© Alan Humerose
Member of the Board of Directors
+41 26 300 79 61
thomas.studer@unifr.ch
Full Professor for German as a Foreign Language/German as a Second Language at the University of Fribourg
Research interests
- Corpus-based language acquisition research (cf. SWIKO - multilingual Swiss learner corpus, web application under development: https://swikoweb.plurilinguisme.ch )
- Research on language teaching and learning, main focus on research methods
- Foreign language and multilingualism didactics with special emphasis on German as a foreign language and German as a second language, main focus: Task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT), data-driven learning (DDL), cultural studies and language learning, German as pluricentric language
- Language testing, main focus: Standardised and teaching-oriented assessment of linguistic and cultural competences (primarly in school settings), test development and validation, evaluation of teaching and classroom practices.
Research projects (direction)
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Duration
01.2025 - 12.2028
Calls for a stronger pedagogical connection between teaching the language of schooling and teaching foreign languages have been made for years, as it is believed learners might benefit from the potential synergies. However, language lessons...
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Duration
01.2025 - 12.2026
The placement of learners in literacy courses according to skill level is often faulty, and the resulting heterogeneity in such classes poses difficulties for both teachers and learners; in addition, the inefficient use of government funds...
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Duration
05.2025 - 04.2026
This study evaluates GSL instruction at public schools in the cities of Winterthur and Zurich with the aim of identifying the conditions that lead to successful learning. The following lines of inquiry are foregrounded:
What resources...
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Duration
07.2025 - 08.2025
The Institute of multilingualism compiled a structured bibliography on the characteristics of foreign language teaching in Swiss schools for the project ‘Review of the Foreign Language Concept in Primary and Secondary Schools in Basel-Landschaft’. In...
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Duration
03.2016 - 12.2024
SWIKO is a multilingual learner corpus describing learner language according to principles of corpus-linguistics. The corpus is an umbrella project developed during the 2016–2019 research period and being further developed in the 2021–2024...
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Duration
01.2018 - 09.2024
The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) planned to verify how well students are mastering the Basic Competences (educational standards) in foreign languages for the second time in spring 2020. Due to the covid-19 pandemic,...
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Title
WETLAND
Further development and applications of the Swiss learner corpus SWIKO
Duration
07.2021 - 07.2024
In line with the strong presence of usage-based approaches to language description and research in language acquisition, research in corpus linguistics has intensified and diversified in recent years. This applies equally to corpus-based...
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Duration
01.2018 - 12.2023
Literacy courses designed for adult migrants have been offered for decades in countries experiencing significant immigration. The recent past has seen an increase in research on the teaching and learning processes that are involved in successful...
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Duration
01.2018 - 12.2019
The main goal of this project is to compile an inventory of existing corpora containing productions of learners of German and French as a foreign language; a further objective is defining gaps and needs in this area.
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Duration
09.2019 - 12.2019
The basis of this report, commissioned by the association BERNbilingue, is a systematic evaluation of current studies on French as a foreign language lessons at primary and secondary schools that use the Mille feuilles and Clin d'oeil learning...
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Duration
01.2015 - 12.2016
The aim of this project is to study the linguistic competences of bilingual children when producing written texts in Spanish. The participant children attend heritage language and culture (HLC) courses. The main research question is: How...
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Duration
01.2011 - 12.2014
Swiss National Science Foundation, project funding, Project no. 135407
The aim of this project is to develop basic standards for the languages taught at schools where Rhaeto-Romanic is spoken (i.e. Rumantsch Grischun (RG) and German). The...
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Duration
01.2012 - 12.2014
The goal of the project "Multilingual sequences in history lessons: processes to solve intercomprehension tasks and appropriate learner profiles" was twofold: First, the project adjusted worksheets designed in the context of materials development...
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Duration
12.2010
From 2006 to 2009, an official proposal for Swiss educational standards was formulated within the framework of the project HarmoS of the EDK. After concluding the political consultations, the standards required finalisation. To do so, the...
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Duration
01.2002 - 12.2010
The three German-speaking countries in Europe have developed a cooperation to revise and develop international diplomas for German as a foreign or second language – a very interesting topic for and in Switzerland. The University of Fribourg...
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Duration
05.2008 - 06.2009
In this project, commissioned by NWEDK, EDK Ost and BKZ, suitable lingualevel test packages were compiled to test the levels of the foreign languages French and English in public schools in the German-speaking cantons, years 6 through 9....
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Duration
06.2006 - 12.2008
This practical research project, commissioned by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), grants interested Swiss schools access to the internationally recognised certificate Deutsch for Jugendliche ZD j (German...
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Research projects (collaboration)
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Duration
01.2018 - 12.2024
The aim of this project is the empirically-based development of assessments to test the profession-specific language skills in teachers of French, English and Italian as a foreign language in primary and secondary schools. The main starting...
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