Professorship for English Didactics

Organisational unit: Professoship

Organisation profile

The Department of Didactics of English deals with a variety of aspects of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in education. The emphasis is on primary and secondary schools (Grund-, Haupt- und Realschulen), but vocational schools (Berufsbildende Schulen) and further education as well as ongoing professional development are also important fields of work in the following areas: research and teaching in the field of teacher training, methods and approaches of English teaching in view of their role in teaching the English language, English language literature and cultures. The focus of our research is on foreign language teaching and learning with digital media and video-based teaching research.

Teaching and research in the department is concerned with the roles of learners and teachers in the English teaching and learning process and the consequences of this for the design of learning environments, learning materials, tasks and exercises. Our seminars aim to familiarise future teachers with relevant theoretical concepts and evidence-based methods of foreign language teaching and to systematically develop their competences. For this purpose, for example, teaching materials are analysed and materials and lesson plans are developed. Current issues regarding standards and curriculum development are taken into account. In cooperation with campus schools, innovative seminar concepts are realised, which enable a continuous exchange of theory and practice. The seminars also contribute to the development of students' diagnostic skills, by looking at current approaches to learning assessment, especially the European Language Portfolio and forms of digitally supported, adaptive practice and testing. The teaching content focuses on dealing with heterogeneity in foreign language teaching, teaching intercultural communicative competence and constructing digitally supported teaching and learning settings. The Department of English Didactics cooperates closely with the Future Centre for Teacher Education at Leuphana University and is an innovation leader for teaching projects such as the multi-perspective teaching videodatabase Multiview (multiview.leuphana.de) or the use of a video conference system in cooperation with the Jesteburg Secondary School. Within the framework of a permanently established, multi-phasic and multi-institutional development team consisting of university teachers, university students, representatives of the teacher education seminar and external experts, new formats for teacher training are jointly developed and researched.

Research and development areas at a glance:

Computer Assisted Language Learning (multimedia teaching and learning scenarios, intelligent tutorial systems, artificial intelligence, chatbots)
Promotion of receptive and productive orality
Project-based learning didactics
Drama techniques in the EFL classroom
Playful approaches (analog and digital game development)

Main research areas

Computer Assisted Language Learning, Web 2.0 in the EFL Classroom – Tasks, Methods, Scenarios, Project Work, Drama Techniques, Foreign Language Learning on Primary Level,
Teacher Training Research