseparable from ICC development. This seminar uses fictions of migration as contextualized teaching material, guiding participants to design, implement, and evaluate lessons that blend literary analysis, cultural insight, and language skills. By aligning with ICC and global citizenship principles, learners acquire empathy, conflict resolution abilities, and intercultural awareness, preparing them to act responsibly within a globally interconnected world.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

In order to communicate in English, learners need to acquire a broad range of lexico-grammatical competences and skills. For instance, they need to learn the meanings of words, how they are pronounced and written, and how they are used in combination with other words to produce and understand text (in the broadest sense of the term). Based on current national and international research, this course looks at vocabulary learning and instruction from a theme-based perspective. Its central aims are a) to familiarize participants with current concepts and models of lexico-grammatical learning, and b) to advance their professional expertise in teaching vocabulary in thematically based EFL sequences, focusing on secondary schools.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Project-oriented learning refers to communicative classroom settings which are enquiry-, discovery-, task- and solution-oriented. It is also associated with authentic ‘real-life’ encounters with English speakers from around the world (oral or written, face-to-face or virtual, etc.). In this seminar, specific attention is given to the central theoretical and practical aspects of conceptualizing and implementing sustainability education in project-oriented EFL settings. Student learning and work in this course will itself be informed by project-based principles, such as the development of differentiated task learning, learning with course-external relevance, task- and project-based assessment, etc. All participants will be required to develop a sustainability project of their choice in teams and present it toward the end of this course.

Please note that this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, computer-mediated virtual format predominantly. Since asynchronous online courses are not conducted live and in-person, participants are not required to be logged in at the same time as everyone else, for instance, to attend virtual lectures or participate in video conferences and chat sessions. Instead, the instructor will distribute coursework through a virtual learning management system (i.e. StudIP, usually at the beginning of each week). Participants can complete the provided writing assignments and tasks at their own paces, adhering to the deadlines requested by the instructor (usually at the end of each week). This means that they can log on whenever they want, completing the coursework as they would like during each weekly block of learning.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
Readings will be made available in a number of ways (library, the web, StudIP).

Credit:
Ungraded: Active participation, weekly learning logs, forum discussions, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course equips future EFL teachers with foundational AI literacy and hands-on skills in prompt engineering, emphasizing its application in language education. Rooted in professional EFL teaching knowledge, students will learn how to design and refine prompts that align with pedagogical goals, principles, and methodologies, such as communicative language teaching and task-based language learning. A key component involves working with AI tools directly available on the ILIAS learning management system, enabling students to integrate AI seamlessly into their digital teaching environments. Through practical tasks and critical reflection, participants will explore the ethical and legal use of AI, address bias and reliability issues, and develop strategies for effectively prompting AI to support lesson planning and syllabi design, materials and activity development, and assessment and feedback. This course requires you to bring your own device.

This is a TEFLhybrid Course: http://www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/tefl/teflhybrid

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

The study of culture and intercultural communication remains a cornerstone of English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy. Over the semester, the seminar will examine how Indian culture is portrayed in English language course books, analyzing this representation as part of the broader field of world Englishes and its impact on contemporary EFL classrooms. By engaging with literary texts (both print and audio visual), expository writings, authentic cultural artefacts, and textbook materials, participants will collaboratively design, structure, and critically evaluate teaching units and lessons that integrate literary, cultural, and linguistic objectives.

Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This course explores key concepts in literature, art, and aesthetic value. It introduces students to foundational questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of literature, while developing their ability to analyze and interpret literary works as forms of art. The course examines both the theory and the practice of literature, as well as the institutional conventions that shape literary reading and criticism.

The aesthetic value of literature will be considered in relation to other kinds of value, including ethical, sociological, and cognitivist approaches. The concepts of genre and medium will also be discussed in order to situate literature in relation to a range of artistic and narrative forms (e.g. horror, science fiction, comics).

Primary materials will include short stories and essays by authors who reflect on the relationship between art and the world.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
regular attendance (max. two absences), in-class and preparatory participation (Stud. IP assignments), group presentation, research proposal, term paper/a written examination.
You are not allowed to use any AI tools for any task of the course (whether it is graded or not).

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when he gave the interview? All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated, i.e. the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.

In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence – phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic – in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In this course, we will explore the fascinating intersection of language and the digital world, focusing on how the internet reshapes the way we communicate and share information.

