Professor Ursula Stickler

Professional biography

I joined the Department of Languages in 2002 as a lecturer in German. I have since contributed to German courses at all levels, to English for Academic Purposes and to our Chinese beginners' course. Through tandem learning projects and teacher training activities I have supported the integration of autonomous learning in German and Chinese.

As a researcher and trainer I have specialised in autonomous learning and online language teaching skills, contributing to two international networks of experts. Projects based on my collaboration with the European Centre for Modern Languages (DOTS, ICT-REV) have led to peer-reviewed publications; multiple workshops across Europe and beyond; and a highly rated Impact Case study for REF 2021. 

From 2014 to 2019 I was co-editor of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics. I am currently co-editing a book series on Developing Online Language Pedagogies for Castledown publishers, as well as acting as Associate Editor for the international journal Online Learning. I am an active editor or co-editor, with eight special issues and books in the area of language education.

As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) and member of CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) I link online language pedagogy and research.

Research interests

My research started off in the areas of independent and autonomous learning of languages, including language advising, email Tandem learning, and self-assessment. At the Open University, I have also developed an interest in the use of technology and in tutor training for teaching languages online and other aspects of distance education. Before joining the OU, I taught German at the University of Sheffield and took part in the HEFCE-funded "Interculture project" dealing with students' experience during their period of residence abroad. I have worked on various projects with colleagues in the OU and elsewhere, e.g. the "Interaction project", comparing the different interaction patterns observable in beginners' face-to-face and online tutorials. Collaboration with two universities and one adult education institution in Germany has resulted in numerous successful Tandem partnerships between native speakers of English and of German, some of which have been analysed for research purposes. I am chairing a Research Network of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) that deals with language teachers' perspectives and developments. My current publications are mostly in the areas of technology enhanced language learning and online teaching skills, qualitative research methods, and eyetracking.

Areas of interest:

• Training of Online Tutors
• Virtual Learning Environments
• Interaction in Online Language Tutorials
• Eyetracking
• Tandem Learning
• Language Learning and Teaching Skills
• Autonomy in Language Learning

Teaching interests

Since joining the Open University in 2002, I have created German teaching materials at all levels, from the beginners' course Rundblick (L193) and its online version (LZX193) to the intermediate course Auftakt (L130) and both the upper intermediate course Motive and the highest level course Variationen (L313). I have contributed to the co-pblished Schreibwerkstatt (the upper intermediate reading and writing book). I chaired the re-writing of the upper intermediate (L223) and the German beginners' course (L193 / L103). I have taught residential schools in Jena, Germany, for the free-standing summer course Kapriolen and for the upper intermediate course Motive (L203). For L223, I also taught and managed the Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) online for students who could not attend summer school. In response to COVID-19 restrictions that made travel to Germany impossible, I developed the fully online intensive one week ALE, and the project-based virtual excursion with 360-degree videos. I have trained new Associate Lecturers in online language teaching.

I supervise postgraduate students on both our doctoral programmes, the EdD and PhD, on topics such as online language learning and social presence, vocabulary acquisition, and gender differences in language learning.

Former doctoral students include:

Xinying Zhang (2024): "Chinese University Learners’ Informal Learning with Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL)"

Ibrahima Diallo (2024): "Exploring the impact of individual and collaborative reflection on novice EFL teachers’ professional development in Senegal"

Lesley Fearn (2021): “An Enquiry into English as a Foreign Language and Online Community Projects in Secondary School Education.” 

Irina Rets (2021): “Linguistic accessibility of Open Educational Resources: text simplification as an aid to non-native readers of English.”

Johanna Hall (2020): “Creativity and Learning in Digital Entertainment Games.”

Jessica Sampurna (2019): “Exploring the implementation of online non-formal project-based language learning in the Indonesian context.”

Csaba Szabo (2017): “Vocabulary Testing and the Influence of Second Language on Third Language Vocabulary Acquisition.”

Mair Lloyd (2017): “Living Latin: Exploring a Communicative Approach to Latin Teaching through a Sociocultural Perspective on Language Learning.”

Diana Millonig (2015): "English as a Foreign Language in Austrian primary schools: issues of content and language integration"

Susanne Winchester (2015): "On the Scope of Digital Vocabulary Trainers for Learning in Distance Education"

Carlos Montoro (2014): “The language learning activity of individual learners using online tasks.”

H. Müge Satar (2011): “Social presence in online multimodal communication: a framework to analyse online interactions between language learners.”

Annelies Taylor (2011): "Languages - Computation or Communication? Gender differences in curricular foreign language acquisition."

Impact and engagement

As part of the team DOTS / ICT-REV, I have been central in encouraging language teachers across Europe and in the wider world to integrate digital technology into their classroom practice. We have reached thousands of practitioners and our work has led to changes in attitude, practice and policy, The emphasis on pedagogy over technology and a very participant-centred approach to staff development is unique to our consultancy work.

I have worked with the BBC on their successful series "Vienna, Empire, Dynasty and Dream" and contribute to Jitka Vsteckova's Ageing Well public series of talks.

External collaborations

I am co-editor or the book series Developing Online Language Pedagogies  https://www.castledown.com/academic-books/book-series/developing-online-language-pedagogies/

From 2014 to 2019 I was co-editor of the journal System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics.

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/system/

International links

My close association with the European Centre for Modern Languages (http://www.ecml.at/) has led to a series of funded international projects, starting with DOTS in 2008, and ongoing in plenary presentations, consultancy workshops and training events across Europe. I have been invited to form part of an ECML Think Tank on learning pathways for language learners and am a registered expert for new media and teacher competences.

I work with colleagues across Europe in supporting a doctoral training network in the area of online language learning and virtual exchanges.