Latest news
45th Language Testing Research Colloquium
Reforming Language Assessment Systems,
Reforming Language Assessment Research
The Language Testing Research Group Innsbruck (LTRGI), led by Benjamin Kremmel, is pleased to announce that this year's international "Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC)" will take place in Innsbruck.
After the annual conference took place in New York in 2023 and was organised virtually by researchers from Tokyo in 2022, it is a special honour to bring this international conference, which brings together around 300 researchers and language testers every year and is now making only its eighth stop in Europe in its 45-year history, to Innsbruck in 2024.
From 1st to 5th July 2024, the conference will bring together delegates from all over the world to present and discuss both established and innovative approaches to language testing and language testing research. The conference will focus on the development, validation and improvement of language tests and, given the high social relevance of language testing far beyond the educational sector, will provide one of the world's most important forums for the exchange of good practice in the assessment of language competences. Aspects such as fairness, diversity, inclusion and the impact of artificial intelligence on language testing will also be discussed.
Three renowned researchers, Prof Micheline Chalhoub-Deville (USA), Prof Lynda Taylor (UK) and Dr Antony John Kunnan (USA), have been invited as plenary speakers.
Further information and registration can be found at LTRC2024.
Website online: "Meta-Scientific Literacies in the (Mis-)Information Age (SciLMi)"
The programme, which was awarded funding from erasmus+ Teacher Academies last year and aims to develop a European and international perspective on teacher education, is proud to present its website: https://www.scilmi.eu/
Information event on foreign language didactic research
An information event on foreign language didactic research took place on 29th November 2023 as part of the mentoring programme. The contents can be found here.
Language learning through (VR) glasses
This year, the Department of Language Didactics was once again active at the Children's Summer University, this time in cooperation with VisLab of the University of Innsbruck. Children and young people were able to experience different languages up close. They immersed themselves in an immersive Spanish learning environment with virtual reality glasses, went on a virtual city rally through Madrid, discovered Florence in a Minecraft game and learnt Turkish in a quizlet challenge. We are already looking forward to next year, perhaps with Korean, the language that many of the participants would like to learn in the future!
Many thanks also to our student support, Katharina Egger and Laura Zipko!
Nicola Brocca and Katrin Schmiderer
Project "Meta-Scientific Literacies in the (Mis-)Information Age (SciLMi)"
We are delighted that the Institute of Didactics has been awarded funding from erasmus+ Teacher Academies. The aim of the funding programme is to develop a European and international perspective for teacher education and thus contribute to the realisation of a common European educational area.
More information can be found here. Congratulations to Suzanne Kapelari and her team!
HLWest: Open Day
On the Open Day of the HLW Innsbruck on 2nd February 2023, the Institute of Didactics, Department of Languages, was represented as a cooperation partner with a stand. The focus was on the "Week of Multilingualism" project .
Teachingplus! Prize 2022
Congratulations to Katrin Schmiderer, Carmen Konzett-Firth, Elisa Guggenbichler and Nicola Brocca for the Lehreplus! Prize for the course "Collaborative digital task design for foreign language teaching"! Excellent teaching at the university was celebrated at the award ceremony on Friday, 18th November 2022 at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the main building. Markus Koschuh also took a humorous look at university work.
Awarding of the Lehreplus! Prize 2022
Testing and assessing foreign language skills
The Institute of Didactics, together with Prof Barbara Hinger and Prof Wolfgang Stadler, is pleased that the joint publication has been well received.
Our department at the Young University Action Day
The 16th Young University Action Day took place on 30th September. Pupils from primary to secondary school were able to get a taste of various research projects and find out more about everyday life at the University of Innsbruck. The Department of Language Didactics (ImoF) was also represented with a station entitled "How do you become a language professional?". Numerous students left their ideas on questions about ideal foreign language teaching or languages they would like to learn. Others tried their hand at the multilingual games or language portraits. We are delighted with the lively interest in our station and would like to thank the two student assistants, Victoria Wallnöfer and Rebeca Iniesta, for their support. (Benjamin Fliri & Jasmin Peskoller)
War propaganda on television - Magdalena Kaltseis
The Slavicist Magdalena Kaltseis, who joined the Institute for Didactics in September 2022, is investigating how Russian talk shows - long before the war of aggression - were used to create a round-the-clock mood against Ukraine. To get to the article in the press, click here.
Award ceremony - TOEFL Essential New Scholar Award went to Benjamin Kremmel
The Institute for Didactics congratulates Benjamin Kremmel on receiving this year's TOEFL Essential New Scholar Award. Congratulations, we are delighted for you!
