Fachbereich 05: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur - Anglistik - Master of Arts (Studienbeginn bis Sommersemester 2020)

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

This lecture explores the dynamic relationships between happiness, literature, and wellbeing, guiding students through an interdisciplinary examination of the good life. We begin with an introduction to the core concepts of happiness, literature, and wellbeing, followed by an exploration of research-based teaching and learning methods. Students will then consider literature not only as a mirror of society but as a laboratory for testing and experimenting with various forms of the good life.

The course further investigates the value of literature in the 21st century, with an emphasis on its enduring relevance in a rapidly changing world. The good life will be approached as an interdisciplinary project, drawing on ancient wisdom and philosophical traditions (from Eudaimonia to Stoicism), alongside contemporary insights from positive psychology, economics, and sociology. By examining both historical and modern perspectives, students will see how literature functions as a vast archive of ideas and lived experiences of the good life, while also critically interrogating these forms through literary critique.

Exam: In Pursuit of Happiness, Meaning, and Wellbeing – Literature and the Forms of the Good Life
Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2025.

Movies of the Twenty-First Century
This lecture is designed to familiarize students with the most important categories for the analysis of film on the basis of recent movies. In the first part of the lecture, we will look at meaning-making elements (such as the mise-en-scène, cinematographic elements, editing techniques, sound [effects], paratextual features, and so forth). We will also deal with the concept of the cinematic narrator, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, film metaphors, and the representation of consciousness (or character interiority) in movies. In the second part of the lecture, we will apply these concepts by analyzing and interpreting selected films from the twenty-first century (such as Barbie and Oppenheimer).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

Colloquium: Master Theses
This class is designed to help students write their Master theses. During the first two sessions, we will talk about the question of how to find academic (i.e., peer-reviewed) secondary literature here at JLU, how to quote correctly according to the Departmental Style Sheet, how to find your research question (or thesis), and how to structure your Master thesis. In the following sessions, the students will be asked to present their ideas re. their final theses (in about 20 minutes). We will discuss these ideas and give advice in the context of the group.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

The individuals participating in this course are likely interested in becoming EFL teachers in the future. What does that entail? Who should we be? What values should we harbor? What skills should we acquire? The activities within this course represent an exploration into what language teachers can and should be. Given the futural dimension of current students turning into EFL practitioners, an anticipatory, if not utopian, perspective is to be adopted, hinging to some extent on technological projections. Chief among them are the various prospective instantiations of what is today known as “Artificial Intelligence”. To document the discussions, the instructor and all students in the course will co-author an academic article with the working title “An exploration into what language teachers can and should be”. If the end product meets certain quality standards, it is conceivable that the article will be submitted to a scientific journal in the field.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

What does ‘authentic’ even mean when it comes to teaching English as a foreign language? In this seminar students are introduced to the different concepts of authenticity. Most agree that learning materials are authentic when they have not been produced for the express purpose of language instruction. However, questions of authenticity are by no means confined to TEFL materials. The course content will range from the philosophical to the practical, spanning issues of learner autonomy, motivation, and materials, to name but a few.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

“Inclusive education refers to the philosophy of embracing human diversity and valuing and supporting the full participation of all students as equal members of an educational community” (NSW Legislative Council, 2017: p.14). However, in a digital era, has inclusive education been able to adapt to the new challenges and make use of modern instructional tools?
Throughout the seminar, students will work in understanding the main principles and implications of working on environments that promote Inclusion, within teaching and methodology settings, as well as material and curricula. The implications and challenges of promoting this teaching and learning framework will also be explored, sparking, hopefully, interesting discussions on the current conditions of the inclusion and differentiation discourse in the German context. Students will be exposed to digital and AI educational tools and explore ways in which they can be integrated to create tasks, lessons and support both for the teacher as well as SEN students. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions in order to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside those processes, tailored to their students’ individual needs.

The course is conceptualized as a hybrid learning course (HRZ e-learning label “e++ intensive”), which means:
- It combines face-to-face seminar sessions with online activities to transform and enhance participants’ learning experiences, competencies and skills. It is comprised of four introductory classroom sessions, followed by four weeks of student-regulated online learning, and three final sessions to give all participants the opportunity to present their materials.
- It is based on both print and digital media regarding the resources used, but also regarding the products to be created by the participants.
- It integrates theory-based input and thorough reflection with creative, hands-on experience in small groups and project-oriented workshops.
The course makes use of StudIP, Canva and BBB to provide flexible and intuitive online tools allowing for an interactive workflow throughout the semester.