We will look into the dynamics of online discourse, exploring how language is used in different social media contexts, such as the informal, fast-paced exchanges on Twitter/X, the visually driven communication on Instagram, and the community-oriented discussions on Reddit.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

This course will trace the evolution of animal characters in British children’s literature from Victorian times to the present. Through close reading and comparative analysis we will discuss how animals function as mirrors and agents of empathy, social critique, and environmental stewardship, and how their portrayals shift in response to changing child‑audiences and cultural anxieties.

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
regular attendance (max. two absences), in-class and preparatory participation (Stud. IP assignments), group presentation, research proposal, term paper/a written examination.
You are not allowed to use any AI tools for any task of the course (whether it is graded or not).

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

This course will trace the evolution of animal characters in British children’s literature from Victorian times to the present. Through close reading and comparative analysis we will discuss how animals function as mirrors and agents of empathy, social critique, and environmental stewardship, and how their portrayals shift in response to changing child‑audiences and cultural anxieties.

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
regular attendance (max. two absences), in-class and preparatory participation (Stud. IP assignments), group presentation, research proposal, term paper/a written examination.
You are not allowed to use any AI tools for any task of the course (whether it is graded or not).

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

Welcome! This lecture serves as an introduction to cognitive literary studies (CLS). It addresses the question of how readers process literature through cognitive parameters and mechanisms that are derived from their real-world experiences. More specifically, we will discuss experientiality; the creation of mental models like storyworlds (including top-down and bottom-up processes); knowledge structures (such as frames and scripts); mechanisms of perception (figure vs. ground; primacy and recency effects); processing mechanisms (such as the principle of minimal departure, naturalization, and blending); the worlds of text-world theory; character models; theory of mind; hypothetical intentionalism; storyworld possible selves; as well as important differences between first- and second-generation approaches within cognitive literary studies. At the end of the term, we will move towards empirical literary studies (ELS) to demonstrate that empirical investigations are essential if we want to get a sense of what flesh-and-blood readers do when they process literary texts. Most of the readings will be taken from the new Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies (ed. Alber/Schneider, 2026).

This course will trace the evolution of animal characters in British children’s literature from Victorian times to the present. Through close reading and comparative analysis we will discuss how animals function as mirrors and agents of empathy, social critique, and environmental stewardship, and how their portrayals shift in response to changing child‑audiences and cultural anxieties.

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
regular attendance (max. two absences), in-class and preparatory participation (Stud. IP assignments), group presentation, research proposal, term paper/a written examination.
You are not allowed to use any AI tools for any task of the course (whether it is graded or not).

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

This course will trace the evolution of animal characters in British children’s literature from Victorian times to the present. Through close reading and comparative analysis we will discuss how animals function as mirrors and agents of empathy, social critique, and environmental stewardship, and how their portrayals shift in response to changing child‑audiences and cultural anxieties.

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
regular attendance (max. two absences), in-class and preparatory participation (Stud. IP assignments), group presentation, research proposal, term paper/a written examination.
You are not allowed to use any AI tools for any task of the course (whether it is graded or not).

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

Welcome! This lecture serves as an introduction to cognitive literary studies (CLS). It addresses the question of how readers process literature through cognitive parameters and mechanisms that are derived from their real-world experiences. More specifically, we will discuss experientiality; the creation of mental models like storyworlds (including top-down and bottom-up processes); knowledge structures (such as frames and scripts); mechanisms of perception (figure vs. ground; primacy and recency effects); processing mechanisms (such as the principle of minimal departure, naturalization, and blending); the worlds of text-world theory; character models; theory of mind; hypothetical intentionalism; storyworld possible selves; as well as important differences between first- and second-generation approaches within cognitive literary studies. At the end of the term, we will move towards empirical literary studies (ELS) to demonstrate that empirical investigations are essential if we want to get a sense of what flesh-and-blood readers do when they process literary texts. Most of the readings will be taken from the new Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies (ed. Alber/Schneider, 2026).

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

This course explores key concepts in literature, art, and aesthetic value. It introduces students to foundational questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of literature, while developing their ability to analyze and interpret literary works as forms of art. The course examines both the theory and the practice of literature, as well as the institutional conventions that shape literary reading and criticism.

