Karoline Kiefel

Karoline Kiefel joins the FAS as Lector in Germanic Languages and Literatures. She received her PhD in Germanic Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where she specialized in second language acquisition and foreign language pedagogy. In her dissertation, she investigated motivational dynamics in oral communication tasks with differently proficient speakers of German. Her research interests include language learning motivation, language learning strategies, as well as virtual exchange programs. 

In the past, she has developed and taught courses in German language and culture at multiple levels at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte—where she also worked as a language assistant of the Germanic Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)—and, most recently, at Paderborn University in Germany.