Iris Schaller-Schwaner
Mag. Dr. phil.
iris.schaller-schwaner@unifr.ch
+41 26 300 7901
Areas of Specialisation
English as a Foreign Language, English for Academic Purposes in multilingual settings and in the context of a bilingual institution, Oral language skills and practical phonetics, English as a lingua franca in bi- and multilingual academic settings
Areas of Specialisation
English as a Foreign Language, English for Academic Purposes in multilingual settings and in the context of a bilingual institution, Oral language skills and practical phonetics, English as a lingua franca in bi- and multilingual academic settings
Lecteur·trice
Centre de langues de l'Université de Fribourg
Rue de Rome 1
1700 Fribourg
Lecteur·trice
Département d'anglais
Rue de Rome 1
1700 Fribourg
Biographie
Current positions and role
Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Lecturer at the Language Centre of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Research
My applied research now focuses on oral uses of English in multilingual contexts. My publication-based doctoral thesis (2017, see below and Publications section) deals with the use of English as a lingua franca in academic settings (ELFA) in Switzerland’s only French-German bilingual university. My appraisal of this use of English as a multilingual practice is combined with insights from and for university language teaching. The findings derive from an ethnography of two innovative series of disciplinary events in English and from examples of my own experience as an EAP teacher.
Schaller-Schwaner, Iris. 2017. „The many faces of English at Switzerland’s Bilingual University: English as an academic lingua franca at the institutionally bilingual University of Freiburg/Fribourg - a contextual analysis of its agentive use“. (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Vienna, Austria)
More recently, my research has focused on English as a Lingua Franca as an additional academic teaching language across subject areas, which is often abbreviated as EMI, English as a Medium of Instruction, e.g. in my co-authored chapter:
Schaller-Schwaner, Iris & Kirkpatrick, Andy 2024. English-medium instruction in higher education in Switzerland. [Chapter 16] In: Bolton, Kingsley; Botha, Werner & Lin, Benedict (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education. 221-233.
Recherche et publications
- Recent conference presentations
2022b (September 16). "Teaching people or a language?". Invited presentation (with Andy Kirkpatrick) in the symposium Lingua Franca Communication and Language Teacher Education: The Challenge of Change at the SLTED Second Language Teacher Education Conference at the University of Vienna, 15 – 17 September 2022.
2022a (July 12). “Multilingualism(s) at the University of Freiburg/Fribourg, Switzerland”. Invited conference presentation at the international workshop Making Multilingual Universities Work:
Case Studies at the University “Ukshin Hoti” Prizren (Kosovo) & online, 12 – 13 July 2022.2021b. Let’s be frank about franca: four factors in code-sharing in academic settings. Paper presented in video-format with live discussion in Symposium 195: What’s ‘franca’ about English as a lingua franca? Understanding meaning making beyond linguistic form at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics: The dynamics of language culture and communication in a changing world, 15-20 August 2021, Virtual AILA Conference 2021, University of Groningen.
2021a. (with C. Brohy & A. Kirkpatrick) Multilingual Switzerland and Hong Kong: issues around the denial of Swiss German and Cantonese as languages for academic purposes. Paper presented in video-format with live discussion at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics: The dynamics of language culture and communication in a changing world, 15-20 August 2021, Virtual AILA Conference 2021, University of Groningen.
2019d. (with A. Kirkpatrick). ELF in contrastive settings and its influence on other languages as languages of education. Paper presented at the conference Teaching & Learning Languages in the Shadow of Lingua Franca. Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic. 15-16 Nov. 2019.
2019c. English as a Lingua Franca ‘edulect’: using it for plurilingual academic purposes at a multilingual Swiss university. Paper presented at the 17th AsiaTEFL & 6th FLLT International Conference: ELT for glocal synergies across disciplines and multilingual ambiences, The Ambassador Hotel Bangkok, Thailand, 27-29 June 2019.
2019b. English as a Lingua Franca ‘edulect’ for disciplinary purposes and in EAP at a bilingual Swiss university. Paper presented at the IconMaMe International Conference on Multilingual Acquisition and Multilingual Education, Honk Kong University of Education (22 – 24), 23 June 2019.
2019a. (with A. Kirkpatrick & C. Brohy) Swiss German & Cantonese in multilingual Switzerland and Hong Kong: languages for academic purposes or informal vernaculars? Paper presented at the IconMaMe International Conference on Multilingual Acquisition and Multilingual Education, Hong Kong University of Education (22 – 24), 23 June 2019.
2018b. With Andy Kirkpatrick. English isn’t just English and ELF isn’t just English only. Paper presented at ELF 11 International Conference on English as a Lingua Franca “ELF, Migration and Multilingualism”. King’s College London, UK, 4-7 July, 2018.
2018a. Oral seminar skills: Speaking tasks for academic self-positioning in ELF university contexts. BALEAP PIM, INTO Newcastle University of Newcastle, UK, 09 June 2018
2017. Bi(tri)lingualism: ELF as ‘edulect’ in German and French language teaching. Paper presented at ELF 10 ‘ELF & Changing English’, 10th Anniversary Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, 12-15 June 2017, University of Helsinki
2014. The habitat factor in ELF(A) and in English for Plurilingual Academic Purposes. Paper presented at 13th International CercleS Conference, Fribourg University, 4 September 2014
2013. Filling a training need: a Swiss ELF workshop on giving academic presentations. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on English as a Lingua Franca ELF 6, University of Roma Tre, 6 September 2013.
- Recent publications
Forthcoming. (with A. Kirkpatrick). EMI in Higher Education in ‘Multilingual’ Switzerland In: Bolton; Lin & Botha (eds.) Routledge Handbook of English-medium Instruction (EMI) in Higher Education.
Kirkpatrick, Andy & Schaller-Schwaner, Iris (2023). English as a Lingua Franca. In: Hinkel, Eli (ed.) Handbook of Practical Second Language Teaching and Learning. (ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series) New York & Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge/Taylor & Francis: 97- 113 [Chapter 7].
2020. With Andy Kirkpatrick. What is English in the light of lingua franca usage? In: Hall, Chris & Wicaksono, Rachel (eds.) Ontologies of English. Conceptualising the language for learning, teaching and assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2018b. Reflections on the Production-Oriented Approach POA in China: a new name and a new acronym. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics 41-2: 249-252
DOI 10.1515/cjal-2018-0018 ISSN 2192-95052018a. ELF as multilingual “edulect” in a bilingual university. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 7(1): 113–129 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2018-0005
2015c. The habitat factor in ELF(A) – English as a Lingua Franca (in Academic settings) – and English for Plurilingual Academic Purposes. Language Learning in Higher Education 5(2): 1-23.
2015b. ELF oral presentations in a multilingual context: intelligibility, familiarity and agency. In: Bowles, Hugo & Cogo, Alessia (eds.) International Perspectives on English as a Lingua Franca: Pedagogical Insights (International Perspectives in ELT) Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan: 72-95.
2015a. Does a picture say more than 7000 words? Windows of opportunity to learn languages - an attempt at a creative reflective poster. Language Learning in Higher Education 5(1): 1-23.