Profile
Professional career
- since 10/2008
Gerhard-Helbig-Professor of German as a Foreign Language (C4), Herder Institute, University of Leipzig - since 01/2008
Adjunct Professor of German as a Foreign Language, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico - 08/2000 - 09/2014
Adjunct Professor of German Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson (USA) - 09/1998 - 10/2008
Professor of German as a Foreign Language (C4): Linguistics and Applied Linguistics - 04/2004 - 09/2008
Dean, Faculty of Philology, University of Leipzig - 10/2002 - 03/2004
Associate Dean, Faculty of Philology, University of Leipzig - 10/2016 - 09/2017
Director, Herder-Institute, University of Leipzig - 10/2013 - 09/2014
Director, Herder-Institute, University of Leipzig - 10/2004 - 09/2008
Director, Language Center, University of Leipzig - 09/2003 - 11/2003
Rector Candidate (Nominated by the Faculty Senate), University of Leipzig - 01/2003
Call to Full Professor and Chair (C4) of Foreign Language Education, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Potsdam, Germany (declined) - 02/2014 - 09/2014
Scholar in Residence, American Association on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), White Plains, NY - 11/2009 - 03/2010
Scholar in Residence, American Association on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), White Plains, NY - 08/1996 - 08/1998
Associate Professor of German (with tenure), Department of German, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA - 04/1998 - 09/1998
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Second Language Acquisition, Visiting Professor (C4) - 04/1997 - 09/1997
Universität GH Kassel, German as a Foreign Language, Visiting Professor (C3) - 10/1996 - 03/1997
Visiting Professor (C3) of Second Language Acquisition and German as a Foreign Language, Fachbereich Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaften, Universität Bielefeld, Germany - 08/1990 - 08/1996
Assistant Professor of German (tenure-track); Director of First- and Second-Year German; Department of German, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa - 09/1988 - 08/1990
Regents Lecturer; Director of First- and Second-Year German; Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan - 08/1986 - 05/1988
Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California - 08/1985 - 05/1986
Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Mills College, Oakland, California - since 01/2012
President, Institute of Test Research and Test Development (ITT) e.V., Leipzig - since 01/2004
Executive Board, InterDaF am Herder-Institut, Leipzig - since 01/2006
Executive Board, German-Russian Institute for Energy Policy and Economics (Deutsch-Russisches Institut für Energiepolitik und Energiewirtschaft e.V.) - since 01/1993
Tester Trainer (certified), Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACFTL), Alexandria, VA, USA - 01/2005 - 01/2013
Executive Board, TestDaF Institute, Bochum - 01/2005 - 01/2012
President, The Language Institute at the University of Leipzig, Leipzig - 01/2006 - 01/2010
President, Association of German as a Foreign Language within the German Modern Language Association - 01/2006 - 01/2008
Executive Board, Prague Network of Deans of Humanities Faculties - 01/2005 - 01/2010
Member Landesbildungsrat, Freestate of Saxony - since 01/2008
Founding Member, Confucius Institute Leipzig - since 01/2009
Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Germany), Associate Editor - since 01/2012
Creative Practices in Language Learning and Teaching (Malaysia), Editorial Advisory Board - 01/2010 - 01/2014
Language Teaching (United Kingdom), Editorial Advisory Board - since 01/2010
Pandaemonium Germanicum (Brazil), Editorial Advisory Board - since 01/2009
Neue Beiträge für Germanistik (Japan), Editorial Advisory Board - 01/2004 - 01/2012
Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (Singapore), Editorial Advisory Board - since 01/1999
German as a Foreign Language (United Kingdom), Editorial Advisory Board - 01/1994 - 01/2017
Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German (USA), Editorial Advisory Board - 01/2005 - 01/2009
Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Germany), Editorial Advisory Board - 01/2007 - 01/2017
DAAD Lecturer Selection Committee, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Referee - since 01/2004
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Referee - since 01/2001
VW Foundation, Referee
Education
- 08/1984 - 05/1988
Ph.D., Germanic Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, University of California, Berkeley (USA) - 08/1981 - 07/1984
M.A., German Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder (USA) - 05/1978 - 08/1981
B.A. Spanish and English, University of Regensburg, Germany, 1981 (equivalent)