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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the potential of informal English learning opportunities through video streaming and their effects on the English medium digital selfhood of learners. Representations of anglophone cultures in series and films will be of interest, and we will analyse and interpret specific series to be used in the EFLC. While working with the students from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, questions concerning learning English in the digital age will be of interest as well as the learners’ attitudes towards and experiences with English medium pop-culture.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar will provide insight into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create or enhance EFL teaching materials for different educational contexts. Participants will first explore the fascinating field of AI in TEFL, considering its strengths and limitations. They will then examine the combination of generative AI with other digital technologies and tools to produce attractive and engaging EFL teaching and learning materials. Student learning in this course will be driven by theoretical discussions of materials development in TEFL and exploratory, project-based practice in small groups.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course will investigate the power of Virtual Reality for teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Virtual Reality is an immersive and interactive computer-mediated simulation of a multidimensional environment with manipulations of the users' senses. During this practical course students will be given a head-mounted VR headset as we will explore ways of integrating VR into the EFLC. Here we will take a critical look at current research on VR as well as examine various VR-Apps to harness their potential for designing competence-oriented tasks for beginners to advanced learners. In person attendance in the seminar building in Giessen is mandatory.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

The individuals participating in this course are likely interested in becoming EFL teachers in the future. What does that entail? Who should we be? What values should we harbor? What skills should we acquire? The activities within this course represent an exploration into what language teachers can and should be. Given the futural dimension of current students turning into EFL practitioners, an anticipatory, if not utopian, perspective is to be adopted, hinging to some extent on technological projections. Chief among them are the various prospective instantiations of what is today known as “Artificial Intelligence”. To document the discussions, the instructor and all students in the course will co-author an academic article with the working title “An exploration into what language teachers can and should be”. If the end product meets certain quality standards, it is conceivable that the article will be submitted to a scientific journal in the field.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

What does ‘authentic’ even mean when it comes to teaching English as a foreign language? In this seminar students are introduced to the different concepts of authenticity. Most agree that learning materials are authentic when they have not been produced for the express purpose of language instruction. However, questions of authenticity are by no means confined to TEFL materials. The course content will range from the philosophical to the practical, spanning issues of learner autonomy, motivation, and materials, to name but a few.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

“Inclusive education refers to the philosophy of embracing human diversity and valuing and supporting the full participation of all students as equal members of an educational community” (NSW Legislative Council, 2017: p.14). However, in a digital era, has inclusive education been able to adapt to the new challenges and make use of modern instructional tools?
Throughout the seminar, students will work in understanding the main principles and implications of working on environments that promote Inclusion, within teaching and methodology settings, as well as material and curricula. The implications and challenges of promoting this teaching and learning framework will also be explored, sparking, hopefully, interesting discussions on the current conditions of the inclusion and differentiation discourse in the German context. Students will be exposed to digital and AI educational tools and explore ways in which they can be integrated to create tasks, lessons and support both for the teacher as well as SEN students. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions in order to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside those processes, tailored to their students’ individual needs.

The course is conceptualized as a hybrid learning course (HRZ e-learning label “e++ intensive”), which means:
- It combines face-to-face seminar sessions with online activities to transform and enhance participants’ learning experiences, competencies and skills. It is comprised of four introductory classroom sessions, followed by four weeks of student-regulated online learning, and three final sessions to give all participants the opportunity to present their materials.
- It is based on both print and digital media regarding the resources used, but also regarding the products to be created by the participants.
- It integrates theory-based input and thorough reflection with creative, hands-on experience in small groups and project-oriented workshops.
The course makes use of StudIP, Canva and BBB to provide flexible and intuitive online tools allowing for an interactive workflow throughout the semester.





