Fachbereich 05: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur - Anglistik - Lehramtsstudiengänge L 2, L 5

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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

This seminar aims to explore the various ways contemporary music is represented in anglophone fiction. Following a general introduction to the field of musico-literary intermediality, we will analyze several novels that deal with popular music, rock, metal, and hip-hop. For this, we will examine how these musical genres are portrayed in literature and what functions they serve. We will delve into the specific literary techniques used to integrate musical elements into the narrative structure, as well as the cultural and social contexts in which these representations emerge.

We will discuss texts such as Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2006), John Darnielle's "Master of Reality" (2008), Nick Hornby's "Juliet, Naked" (2009), and Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" (2011).

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. However, participants are expected to ensure they have access to appropriate listening devices for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (e.g., smartphone, laptop or tablet with internet access, and some type of headphones). Regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments are expected.

Exam for Listen Closely - Musico-Literary Intermediality in Contemporary English and American Fiction: Monday, July 21, 2025.

This seminar invites students to embark on a critical exploration of how authors have depicted England and its regions throughout literary history. It challenges traditional notions of a singular 'England' by examining the diverse ways writers have engaged with place, region, and nationhood. We will analyze how literary works construct and contest spatial identities, exploring themes such as regional identity, national belonging, and the power dynamics embedded in representations of space. A reader with all set texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term.

Juvenilia are literary works written by authors during their youth. In this course we will discuss a wide range of texts in various genres written during the long nineteenth century by British authors like Jane Austen, the Brontës and Virginia Woolf.

This seminar explores the intersections between postcolonial theory, cosmopolitanism, and world literature, offering a critical lens to examine the complexities of cultural exchange and global literary production in the modern era. By engaging with key concepts such as hybridity, translatability, and cultural dialogue, we aim to unpack the ways postcolonial contexts shape and challenge traditional notions of literary study. We will look at definitions of key concepts and read core theories, considering questions of identity, belonging, and the ethics of representation across diverse cultural landscapes. A reader with all set texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term.

This course is designed to introduce students to poetry analysis. We will start out by discussing what poetry is and why it matters. We will then move on to explore ways of reading and understanding poetry, looking at different technical matters and a broad range of examples. At the end of the course, we will consider different ways of writing about poetry and students will practise their writing skills.

Sweeney Todd, "the demon barber of Fleet Street", is one of the most captivating literary creations of the Victorian Age. This course explores his multifaceted existence across diverse mediums and genres. We will discuss how this iconic character has been reimagined, adapted, and transformed over time, shedding light on the creative liberties taken while preserving the essence of a timeless villainous figure on page, stage and screen.

On 19 February 1942, shortly after Japan’s attack on the U.S. Naval Station Pearl Harbour, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, authorising the removal of all Japanese Americans living in the Pacific Coast region. This resulted in the forced evacuation of over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry to internment camps in America’s interior regions. One month later over 22,000 Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia would be forcibly relocated and interned in a similar manner, this number making up over 90% of the entire Japanese Canadian population at the time. While the internment of Japanese Americans and Canadians was justified as a reactionary and necessary wartime measure against enemies of these nations, the fact remains that approximately two thirds of the internees were Nisei and Sansei, second- and third-generation American-born citizens. It would later become clear that the community posed no real security risk, and that internment was a result of xenophobia and economic paranoia on both accounts.

The governments’ decisions to exclude citizens on the basis of race, to deny their civil rights, and to displace them during the war had an irreversible effect on the community, resulting in the loss of language, cultural practices, and dissolution of families. This seminar will explore how three books on internment propose to answer the central question of what it means to be ethnically Japanese in North America’s multicultural environment, as informed by a history of internment, marginalisation, and racial injustice. Here we will evaluate how contemporary fiction narratives are able to step into dialogue with historical discourse and challenge the silencing rhetoric that informed internment in North America.

After a generalised introduction to internment, we will be reading Joy Kogawa’s seminal novel Obasan (1981), before moving on to John Okada’s No-No Boy (1957) and George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy (2019).

Secondary sources will be uploaded to Stud.IP. Participants are expected to read the relevant primary sources in advance of the sessions. Regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments are expected.

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).

