Teaching Experience

Staff Council / Personalrat

Since 2015, I have been an elected member of our university's staff council. While I have always represented our academic staff at the University of Koblenz (University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz), I have also held the following positions:

No other status group at our university is as diverse as the one for the academic staff. With over 50 different types of work contracts (Arbeitsverträge), it has always been imperative that I take part in specific training geared towards the specific needs of our academic staff. Over the years, I have attended training seminars in the following areas:

The broad spectrum of the academic staff consists of individuals, for example, with a limited contract on account of WissZeitVG, a temporary position on account of personal leave (Vertretung), a permanent employee contract (Angestellte) and a civil-servant agreement (Beamte). Even our apl. Profs. belong to our status group. With such a diverse group of individuals, there is always a lot of work to be done. For instance, I believe that the following three areas require attention in the coming years:

Lastly, a big THANK-YOU for our Chancellor, Herr Ludewig! Between 2016 until mid-2025, I was fortunate enough to have a minimal exemption (Freistellung) from my regular teaching duties, so that I could focus more on the various Staff-Council activities. Moreover, the English Department was lucky to have compensation for my exemption. For a time span exceeding eight years, more than a half dozen part-time colleagues benefited from the generosity of our Chancellor as they were able to have their limited employment contracts prolonged and/or bumped up during my exemption.

Research

While my current academic LfbA-contract does not allocate any time towards research, I do find some freetime from time-to-time in order to expand my horizon and to titillate my mind. Since my arrival in the department in 2008, English phonetics and phonology have always interested me.

For the few years, however, my interest has honed in on the pronunciation of Middle English (ME), in particular in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. While challenging, I enjoy phonemically transcribing parts of this ME text, so that others may read it aloud in its original pronunciation (or my interpretation of the original pronunciation). Here's one I did a little while ago for "The Cook's Tale". Let's take a look at the first few lines of the prologue to his tale:

REFLECTION: Did you notice the “unusual” vowel sound in the word hous (i.e., house in today's spelling) in line 4331? In Middle English, this vowel was actually a monophthong. It isn't until after the Great Vowel Shift that this vowel changes and eventually becomes the diphthong we are used to today (i.e., /haʊs/). And there are many other examples of changes to vowels but also to consonants. Let’s explore some of them together – either by attending one of my courses in Linguistics and/or writing a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis with me.

Speaking of writing a thesis with me, perhaps you are interested in investigating how some Middle English sounds have more-or-less disappeared from “Standard” English. But we have other varieties of English. Nyghte (i.e., /ˈni:çtə/) and broghte (i.e., /ˈbrɔu̯xtə/) in lines 4332 and 4334 respectively contain some examples of Middle English sounds that are still present in today’s Scottish English. Let’s explore this topic and others together!

Don't think my research interest in earlier forms of English keeps me hundreds of years in the past! Such a judgement would be a fallacy. I am also currently exploring how artificial intelligent (AI) can be implemented into the English-language classroom, specifically with addressing pronunciation. While the advantages of AI with the writing process has received a great deal of attention, pronunciation training has once again become the Cinderella in the room. It is for this reason, I want to explore the benefits and pitfalls of AI with this particular language skill.

Image created by ChatGPT

From lesson planning to engaging exercises with the IPA-symbols, some useful practical applications for AI in the pronunciation classroom are being sought. In one of my M.Ed. classes, students and I have experimented with ChatGPT and have tried to find uses of it for pronunciation training. In one instance, we created a fictious storyline with the addition of two unlikely characters. On the left-hand side is a cartoon merging two different protagonists from two separate stories (i.e. Little Red Riding Hood and He-Man). This comic scene uses the IPA-symbols to tell a story. Not only were visual cartoons created but also short written texts with various storylines.

As learning these symbols takes lots of practice, finding amusing and educational exercises can help to pique interest as well as improve students' command of the phonetic symbols. The end result is to assist students in improving their own spoken English. In this case with the cartoon on the left-hand side, American English is the focus.

When it comes to assessing spoken language, AI-tools tend to be less beneficial and more of a pitfall. While the results in my M.Ed. classroom experiment may have been less than satisfactory, AI is constantly enhancing and improving itself. In any case, it is also important to be aware of AI's limitations.

GASP 2026 in Trier

AI, IPA, and Pronunciation Teaching: Creative Practice without the Hype

Effective pronunciation remains a recurring challenge for foreign-language learners of English. In university-level Sprachpraxis courses, pronunciation plays an important role for both general language students and Lehramt students. The ability to pronounce English effectively involves accurate sound production, knowledge of the English sound system, familiarity with phonetic notation, and confidence in spoken communication.

Traditional approaches to pronunciation teaching, such as minimal-pair practice, listening discrimination, guided dialogues, and repetition, remain important. However, recent developments in AI tools offer new opportunities for creative and reflective pronunciation learning. This workshop explores these possibilities with a particular focus on IPA training.

While automated pronunciation feedback may appear promising at first, it raises concerns about reliability, data privacy, and accent bias. Rather than focusing on AI-based assessment, this workshop explores less problematic and pedagogically valuable uses of AI in pronunciation teaching.

Since GASP 2025 in Leipzig, I have implemented several AI-supported exercises in my own pronunciation courses designed to help Lehramt students develop their knowledge of the IPA symbols.

By the end of this workshop, participants will leave with the following take-aways:

(1)   Ready-to-use AI prompts for large language models (LLMs) and

(2)   Several creative activities designed to make IPA-symbol practice more engaging.

Overall, this workshop aims to encourage a balanced discussion of AI use in pronunciation teaching while promoting a fruitful exchange of ideas and effective classroom practices.

*** Go to Seafile for the ready-to-use AI prompts:

https://seafile.rlp.net/d/815d064d373b43789133/

*** Password: GASP2026inTrier

GASP 2025 in Leipzig

Exploring the Benefits and Pitfalls of AI’s Role in an English-language Pronunciation Classroom

Technology surrounds us in our everyday life like never before. It has never been easier for instructors to incorporate digital tools into the foreign language learning environment than today. In this workshop, we will focus on how artificial intelligence—specifically ChatGPT—can be used to support pronunciation training in the English-language classroom. From lesson planning to practical exercises, both teachers and students can benefit from its integration.

However, it is important to recognize the limitations of this technology. While an AI-tool can offer some convenience, it is less than optimal, for instance, with accurate, practical feedback on oral production. Instead, feedback from an AI-tool can often be inconsistent, raising questions about its overall effectiveness in supporting the area of pronunciation development.

This workshop will explore three key areas:

1. Lesson Planning: Can an AI-tool help save time when preparing for a pronunciation lesson, and does AI take the human element into account?


2. Exercise Conceptualization: What types of pronunciation activities can an AI-tool generate, and how reliable are these instant outputs?


3. Oral-Production Assessment: Can an AI-tool effectively evaluate a student’s spoken progress, and where does it fall short?

In order to provide us with samples for further investigation, student contributions from my own integrated language course will be made available. Phonemic transcriptions with the IPA-symbols will also be included here.

 
AI is just the latest in a long line of technological innovations, evolving at an astonishing pace. The next big leap is just around the corner, so we must stay on top of the latest developments.

AI is just the latest in a long line of technological innovations, evolving at an astonishing pace. The next big leap is just around the corner, so we must stay on top of the latest developments. Let's keep researching ...

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