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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the potential of informal English learning opportunities through video streaming and their effects on the English medium digital selfhood of learners. Representations of anglophone cultures in series and films will be of interest, and we will analyse and interpret specific series to be used in the EFLC. While working with the students from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, questions concerning learning English in the digital age will be of interest as well as the learners’ attitudes towards and experiences with English medium pop-culture.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar will provide insight into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create or enhance EFL teaching materials for different educational contexts. Participants will first explore the fascinating field of AI in TEFL, considering its strengths and limitations. They will then examine the combination of generative AI with other digital technologies and tools to produce attractive and engaging EFL teaching and learning materials. Student learning in this course will be driven by theoretical discussions of materials development in TEFL and exploratory, project-based practice in small groups.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course will investigate the power of Virtual Reality for teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Virtual Reality is an immersive and interactive computer-mediated simulation of a multidimensional environment with manipulations of the users' senses. During this practical course students will be given a head-mounted VR headset as we will explore ways of integrating VR into the EFLC. Here we will take a critical look at current research on VR as well as examine various VR-Apps to harness their potential for designing competence-oriented tasks for beginners to advanced learners. In person attendance in the seminar building in Giessen is mandatory.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

The individuals participating in this course are likely interested in becoming EFL teachers in the future. What does that entail? Who should we be? What values should we harbor? What skills should we acquire? The activities within this course represent an exploration into what language teachers can and should be. Given the futural dimension of current students turning into EFL practitioners, an anticipatory, if not utopian, perspective is to be adopted, hinging to some extent on technological projections. Chief among them are the various prospective instantiations of what is today known as “Artificial Intelligence”. To document the discussions, the instructor and all students in the course will co-author an academic article with the working title “An exploration into what language teachers can and should be”. If the end product meets certain quality standards, it is conceivable that the article will be submitted to a scientific journal in the field.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

What does ‘authentic’ even mean when it comes to teaching English as a foreign language? In this seminar students are introduced to the different concepts of authenticity. Most agree that learning materials are authentic when they have not been produced for the express purpose of language instruction. However, questions of authenticity are by no means confined to TEFL materials. The course content will range from the philosophical to the practical, spanning issues of learner autonomy, motivation, and materials, to name but a few.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

In the current age of globalization, migration and internet communication, intercultural communicative competence is a key requirement in many professions and has become a priority aim in school and university education. This course focuses on fundamental aspects of intercultural communication and approaches to developing intercultural/transcultural competence and understanding, placing special emphasis on culture and language integrated education in institutional settings such as high schools, universities, etc.

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


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

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course focuses on the rationale, goals, and principles of differentiated instruction in the EFL classroom. Participants will learn a) how to examine and recognize individual differences in learning, student’s preferences for learning, their needs and interests, their learning styles, multiple intelligences and identities, as well as b) how to create learning environments that will maximize the potential for successful learning. At the end of this course participants will possess a repertoire of strategies for differentiating instruction that will allow them to respond flexibly to the diverse needs and abilities of all students in the EFL classroom.
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.
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: weekly assignments and learning logs, active participation (online forum), knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

“Inclusive education refers to the philosophy of embracing human diversity and valuing and supporting the full participation of all students as equal members of an educational community” (NSW Legislative Council, 2017: p.14). However, in a digital era, has inclusive education been able to adapt to the new challenges and make use of modern instructional tools?
Throughout the seminar, students will work in understanding the main principles and implications of working on environments that promote Inclusion, within teaching and methodology settings, as well as material and curricula. The implications and challenges of promoting this teaching and learning framework will also be explored, sparking, hopefully, interesting discussions on the current conditions of the inclusion and differentiation discourse in the German context. Students will be exposed to digital and AI educational tools and explore ways in which they can be integrated to create tasks, lessons and support both for the teacher as well as SEN students. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions in order to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside those processes, tailored to their students’ individual needs.

The course is conceptualized as a hybrid learning course (HRZ e-learning label “e++ intensive”), which means:
- It combines face-to-face seminar sessions with online activities to transform and enhance participants’ learning experiences, competencies and skills. It is comprised of four introductory classroom sessions, followed by four weeks of student-regulated online learning, and three final sessions to give all participants the opportunity to present their materials.
- It is based on both print and digital media regarding the resources used, but also regarding the products to be created by the participants.
- It integrates theory-based input and thorough reflection with creative, hands-on experience in small groups and project-oriented workshops.
The course makes use of StudIP, Canva and BBB to provide flexible and intuitive online tools allowing for an interactive workflow throughout the semester.





