Research profile
Our staff’s research activities are organized into four key areas (click to expand):
English Literature and Culture
The study of English literature and culture in Siegen has, from the 1970s onwards, integrated approaches from media and cultural studies. The media-oriented tradition lives on in our present focus on research in the fields of
- intermediality and adaptation,
- seriality, as well as
- contemporary drama in English.
Our cultural-studies oriented research areas include
- issues of cultural identities, most notably childhood studies,
- cross-Atlantic studies,
- cultural transfer,
- eighteenth-century studies, and
- European transculturalism.
A newly developed research area deals with children’s literature.
Research projects in these fields are being developed in individual projects as well as in interdisciplinary cooperation with other members of our faculty (see the website of our staff members and the research section on the faculty website).American Literature and Culture
The study of American literature and culture in Siegen integrates approaches from media and cultural studies. The media-oriented tradition lives on in our present focus on research in the fields of
- intermediality and adaptation,
- serialityand narrative complexity,
- American journalism,
- contemporary American drama, and
- post-9/11 cinema.
Our cultural-studies oriented research areas include issues of
- the history of medicine
- cultural identities
- American Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Studies, and
- Cultural Memory Studies.
English Language and Linguistics
Our research covers core areas of linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, and syntax) as well as topics in applied linguistics (pragmatics, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, conversation and discourse analysis) and relates to different periods of the English language. We combine theoretical orientation with empirical analysis, using a variety of data (written and spoken corpora, audio/ video recordings, manuscripts, authentic and experimentally elicited data) and methodologies.
Our main areas of research are (in alphabetical order):
- Advertising language
- Communication trainings in professional contexts
- Contrastive linguistics
- Conversation/ discourse analysis
- Creole studies
- English as a Lingua Franca
- Folk linguistics
- Formulaic language
- Language contact and language change
- Language, gender and sexuality
- Language and Globalization
- Language, national and transnational identities
- Language ideology
- Morphology
- Multilingualism
- Personal reference forms
- Politeness
- Regional variation and varieties of English
- Second language acquisition and language transfer
- The linguistics of Europe
- Variational pragmatics
Teaching and Learning of English as a Foreign Language
Our empirical research explores the acquisition, development and use of English as a foreign language as well as the development of intercultural competence.
Particular attention is devoted to the following areas:
- language acquisition in interaction
- early acquisition of English as a foreign language
- media-supported foreign language learning
- English-medium instruction in higher education
- Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at school
- multilingualism, intercultural communication and intercultural competence
- vocabulary work in English lessons
- dictionaries and dictionary use
- assessment of foreign language skills
- development of oral communicative competence
- varieties of English in language teaching
- language awareness