prof. dr. susanne mohr, researcher

(c) AWK NRW / Andreas Endermann

Please note that in August 2020, I took up a position as Associate Professor of English Sociolinguistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, see my profile page there.

• @ academia.edu
• @ researchgate.net
• @ Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste NRW

research interests

languages

varieties of English (esp. in Africa); African (esp. Khoisan) languages; sign languages

topics

multilingualism; language contact; SLA; language and globalisation; language and tourism; intercultural communication; language and education; anthropological linguistics; social media discourse; corpus linguistics; language typology; number marking; mass and countability; (contrastive) sign language phonology; non-manual features in sign languages

publications

monographs

journal articles

Mohr, Susanne & Katrin Renkwitz (in preparation). The multimodal realization of politeness in Irish Sign Language and Irish English.

Mohr, Susanne (in press). Assembling concourse material and selecting Q-samples on the sociolinguistics of tourism discourse in Zanzibar. Operant Subjectivity 40(3-4).

Mohr, Susanne & Helene Steigertahl (in press). African sociolinguistics between urbanity and rurality. Sociolinguistic Studies 14(3).

Mohr, Susanne, Steffen Lorenz & Dunlop Ochieng (in press) English, national and local linguae francae in the language ecologies of Uganda and Tanzania. Sociolinguistic Studies 14(3).

Mohr, Susanne (2020a). Language choices among South African migrants in the tourist space of Zanzibar. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 38(1), 60-72.

Mohr, Susanne (2020b). The 'I' in sociolinguistics. The role of subjectivity in ethnographic fieldwork. The Mouth. Critical Studies on Language, Culture and Society 6, 101-118.

Mohr, Susanne, Sandra Jansen & Julia Forsberg (2019a) European English in the EFL classroom? Teacher attitudes towards target varieties in of English in Sweden and Germany. English Today [first view].
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078419000403.

Mohr, Susanne, Anne-Maria Fehn & Alex de Voogt (2019b). Hunting for signs: exploring unspoken networks within the Kalahari Basin. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 40(1), 115-147.

Forsberg, Julia, Susanne Mohr & Sandra Jansen (2019c) 'The goal is to enable students to communicate'. Communicative competence and target varieties in TEFL practices in Sweden and Germany. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 7(1), 31-60.

Mohr, Susanne (2018). The Changing Dynamics of Language Use and Language Attitudes in Tanzania. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 49(3), 105-127.

reviews

invited talks

2020. -6.161098, 39.191684: Working with geotagged Instagram data in linguistic tourism research. Invited talk at the New Englishes, New Methods, New Modes Workshop [online].

2020. Language learning in the Zanzibari tourist space: Some considerations on the concept of 'grassroots'. Guest lecture at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, Cluster of Excellence 'Africa Multiple', Bayreuth, Germany.

2019. Kontrollierte Exotik. Vom Umgang mit dem (sprachlich) Anderen im Tourismus. Invited talk at the Forschungstag KONTROLL|VER|LUST, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humantities and the Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany.

2019. English with a twist. Linguistic repertoires and language choices of South African migrants in the tourism industry of Zanzibar. Invited talk at the INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

2018. Of jambo and hakuna matata - language as a commodity in tourist-host interactions in Zanzibar. Invited talk at the Institute for African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany.

2018. Wer spricht was in Afrika? Invited talk at the Kinderuni Bonn, University of Bonn, Germany.

2017. Berufswunsch Professorin - oder lieber doch nicht? Invited talk at a.r.t.e.s. back to school, a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne, Germany.

2017. eTests als diagnostische und summative Assessments in einer Einführung in die englische Sprachwissenschaft. Invited talk at the eCampus Café "Vorher, nachher, zwischendurch? Test-Szenarien in eCampus", eCampus group, University of Bonn, Germany.

2016. Researching mass and countability in African Englishes. Invited talk at the Centre for African Language Diversity, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

2016. "Let me get my stuffs". Pluralization, mass and countability in African varieties of English. Invited talk at the School of Languages, University of Ghana, Accra.

2015. Status der Jagdregister der Ts'ixa und ||Ani in Nordbotswana - Gesten oder Gebärdensprache? Invited talk at the Workshop Gebärdensprache, Cologne, Germany.

2012. The sociolinguistics of mouthings in Irish Sign Language: An analysis of the Signs of Ireland Corpus. Invited talk at the Centre for Deaf Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

2011. Spreading of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language. A case of prosodic binding? Invited talk at the Department of Phonetics, University of Cologne, Germany.

conference papers and posters

2019. Phygital tourism discourse: The linguistic construction of the Zanzibari tourist space offline and online. Paper presented at the BAEL research day, Bonn, Germany.

