Funding: FWF

Project Members: Sarah Mercer, Jasrael Stokes, Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, Agata Słowik-Krogulec

Project Description:

This project is a collaboration between the Department of English at the University of Graz and the University of Wrocław, Poland. This multimodal project examines the contagion ad synchronicity of student and teacher emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement over time in both in-person and online contexts, with cross-cultural comparisons between Austria and Poland. The findings with shed light on internal and context-related factors that influence engagement contagion and its trajectories, and be used to generate scales to measure the engagement contagion of teacher and learner engagement. 

Förderung: keine

Projektmitglieder: Sarah Mercer, Julia Aigner, Margit Kienzl, Sabrina Moser 

Projektbeschreibung: Dieses Projekt ist eine Kooperation zwischen der Abteilung für Englischdidaktik an der Universität Graz und dem Bischöflichen Campus Augustinum. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es, herauszufinden, welche Faktoren Lehrkräfte als wichtig für den Aufbau und die Aufrechterhaltung gelingender Beziehungen im schulischen Kontext ansehen und welche Rolle Mitgefühl (compassion) dabei spielt. Auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse sollen sowohl wissenschaftliche Publikationen als auch praxisorientierte Materialien für Schulen entwickelt werden, die Lehrkräfte in der Förderung von Mitgefühl, Beziehungsaufbau und Solidarität unterstützen.

Funding: None

Project Members: Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Sarah Mercer, Soyoung Lee

Project Description: The purpose of this study is to investigate the concept of embarrassment in language learning and to see how it is linked to language learners’ perceived speaking competence, attitudes towards English as a global language, and willingness to communicate among tertiary-level English language learners in Korea and Austria.

Funding: None

Project Members: Sarah Mercer, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Dávid Smid, Mirosław Pawlak 

Project Description: The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to examine professional curiosity among language teachers. In addition, we will examine to what extent language teachers’ professional curiosity is linked to their self-efficacy, adaptability, and wellbeing. The findings will inform us about the importance of professional curiosity among language teachers. 

Funding: None

Project Members: Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Sarah Mercer, Mostafa Azari Noughabi, and Mahdieh Javedan

Project Description: The purpose of this study is to come up with a process-model of embarrassment when learning or using English across two contexts of Austria and Iran. In particular, our aim is to explore the background to embarrassment triggers, embarrassment triggers, responses to triggers, and how English language learners avoid or approach embarrassment during their English language learning in the future across these two contexts.

Funding: None
Project Members: Sarah Mercer, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Julia Aigner, Gholam Hassan Khajavy

Project Description: Since language learning is a social activity, the relationships among learners and between learners and the teacher are critical for learner engagement. A core contributor to an outcome from positive relationships is psychological safety (Mercer & Dörnyei, 2020). Yet, there has been little empirical work to unpack what this central construct is and how it functions in language classrooms. This project aims to examine Austrian English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ perspectives on the group dynamics within their English classrooms in order to unpack characteristics of psychological safety. One of our goals is to develop a better understanding on the dynamic nature of learner groupsThe findings will generate academic publications and conference presentations.

Funding: None
Project Members: Sarah Mercer, Dávid Smid, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Giulia Sulis, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Julia Aigner, Gökhan Öztürk, Jasrael Stokes, Mahdieh Vaziri

Project Description: The purpose of this project is to understand what aspects of psychology are important for language teachers to know about. More specifically, we aim to understand what researchers in the field of Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching and language teachers think that language teachers need to know about psychological factors (i.e., their psychological literacy) for successful language education (teacher and learner perspectives).

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Dávid Smid, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda
Project description: Language learning is a highly emotional endeavor. Most research to date has focused on anxiety but, recently, the scope and range of emotions investigated has begun to expand. One emotion which can potentially have a considerable impact on language learning and use processes is embarrassment. In this two-stage study, our aim is to explore the nature of embarrassment as experienced by language learners in different contexts seeking to understand which situations are more likely to induce embarrassment and why. Stage one of the study uses student-generated narratives to generate insights into the contexts and frames of reference influencing experiences of learner embarrassment in relation to language learning and use. In the second phase, we will develop a scale for measuring embarrassment in the foreign language classroom. This will be integrated into a global, international survey to better understand how embarrassment is experienced across contexts and populations as well as how it relates to other key variables known to impact on language learning processes such as engagement, mindsets, and self-concept.