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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Motivation is one of the most important keys to success in learning and teaching English as a foreign language. This seminar aims to provide a deeper understanding of ‘what motivation is’ and how it can be ‘supported, maintained and, perhaps, increased’ in different EFL classroom environments, ranging from traditional to modern. The general approach is interdisciplinary, which means that recent trends and developments in motivational and in educational psychology, in learning theory, in the fields of applied linguistics and TEFL will be examined and discussed. These insights will serve as the background against which the following aspects will be explored in more detail: the significance of a ‘motivating’ classroom setting; the role of the teacher in supporting learner motivation, motivational strategies and skills; motivating and standards-oriented teaching/testing, etc.; the question of how to maintain teacher motivation.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the potential of informal English learning opportunities through video streaming and their effects on the English medium digital selfhood of learners. Representations of anglophone cultures in series and films will be of interest, and we will analyse and interpret specific series to be used in the EFLC. While working with the students from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, questions concerning learning English in the digital age will be of interest as well as the learners’ attitudes towards and experiences with English medium pop-culture.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This course will investigate the power of Virtual Reality for teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Virtual Reality is an immersive and interactive computer-mediated simulation of a multidimensional environment with manipulations of the users' senses. During this practical course students will be given a head-mounted VR headset as we will explore ways of integrating VR into the EFLC. Here we will take a critical look at current research on VR as well as examine various VR-Apps to harness their potential for designing competence-oriented tasks for beginners to advanced learners. In person attendance in the seminar building in Giessen is mandatory.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

The individuals participating in this course are likely interested in becoming EFL teachers in the future. What does that entail? Who should we be? What values should we harbor? What skills should we acquire? The activities within this course represent an exploration into what language teachers can and should be. Given the futural dimension of current students turning into EFL practitioners, an anticipatory, if not utopian, perspective is to be adopted, hinging to some extent on technological projections. Chief among them are the various prospective instantiations of what is today known as “Artificial Intelligence”. To document the discussions, the instructor and all students in the course will co-author an academic article with the working title “An exploration into what language teachers can and should be”. If the end product meets certain quality standards, it is conceivable that the article will be submitted to a scientific journal in the field.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

What does ‘authentic’ even mean when it comes to teaching English as a foreign language? In this seminar students are introduced to the different concepts of authenticity. Most agree that learning materials are authentic when they have not been produced for the express purpose of language instruction. However, questions of authenticity are by no means confined to TEFL materials. The course content will range from the philosophical to the practical, spanning issues of learner autonomy, motivation, and materials, to name but a few.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

In the current age of globalization, migration and internet communication, intercultural communicative competence is a key requirement in many professions and has become a priority aim in school and university education. This course focuses on fundamental aspects of intercultural communication and approaches to developing intercultural/transcultural competence and understanding, placing special emphasis on culture and language integrated education in institutional settings such as high schools, universities, etc.

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


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

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course focuses on the rationale, goals, and principles of differentiated instruction in the EFL classroom. Participants will learn a) how to examine and recognize individual differences in learning, student’s preferences for learning, their needs and interests, their learning styles, multiple intelligences and identities, as well as b) how to create learning environments that will maximize the potential for successful learning. At the end of this course participants will possess a repertoire of strategies for differentiating instruction that will allow them to respond flexibly to the diverse needs and abilities of all students in the EFL classroom.
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.
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: weekly assignments and learning logs, active participation (online forum), knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

“Inclusive education refers to the philosophy of embracing human diversity and valuing and supporting the full participation of all students as equal members of an educational community” (NSW Legislative Council, 2017: p.14). However, in a digital era, has inclusive education been able to adapt to the new challenges and make use of modern instructional tools?
Throughout the seminar, students will work in understanding the main principles and implications of working on environments that promote Inclusion, within teaching and methodology settings, as well as material and curricula. The implications and challenges of promoting this teaching and learning framework will also be explored, sparking, hopefully, interesting discussions on the current conditions of the inclusion and differentiation discourse in the German context. Students will be exposed to digital and AI educational tools and explore ways in which they can be integrated to create tasks, lessons and support both for the teacher as well as SEN students. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions in order to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside those processes, tailored to their students’ individual needs.

