Research Projects
Research plays an integral role at BAEL. Our researchers are involved in a variety of projects here at the department, with topics ranging from variational pragmatics and World Englishes to CMC and (im)politeness. We also encourage our students to get involved and to conduct research of their own. The Research Center for Applied Linguistics (RCAL) provides support and resources for such research projects.
Current projects
English as a local lingua franca in the multilingual ecology of Northeast India
Goal: Investigating the role of English within the language repertoires and Dominant Language Constellations of Northeast India to uncover patterns of global relevance, shaped by migration and socioeconomic factors
Duration:
2025 - 2029
Funding:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
[Re]constructing Female Political Discourse in Nigeria Democracy: A Computer-mediated Corpus-Based Study
Duration: 2023 - 2025
Funding:
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Previous projects at BAEL
Comparative Discursive Construction of Men, Masculinities, and Domestic Violence in Nigeria and Uganda
Duration: 2023 - 2024
Linguistic field: Critical discourse analysis, systemic functional grammar
Data: purposively selected novels from Nigeria and Uganda, media reports (print and online newspapers reports) on domestic violence in Nigeria and Uganda, and structured interviews
Topic: examine the discursive devices and ideological stance shaping men's power struggles leading to domestic violence
Focus: linguistic representations of men as victims or perpetrators in both countries
English as a Lingua Franca in the Family (FamiLingo)
Duration: 2021–2022
Linguistic field: English as a lingua franca, multilingualism, variational linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics
Data: audio-recordings of multilingual family dinner table conversations, introspective interviews, language portraits
Topic: the role of English as a lingua franca in multilingual families
Focus: English in Europe, translanguaging
Pragmatics of Namibian English (PraNamE)
Duration: 2015–2021
Linguistic field: variational pragmatics, World Englishes, pragmatic profiling
Data: written questionnaire including discourse completion tasks, dialogue production tasks and multiple choice questions; role play data, interviews, focus group discussions, elicited metadiscourse, media communication
Topic: variety-specific ways of using Namibian English in communication
Focus: establishing a pragmatic profile of Namibian English based on norms and tendencies of communicative behavior in a range of social contexts
Pragmatic Profiling (Pra.Pro)
Linguistic field: pragmatics, L2 learning, pragmatic competence
Data: from the QEU: written questionnaire including discourse completion tasks, dialogue production tasks and multiple choice questions; L1 English, L2 English and L1 German data
Topic: the role and development of pragmatic competence in the context of L2 English learning
Focus: defining pragmatic competence and developing an instrument for assessing pragmatic competence
Academic Communication in Multimedia Environment (ACiME)
Duration: 2013–2015
Linguistic field: CMC
Data: questionnaire on the use of various communication tools, sources of information, use of hyperlinks, and attitudes towards plagiarism; website analysis of online profiles of active linguists; screen-capture video material to gather hands-on information on what people do when using the
Internet for academic purposes
Topic: features of today's scientific communication in multimedia settings
Focus: use of hyperlinks, plagiarism, authorship
Follow-Up Project: Plagiarism in Academia vis-à-vis Ethical Aspects and Common Practices (2017–2018)
Business English in International Organisations (BEIO)
Linguistic field: English as a lingua franca, Business English, figurative language use, pragmatics
Data: Corpus of naturally occurring business e-mails, web pages by international organisations, survey on Business English as a lingua franca in multi-national organisations
Topic: Figurative language use and pragmatic features in English as a lingua franca in international business communication
Focus: Idioms and linguistic features of business e-mails sent in an English as a lingua franca context between native and non-native business partners in a multi-national team; employees' experience of working in English as a lingua franca and possible difficulties they face
Emerging E-mail Etiquette (EEE)
Duration: 2010-2012
Linguistic field: Pragmatics, (im)politeness research, CMC, genre analysis
Data: Corpus of naturally occurring student emails, writing tasks, rating tasks
Topic: Textual norms of email communication in institutional contexts
Focus: Formal, structural and pragmatic features of student emails sent to a professor and their perceptional evaluation