CfP

Symposium: The Language of Foreign Language Teaching Materials and Reference Works

Friday 7 November 2025

Osnabrück University

Call for Posters

Foreign language teaching and reference works play a crucial role in institutionalised foreign language teaching and are known to constitute an important source of learners’ foreign language (e.g., Huang 2019). However, multiple studies suggest that the language of these textbooks often differs considerably from the kind of language typically used in communicative situations outside the foreign language classroom (e.g., Barbieri and Eckhardt 2007; Gilmore 2004; Le Foll 2022; Römer 2004; Rössler 2010; Winter and Le Foll 2022). The language of textbooks may even be considered a distinct language variety (Le Foll 2024a, 2024b). Reference works traditionally used in foreign language teaching have also been shown to under- or misrepresent various lexico-grammatical features, as seen in comparisons with recent corpus-based reference works (e.g., Fankhauser 2024; Siepmann and Bürgel 2021). This symposium is intended to provide an opportunity to present and discuss new descriptive, comparative, and evaluative studies on the language of foreign language teaching materials. We look forward to empirical examinations of textbooks, language learning apps, and other (digital) teaching materials, as well as of reference works designed for foreign language teaching, e.g., learner dictionaries and (learner) pedagogical grammars. The symposium will also allow us to discuss key concepts such as authenticity, pedagogical norms, and the relationship between teaching materials and syllabi in foreign language teaching.

We still welcome contributions to the poster session in English, German, French or Spanish. The symposium will take place at Osnabrück University and will be on-site only. Submissions from early career researchers are expressly welcome. To be included in the programme, please send an abstract of your planned contribution (300-500 words plus bibliography) to elefoll@uni-koeln.de or anna.fankhauser@uni-osnabrueck.de by 5 October 2025. We will get back to you by 10 October 2025. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at the aforementioned e-mail addresses.

Registration

Registration is compulsory. Please fill out the following form to register for the symposium: https://forms.gle/uSqqmkYFqnC26KdG9.

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Thanks to generous support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung and the Universitätsgesellschaft Osnabrück e.V., attendance is free.

Organisers

  • Anna Fankhauser (postdoc), Institute of English and American Studies, Osnabrück University

  • Dr. Elen Le Foll, Department of Romance Studies, University of Cologne

References

Barbieri, Federica, and Suzanne EB Eckhardt. 2007. “Applying Corpus-Based Findings to Form-Focused Instruction: The Case of Reported Speech.” Language Teaching Research 11 (3): 319346. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168807077563.
Fankhauser, Anna. 2024. “Phraseology in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom: A Corpus-Based Study of Phraseological Items in American English and British English Conversation with Implications for English as a Foreign Language Teaching.” PhD thesis.
Gilmore, Alex. 2004. “A Comparison of Textbook and Authentic Interactions.” ELT Journal 58 (4): 363–74. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/58.4.363.
Huang, Pingping. 2019. “Textbook Interaction: A Study of the Language and Cultural Contextualisation of English Learning Textbooks.” Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 21 (June): 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.02.006.
Le Foll, Elen. 2022. “Making Tea and Mistakes: The Functions of Make in Spoken English and Textbook Dialogues.” In, edited by Zihan Yin and Elaine Vine, 157–78. Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics. Oxon; New York: Routledge.
———. 2024a. “Schulenglisch: A Multi-Dimensional Model of the Variety of English Taught in German Secondary Schools.” AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik / Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies 49 (1): 15–50. https://doi.org/10.24053/AAA-2024-0001.
———. 2024b. Textbook English: A Multi-Dimensional Approach. Studies in Corpus Linguistics 116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.116.
Römer, Ute. 2004. “Comparing Real and Ideal Language Learner Input: The Use of an EFL Textbook Corpus in Corpus Linguistics and Language Teaching.” In, edited by Guy Aston, Silvia Bernardini, and Dominic Stewart, 151–68. 17. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Rössler, Andrea. 2010. “Zur Frage der Authentizität von Lehrwerkdialogen für den Französischunterricht.” In. https://www.fis.uni-hannover.de/portal/de/publications/zur-frage-der-authentizitat-von-lehrwerkdialogen-fur-den-franzoesischunterricht(c57027dd-d573-4087-aeda-583695727799).html.
Siepmann, Dirk, and Christoph Bürgel. 2021. “Entwicklung Einer Konstruktionsbasierten Französischen Grammatik: Ein Arbeitsbericht Zum Adjektiv- Und Nominalband.” In Sprachwissenschaft Und Fremdsprachendidaktik: Konstruktionen Und Konstruktionslernen. Stauffenburg Linguistik. Stauffenburg Verlag.
Winter, Tatjana, and Elen Le Foll. 2022. “Testing the Pedagogical Norm: Comparing If-Conditionals in EFL Textbooks, Learner Writing and English Outside the Classroom.” International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 8 (1): 31–66. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.20021.win.