About

The key focus of my current work as a postdoctoral researcher is the intersection of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning happening both in the classroom and via extramural English (EE). I am currently conducting two complementary studies: an interview study exploring the relationship between EE and ADHD, and a classroom-based study investigating language skills (listening, reading, writing) and well-being of students with an ADHD diagnosis or low attention span. This latter study also considers learners’ use of EE, allowing me to pursue questions that emerged during my PhD.

In my doctoral research, I examined automatized/implicit and explicit grammar knowledge among teenage learners of English, and how these types of knowledge are influenced by instruction and learners' use of English in their spare time. Adopting a cross-national perspective, I compared Austrian and Swedish learners aged 13–14 years (N = 213). This focus on the relationship between language exposure, learner differences, and educational context continues to shape my research.

Alongside my PhD, I have contributed to a variety of studies related to the topics and contexts listed below.

 

Research interests:

• EFL learning with specific differences, notably AD(H)D

• Implicit, explicit, and automatized grammar knowledge 

• Instructed language (notably grammar) language learning

• Extramural, i.e., recreational, language use

• Language acquisition through authentic audiovisual input

 

Research contexts:

• Primary and secondary education

• Contexts of instructed and uninstructed, incidental learning

• EFL teaching and learning in different European countries (Austria, Finland, France, Sweden)

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Test instruments and data analysis tools:

• Teacher and student questionnaires and interviews

• Tests of automatized/implicit (elicited imitation, timed grammaticality judgment, oral narrative test) and explicit knowledge (untimed grammaticality judgment, metalinguistic knowldge test)

• Language measures designed or adapted for young learners (Picture Vocabulary Size Test, see Anthony, 2021; picture description task)

• Measures of working memory capacity, notably backward digit span tests

• Data analysis using MAXQDA, SPSS, and R

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Current and past collaborators:

• Dr. Judit Kormos, Professor of English linguistics at Lancaster University

• Dr. Shona Whyte, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University Côte d'Azur

• Dr. Pia Sundqvist (thesis supervisor), Associate Professor of English didactics at the University of Oslo

• Dr. Christiane Dalton-Puffer (thesis supervisor), Professor of English linguistics at the University of Vienna

• Dr. Julia Hüttner, Professor of English didactics at the University of Vienna

• Dr. Marion Coumel, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Yor