Teaching

I have been teaching linguistics for the last 20 years or so, and I have taught at the universities of Bonn, Düsseldorf, Osnabrück, Santiago de Compostela, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Catania, and Thessaloniki. In my teaching, I find the traditional socratic method in combination with hands-on analyses most effective and enjoyable. I was one of the first at my university to use powerpoint projections in the classroom, and later on to create online courses  (check out www.ello.uos.de - we even got shortlisted for the Medida-Prix 2009!!). I also recorded my lectures for ITunesU and lernfunk.de (though you probably can't find them anymore).

I realize that the older I get, the more I am turning back to offline, chalk'n board seminars. And most of my students I appreciate that. 

Below you will find a list of courses I have taught as well as topics of BA and MA theses I have (co-) supervised and a list of my current and past PhD students. 

Extracurricular teaching activities:

1999-2002 several courses in General and Applied Linguistics, Bonn University

2002, 2005 several courses at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2008 Summer course in Historical Sociolinguistics, Santiago de Compostela, Spanien

2015 Graduate Workshop on Construction Grammar and Language Change (with Thomas Hoffmann), Universidad de Vigo, Spain

2015 Graduate Workshop on The role of beauty in language evolution, Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy

2016 Summer course “Old and Middle English in Context”, Naxos, Greece

2017 Summer course “Social networks and communities of practice in historical linguistics”, Lesbos, Greece, HISON Summer School

2017 Summer course “Historical Sociolinguistics: Old and Middle English”, Naxos, Greece

2017 M.A. workshop on Historical Sociolinguistics and Social Network Analysis, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece

2018 Summer course “Historical Sociolinguistics: Old and Middle English”, Naxos, Griechenland

2018 M.A. workshop on Historical Sociolinguistics and Social Network Analysis, Aristotle University, 

     Thessaloniki, Griechenland

2020 Online student workshop “Historical Sociolinguistics”, University of Athens

2020 Online Summer Course “Reconstructing historical Englishes and their speakers”, Naxos

Regular Teaching

(until 2005/2006 Universität Düsseldorf, since 2006 Universität Osnabrück, unless marked otherwise)

2020/2021    Vorlesung Language Variation and Change

                     (Haupt-)Seminar Construction Grammar and Language Change

2019/2020    (Pro-)Seminar Cognitive Linguistics

                     (Pro-)Seminar Syntax

                     (Haupt-)Seminar Construction Grammar

2019              Vorlesung History of the English Language

2018/2019    (Haupt-)Seminar Spoken Language

                     (Haupt-)SeminarWritten Language

                     (Pro-)SeminarTolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ (with Th. Kullmann)

                     VorlesungLanguage Evolution

2018              (Haupt-)Seminar Language and the Media

                     (Haupt-)SeminarA Construction Grammar of Old and Middle English

                     (Haupt-)SeminarScatolinguistics

2017/2018    (Haupt-)Seminar Construction Grammar and Creativity

                     (Haupt-)Seminar Language and Idenitity

                     Vorlesung The History of English

2017                (Haupt-)Seminar Construction Grammar and Language Change

                (Haupt-)Seminar Tense and Aspect                 

2016/2017     (Haupt-)Seminar Construction Grammar

                (Pro-)Seminar Language Evolution (mit Jutta Müller und Nikola Kompa)

                         (Pro-)Seminar History of the English Language

2016                Tutorial: Basic of English Language and Linguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Language Evolution

                         (Haupt-)Seminar Scatolinguistics

                         Examens- und Promotionskolloquium

2015/2016     (Pro-)Seminar/Vorlesung History of English

                 (Haupt-)Seminar Cognition and Poetics

                          (Haupt-)Seminar Written Language

                          (Haupt-)Seminar Spoken Language

                          Pro/Hauptseminar Metaphern (with Nikola Kompa)

2015                 (Pro-)Seminar Construction Grammar

                          (Pro-)Seminar Language Change (with Meike Pentrel)

                          (Haupt-) Fuzzy Grammar

                          (Haupt-) Standard(s), Norm(s), Prestige

2014/2015     Tutorial: Basic of English Language and Linguistics

                (Pro-)Seminar Morphology

                (Pro-)Seminar Pragmatics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Linguistic Approaches to Literature

                (Haupt-)Seminar Scatolinguistics

2014                (Pro-)Seminar The Mental Lexicon

                (Pro-)Seminar Syntax

                (Haupt-)Seminar Language Change

                (Haupt-)Seminar Discourse, Consciousness and Time

2013/2014     (Pro-)Seminar Meaning in Language

                (Pro-)Seminar The History of the English Language in America

                (Haupt-)Seminar Linguistic Approaches to Literature

                Vorlesung Evolution of Language

2013                (Pro-)Seminar Sociolinguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar From Poetics to Cognition (with Peter Schneck)

                         (Haupt-)Seminar Written Language

                         Vorlesung Introduction to English Language and Linguistics

                Kolloquium Recent Trends in Linguistics

2012/2013     (Pro-)Seminar Cognitive Linguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Foundations of Language

                (Haupt-)Seminar Sprache und Musik (with Dietrich Helms)

                         (Haupt-)Seminar The Language of House, MD (with Thomas Hoffmann)

