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Prof. Thomas Studer

© Alan Humerose

Director

+41 26 300 79 61
thomas.studer@unifr.ch

Full Professor for German as a Foreign Language/German as a Second Language at the University of Fribourg

Research interests

  • Corpus-based language acquisition research
    (cf. SWIKO - multilingual Swiss learner corpus, web application under development: https://swikoweb.plurilinguisme.ch )
  • Research on language teaching and learning, main focus on research methods
  • Foreign language and multilingualism didactics with special emphasis on German as a foreign language and German as a second language, main focus: Task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT), data-driven learning (DDL), cultural studies and language learning, German as pluricentric language
  • Language testing, main focus: Standardised and teaching-oriented assessment of linguistic and cultural competences (primarly in school settings), test development and validation, evaluation of teaching and classroom practices.
Research projects (direction)
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Title
Three-nation cooperation in the international diplomas for German as a foreign language (DaF)
Status
In progress
The three German-speaking countries in Europe have developed a cooperation to revise and develop international diplomas for German as a foreign or second language – a very interesting topic for and in Switzerland. The... more
Title
Literature review: literacy development for adult migrants
Status
In progress
Literacy courses designed for adult migrants have been offered for decades in countries experiencing significant immigration. The recent past has seen an increase in research on the teaching and learning processes that... more
Title
Competences in French as a foreign language in the Passepartout region
Status
Completed
Commissioned by: BERNbilingue https://www.bernbilingue.ch/ The basis of this report, commissioned by the association BERNbilingue, is a systematic evaluation of current studies on French as a foreign language lessons... more
Title
Corpora of DaF- and FLE learners
Status
Completed
The main goal of this project is to compile an inventory of existing corpora containing productions of learners of German and French as a foreign language; a further objective is defining gaps and needs in this area.... more
Title
Swiss learner corpus SWIKO
Status
Completed
Current approaches to foreign language teaching and learning focus strongly on language in use. The overarching aim is communicative competence, a consequence of, mainly, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR... more
Title
Learning Spanish as a minority language in the French speaking and Swiss-German speaking part of Switzerland
Status
Completed
Swiss National Science Foundation, Marie Heim-Voegtlin funding, no. 151452 The aim of this project is to study the linguistic competences of bilingual children when producing written texts in Spanish. The participant... more
Title
Multilingual sequences in history lessons
Status
Completed
The goal of the project "Multilingual sequences in history lessons: processes to solve intercomprehension tasks and appropriate learner profiles" was twofold: First, the project adjusted worksheets designed in the... more
Title
Standards in Rumantsch Grischun in a multilingual model for language competence for speakers of Rhaeto-Romanic
Status
Completed
Swiss National Science Foundation, project funding, Project no. 135407 The aim of this project is to develop basic standards for the languages taught at schools where Rhaeto-Romanic is spoken (i.e. Rumantsch Grischun (... more
Title
HarmoS: Final revision of the national educational standards for foreign languages
Status
Completed
Commissioned by: Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education EDK From 2006 to 2009, an official proposal for Swiss educational standards was formulated within the framework of the project HarmoS of the EDK.... more
Title
Using lingualevel instruments to assess skills in public schools (years 6 through 9)
Status
Completed
In this project, commissioned by NWEDK, EDK Ost and BKZ, suitable lingualevel test packages were compiled to test the levels of the foreign languages French and English in public schools in the German-speaking cantons,... more
Title
International foreign language certificate
Status
Completed
continuation of the assessment agency ZD j in 2009 This practical research project, commissioned by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), grants interested Swiss schools access to the... more
Publications
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Publikationen/Publications