On Friday, 1 March, the Centre for Language Studies (ZfS) at Paderborn University will merge with the area of preparatory and accompanying German courses, which was previously located at the Institute of German and Comparative Literature. The two areas, which enable students, international prospective students and staff to develop their language skills and acquire cultural competencies in a targeted manner, will now be merged to form a "new" centre for language teaching.
"The aim is to create synergy effects," explains Prof Dr Sandra Ballweg, Professor of German as a Second and Foreign Language and Academic Director of both areas. The team now consists of more than 40 full-time employees, around 60 lecturers and 14 student assistants. On average, over 5500 language learners take part in the 350 or so courses each year.
Dr Sigrid Behrent, Managing Director of the ZfS since it was founded in 2007, also sees numerous advantages in the merger: "The closer cooperation makes sense, particularly in terms of quality assurance measures such as further and advanced training for language teachers or in the design of advisory services for students and staff, but also at an administrative level and in public relations work. We would also like to bring students interested in languages, who can already choose between programmes in 21 languages, into closer contact with international learners of German. Both sides can benefit from this," says Behrent.
In the run-up to the merger, employees from both departments prepared the new joint website. The team is also taking part in the workshop week of the German Association of Language Centres at Universities (AKS e.V.) from 4 to 8 March, offering four exciting workshops on topics such as "Language learning with disabilities" and "Foreign language teaching in the age of artificial intelligence (AI)".
This text has been translated automatically.
