I am Associate Professor in the Centre for Language Studies, which I joined in 2001. From 1992 to 2001, I was a member of the faculty of the European Studies Programme. I coordinated the German language modules in European Studies and at the CLS between 1994 and 2002. From 2002 to 2005, I was appointed as Deputy Director of the Centre for Language Studies. Subsequent to that, from 2005 to 2015, I served as Director of the Centre.
I did my undergraduate and Masters studies in German Language and Literature at the University of Würzburg and received my doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the University of Kassel. Both universities are in Germany.
I've been active in theoretical and applied research in the area of Foreign Language Education and co-authored two German language syllabi for the Ministry of Education. I also led a team of German lecturers at the NUS to create a comprehensive virtual self-access centre for German as a Foreign Language ("e-daf"). I have been invited to give over 25 keynote/plenary/guest lectures and to conduct numerous seminars/workshops at conferences/universities in Singapore, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and Germany.
Other appointments/memberships which I held or am currently holding include:
At the NUS, I have been teaching German language modules at all levels, ranging from Elementary to Advanced level. Currently, I am teaching and coordinating the German 2, 3 and 6 modules in the Centre.
I have also been instrumental in the development of several curricula for German language and other language modules in the CLS, including a major revamp of the CLS curriculum in 2015. I was awarded Faculty and University Teaching Excellence Awards in 1997, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008. In 2005, I was also awarded the prestigious NUS Outstanding Educator Award. I was a Fellow of the NUS Teaching Academy from 2009 to 2018. In addition, I had authored three German language syllabi for the Singapore Ministry of Education and sat on the Curriculum Review Committee for MOELC from 2018 to 2020.
In 2018, I was conferred the Daekyo Eye-Level Education Award 2018 in the Global Education Category by Daekyo Cultural Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
Currently, the main project I am leading focuses on the development of intercultural competence among foreign language learners on short-term in-country language immersions. Data are collected from students attending language immersions in France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand as well as the organisers of these immersions. Collaborating with me on this project, which is funded by an MOE Tier 1 research grant, are colleagues from the Centre -- A/P Chin Kwee Nyet, Ms Chi Seo Won, Ms Sasiwimol Klayklueng, Dr Daniel Chan and Ms Yukiko Saito. My colleagues and I are also investigating the construct of intercultural mediation and are analysing the data from this project to create a descriptive and a hierarchical taxonomy of intercultural mediations. We are members of an international AILA Research Network focusing on intercultural mediation, which is preparing a book on the same topic, to be published in the second half of 2021.
Recently, I had also done work on bilingualism and multilingualism and was invited to contribute a chapter on bilingualism and multilingualism in Singapore in a volume published by Springer.
I had led numerous research projects on the application of new media to foreign language teaching and learning, focusing in particular on constructivist theory-based learning applications and audio/video podcasting, collaborating with various colleagues in the Centre for Language Studies. I had also conducted two studies on language learning motivation, investigating in partcular the role of pop media in the learning motivation of Korean as a foreign language learners. A number of papers have been generated from these projects and have been presented/published at international conferences or in international refereed journals/peer reviewed books.
In addition, since 2004, I have led several projects for the publication of edited volumes on processes and process-orientation, media, individual characteristics and culture in foreign language education. The latest volume, co-edited with Dr Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Mr Masanori Nagami and Dr Izumi Walker and including an introductory chapter and another on the use of videos in teaching language and culture co-authored by me, was recently published by De Gruyter Mouton. The book is titled "Culture in Foreign Language Education: Insights from Research and Implications for the Practice".
I am also working on the re-development and extension of the German Programme's virtual self-access centre "e-daf", first launched in August 2000 and re-launched in 2019.
Intercultural language learning and intercultural mediation, bilingualism and multilingualism, process-oriented language learning, curriculum development and syllabus design, metacognition, learner autonomy, motivation and new technologies in language learning
BOOKS
EDITED BOOKS
JOURNAL ARTICLES
BOOK CHAPTERS
CONFERENCE PAPERS
PAPERS FOR SEMINAR, PUBLIC TALK, LECTURE