Dissertations & Habilitations

Dr. Lorena Bickert

Thinking in Conversation: Musical Theater in English Teaching and Learning

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann (JMU), Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann (JMU), Prof. Dr. Theresa Summer (Universität Bamberg)

Existing research on music and theater in EFL and native-speaker classrooms highlights the beneficiary effects of teaching both. Yet, a genre that combines these benefits—the musical—remains almost entirely unexplored in the TEFL world. This postdoctoral project argues that thinking in conversation with the text emerges as a productive teaching and learning strategy that both validates students as diverse individual learners and allows them to holistically work with a text beyond the communicative boundaries created by the idea of English as a foreign language. I propose the musical as a genre-crossing and multimedia text type to move towards a culturally sensitive and conversational approach to TEFL. Not only does musical theater provide ample opportunity for training both the receptive and productive skills through audio-visual, reading, and (re-)writing activities. Musicals also foster literary and musical appreciation as well as intercultural learning in a highly motivating manner. As learners engage in manifold conversations with these texts, relating to US-American narratives but also to transcultural experiences of marginalization and connection in a contemporary globalized world, classrooms become cultural and linguistic safe spaces for the various ways of speaking in and about English as a world language.

Mail to Dr. Lorena Bickert 

Gastprof. Dr. Christian Ludwig

Young Adult Fiction in the Age of Global Upheaval and Transformation: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann (JMU), Prof. Dr. Nicole Maruo-Schröder  (Universität Koblenz), Prof. Dr. Michael Meyer (i.R.) (Universität Koblenz), Prof. Dr. Dieter Wrobel (JMU)

Having languished in the background for almost 20 years, young adult dystopian novels and their film adaptations have been rising in popularity since Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy The Hunger Games (2008-2010). More recently, the explosion in young adult dystopias has also gained increasing attention in literary and cultural studies as well as foreign language teaching and learning as they “address larger social and cultural movements and concerns”.(Mc Donough & Wagner, 157) similar to our own. The aim of this postdoctoral thesis is to explore young adult dystopias from an ecocritical perspective and interrogate the ways that the young adult protagonists is framed in relation to both nature and technology developments and the future of human struggle in a seemingly inhospitable environment. Furthermore, the potential of the eco-dystopian education novel in the contemporary EFL/ESL classroom to approach environmental issues and engage in ecological reflection will be investigated.

Mail to Prof. (i.V.) Dr. Christian Ludwig

Jennifer Meier

Typically British?! A diachronic - imagological analysis of British national stereotypes in English textbooks from 1871 until now

Supervisors:  Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann (JMU),  Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Ahrens (JMU)

Historical didactics and especially textbook research has been neglected so far. But to make progress, it is not only necessary to look forward, but also to look back into what we already know. A lot of knowledge and disputes from today were already debated in the early 19th century. Since then, schoolteachers and educators have been negotiating how cultural studies should be taught in the EFL classroom. Naturally, political and social tendencies have influenced its curricula and thereby also have shaped the cultural contents of the textbooks.
This doctoral dissertation intends to depict and define cultural discourse in foreign language didactics, using the example of Great Britain. Its purpose is to show that a historical continuum is present in the disputes of cultural studies in modern language teaching. Imagology can help to explore how national stereotypes have developed and were established in English textbooks: from the early language teaching onwards, where cultural facts assisted us to contrast the differences between nations to transcultural learning nowadays, when pupils are learning that they are part of a hybrid world. With this knowledge in our minds we will be capable to further establish transcultural learning and thereby improve modern English textbooks and modern English teaching in general.

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Felicia Folmers

The potential of using the social media platform Instagram in English Language Teaching to promote Education for Sustainable Development

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann (JMU), Prof. Dr. Theresa Summer (Universität Bamberg), Prof. Dr. Christian Ludwig (FU Berlin)

In recent years, climate change and the digital revolution have often been named as the two main challenges humans are facing all around the world. Consequently, education for sustainable development (Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung) and the development of digital media competencies now constitute two major educational goals in curricula such as the Bavarian LehrplanPlus. However, whilst social media has long played a central role in the daily lives of students (BITKOM 2024; JiM 2023) and although recent surveys have highlighted the importance of platforms such as Instagram as a source of sustainability knowledge across all generations (EY/JA Generational Sustainability Survey 2023), their potential has so far been widely neglected in the context of institutionalised education.

This doctoral dissertation aims to analyse and exemplify how Instagram as one of the leading social media networks worldwide can be used in the EFL classroom to foster foreign language competencies and digital literacy as well as to promote a deeper understanding of sustainability issues and encourage students to take climate action. Using the example of water as an essential, yet often scarce and endangered resource, English-language Instagram posts related to the topic of water and its sustainable usage will be analysed to determine the criteria content on social media should meet to be both appropriate and meaningful for classroom use.

Based on the findings, practical examples of how these materials can be incorporated in instructional units will be developed to show the various potentials of Instagram in the context of foreign language teaching: Not only can the network serve as a platform on which students can find useful, up-to-date information on topical issues, but it can also be used by pupils as a tool to engage with international partners in global sustainability projects, as well as to create and publish their own content in the foreign language. When integrated in such a meaningful way, Instagram can enrich language learning and enable students to contribute to sustainable development, thus empowering them to become responsible and informed global citizens.

Mail to Felicia Folmers

Lara Pincolini

Fostering Critical AI Literacy among Pre-Service English Teachers

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann, Prof. Dr. Theresa Summer, Prof. Dr. Christian Ludwig

Artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming both everyday life and professional practice, bringing significant changes to how we learn and teach. Teachers are now required to navigate these new digital realities with professional and ethical awareness. To prepare future educators for this transformation, teacher education must foster competences that enable critical and reflective engagement with AI.

This dissertation explores how pre-service English teachers can develop such competences. It combines theoretical model development with an integrative literature review to conceptualize what Critical AI Literacy means in teacher education, particularly in material development. A university seminar on materials development with AI is designed and implemented to investigate how pre-service teachers engage with AI in authentic teaching contexts. It integrates theory, application, and reflection to examine how Critical AI Literacy can be fostered in meaningful and sustainable ways.

The project contributes to the theoretical foundation of AI literacy in TEFL and aims to prepare pre-service teachers to act as reflective and responsible agents in the use of AI.

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Completed Dissertation Projects

• "Web 2.0 Tools und Educational Apps im Englischunterricht - eine exemplarische Studie "- Dr. Jeanine Steinbock 

• "Kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse der nationalen Stereotype im deutsch-britischen Verhältnis zur Zeit der Berlin-Krise 1958-62. Eine imagologische Untersuchung von Diskursen in Printmedien" - Dr. Dorothea Merk

• "Der Lesezirkel als Weg zur Lernerautonomie. Literatur kooperativ erfahren" -  Dr. Katarina Nestorovic

• "Die politische Dimension als Lerngegenstand in Lehrwerken für den Englischunterricht" - Dr. Janina Kuhn