The aesthetic value of literature will be considered in relation to other kinds of value, including ethical, sociological, and cognitivist approaches. The concepts of genre and medium will also be discussed in order to situate literature in relation to a range of artistic and narrative forms (e.g. horror, science fiction, comics).

Primary materials will include short stories and essays by authors who reflect on the relationship between art and the world.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

This course explores key concepts in literature, art, and aesthetic value. It introduces students to foundational questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of literature, while developing their ability to analyze and interpret literary works as forms of art. The course examines both the theory and the practice of literature, as well as the institutional conventions that shape literary reading and criticism.

The aesthetic value of literature will be considered in relation to other kinds of value, including ethical, sociological, and cognitivist approaches. The concepts of genre and medium will also be discussed in order to situate literature in relation to a range of artistic and narrative forms (e.g. horror, science fiction, comics).

Primary materials will include short stories and essays by authors who reflect on the relationship between art and the world.

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Bigamy, madness, hidden identities, and crimes behind closed doors…Victorian sensation fiction had it all. This seminar explores the rise of sensation fiction and its ongoing influence on popular culture through Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Combining discussions with close readings, we examine how scandal, secrecy, and domestic crime reshaped the nineteenth-century novel. Students will learn to identify the key features and contexts of sensation fiction, practice close reading, and analyze how narrative form produces emotional and sensory effects.
Required Text: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (any edition)

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

Welcome! This lecture serves as an introduction to cognitive literary studies (CLS). It addresses the question of how readers process literature through cognitive parameters and mechanisms that are derived from their real-world experiences. More specifically, we will discuss experientiality; the creation of mental models like storyworlds (including top-down and bottom-up processes); knowledge structures (such as frames and scripts); mechanisms of perception (figure vs. ground; primacy and recency effects); processing mechanisms (such as the principle of minimal departure, naturalization, and blending); the worlds of text-world theory; character models; theory of mind; hypothetical intentionalism; storyworld possible selves; as well as important differences between first- and second-generation approaches within cognitive literary studies. At the end of the term, we will move towards empirical literary studies (ELS) to demonstrate that empirical investigations are essential if we want to get a sense of what flesh-and-blood readers do when they process literary texts. Most of the readings will be taken from the new Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies (ed. Alber/Schneider, 2026).

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when he gave the interview? All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated, i.e. the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.

In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence – phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic – in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In this course, we will explore the fascinating intersection of language and the digital world, focusing on how the internet reshapes the way we communicate and share information.

We will look into the dynamics of online discourse, exploring how language is used in different social media contexts, such as the informal, fast-paced exchanges on Twitter/X, the visually driven communication on Instagram, and the community-oriented discussions on Reddit.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when he gave the interview? All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated, i.e. the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.

In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence – phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic – in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In this course, we will explore the fascinating intersection of language and the digital world, focusing on how the internet reshapes the way we communicate and share information.

We will look into the dynamics of online discourse, exploring how language is used in different social media contexts, such as the informal, fast-paced exchanges on Twitter/X, the visually driven communication on Instagram, and the community-oriented discussions on Reddit.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when he gave the interview? All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated, i.e. the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.

In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence – phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic – in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In this course, we will explore the fascinating intersection of language and the digital world, focusing on how the internet reshapes the way we communicate and share information.

We will look into the dynamics of online discourse, exploring how language is used in different social media contexts, such as the informal, fast-paced exchanges on Twitter/X, the visually driven communication on Instagram, and the community-oriented discussions on Reddit.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has fascinated both scholars and laypeople for centuries. One of the main questions that SLA researchers have been trying to answer is how languages other than one´s native tongue are learned. Why is it so challenging for most second language learners to become as equally proficient L2 users as L1 users? What do second language learners learn and what do they not learn during the process?

Some of the topics that we will explore in the seminar will include linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic theories and perspectives, the role of input, interaction and output in the process of second language acquisition. We will also look at the context of language learning. For instance, what happens in a classroom setting, through interaction with native speakers or when it is supported by the use of technology. Finally, we will investigate the individual language learner and the role of aptitude, motivation and learning strategies among other things.

It is also worth pointing out that even though the seminar will focus on second language learning, it will also help us understand the complex phenomenon that each of us has experienced and as such provide valuable insights for future language teachers.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive an access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, an assignment, and an oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on July 15, 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.