Lecture series "Didactics in the evening"
The "Didactics in the Evening" lecture series organised by the Department of subject-specific Education has for many years offered a broad audience interested in subject-specific education the opportunity to gain an insight into a wide variety of topics from current subject didactics research. The lectures are given by experts from Germany and abroad and present research findings relevant to school didactics, making them of interest to researchers and teachers as well as practitioners.
Next lecture
Time: Monday, November 3rd 2025, 17:15
Location: Hörsaal 5, Geiwi building, ground floor (Campus Innrain)
The influence of multilingual activation on learning processes: Psycholinguistic evidence for integrated multilingual teaching concepts
The question of whether children who grow up bilingual or multilingual have cognitive and metacognitive advantages over their monolingual peers has long been the subject of controversial debate in research. While some studies demonstrate such advantages, others fail to replicate these findings. This lecture proposes a new perspective: the bilingual/multilingual advantage may only become apparent at the individual level when children are encouraged to use their entire linguistic repertoire rather than being restricted to a single language.
I will present the results of a series of experiments conducted in a within-participant design, in which the same bilingual/multilingual children completed tasks in both monolingual and bilingual/multilingual modes.
The experiments examined areas such as metalinguistic awareness and text integration in reading comprehension. In addition, I present findings from a study that shows that so-called translanguaging pedagogies – i.e. learning approaches that promote the activation of learners' entire linguistic repertoire – are associated with advantages in metalinguistic awareness.
Across all studies, it was found that children's performance on tasks in bi-/multilingual mode was consistently better than in unilingual mode. I will discuss why the activation of multiple languages appears to support cognitive and metacognitive processes, and reinterpret earlier findings on the bilingual/multilingual advantage in light of these results. Finally, I will discuss the educational policy implications of these findings and advocate for curricula that systematically activate and integrate children's entire linguistic repertoire.
The lecture will be held in German.
JACOPO TORREGROSSA (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Since 2019, Jacopo Torregrossa has been Professor of Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisition at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research examines the influence of bilingual and multilingual literacy on the linguistic, metalinguistic and cognitive development of children. He is actively involved in several projects focusing on the development and implementation of multilingual testing instruments for reading literacy in bilingual schools in Europe and in English-medium schools (English as a Medium of Instruction, EMI) in India. He uses quantitative research methods in the field of education and promotes productive dialogue between psycholinguistics and educational sciences.
Programme in the winter semester 2025/2026
Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 2, Geiwi, ground floor (Innrain Campus)
Ricardo Römhild (University of Münster)
From Functionality to Global Citizenship – In Search of the Social Goals of Foreign Language Education
Monday, November 3, 2025, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 5, Geiwi, ground floor (Innrain Campus)
Jacopo Torregrossa (Goethe University Frankfurt)
The influence of multilingual activation on learning processes: Psycholinguistic evidence for integrated multilingual teaching concepts
Monday, November 17, 2025, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 5, Geiwi, EG (Campus Innrain)
Pia Tscholl (University of Innsbruck & Data Lab Hell)
From a small pond to the big ocean – The mathematical self-concept of STEM freshmen
Monday, December 1, 2025, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 5, Geiwi, ground floor (Innrain Campus)
Johann Taglieber (University of Innsbruck)
Language-building biology lessons in teaching practice: an insight into the testing of language-building teaching concepts as part of the sensiMINT project
Monday, January 12, 2026, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 5, Geiwi, ground floor (Campus Innrain)
Petra Anders (Humboldt University Berlin)
Better together in the post-digital school: Slam – Memes – Play
Monday, January 26, 2026, 5:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 5, Geiwi, ground floor (Innrain Campus)
Hans Mendl (University of Passau)
#Heroesnextdoor. The didactic potential of everyday heroes and influencers