2019. Motivations for language choices in tourist-host interactions in Zanzibar. Paper presented at the 24th Conference of the International Association of World Englishes, Limerick, Ireland.

2019. Prescriptivism in English language academic publishing. Paper presented at the 24th Conference of the International Association of World Englishes, Limerick, Ireland. [with S. Jansen]

2019. Multilingual identities: who is indigenous? Paper presented at the SAALT/SALALS joint annual conference, Pretoria, South Africa. [with D. Ochieng]

2019. Between English as multilingua franca and hakuna matata: language choices in the tourist space of Zanzibar. Paper presented at the 8th Bonn Applied English Linguistics conference (BAELc8), Bonn, Germany.

2019. Standard ideologies in English language academic publishing. Paper presented at the Approaches to Migration, Language and Identity 2 conference, Essen, Germany. [with S. Jansen]

2018. Pronouncing accents of English in the Swedish classroom: Teacher reflections and views. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Native and Non-Native Accents of English, Lodz, Poland. [with J. Forsberg & S. Jansen]

2018. "In Zanzibar we don't have much so we have to study". English and tourism in Zanzibar. Paper presented at the International Congress of Linguists (ICL) 20, Cape Town, South Africa.

2018. English in the language ecologies of Uganda and Tanzania - language use outside the big metropolises. Paper presented at the International Congress of Linguists (ICL) 20, Cape Town, South Africa. [with S. Lorenz & D. Ochieng]

2018. Between communicative competence and target varieties - Comparing TEFL practices in Sweden and Germany. Paper presented at the Association Suédoise de Linguistique Appliquée symposium, Karlstad, Sweden. [with S. Jansen & J. Forsberg]

2018. The count-mass distinction in Ghanaian English and Akan: Exploring the validity of experiment designs. Paper presented at the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics Conference 49 (ACAL 49), East Lansing, MI, USA. [with D. P. Agyepong]

2017. Urbanized African Sociolinguistics - Questioning Research Foci. Panel organized at the 7^th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS 7), Basel, Switzerland. [with H. Steigertahl]

2017. Contemporary use of and attitudes towards English in multilingual Tanzania. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB) 11, Limerick, Ireland. [with D. Ochieng]

2016. The use of English in everyday life and as medium of instruction in Tanzania: an attitude study. Paper presented at the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics annual conference, Dublin, Ireland. [with D. Ochieng]

2016. Lecturers are still doing researches - An evaluation of the present-day acceptability of Tanzanian English corpus data. Paper presented at the International Society for the Linguistics of English 4 (ISLE 4) Conference, Poznan, Poland.

2016. Learner English or ESL? A typologically driven analysis of non-standard plurals in ICLE-Tswana. Poster presented at the Nachwuchstagung Englische Linguistik 1 (NEL 1), Würzburg, Germany.

2015. Pluralized mass nouns: an areoversal of African Englishes? Paper presented at the World Congress of African Linguistics 8 (WOCAL 8), Kyoto, Japan.

2015. Compounding or paraphrase? What sign sequences can tell us about the hunting language of the ||Ani in Northern Botswana. Paper presented at the World Congress of African Linguistics 8 (WOCAL 8), Kyoto, Japan.

2015. Relating corpus data and eWAVE: pluralized mass nouns in East and West African Englishes. Paper presented at the International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference 36 (ICAME 36), Trier, Germany.

2014. Gesture or Sign? Hunting languages of the Ts'ixa and ||Ani in Northern Botswana. Paper presented at the International Society for Gesture Studies 6 (ISGS 6) Conference, San Diego, CA, USA.

2014. Informations on researches and knowledges. Mass nouns in East African Englishes. Paper presented at the 3^rd Bonn Applied English Linguistics (BAELc3) Conference, Bonn, Germany.

2014. Fieldwork in Zambia - A sociolinguistic approach. Paper presented at the Chemnitz Africa Symposium on English 1 (CASE 1), Chemnitz, Germany.

2013. Phonology of hunting signs in two Kalahari Khoe-speaking groups (Ts'ixa and ||Ani). Paper presented at the 87^th Annual Meeting of the Lingguistic Society of America (LSA 87), Boston, MA, USA. [with A.-M. Fehn]

2012. CL-bigbird + BAEK-crooked + WINGS - Compounding strategies in hunting signs of the ||Ani-Khwe in Botswana. Paper presented at the 4^th Kölner Afrikawissenschaftliche Nachwuchstagung (KANT IV), Cologne, Germany. [with A.-M. Fehn]

2012. Phonologie ikonischer Tiergesten bei zwei verwandten Kalahari Khoe-sprachigen Gruppen (Ts'ixa und ||Ani). Paper presented at the 20^th Afrikanistentag, Cologen, Germany. [with A.-M. Fehn]

2011. Modality-specific criteria for word class recognition in sign languages: The verb class in Irish Sign Language (ISL). Paper presented at the Association for Linguistic Typology 9^th Biennial Meeting (ALT 9), Hong Kong, China.

