Englisches Seminar

Teaching and Theses Supervision

Current Courses (2024)

Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Bachelor of Education
Basic Module
Teaching Literature – Why? What? How? (TEFL II)
Advanced Module
Short Stories in the Advanced EFL Classroom (TEFL III)
Intercultural Learning through Literature (TEFL III)
Master of Education
crit@SCHOOL:­ Critical Literacies and Foreign Language Education (TEFL IV)

Archive of Courses Taught

Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Bachelor of Education
Basic Module
Teaching Literature – Why? What? How?
Advanced Module
Keep It Short Not Simple: Short Stories in the Advanced EFL Classroom
InBetween: Teaching Multiethnic Literature in the EFL Classroom 
Intercultural Learning through Literature
Songs and Music Video Clips in the EFL Classroom
Films in the EFL Classroom 
"I draw because words are too limited": Multimodal Novels in the Intermediate and Advanced EFL Classroom
Master of Education
Doing Research in the EFL Classroom (Project Seminar)
"Caring Hearts and Critical Minds": The Theory and Practice of Value-Oriented Education
Simulation ("Planspiel") crit@SCHOOL
 
Literary and Cultural Studies
Undergraduate Level
First-Year Courses
Introduction to Literary Studies
Second-Year Courses
What Is (the) Avant-Garde? Theories of the Avant-Garde
African-American Drama: 1959-1975
Difficulty and Twentieth-Century American Poetry
American Poetry of the 1950s and '60s
Postmodern American Short Fiction
Art as Experience: Pragmatism and Aesthetics

Theses Supervision

Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Bachelor Theses
"Integrating Democratic Education into the EFL Classroom – A Class Project on the Topic of Migration"
"The Teaching Potential of Short Stories of Initiation in the EFL Classroom"
"Fostering Intercultural Communicative Competence with Drama Methods"

"Teaching Dystopian Fiction in the EFL Classroom"

"The Potential of Fictions of Migration for the Enhancement of Intercultural Competence in the EFL Classroom"
"Entertainment and/or Education? The Teaching Potential of Songs and Music Video Clips in the EFL Classroom"
"Let's watch the movie! – An Integrated Approach to Suzanne Collins' Dystopia
The Hunger Games in the EFL Classroom"
"Chances and Challenges of Differentiation in the EFL Classroom"
"An Antiracist Approach to Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give: Teaching the Novel in the Advanced EFL Classroom"
"Short, Sharp, Significant: Fostering Gen Z Students' Productive Competence through Flash Fiction"

Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process.

John Dewey (1916)

Philosophy of Teaching

As an instructor, I feel committed to academic teaching rooted in three guiding principles: inclusivity, collaborative action, and critical (self-)reflection.­

One of my main goals is to create a learning environment where students feel welcome and recognized as individuals. With my support, I encourage them to assume responsibility for their learning and articulate their individual needs. I understand learning here primarily to mean learning with and from one another. Therefore, I aspire to foster a sense of community between learners and me and as an instructor as well as among learners placing special emphasis on cultivating students' sense of belonging. To these ends, I implement student-centered teaching formats and methods embedded in a framework of fearless communication and mutual appreciation and respect. These formats and methods offer opportunities for continuous student feedback that allows me to adjust and improve my own teaching. Last, but not least, critical inquiry lies at the core of my teaching philosophy. My goal is to empower students as future teachers of English by supporting them in their efforts to cultivate a habit of critical (self-)reflection. On the level of self-reflection, I routinely invite students to review how personal beliefs, experiences, and expectations influence their professionalization. What is more, I encourage students to scrutinize the institutions and practices of (English) education and their embeddedness in complex networks of political, social, and cultural forces.  ­

My strategies in course design are geared towards making use of the benefits of blended learning, especially the mix of synchronous and asynchronous setups, to accommodate for different student needs. My preferred course format is therefore web-enhanced, i.e. a format that integrates web-based technology, specifically, the functionalities of the e-learning platform Moodle, to facilitate learning.­

True to the precept of lifelong learning, I strive for continuous refinement and improvement of my teaching practice based equally on student feedback, collaboration with colleagues, and self-monitoring.