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Bio & Research

Bio

Ivo Steininger is Professor of Teaching Anglophone Literatures and Cultures.

He studied English as a Foreign Language and German at Giessen University from 2001 to 2007. In 2007 and 2012 respectively, he passed the first and second state examinations for teaching at comprehensive schools in Germany with distinction. In 2013, he received his doctorate degree (Dr. phil.) in foreign language education with the highest honours, summa cum laude. His dissertation focused on the understanding of literary texts in the English as a foreign language classroom. It differentiates between the individual reader responses and reading skills of intermediate learners of English and the classroom discourse on specific literary texts, resulting in a model of literary competence based on qualitative teaching research in English lessons at the lower secondary level.

Prior to his full-time university position, he taught English and German at a comprehensive school in the German state of Hesse for several years. In addition to that, he has gathered experiences as an English textbook author, in teaching English as a foreign language in adult education and has been involved in both in-service training as well as in the professional development of English teachers. From 2016 to 2018, he was employed as an interim professor at the University of Paderborn, and subsequently, from 2019 to 2021, at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. In the spring of 2024, he was invited to Saint Mary’s University, Halifax/Canada, as a visiting scholar to deliver courses on foreign language education in the International Master of Teaching English program.
 
 

Research

His academic interest revolves around questions regarding the educational significance of literary texts in the foreign language classroom, the representation of anglophone cultures in media and literature as well as the transaction between literary texts and the learners as readers.

His research areas include…

  • Reading processes and sensemaking of young learners of English with multimodal literary texts
  • The role of reflection and knowledge-bases in teacher professionalisation
  • Sustainability in the English as a foreign language classroom
  • The educational potential of the representation of identity in anglophone pop-culture
  • Digitalisation in foreign language learning and teaching


Awards and Prizes

2015

1st place “Piepho-Prize” on research to further foreign language education as an academic field

Modellierung literarischer Kompetenz. Eine qualitative Studie im Fremdsprachenunterricht der Sekundarstufe I

 

 

Current Research Projects

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Development and professionalization in the second phase of foreign language teacher training

Based on the question of how teachers in the second phase of English teacher training perceive their own professionalization process and how their development can be described, a group of teachers in preparatory service was scientifically accompanied over the entire period of the second training phase.

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Reading and understanding picture books: A study of learners’ engagement with aspects of ambiguity in literary texts

The project focuses on explorative research into the reading processes and sense-making of lower-intermediate learners of English.

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Sustainability and the EFLC

The project’s overall objective is to communicate English didactic considerations on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to regional educational institutions (schools, Studienseminare, school boards).

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