The year 1925 marked a significant juncture in the development of literary modernism. This seminar explores the role played by publishing houses and their editors who lastly curated and promoted a new literary culture. By examining key figures such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf at the Hogarth Press and T.S. Eliot at Faber and Faber, we delve into the strategic decisions and creative processes that fostered an era of experimental writing. Reading some of the seminal publications of 1925, we will explore how they challenge traditional narrative forms, experiment with language, and define modernist literature. From Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway to T.S. Eliot's poetry, we aim to understand not only their aesthetic impact but also their cultural significance, shedding light on how they reflected and shaped the social, political, and intellectual climate of the 1920s. A reader with texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students are asked to buy Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (any edition).

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 27th/28th where students must take part in a intensive weekend session / student conference (please keep these dates free).

This course exlores the captivating intersection of historical narratives and visual storytelling in graphic novels. We will discuss how they depict pivotal moments from the past and analyse how artists bring historical events to life through dynamic illustrations and powerful narratives. Students will critically examine graphic novels that offer fresh perspectives on history and challenge traditional historiography.

This seminar aims to explore the various ways contemporary music is represented in anglophone fiction. Following a general introduction to the field of musico-literary intermediality, we will analyze several novels that deal with popular music, rock, metal, and hip-hop. For this, we will examine how these musical genres are portrayed in literature and what functions they serve. We will delve into the specific literary techniques used to integrate musical elements into the narrative structure, as well as the cultural and social contexts in which these representations emerge.

We will discuss texts such as Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2006), John Darnielle's "Master of Reality" (2008), Nick Hornby's "Juliet, Naked" (2009), and Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" (2011).

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. However, participants are expected to ensure they have access to appropriate listening devices for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (e.g., smartphone, laptop or tablet with internet access, and some type of headphones). Regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments are expected.

Exam for Listen Closely - Musico-Literary Intermediality in Contemporary English and American Fiction: Monday, July 21, 2025.

This seminar invites students to embark on a critical exploration of how authors have depicted England and its regions throughout literary history. It challenges traditional notions of a singular 'England' by examining the diverse ways writers have engaged with place, region, and nationhood. We will analyze how literary works construct and contest spatial identities, exploring themes such as regional identity, national belonging, and the power dynamics embedded in representations of space. A reader with all set texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term.

Sweeney Todd, "the demon barber of Fleet Street", is one of the most captivating literary creations of the Victorian Age. This course explores his multifaceted existence across diverse mediums and genres. We will discuss how this iconic character has been reimagined, adapted, and transformed over time, shedding light on the creative liberties taken while preserving the essence of a timeless villainous figure on page, stage and screen.

On 19 February 1942, shortly after Japan’s attack on the U.S. Naval Station Pearl Harbour, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, authorising the removal of all Japanese Americans living in the Pacific Coast region. This resulted in the forced evacuation of over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry to internment camps in America’s interior regions. One month later over 22,000 Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia would be forcibly relocated and interned in a similar manner, this number making up over 90% of the entire Japanese Canadian population at the time. While the internment of Japanese Americans and Canadians was justified as a reactionary and necessary wartime measure against enemies of these nations, the fact remains that approximately two thirds of the internees were Nisei and Sansei, second- and third-generation American-born citizens. It would later become clear that the community posed no real security risk, and that internment was a result of xenophobia and economic paranoia on both accounts.

The governments’ decisions to exclude citizens on the basis of race, to deny their civil rights, and to displace them during the war had an irreversible effect on the community, resulting in the loss of language, cultural practices, and dissolution of families. This seminar will explore how three books on internment propose to answer the central question of what it means to be ethnically Japanese in North America’s multicultural environment, as informed by a history of internment, marginalisation, and racial injustice. Here we will evaluate how contemporary fiction narratives are able to step into dialogue with historical discourse and challenge the silencing rhetoric that informed internment in North America.

After a generalised introduction to internment, we will be reading Joy Kogawa’s seminal novel Obasan (1981), before moving on to John Okada’s No-No Boy (1957) and George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy (2019).

Secondary sources will be uploaded to Stud.IP. Participants are expected to read the relevant primary sources in advance of the sessions. Regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments are expected.

Corpus linguistics has become an increasingly popular method of linguistic analysis in the past 30 years. A linguistic corpus is a large collection of computerized texts, sampled to be representative of a certain variety of language and used for linguistic studies. The advantage of such corpora is that they can be electronically searched and analyzed, usually with the help of special corpus software. Because corpora are usually very large (often consisting of several million words), they ideally lend themselves to the quatitative study of language variation and change.
This course is intended as an introduction to the methods of corpus linguistics and their application to the study of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important synchronic and diachronic corpora, such as those in the so-called ICAME collection. There will also be a section on the different ways that such text collections can be compiled and used (including an introduction to corpus analysis software such as AntConc and statistical methods to test the validity of one's results).