                         Vorlesung Evolution of Language

                         Kolloquium Recent Trends in Linguistics

2012                (Pro-)Seminar Morphology

                (Haupt-)Seminar Cognition and Poetics

                         Vorlesung Recent Trends in Historical Linguistics

                         Kolloquium Recent Trends in Linguistics

2011/2012     (Haupt-)Seminar Meaning in Language

                (Pro-)Seminar Phonology

                (Haupt-)seminar Standard(s), Varieties, Prestige

                Vorlesung Language Evolution

2011                Hauptseminar Affective Science – Fictional Feelings: Emotions in Language, Literature, and Cognitive Science (with Peter Schneck und Achim Stephan)

2010/2011     Vorlesung Introduction to English Linguistics

                         (Pro)-Seminar Morphosyntax

                         Vorlesung Syntax in Context

                         (Haupt-)Seminar Early Modern English

2010                (Pro-)Seminar Pragmatics

                         (Haupt-)Seminar Textlinguistics

                         Vorlesung Contrastive Linguistics

                         Vorlesung Introdcution to English Linguistics II

2009/2010     (Pro-)Seminar Phonology

                         Vorlesung Language Variation and Change

                         Vorlesung Introduction to English Linguistics

                         Forschungsseminar Analyzing Bond, James Bond

2009          Vorlesung Introduction to Linguistics: History, Variation, Use

2008/2009   Vorlesung Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Campaigns and Candidates: rhetorics and political language (with Peter Schneck)

2008          Vorlesung History of the English Language

                Vorlesung Thiry Million Theories of Grammar?!

                Examens- und Doktorandenkolloquium

2007/2008   (Pro-/Haupt)Seminar Grammaticalization

                (Haupt-)Seminar The Language of Art and the Art of Language (with Peter Schneck)

                (Haupt-)Seminar Language and the Media

                Vorlesung Introduction to English Language and Linguistics

                Examens- und Doktorandenkolloquium

2007          Vorlesung Language Variation and Change

                (Pro-)Seminar Pragmatics

                (Pro-/Haupt)Seminar The Mental Lexicon

                (Haupt-)Seminar Varieties of English

2006/2007   Vorlesung Morphosyntax

                (Pro-)Seminar Phonology

                (Haupt-)Seminar Contrastive Linguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Early Modern English

2006          Vorlesung History of the English Language

                (Pro-)Seminar Morphology

                (Haupt-)Seminar Corpus Linguistics

                (Haupt-)Seminar Textlinguistics

2005/2006   Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft (BA)

                Proseminar Sociolinguistics(BA, MA, Lehramt)

                Sprachwissenschaftliches Kolloquium für das Grundstudium

2005          Proseminar Language and society (UW Milwaukee)

                Proseminar Language variation and change

                Proseminar Semantics

                Sprachwissenschaftliches Kolloquium für das Grundstudium

2004/2005   Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Hauptseminar Fuzzy Grammar (with Dieter Stein)

2004          Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Proseminar Phonology

                Proseminar Discourse analysis

2003/2004   Proseminar Issues in English syntax

                Proseminar Pragmatics

2002/2003   Proseminar An introduction to phonology (with Fred Eckman)

                Proseminar Language and society (UW Milwaukee)

                Hauptseminar Social and linguistic aspects of world languages (UW Milwaukee)

                Vorlesung The diversity of human language (UW Milwaukee)

                Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft (with Tania Kuteva)

                Proseminar Language change

2002          Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft (with Anette Rosenbach)

                Proseminar The English Verb Phrase

2001/2002   Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Proseminar Varieties of English

                Proseminar Sprache und Evolution (Universität Bonn)

2001          Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Proseminar Semantics

                Proseminar Einführung in die Kognitive Linguistik (Universität Bonn)

2000/2001   Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Proseminar An introduction to morphology

2000          Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft

                Proseminar An introduction to phonology

                Proseminar Standard, Varietäten, Prestige (Universität Bonn)

1999/2000   Proseminar Morphosyntax(Universität Bonn)

1999          Übung English for social scientists

                Proseminar Neuere Theorien zum Sprachwandel (Universität Bonn)

1997-99       Englischunterricht in der Erwachsenenbildung

Thesis supervision

PhD theses:

• Dr. Christine Günther The Elliptical Noun Phrase in English - Structure and Use (Co-Supervisor Prof. Thomas Hoffmann)
• Prof. Dr. Lena Heine Kognitive Prozesse bilingualer Lerner bei der fremdsprachlichen Verarbeitung von Fachinhalten (Supervisor: Helmuth Vollmer)
• Dr. Theresa Heyd Formal and functional characteristics of email hoaxes: a genre study (Supervisor: Prof. Dieter Stein)
• Dr. Presley Ifukor Identity, Intertextuality and Politics in Nigerian Internet and SMS Discourse (Co-Supervisor Prof. Thomas Hoffmann)
• Dr. Claudia Lehmann A Multitheoretic Approach to the Ethno-Category ‚Irony’ (Co-supervisor Prof. Thomas Hoffmann)
• Dr. Astrid Maier The Structure of Interlanguages. The Acquisition of Simple English Interrogatives in Guided Second Language Acquisition (Supervisor: Prof. Dieter Stein)
• Dr. Meike Pfaff The Recentness Progressive and Directive want (Supervisor: Prof. Thomas Hoffmann)
• Dr. Meike Pentrel  The Position of Adverbial Clauses in the Diary of Samuel Pepys (1660-1669). A Cognitive Historical Study (Co-supervisor Prof. Thomas Hoffmann)
• Dr. Wiebke Ahlers Do I say shtreet or shrteet. Austinites' paths to /s/ retraction
• Dr. Denise Millares-Caballero Dios Mio oder Mein Gott: Der Gebrauch von Anglizismen im mexikanischen Spanisch

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