The course is conceptualized as a hybrid learning course (HRZ e-learning label “e++ intensive”), which means:
- It combines face-to-face seminar sessions with online activities to transform and enhance participants’ learning experiences, competencies and skills. It is comprised of four introductory classroom sessions, followed by four weeks of student-regulated online learning, and three final sessions to give all participants the opportunity to present their materials.
- It is based on both print and digital media regarding the resources used, but also regarding the products to be created by the participants.
- It integrates theory-based input and thorough reflection with creative, hands-on experience in small groups and project-oriented workshops.
The course makes use of StudIP, Canva and BBB to provide flexible and intuitive online tools allowing for an interactive workflow throughout the semester.





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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Motivation is one of the most important keys to success in learning and teaching English as a foreign language. This seminar aims to provide a deeper understanding of ‘what motivation is’ and how it can be ‘supported, maintained and, perhaps, increased’ in different EFL classroom environments, ranging from traditional to modern. The general approach is interdisciplinary, which means that recent trends and developments in motivational and in educational psychology, in learning theory, in the fields of applied linguistics and TEFL will be examined and discussed. These insights will serve as the background against which the following aspects will be explored in more detail: the significance of a ‘motivating’ classroom setting; the role of the teacher in supporting learner motivation, motivational strategies and skills; motivating and standards-oriented teaching/testing, etc.; the question of how to maintain teacher motivation.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the potential of informal English learning opportunities through video streaming and their effects on the English medium digital selfhood of learners. Representations of anglophone cultures in series and films will be of interest, and we will analyse and interpret specific series to be used in the EFLC. While working with the students from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, questions concerning learning English in the digital age will be of interest as well as the learners’ attitudes towards and experiences with English medium pop-culture.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This course will investigate the power of Virtual Reality for teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Virtual Reality is an immersive and interactive computer-mediated simulation of a multidimensional environment with manipulations of the users' senses. During this practical course students will be given a head-mounted VR headset as we will explore ways of integrating VR into the EFLC. Here we will take a critical look at current research on VR as well as examine various VR-Apps to harness their potential for designing competence-oriented tasks for beginners to advanced learners. In person attendance in the seminar building in Giessen is mandatory.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Graphic Novels use two codes to interact with the reader: pictures and text. Their inherent multimodality and educational potential for teaching and learning a foreign language will be of interest throughout the semester. Regarding the interaction of pictures and texts, their complementary as well as contradictory relation, we will analyse graphic novels for different age groups. The seminar is designed to then apply theoretical aspects as well as literary elements to classroom contexts, incorporating aspects of planning, structuring, and evaluating teaching units.


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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the educational potential of intercultural communicative competence, intercultural learning and literary learning in the English as a foreign language classroom. Throughout the semester, we will focus on the British culture(s) represented in many course books. By looking at literary texts, expository texts, cultural products and course book texts we will plan, structure as well as evaluate teaching units and lessons incorporating literary, cultural and language-related learning. The lesson proposals are then to be used for practical teaching with learners from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar will provide insight into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create or enhance EFL teaching materials for different educational contexts. Participants will first explore the fascinating field of AI in TEFL, considering its strengths and limitations. They will then examine the combination of generative AI with other digital technologies and tools to produce attractive and engaging EFL teaching and learning materials. Student learning in this course will be driven by theoretical discussions of materials development in TEFL and exploratory, project-based practice in small groups.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Graphic Novels use two codes to interact with the reader: pictures and text. Their inherent multimodality and educational potential for teaching and learning a foreign language will be of interest throughout the semester. Regarding the interaction of pictures and texts, their complementary as well as contradictory relation, we will analyse graphic novels for different age groups. The seminar is designed to then apply theoretical aspects as well as literary elements to classroom contexts, incorporating aspects of planning, structuring, and evaluating teaching units.


