Up until now, my teaching has almost invariably been in areas that have little connection with my research. While I very much enjoy the challenge of developing expertise in other areas, and of delivering them to students, I have this year for the first time had the opportunity to teach a course on language attrition, first in our MA programme and then, at a more advanced level, during the LOT Winterschool. This I also found a very enjoyable and gratifying experience.
I am therefore quite flexible with respect to the areas in which I am required to teach. While I enjoy taking on responsibilites in areas that are more closely related to my research - for example in the department of Applied Linguistics in any area related to first and second language acquisition, bilingualism or attrition, I am also happy to deliver courses for the English department.
When I first took over teaching responsibilities during my position at the department of English Linguistics at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, the structure of the curriculum necessitated that I take on responsibility for teaching the basic issues in linguistic theory, mainly as they relate to the study of translation of literature. The demand for someone with an intimate knowledge of this study program, both from the perspectives of the student and the teacher, as well as a knowledge of issues of theory of translation, made me well-suited to take on those responsibilities. At the same time, I was responsible for teaching introductory courses in linguistics for students enrolled in other programmes (such as the Magister and Diplom English language and literature), and the more specialized 2nd year module Schools of Linguistics.
My teaching responsibilities at the VU Amsterdam, while also incorporating introductory courses and language skill teaching, at this moment mainly cover 3rd year BA and MA courses. For the past years, in the transitional period from oude stijl doctoraal to the BA/MA-structure, I have been responsible for the specialization ‘Language Variation’. This covers regional and social variation of native English, but also comprises the course on Global English, where issues of language contact, creolization, and language death are relevant; as are historical factors of the postcolonial English-speaking world. My teaching experience would therefore seem to fit in well with programmes at the RUG, such as the international MA in Applied Linguistics.
I furthermore played an important part in the development of both our MPhil Linguistics and MA English Language program. For both programs, I was one of two developers of the obligatory Core Courses (for the MPhil, this is the course Linguistic Research, which I developed together with Prof. Geert Booij; for the MA, it is the course The English Language and its Uses that was developed in co-operation with dr. Gerard Steen). I have also taught a course on language attrition at the LOT Winterschool 2006, held at the VU Amsterdam.