The committee's statement reads:
"Benjamin Kremmel impressed the award committee with the quality and breadth of his work in top-tier publications, which are advancing the field of language testing. Benjamin's service to the field of language testing has been remarkable, which includes conference organisation and team building. It is also important to highlight Benjamin's impactful work in his local context with the Austrian Ministry of Education."
9th International Conference for Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
From 29th to 31st August, the 9th International Conference on Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) entitled "Widening the Horizon of Task-Based Language Teaching" took place at the SOWI campus. Review here.
Lecture series in WS 2022/23: Doing Subject Didactics
Every Wednesday, 01:45-03:15 p.m., the interdisciplinary lecture series Doing Fach.Didaktik takes place in the multi-purpose room on the ground floor, Geiwi Tower. We cordially invite you to attend! For further information, click here.
Two project positions advertised
Two project positions have been advertised at the Institute for Didactics and the Institute for Slavic Studies. Information and application until 24th October 2022 here.
Guest Professorship
Elena Nuzzo, an associate professor of Applied Linguistics at the Roma Tre University, is currently completing a two-month research visit at the University of Innsbruck as part of the LFUI Guest Professorship.
Welcoming the new professors at the institute
On Thursday, 9th June 2022, the new professors were celebrated during the departmental café: Eva M. Hirzinger-Unterrainer, Anke Lenzing and Johannes Odendahl. We wish them productive work and much joy at the institute.
Publication announcement
The Institute of Didactics and Prof. Wolfgang Stadler are pleased to announce the following publication:
Cooperation with the HLWest - Multilingualism
Help, help, aiuto - why does it make sense to learn several languages? This and other questions are explored in first, second and fourth classes. Professor Eva-Maria Hirzinger-Unterrainer and students from the University of Innsbruck will accompany the pupils at HLWest for a week and devote themselves entirely to the topic of "multilingualism". For further information, click here.
Rigorosum on 13rd May 2022
The Institute of Didactics congratulates Dr Katrin Schmiderer, BA on passing her viva with flying colours and wishes her all the best after this academic milestone.
University professorship (§98) for didactics of the subject German
The Institute of Didactics is delighted that Johannes Odendahl has accepted the offer of a university professorship (§98) for the didactics of German as a teaching subject and wishes him all the best.
erasmusPlus project
The Institute of Didactics is pleased to be part of the erasmusPlus project "Multilingualism-promoting modules for the FSU".
Fifth didactics conference on 19th and 20th May 2022
The Fifth Innsbruck Didactics Conference aims to reflect on the question of the identity of didactics in the sense of an academic discipline with overarching questions, goals, research fields and methods. To this end, didactic researchers, particularly from the Verbund West, are invited to provide insights into their research fields and methods from their respective subject-specific perspectives and thus at the same time provide impulses for answering the overarching question. Master's students from the network will present their projects as part of a poster walk.
Prof. Dr Martin Rothgangel (University of Vienna) and Prof. Dr Barbara Schmenk (University of Waterloo) have been secured as keynote speakers.
In addition to promoting disciplinary self-understanding within the institute, the faculty and the researchers and teachers throughout the network, the conference aims to address an international didactic research community, in particular through the subsequent publication of a conference volume. At the same time, students and practising teachers should be able to benefit from the conference.
For further information, click here.
13th Young Teachers' Conference of the ÖGSD on 6th and 7th May 2022
The aim of the ÖGSD Young Researchers' Conference, which has been held annually since 2008, is to provide a presentation forum for young researchers in the field of language didactics and to connect researchers from various philologies and subject didactics as well as teacher training who are investigating the subject of language with a didactic and methodological focus. As part of the conference for young researchers, graduates of the teaching programme, BA and MA programmes as well as doctoral students will present their research results in the form of lectures or posters.
Participation is free of charge for speakers, students and ÖGSD members. The conference fee for other participants is €20. Please transfer the fee at the same time as you register to the ÖGSD account: UniCredit Bank Austria AG, BLZ: 12000, IBAN: AT35 1200 0501 1605 3784, BIC: BKAUATWW
Click here to get to the conference programme.
New open access journal DiSlaw (Didactics of Slavic Languages)
The Institute for Specialised Didactics is pleased to announce a new publication: Issue 1 of the open access journal DiSlaw (Didactics of Slavic Languages) on the topic of motivation is available here. We would like to congratulate the two editors of the first issue, Magdalena Kaltseis and Michaela Winkler.