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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

Designed as a project seminar with practical teaching experience at Gesamtschule Gießen Ost, we will explore the educational potential of intercultural communicative competence, intercultural learning and literary learning in the English as a foreign language classroom. Throughout the semester, we will focus on the British culture(s) represented in many course books. By looking at literary texts, expository texts, cultural products and course book texts we will plan, structure as well as evaluate teaching units and lessons incorporating literary, cultural and language-related learning. The lesson proposals are then to be used for practical teaching with learners from Gesamtschule Gießen Ost.

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 2025.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar will provide insight into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create or enhance EFL teaching materials for different educational contexts. Participants will first explore the fascinating field of AI in TEFL, considering its strengths and limitations. They will then examine the combination of generative AI with other digital technologies and tools to produce attractive and engaging EFL teaching and learning materials. Student learning in this course will be driven by theoretical discussions of materials development in TEFL and exploratory, project-based practice in small groups.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class, team presentation, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
The term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2025.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2025.

Registration: Flex-Now

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

Current political events can leave individuals feeling depressed and disengaged. This seminar discusses methods for supporting democracy, and texts that can help people to maintain hope and resist autocratic developments, while also actively working to take care of mental health.

‘There may be no more fundamental question in literary studies than
what a work means, whose thought it is voicing, what it is really saying’

– Timothy Bewes, Free Indirect (2022: 3)

This is a heavily theoretical class is designed for MA-level students with a foundation in literary studies who are interested in thinking reflexively about how we, as a discipline, read and write about literary texts. How conscious are we of the various methods in the discipline and assumptions that guide our interpretations as students and aspiring scholars of literature? In her influential 2015 monograph, Rita Felski argued that the dominant mode of interpretation in literary studies was critique and that this could be aligned with what Paul Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutics of suspicion’. If, as Felski suggests, critique is ‘a style of interpretation driven by a spirit of disenchantment’ (2015: 2), what other ways are there of reading and interpreting literary texts? As Helen Small writes, ‘the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive, or appreciative, or imaginative, or provocative, or speculative, more than it is critical’ (2013: 26). How might you incorporate these modes in your own analyses?

In this seminar, we will incorporate various writing exercises to inhabit different modes of interpretation alongside the reading of short stories by a diverse range of contemporary writers such as Lydia Davis, Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Carmen Maria Machado, Roberto Bolaño, Teju Cole, and Ben Lerner.

During this course, Master's students participate in the doctoral colloquium of the International PhD Programme (IPP) "Literary and Cultural Studies." The colloquium provides an opportunity to gain insight into projects actively being pursued by doctoral students, to participate in advanced discussions in the field of literary and cultural studies, and, most importantly, to begin planning their own MA theses and receive feedback before moving forward.

At the end of the course, Master´s students will be asked to give a presentation on the outline of their MA thesis; given this type of requirement, this course is aimed at students in the final stages of their MA who are about to start writing their thesis
Sessions start on the 23rd of April. The other mandatory sessions will be 30th of April, 14th of May, 23rd of May, 18th of June, and 25th of June. The sessions on the 2nd and 9th of July will be entirely dedicated to the presentations of the theses´ outlines.

The sessions will run from 10.00-13.00 on the abovementioned dates (please note that the sessions start at 10.00 sharp).

In addition to registering via FlexNow, students are required to register with the IPP (via email to ipp@ggk.uni-giessen.de) in order to be added to the course´s StudIP, learn about the course requirements and receive the necessary materials.

Political Narratives across Media
In this class, we will discuss political narratives across different media. We will begin by addressing the question of what exactly a story is, and how we can determine its political ramifications. We will then look at different narratives such as the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers; the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985); selected episodes from the television series Black Mirror (2011-23) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017-); as well as conspiracy narratives (like QAnon) and other disruptive stories or forms of fake news that have to do with the world-wide rise of right-wing populism.

Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital
This class looks at post-postmodernist fictions of the digital. We will begin by discussing what happens after the end of the playful self-reflexivity of postmodernism (including concepts such as "digimodernism," "metamodernism," "cosmodernism," and "post-postmodernism"). We will also analyze the use of the digital in multimodal novels (which combine prose texts with visually represented e-mails, text messages, Skype transcripts, online forums, tweets, and blogs), and transmedial novels (which take the reader beyond the printed text to additional material on related websites, apps, or social media platforms). Two of our four primary texts will be Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) and Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water (2021).

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.