Isabelle Thaler

Further Information

Curriculum vitae

Isabelle Thaler was educated at the University of Cambridge where she attained an MPhil in “Research in Second Language Education“. Previously, she had completed the first state examination at the University of Regensburg to become a secondary school teacher (“Gymnasium”). Additionally, she had worked for the chair of TEFL and completed the “Zusatzausbildung DaF“ (Teaching German as a Foreign Language). During her studies, Isabelle spent six months as a teaching assistant (funded by the PAD) at a comprehensive school in Devon, England, as well as six months at the University Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, where she also completed the school placement “Lehramt International” (funded by the DAAD) at a French secondary school.

Isabelle has received two scholarships from Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung (“Universitätsförderung” and “Promotionsförderung”) and became a scholar of the mentor-mentee-programme “Karriereförderprogramm für Frauen der Begabtenförderungswerke” (Cusanuswerk) under the mentorship of Prof. Michael Byram.

In 2021, Isabelle joined the chair of TEFL at LMU Munich as a doctoral research associate. She is also involved in the ERASMUS+ project DiCE.Lang (Digital Citizenship Education and Foreign Language Learning). Isabelle is a member of the DGFF, ÖGSD and the Graduate School Language & Literature Munich (Class of Language Education).

Areas of interest:

• University-based language teacher educators: identities, professional development
• Pre-service foreign language teachers: beliefs, PCK, reflective practice
• Classroom discourse
• Professional vision
• Intercultural learning and school exchanges
• (Digital) citizenship education

Publications:

(2022) with Lavinia Bracci and Fiora Biagi. “Digital Citizenship Education in Foreign Language Learning”. ICC Journal, 4(2), 5-27.

(2022) "Light-bulb moments und Light-bulb-moment strategies im Schüler_innenaustausch. Ein partizipativer ethnographischer Ansatz". In: Angelovska Tanja, Hargaßner Julia, Prikoszovits Matthias, Rückl Michaela (Eds.). Sprachendidaktik: Der wissenschaftliche Nachwuchs im Dialog. Extended Abstracts zur 12. ÖGSD Nachwuchstagung (pp. 8-12). Salzburg: ÖGSD.

(2021) "'Light-bulb moments' in professional discourse during study abroad exchanges. Issues of Applied Linguistics, 42, 7-40.

(2019) "Can a sociolinguistic perspective of Second Language Acquisition solve ‘the longstanding human curiosity’ of learning languages?". Training, Language and Culture, 3(3), 36-55.

Presentations and workshops:

"Exploring language teacher educators’ narration of their own professional identity development". Presentation at DocNet Language Education, Kochel am See, 07.06.2023.

"Teach, tech and touch: Digital empathising in the foreign language classroom". Presentation at Polylogue of cultures: Educational, philological, culturological aspects, T.H. Shevchenko National University Chernihiv Colehium, Chernihiv, Ukraine, 28.04.2023.

"Shaping and sharing language teacher educators' identities and sub-identities". Presentation at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung (DGFF) Nachwuchstagung - Findungsphasen, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, 17.03.2023.

"Language teacher cognition in (inter-)action: Going beyond the cognitivist perspective to understand pedagogical content knowledge”. Presentation at Österreichische Gesellschaft für Sprachendidaktik (ÖGSD) Haupttagung, Austria, 02.12.2022.

"Digital empathy in pre-service foreign language teacher education”. Presentation at Digital Wilds, Digital Citizenship and Language Learning and Teaching. Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Austria, 25.11.2022

"Investigating the Belief-Practice-Quandary in pre-service foreign language teacher education". Poster Presentation at Second Language Teacher Education Conference, University of Vienna, Austria, 16.09.2022.

"Learning to see and seeing to learn – Videotaped lessons as “approximations of practice” to enhance pre-service teachers’ professional vision". Presentation at Second Language Teacher Education Conference, University of Vienna, Austria, 15.09.2022.

"The Digital Poetry Escape Room: Approaching modern poetries competicooperatively”. Presentation at Anglistentag 2022 (Sektion Englischdidaktik), Mainz, 03.09.2022.

"Visualising and verbalising the development of language teacher educator identities“. Presentation at the Graduate School Language and Literature Munich, Class of Language Education, Munich, 06.07.2022.

"Classic fairy tales in contemporary clothes: A collaborative genre-based approach to creative writing”. Presentation at ICLELL International Conference on Language Education, Literature and Linguistics, Turkey, 24.06.2022.

"Language teacher educator identities: An arts-informed narrative inquiry. Presentation at DocNet Language Education, Strobl am Wolfgangsee, Austria, 28.05.2022.

"A contextual approach to investigating the relationship between pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs and their enactment in the classroom through a classroom discourse lens”. Presentation at the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Sprachendidaktik Nachwuchstagung: Sprachendidaktik im Dialog, 07.05.2022.

"A classroom discourse lens to explore pre-service foreign language teachers’ beliefs”. Presentation at the STORIES (= Students’ ongoing research in educational studies) conference on Global and Communal Perspectives on Language, Educational Policy and Pedagogy, Department of Education, University of Oxford, 15.03.2022.

"The Digital Poetry Escape Room – A motivating environment for exploring modern poetries cooperatively and competitively?” Presentation with Benedikt Meininger at the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Sprachendidaktik (ÖGSD) Haupttagung, Austria, 03.12.2021.

"Intercultural learning via real and virtual encounters". Vortrag für el mundo – Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im Lehramt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, 22.10.2021.

“Light-bulb moments – Re-imagining Critical Incidents during School Exchanges”. Presentation at the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Sprachendidaktik (ÖGSD) Nachwuchstagung, Salzburg, Austria, 29.05.2021.

“Light-bulb moments in Schüleraustauschen – Ein kollaborativer autoethnographischer Ansatz“. Vortrag in der Graduiertenschule Sprache und Literatur München, Klasse für Didaktik der Sprachen, München, 19.05.2021.

“The Female Faces of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign 2016“. Presentation at the conference Family Matters – Transnational Perspectives on the State of The Family in Europe (Germany and Italy) and the United States, Villa Vigoni, Lake Como, Italy, 14.02.2017.

Projects:

• UNI-Klasse “Collecting puzzles of practice – collaboratively constructing Shulman’s case knowledge”
• UNI-Klasse “Video clubs – analysing filmed lessons to foster pre-service teachers’ PCK”
• UNI-Klasse “Practising reflective practice through team teaching”
• UNI-Klasse “Digital Poetry Escape Room” https://www.tefl.anglistik.uni-muenchen.de/uni-klasse/kooperationsprojekte-inside/projektprofile/index.html#thalermeiningerpoetry
• UNI-Klasse “Professional Vision through Classroom Observation” https://www.tefl.anglistik.uni-muenchen.de/uni-klasse/kooperationsprojekte-inside/projektprofile/index.html#thalerruiszvision

Teaching:

• Engagement, Emotions and Empathy in EFL (summer term 2023)
• "Puzzles of Practice": Practising Reflective Practice (winter term 2022/23)
• Classroom Discourse (summer term 2022)
• Grundlagen der Fremdsprachendidaktik (winter term 2021/2022)
• Lernwerkstatt: Professional Vision through Classroom Observation (winter term 2021/2022)
• Theorie und Praxis der Unterrichtsgestaltung (summer term 2021)
• Exploring and Engaging in Intercultural Encounters – Online and Offline (summer term 2021)
• Tutorial “Introduction to Teaching English as a Foreign Language” (multiple terms)