Projects
Albanian in contact. Horizontal transfer and identity formation in multilingual practice.
Albanian-speaking communities (mostly from Kosovo and Macedonia) have been among the largest migrant groups in Switzerland since the 1980s, and also form a larger group in Germany. Little is known about the language and linguistic behavior of this community of speakers, which now comprises several generations.
The comparison of the native language situation of Albanian speakers in Switzerland and Germany makes it possible to evaluate the relevance of socio-cultural backgrounds for linguistic practice, identity construction, and the emergence of different types of contact varieties.
Both speaker groups are comparable in terms of temporal depth and variety of origin but differ in details of socio-cultural embedding.
Promotion of the German Minority in Hungary
This project aims to improve pedagogical and didactic training for Hungarian students and doctoral candidates. In addition, it hopes to expand the linguistic and cultural knowledge of these students. The focus is on German minorities living and studying in Hungary. The German Institute at the ELTE University in Budapest is one of the few universities in Hungary to offer a "German as a Minority Language" course, and aims to train future teachers at German-speaking schools in Hungary.
For decades at the German Institute of the ELTE University, Prof. Elisabeth Knipf-Komlósi and Dr. Márta Müller (Network Multilingualism) have been researching the use of language by German minorities in various regions of Hungary (e.g. multilingualism, language contact research, sociolinguistics, language attrition). “German minorities abroad” is also a research focus of Prof. Claudia Maria Riehl, Head of the Institute for German as a Foreign Language (DaF) at LMU in Munich. The similarities of these research interests have promoted a long-term, and close, cooperation between both institutions, which has largely been made possible by the DAAD: Since 2014, the DaF Institute of LMU and the German Institute of ELTE have been successfully working on the program "Promotion of the German minority in Hungary" together.
Pragmatics of address in the first and second language classroom in Germany and Australia
A comparative study of the learning and use of address forms by adult L2 learners of German and Italian in Australia, and L2 learners of English and Italian in Germany in the university context.
Joint project between LMU Munich (DaF Institute) and the University of Melbourne (School of Languages and Linguistics).
Since 2016 (within the framework of the DAAD Go8)
Multiple Writing: On the Interaction of Language Skills in the First and Second Language and Extra-lingual Factors (2013 to 2016)
The aim of this project is to research the interactions between written language skills in the first and second language among bilingual students with Turkish, Italian and Greek as their language of origin, and to shed light on the influences of extra-linguistic factors on text skills in both languages. Before thorough investigation, family, social conditions, and attitudes in the various bilingual groups should be worked out, which have an impact on writing skills. On the other hand, research on cognitive factors positively influence text literacy, which could manifest with any of the above variables. It is important to work out the synergies between German and the languages-of-origin to formulate specific measures that enable language skills to be optimally promoted in both.
Educational German language for vocational schools: Development, piloting and implementation of action-oriented teaching concepts in German for vocational schools and in teacher training (2014-2017)
Joint project: Prof. Dr. Jörg Roche (LMU Munich), Prof. Dr. Claudia Maria Riehl (LMU Munich), Prof. Dr. Alfred Riedl (TU Munich).
The aim of this project is to develop and pilot innovative teaching concepts to promote and measure the oral and written language skills of vocational students. In addition, the goal is to create an effective qualifying concept for the development of teaching-relevant skills in the areas of language and communication for prospective teachers at vocational schools. In cooperation with the State Ministry for Education and Culture, this project aims to develop concepts for teacher training that will be introduced across Bavaria.
Completed (2014 to 2017)
Bilinguismo teuto-brasileiro: um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e Alemanha
Joint research project with Dr. Maristela Pereira Fritzen in Brazil.
In this collaborative project between LMU and FURB Blumenau in Brazil, the focus is on the acquisition of written language by bilingual children and adolescents in German and Portuguese between Germany and Brazil.
Grandchildren showcase
Grandchildren Showcase: An internet film project by the Goethe Institute in collaboration with the Czech ethnologist Dr. Sandra Kreisslová and Prof. Claudia Maria Riehl, Martin Dzingel and Susan Zerwinsky.
The internet-based project focuses on the young "grandchildren" of German-speaking minorities, and asks about the meaningful nature and identity-creating role of the German language today for them. They were asked to provide information in recorded interviews about how they learned German, and what areas of their life they use the German language. Furthermore, filmed sequences of their everyday life, where they use the German language, were documented in order to complement the guided interviews.
