Background and activities

Academic interests:

Foreign language teaching and learning; Teaching German and French as a second language.
 

Background:

I studied French, German and German as a foreign language at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. I was awarded a studentship from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out PhD research in the field of comparative literature and completed my PhD in 2001 at Freie Universität Berlin.

I have been working as a teacher of German and French for many years, and I have been a cultural coach at schools and universities and at Goethe-Institutes in different countries (France, The Netherlands, Norway, Germany and the US).

I have broad experience with the development of professional teaching materials and in-service training of teachers. In the past I had an active role in internationalization and educational exchange.

I have been training foreign language teachers of German, French and Spanish at NTNU since 2015.

Fields of interest:

I am especially interested in the development and implementation of new teaching methods. Most of my research has focused on vocabulary learning strategies and I am particularly interested in the question of how bodily movement can be incorporated in language teaching. I am member of the research group for bodily learning.

Furthermore, I am interested in the analysis of teaching materials and I am part of a research project with UiO with the aim of mapping the quality of German textbooks published in Norway and Germany.

In addition, I am a member of the research group for students writing at NTNU with the objective of applying results from research to different types of students writing. The area of research falls under the category “academic literacy” and we are a sub-group in the research area faglig literacy i skole og lærerutdanning  at ILU/NTNU.

 

 

Teacher education program (school grades 8-13): 

Course convenor /teacher  PPU4656  (German foreign language didactics/ methodology- part 1) and PPU4657 (German foreign language didactics /methodology - part 2).

PPU (Practical teacher training – post graduate studies): Course convenor/teacher PPU4246 (methodology of foreign language acquisition - full time) and PPU4546 (methodology of foreign language acquisition – part time)

2-year Master's degree programme for Didactics in English and foreign languages:

I am currently supervising one MA-student.

Scientific, academic and artistic work

A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database

Books

  • Bauer, Karen. (2001) Fontanes Frauenfiguren. Zur literarischen Gestaltung weiblicher Charaktere im 19.Jahrhundert. Peter Lang Publishing Group. 2001. ISBN 3-631-38897-7.
  • Bauer, Karen. (1997) Anhang, Bearbeitung Theodor Fontane. Große Brandenburger Ausgabe.Irrungen Wirrungen. 1997. ISBN 335103122-X.
  • Fontane, Theodor; Bauer, Karen. (1995) Irrungen, Wirrungen. 1995. ISBN 3-7466-52-63-4.

Part of book/report

  • Bauer, Karen. (2021) Kroppslig læring i fremmedspråk. Kroppslig læring - perspektiver og praksiser.
  • Bauer, Karen; Sandvik, Lise Vikan. (2017) Digitales Geschichtenerzählen und Geschichte erzählen. Erinnerungsarbeit im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Literaturvermittlung: Texte, Konzepte, Praxen ind Deutsch als Fremdsprache und den Fachdidaktiken Deutsch, English, Französisch.
  • Bauer, Karen. (1995) Nachwort. Irrungen, Wirrungen.