Elisabeth Pölzleitner
Current Functions and Responsibilities
Research and teaching staff at the Department of English studies, Section ELT Research and Methodology, Graz University,
- ESL teacher at BG GIBS, Graz (until 2017), then Praxis NMS der PH, Hasnerplatz
- Teacher trainer at the Pädgogische Hochschule Steiermark and others.
Current responsibilities
- Teaching at Uni-Graz:
- Focus on Language and the Learner
- Teaching Literature and Promoting Intercultural Competence
- Teaching at PH Steiermark:
- Teaching Literature and Promoting Intercultural Competence
- Fachdidaktische Begleitung zu PPS2: Englisch (Communicative Language Teaching in Practice II)
- Coordination of activites in language didactics and methodology, training of mentors for school-practice and newly-qualified teachers, cooperation with the FDZ-GEWI and RFDZ für Sprachen und Kulturen, coordination between PH and Uni-Graz
Projects and main areas of interest
| Teaching reading, literature and culture | Goals: Active reading-education, exploring other cultures through literature, raising cultural awareness,joint reading projects between universtiy students and students at GIBS. Kooperation project: Uni-Graz and BG GIBS (Graz International Bilingual School):Cross-cultural reading project: "Crossing Borders" |
| Autonomous, self-directed learning | Goals: Encouraging self-directed learning through portfolio work, self-assessment and transparent, criteria-based assessment. |
| Assessment of Written Work | Goals: higher reliability and comparability of assessment and grades among teachers of English in Austria. Using the positive wash-back effect of the new tests in order to create more representative and realistic writing tasks as well as better communication of the assessment criteria to the learners. In order to achieve these goals a new assessment scale has been developed in cooperation with the ARGE English at AHS Styria. The new scale has been tested in schools and final exams for the last two years. An online survey among English teachers in Styria has shown high satisfaction with the new scale as well as a strong wash-back effect on their teaching of different text-types and registers. Students of the course "Error Analysis and Assessment" have had the opportunity to practice assessing students at BG GIBS in a joint online project. The students' assessment turned out to be highly reliable after only a short period of rater training in class. This project has been given the status of an official partnership between the University and GIBS. Read more... |
| Development of a pool of good practice examples of ESL Materials | Goal: By making good practice examples available to teachers across Austria and beyond we want to encourage teachers to try out new ideas without investing too much work at first. We hope to "infect" them with the "creative bug" and thus start a snow-ball effect of motivating, efficient teaching activities. The website contains examples from my personal files as well as good units produced by students in my methodology courses. The materials include copiable masters, teacher comments and short background information where necessary and can be downloaded from Elisabeth Polzleitner's English Pool at http://epep.at. |
| Teaching languages to the whole brain | Goal: Developing and testing practical methods and activities based on the newest findings of brain research and language acquisition research. Improving efficiency in language learning. Focus on vocabulary: Teaching vocabulary to the whole brain Focus on grammar: Notional grammar and ankering notions through personalized activities. The influence of the "affective filter" on language learning |
| Technology Enhanced Language Teaching and Learning | Critical analysis of learning apps. Using digital tools actively, mainly to practice speaking.
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Publications, presentations and teacher training seminars |
