Using a corpus of international video-mediated communication to improve intercultural and communicative competence in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching 

(Einsatz eines Korpus von internationaler videobasierter Kommunikation zur Förderung interkultureller und kommunikativer Kompetenz im fremdsprachlichen Unterricht)

Doctoral grant: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS)

Abstract: My dissertation project focuses on features of transatlantic communication –  in this case a corpus of Skype conversations between native speakers of English (students from the UK and the US) and non-native speakers of English (German students), which is part of the CASE (Corpus of Academic Spoken English) project.  The transatlantic corpus will allow research in various fields such as linguistics, EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching and cultural studies. Frequently used linguistic features will be detected and their use among native and non-native speakers will be analyzed in greater detail. The results will provide implications for language teaching as to how frequently used features should be tought and in how far they complement to authentic language use. Different cultural aspects can be found in conversations about food, traditions and TV shows. Their impact on intercultural communication and mutual understanding will also be subject to analysis.

Participation in research projects

• Principal investigator: CASE project: 2012-present. Birkenfeld: Trier University of Applied Sciences & Saarbrücken: Saarland University.

German-American Institute Saarland

Program Manager / Public Relations (2015-2018)

Conferences and papers

• Diemer, Stefan, Brunner, Marie-Louise; and Collet, Caroline. May 2018. So, what about ‘so’? – The discourse marker ‘so’ in video-mediated communication in the Expanding Circle. Paper at Workshop on Discourse markers in the Outer and Expanding Circles: A corpus-linguistic perspective, convened by Sven Leuckert and Sofia Rüdiger, ICAME39, Tampere, Finland.
• Collet, Caroline; and Stefan Diemer. July 2017. “Mhm, ... okay so u:h, maybe we should start” – The use of ‘so’ and ‘okay’ in English as a Lingua Franca Skype conversations. Paper presented at 15th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA 15), Belfast, UK.
• Collet, Caroline. October 2016. Aspects of transatlantic communication in the Corpus of Academic Spoken English (CASE). UdS American Studies Graduate Forum, Saarland University, in cooperation with German-American Institute Saarland.
• Brunner, Marie-Louise; Caroline Collet; Stefan Diemer; and Selina Schmidt. November 2014 Quality TV - Die Sprache als Erfolgsgeheimnis? Keynote speech at Quality TV, Saarbrücken.
• Collet, Caroline; and Stefan Diemer. August 2014. “Transcribing Academic Spoken English- Challenges and Issues”. Paper presented at the 12th European Society for the Study of English Conference (ESSE 12), Košice, Slowakia.

Recent invited talks

• Collet, Caroline. July 2017. “Mhm, ... okay so u:h, maybe we should start” – The use of ‘so’ and ‘okay’ in Skype conversations. Invited workshop (Radboud University research workshop) at Faculty of Environmental Business & Environmental Law, Trier University of Applied Sciences, Environmental Campus Birkenfeld.
• Brunner, Marie-Louise; Stefan Diemer; and Caroline Collet. September 2016. CASE: A corpus of international Skype conversations: Compilation, transcription and first findings. Invited workshop at Departamento de Filoloxía Inglesa e Alemá, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Grants / funding

GradUS Global, promoted by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF):

• July 2017: International Pragmatics Association Conference, Belfast, UK. 
• November 2016: Research visit at Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK.
• September 2016: International Workshop on Discourse Analysis (IWoDA 16), Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Doctoral Grant by the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (since January 2017)