Profile

Professional career

• 09/1998 - 12/1998
  Research assistant at the Psychological Institute of theUniversity of Heidelberg at the DFG-Project "Text Comprehension"
• 03/1999 - 08/2000
  Research associate at the Psychological Institute of theUniversity of Heidelberg at the DFG-Project "Text Comprehension"
• 09/2000 - 09/2002
  Research associate at the Faculty of Linguistics andLiterary Studies at the University of Bielefeld at the DFG-Project "Oral L2-Production".
• 10/2002 - 11/2003
  Research associate for Test Methodology and Psychometrics at the TestDaF Institute, FernUniversität Hagen
• 12/2003 - 09/2008
  Assistant Professor for German as a Foreign Language at the Herder-Institute, University of Leipzig
• 10/2004 - 09/2008
  Deputy Director at the Language Center, University of Leipzig
• since 10/2008
  Director at the Language Center, University of Leipzig

Education

• 10/1993 - 07/1998
  Studies of German Philology and Philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg and Paris-Sorbonne
• 10/1998 - 01/2003
  Doctorate at the University of Bielefeld (Topic: "Methodological Issues of Empirical Second Language Research: The Example of Oral Language Production")
• 02/2003 - 11/2015
  Habilitation at the University of Leipzig and award of the Venia Legendi for the subject German as a Foreign and Second Language (topic of the habilitation thesis: "Blended Learning in German as a Foreign Language. Models, Elements and Potentials")

Panel Memberships

• since 03/2023
  Member in the Selection Committee of the Institut Universitaire de France
• since 04/2022
  Member of the Advisory Board of Deutsche Welle (DW)
• since 07/2021
  Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board of Goethe Institute
• since 01/2017
  Member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Interior
• since 06/2020
  Member of the Advisory Board of the German Exchange Service (DAAD)
• since 04/2010
  Founding Vice-President of the Institute for Test Research and Test Development

Olaf Bärenfänger conducts research on topics such as language policy, digital foreign language learning, research methods, competence diagnostics, and curriculum development. Current research projects are listed below:

• Development of a Digital German College A1-B1 (04/2022-12/2023).
• Development of a Competence Model for Language in Study and University (B1-C1) with funding from the Free State of Saxony (07/2022-12/2023)
• Development of a competence model for job-related language courses A2-C1 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (10/2018-12/2019)
• Development of a "German assessment for foreign language job seekers" (A1-C1) on behalf of the Canton of Zurich (10/2017-10/2021)
• Management of the research project "German as a foreign language of education" (10/2013-12/2015)