Requirements for un/graded credit tba in the course.

In this course we will discuss the period of English known as "Early Modern English" in depth. We will not only put a focus on social and cultural developments of the period, but also take a closer look at its distinguishing linguistic features and highlight prominent research devoted to this period, in particular from the diachronic corpus linguistic view.

Exam: July 23, 2025
or Term Paper: Sept. 30, 2025

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Were the WhatsApp messages really sent by Jackson's runaway girlfriend or was she murdered and the messages were sent by her murderer? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when they gave the interview?
All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated: the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.
In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence (phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic) in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the "Introduction to English Linguistics" course.
Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.
Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam (22 July 2025) or a term paper (by 15 September 2025).

This seminar aims at introducing the main concepts, theories and methods of psycholinguistic and cognitive linguistic research and, in doing so, provides a broad overview of this particular linguistic field. Furthermore, this seminar will put a special focus on issues pertaining to L2 acquisition and teaching.

Exam: July 22, 2025
or Term Paper: Sept. 30, 2025

Sociolinguistics studies the effects social factors have on language use and language structures.
In this seminar, students will learn about some of the regional, social, and functional factors that determine differences in language use on all linguistic levels.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.
Credit: Final Exam (23 July 2025) or Term Paper (by 15 September 2025)

In this seminar, we will examine Standard English from two different perspectives: in a diachronic approach, we will explore how it developed from Old English over time to become the variety we all know as Standard English today. Then, taking a synchronic approach, we will investigate different standards that have developed in the anglophone world. We will examine standardization processes on different structural levels (such as phonology, lexis, grammar, etc.), ongoing processes of normative (re)orientation and speakers' attitudes and perceptions toward their own and other standard varieties.

Exam date: July 21st, 2025

World Englishes encapsulate first- and second-language varieties such as regional varieties in Africa, America, Asia, Australia, the Southern Pacific and various other places. Asian Englishes are generally divided into two geographical subgroups, i.e. South Asian Englishes and Southeast Asian Englishes. The South Asian Sprachraum comprising Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka constitutes a particularly intriguing case in the study of World Englishes since the respective regional varieties of English develop in linguistically complex contact scenarios with e.g. indigenous languages, but also the common core of English (cf. Quirk et al. 1985: 16). In a similar vein, language contact is also characteristic of and a driving factor behind the emergence of structurally distinct Southeast Asian Englishes (e.g. Hong Kong English, Malaysian English, Singapore English). America, Australian and South Pacific Englishes as well as others can be differentiated from Asian Englishes by the higher share of first-language users in the regions concerned while the influence of other (formerly local) languages on the respective varieties of English should not be underestimated.

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

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 23 July 2025; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2025.

This seminar will cover the diversity of English found in North America from a sociolinguistic point of view. We will not only focus on regional varieties and major dialect areas, but also consider various other social factors that contribute to the linguistic landscape of North America. There will also be an opportunity to dive into various case studies and methodological approaches, in particular corpus linguistic approaches commonly used in variationist linguistics.

Exam: July 24, 2025
or Term Paper: Sept. 30, 2025

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

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

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

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 22.07.2025

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

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

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 24.07.2025

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam/Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): Will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam/Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): Will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

In the broadest sense, semantics is the study of meaning. In this class we will expore what that exactly entails on various levels and from different perspectives. For instance, we will outline the core concepts concerning lexical semantics, i.e. word meaning and the relationship between words of a language, and phrasal/sentential semantics, i.e. sentence meaning. We will also consider in more detail how the study of meaning is variously approached by taking a structural semantic perspective vs. a cognitive semantic perspective.

Exam: July 21, 2025
or Term Paper: Sept. 30, 2025

Syntax is the part of grammar which deals with the ways words are combined into sentences. We will first look at some key concepts in syntax from a structuralist perspective, starting with smaller syntactic units such as the word and the notion of different word classes. Phrases are another key concept syntactically superordinate to words, which function as constituents in clauses. In this context, it will be of pivotal importance to keep the dichotomy of form and function in mind. Apart from analysing different types of clauses (and sentences) and different ways of ordering elements in a clause (and a sentence), we will also examine the semantic roles of clause elements to discover the close connection between syntax and meaning. We will then briefly look into other approaches to syntax (valency grammar, functional sentence perspective, generative grammar), before we explore syntactic variation in selected varieties of English and the differences between spoken and written grammars.

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

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download from Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 23 July 2025; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2025.