2010. Mouth actions and morphological complexity of verbs in Irish Sign Language (ISL). Paper presented at the 9^th High Desert Linguistic Society Conference (HDLS 9), Albuquerque, NM, USA.

2010. Puzzles of cross-modal language contact: code-mixing, mode-mixing, borrowing or language change? The case of Irish Sign Language. Poster presented at the 9^th High Desert Linguistic Society Conference (HDLS 9), Albuquerque, NM, USA.

2010. The Correlation Between Mouth Actions and Word Class in Irish Sign Language (ISL). Poster presented at the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 10 (TISLR 10) Conference, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

2009. The Influence of Oralism on Mouth Actions in Irish Sign Language (ISL). Poster presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development 34 (BUCLD 34), Boston, MA, USA.

2009. Mouthing and Mouth Gestures in a Young Sign Language. Paper presented at the Nonmanuals in Sign Languages (NISL) Workshop, Frankfurt a. M., Germany. [with D. Adone and A. Bauer]

2008. A French-Based Creole in an English-Speaking Context: Mauritian Creole in Australia. Poster presented at the 11^th LIPP Symposium, Munich, Germany. [with D. Adone]

teaching

supervision (principal supervisor)

• Assessing language attitudes towards Papua New Guinea's educational system: A pilot study. (BA), winner of the Queen's Prize 2016
• Assessing the influence of figurative language on attitudes towards English and language anxiety: An investigation on idioms in a business context. (BA)
• Attitudes towards English in Brazil. (BA)
• The attitude towards a German accent in English: a case study in the midwestern United States. (BA)
• A lover's quarrel with the English language - Attitudes of Pakistanis towards the impact of English on spoken Urdu. (BA)
• A study of acceptability and contemporary use of -ee word formations in Australian English. (BA)
• The position of Australian English in the English-speaking world of the "Inner Circle". (BA)
• The acquisition of vocabulary in German learners of English. (BA)
• "It creates an atmosphere of freedom" - Functions of and attitudes towards Ghanaian Student Pidgin. (MA), winner of the Queen's Prize 2017
• Motivation, orientation and attitudes towards learning English: a study among Russian undergraduate students. (MA)
• Attitudes of young German female native speakers towards foreign accents in English. (MA)
• "Not racist, just a little xenophobic" - Analysing anti-immigration discourses of the 2016 Brexit online campaigns. (MA)
• Feature film titles as compressed version of their content: translation strategies and techniques. (MA)
• Pronominal address and its social functions in Russia and Germany. (MA)
• "I'm sorry, which apology did you just use?" Comparing apologizing strategies of Chinese EFL learners across genders and age groups. (MA)
• Compliment responses in Australian English. (MA)
• Accommodation strategies in ELF couple interactions: A case study of five ELF couples. (MA)
• "Das Leben... verletzt - heißt das 'tötet'?" - A linguistic analysis of the in-/comprehensibility of German legal language. (MA)
• Scottish attitudes towards immigrant accents. (MA)
• EFL students' and teachers' attitudes towards different varieties of English in the context of German secondary schools. (MEd)
• "Good luck in bad luck". A corpus-based study of idioms in German learner English. (MEd)

classes taught

• English in (East and West) Africa: summer 2013, summer 2014

• Iconicity across modalities: summer 2013 (co-teaching with A. Bauer)

• Introduction to linguistics/Introduction to language and communication studies: winter 2013/14, winter 2015/16, winter 2016/17, winter 2019/20

• Invented languages/Language creation: winter 2014/15, winter 2015/16

• Language attitudes (and motivation in language learning): winter 2016/17, summer 2017

• Methods in applied linguistics: winter 2019/20 (co-teaching with S. Pohle)

• Of data collection, transcription and statistics: winter 2014/15 (co-teaching with S. Pohle)

• Phonology: summer 2008

• Pidgins and Creoles: winter 2013/14

• Research colloquium for Master's students: winter 2014/15

• Second language acquisition: summer 2015, summer 2019 (co-teaching with A. Deumert)

• Semantics: summer 2008, summer 2013

• Sign language linguistics: winter 2011/12, summer 2015

• World Englishes/Varieties of English: winter 2012/13, summer 2013, summer 2014, summer 2018