User:Jl17hihu/Britta Hufeisen

Britta Hufeisen (born April 19, 1960, in Stade, Germany) is a German linguist and Professor of Linguistics – Multilingualism at the Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Technical University of Darmstadt.

Educational background

After graduating from high school at the König-Heinrich School in Fritzlar, she studied Teaching at Secondary School at the University of Kassel, majoring in German Studies, English Studies, and Educational Sciences. She completed her studies with the First State Examination in 1984. Following her teacher training (Referendariat) at the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium in Alsfeld and at the teacher training college (Studienseminar) in Fulda, she completed an additional course of study in German as a Foreign Language at the University of Kassel. She was subsequently offered a doctoral position there. She wrote one of the first doctoral dissertations published on the subject of German as a second foreign language and was awarded her doctorate in 1990. During her nearly four years as an assistant professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, she prepared her habilitation (second book), completing the book (i.e. habilitation) at the Technical University of Darmstadt with an investigation into the cultural specificity of text types, a topic that has regained relevance with the internationalization of degree programs. In such international programs, although course work is written in English, the text types themselves are often typically German (e.g., the Hausarbeit).

Career

From 1987 to 1992, Hufeisen worked as a research associate at the University of Kassel in the distance-learning project within the Department of German Studies. From 1993 to 1996, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, specializing in applied German linguistics and German as a foreign language. At the Technical University of Darmstadt, she headed the Language Resource Center from 1996 to 2024 and was appointed W3 Professor of Linguistics- Multilingualism at the Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies at TU Darmstadt in 2006.

Extended research appointments at universities outside Germany included positions as an adjunct professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; as a visiting professor at Dalarna University (Högskolan Dalarna) in Falun, Sweden; and at Universiti Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Research interests

Her research interests focus on multilingual learning, writing competencies in foreign languages, and language policy. She created a widely researched language learning model (the Factors Model) and later developed a plurilingual whole-school curriculum, which has since been implemented in numerous schools, as well as in regional and national curricula and which continues to be researched. A major applied project at the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz (PlurCur®) also resulted in several accompanying research studies that demonstrated the added value of whole-school language curricula.

At the Technical University of Darmstadt, she worked together with colleagues to develop a research-based language policy intended to be effective within the framework of the university’s internationalization strategy. This language policy is based on the theoretical concept of functional multilingualism, a conceptual advancement of the whole-school language curriculum. She has frequently been invited to various European universities to contribute to the development of university language policies and language concepts.

Currently, Hufeisen – together with colleagues – is working on research questions related to supra-individual Dominant Language Constellations® (DLCs), an as yet unexplored space between individual DLCs as described by Aronin (date) and institutional DLCs as described by Björklund and Björklund (dates). This approach makes it possible to examine the effectiveness of functional multilingualism in practise at universities and other higher education institutions.

Together with Karin Birkner (University of Bayreuth), President of the Society for Applied Linguistics (Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik), and Peter Rosenberg (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)), she has for several years been responsible for the GAL (Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik) research focus on refugees, which includes annual working meetings, subsequent publications and impetus for further research.

From 2005 to 2009, Hufeisen was the founding president of the International Association of Multilingualism, which organizes a biennial conference. Since the founding of the International Journal of Multilingualism, she has served as its review editor.

Selected publications

• Hufeisen, Britta (1991), Englisch als erste und Deutsch als zweite Fremdsprache – Empirische Untersuchung zur zwischensprachlichen Interaktion, Frankfurt et al., Peter Lang (Series 21: Linguistics, Vol. 95, based on PhD thesis, Kassel 1990).
• Hufeisen, Britta (2003), L1, L2, L3, L4, Lx – alle gleich? Linguistische, lernerinterne und lernerexterne Faktoren in Modellen zum multiplen Spracherwerb. In: Baumgarten, Nicole/Böttger, Claudia/Motz, Markus/Probst, Julia (Eds.) (2003), Übersetzen, Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Spracherwerb und Sprachvermittlung – das Leben mit mehreren Sprachen. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 8: 2/3, 97–109.
• Hufeisen, Britta / Lutjeharms, Madeline (Eds.) (2005), Gesamtsprachencurriculum – Integrierte Sprachendidaktik – Common Curriculum. Theoretische Überlegungen und Beispiele der Umsetzung. Tübingen, Gunter Narr (Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachenforschung).
• Hufeisen, Britta / Marx, Nicole (Eds.) (2014), EuroComGerm – Die Sieben Siebe. Germanische Sprachen lesen lernen. (2nd ed.). Aachen, Shaker.
• Hufeisen, Britta (2010), Theoretische Fundierung multiplen Sprachenlernens – Faktorenmodell 2.0. Jahrbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache 36, 200–207.

Membership

• Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik e.V.
• International Association of Multilingualism

Weblinks

• Faculty profile: Britta Hufeisen (TU Darmstadt)
• Current list of publications by Britta Hufeisen

References

[[:Category:Women]] [[:Category:1960 births]] [[:Category:German people]] [[:Category:Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt]] [[:Category:Linguists]] [[:Category:Germanists]]