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Dávid Smid, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Giulia Sulis, Astrid Mairitsch, Salam Mairi, Sun Shin
Project description: Previous research on emotions has mostly focused on language learners and few studies have examined language teachers’ emotions. Yet, the act of teaching is replete with emotions, and teachers experience a full range of emotions in their professional lives. In general education, a powerful emotion for teacher wellbeing is experiencing a sense of pride in one’s job and professional experiences. In our research, we seek to investigate how this emotion is experienced among language teachers. Our first study in this regard established some of the characteristics of pride among English language teachers and revealed the extent to which it responds in domain-specific ways (Mairitsch et al., 2023). In our current research, we are working on developing a scale to measure language teachers’ pride. This will be integrated into a global, international survey to cast light on how language teacher pride relates to key variables such as engagement, wellbeing, and burnout in different contexts and across diverse populations.

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Dávid Smid, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Mirosław Pawlak
Project description: The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure language teacher professional curiosity.  The study is based on earlier qualitative research by Sarah Mercer and Mirosław Pawlak. We further aim to examine how language teacher professional curiosity is related to their adaptability, self-efficacy, and wellbeing. 

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Julia Aigner, Jasrael Stokes
Project description: The purpose of this study is to understand how future language teachers perceive the role of AI in language teaching, and how they expect it to impact their teaching practice, wellbeing, and identity as a teacher. The project will rely on qualitative data collection methods such as narrative frames to explore the issue. 

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Julia Aigner, Soyoung Lee
Project description: The purpose of this project is to understand the role of group dynamics and psychological safety in language learning. More specifically, we aim to understand what characteristics within a group might provide language learners with opportunities to feel more comfortable to learn and use a language better in class. This includes understanding the role of peers in a group as well as the language teacher. 

Funding: none
Project members: Sarah Mercer, Gholam Hassan Khajavy, Carlos Murillo-Miranda, Soyoung Lee
Project description: The purpose of this study is to investigate language learners’ wonder and curiosity in relation to conceptually relevant variables. In particular, we seek to examine how language learners’ wonder and curiosity are related to their need for affect and need for cognition; how language learners’ wonder and curiosity are related to their ideal L2 self, engagement, and willingness to communicate; and how language learners’ need for affect and need for cognition are related to their ideal L2 self, engagement, and willingness to communicate. We will administer an online questionnaire to international tertiary-level second/foreign language learners.

At the annual Doctoral Colloquium on Foreign Language Didactics (DQ), doctoral candidates in the field of language didactics at the University of Graz have the opportunity to collaborate with fellow doctoral students as well as experts from other institutions, primarily (though not exclusively) in Austria and Germany. This event is organised and held in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Carolyn Blume (PH Heidelberg, Germany).

The programme includes workshops, plenary talks, student presentations and networking sessions, offering participants the chance to receive feedback from attending professors and to discuss their research in detail during one-to-one consultations. In addition, postdoctoral researchers will contribute specialist workshops to complement the programme.

The Doctoral School aims to:

• foster critical reflection on one’s own research and methodological approach,

• strengthen academic and analytical skills,

• develop strategies for engaging with complex and diverse data,

• promote international networking, and

• encourage participants to engage with multiple perspectives on their work.

Doctoral students at various stages of their dissertations and from diverse international backgrounds are welcome to attend, making this colloquium an annual opportunity to exchange ideas and build connections within an academic community. 

Upcoming Doctoral School (29 April–2 May 2026)

Next year’s Doctoral School will take place from 29 April to 2 May 2026 at the Federal Institute for Adult Education (bifeb) in Strobl (Bürglstein 1–7, A-5360 St. Wolfgang i.S.).