Our teaching
• BA degree: In the bachelor’s programme in Communication and Information Studies, the English Linguistics section teaches some of the fundamental courses for all of the students on topics such as English as a medium of international communication and global English.
We also offer our own specialised track—English Language and Communication Studies. The track, taught entirely in English, provides students with expertise on how English is used worldwide, how to analyse text and talk, and how English has changed and is evolving, and it develops students’ practical skills in written and spoken academic and professional English.
• BA Minor: The Minor in English that we offer allows students from other BA programmes not only to improve their writing and speaking skills in English but also to gain theoretical background and insight into what characterizes the English in their own discipline.
• MA degree: We offer two tracks within the MA programme in Communication and Information Studies.
– In the track called Schrijven en vertalen students specialize in either Writing, Translation or a combination of Writing and Translation (English-Dutch and vice versa). The track offers an attractive mix of theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
– The track in Multimodal Communication concerns how we combine different audible and visible means of communication for different purposes, including written text and images, and spoken words and gestures. We consider how formulating our messages in different media and genres can produce different effects.
• ALP: Our staff direct the English division of the VU Academic Language Programme and offer courses, workshops and coaching sessions on academic English for students, PhD candidates and lecturers across the university.
Our research
The group consists of experts in language variation and language change, grammatical theories, metaphor studies, translation, global English, written and spoken language, and gesture studies. We cooperate closely with researchers in the Netherlands and around the world, and are well-connected with specialists in second language learning, language testing, and teacher education. The group also provides advice on English language policy.
An example application of our teaching and research
The group has created the MOOC “English Pronunciation in a Global World”. It is an online academic course for developing English pronunciation skills but it also addresses sociolinguistic issues like language and identity. The MOOC embraces diversity in English (accents) and provides inclusive quality English teaching. It is freely available at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-pronunciation .
On the members of our section
Permanent staff
Jens Branum, MA, is a lecturer for the Academic Language Programme and mostly teaches writing and grammar classes. In terms of research, his main areas of interest are second language acquisition, differences between native and non-native speakers, speech fluency, persuasion, critical discourse analysis and the language of newspapers and the media.
Prof. Dr. Alan Cienki is professor (Hoogleraar) of English Linguistics and also director of the Language Use and Cognition research group. He conducts research in cognitive linguistics and in gesture studies. With the former, he focuses on grammatical theory and semantics, including metaphor analysis; his gesture research is connected with the analysis of spoken language and the study of thinking for speaking. He teaches in and coordinates the tracks in English Language and Communication Studies (BA) and Multimodal Communication (MA) and is also personnel manager of ALP-English.
Dr. Gea Dreschler, assistant professor (UD), does research in historical linguistics, focusing on grammatical changes and in particular on non-canonical aspects of subjects. In addition, she is Academic Director of the ALP and coordinates and teaches courses on academic writing for Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students. She also does research on academic writing and effective written feedback. She teaches in the BA track in English Language and Communication Studies, the MA track in Writing and Translation, and the Minor in English, which she coordinates.
Abby Gambrel, MFA in creative writing, is a lecturer in the English Linguistics section teaching courses for the BA track in English Language and Communication Studies, the Minor in English, and the Academic Language Programme.
Kristen Gehrman, MA, teaches courses in translation, academic writing and Language and Communication. Her academic background and research interests are in the fields of applied linguistics, language acquisition and translation. She is also a literary translator working from Dutch to English. She teaches in the BA track in Language and Media and the MA track Schrijven en Vertalen (Writing and Translation).
Dr. Maaike van den Haak is an assistant professor (UD). She has a background in English linguistics and user studies. Her current interests include user experience (UX), think-aloud research, localization and translation. She teaches in the BA track in Language and Media and the MA track Schrijven en Vertalen (Writing and Translation). She also acts as coordinator for this MA track.
Dr. Tina Krennmayr, assistant professor (UD), does corpus research on metaphor variation in both spoken and written discourse and is an expert in methods of metaphor identification. She is interested in metaphor use in the media and applies metaphor research to foreign language learning and teaching. She teaches in the BA track in English Language and Communication Studies and the MA track in Multimodal Communication.
Dr. Anna Martonfi is Lecturer in Academic English, teaching a variety of courses in the ALP. In addition, she conducts research and publishes on transcultural media texts, examining audiovisual translation methods and transnational aspects of comedy. Her research interests include British radio, television and film comedy, transnational humour, Hungarian comedies of the inter-war era, and Jewish comedy.
Dr. Laura Rupp, associate professor (UHD), has research expertise in grammar and language variation and change. Her current research focuses on morphosyntactic features of varieties of English that have become obsolescent. She teaches courses like Global English and Postcolonial Language and Literature in the BA track in English Language and Communication Studies and the MA track Educatie in de Taal- en Cultuurwetenschappen. She is the creator of the MOOC English Pronunciation in a Global World.
Additional staff
Dr. phil. des Ursula Caci is a lecturer for the Academic Language Programme and teaches academic writing classes on various levels. She has a background in German and English Literature and Linguistics with a specialization in American nineteenth-century poetry. Her research interests include interdisciplinary approaches to literature and culture incorporating insights from Gender Studies and related disciplines. In addition, she also teaches Academic Writing Skills at the Amsterdam University College (AUC), and she supervises Master students who write their final thesis.
Dr. Reza Falahati Ardestani is a lecturer in the BA track of the English Linguistics section. His academic background is in the fields of education and linguistics. He has a wide range of research interests such as phonetics, L2 pronunciation, discourse analysis, pragmatics, and academic writing. In his most recent work, he investigates whether the expression of politeness by L2 learners is similar or different from that of native speakers. In order to address such research question, the prosodic parameters as well as the choice of linguistic realizations of politeness and the social or cultural determinants of politeness are considered as the variables.
Adam Frick, MA, is a lecturer for the Academic Language Programme. His academic background and research interests are in the fields of literature, cultural anthropology and Latin American studies. His professional background is in the fields of secondary and tertiary education, academic text editing, corporate copywriting and Dutch-to-English translation. His current intellectual pursuits include medieval Europe, religious studies, global nomadism and audio production.
Paul Robertson, MA, is a lecturer with the Academic Language Programme and teaches academic writing in a variety of courses. He has a background in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and his recent research has focused on Digital Competency for International Students and Flipped Learning.
