Rate My Professor Jessica Lesjak

Lesjak holds a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (German/English) from TU Dortmund University and has studied teaching German as a foreign and second language (GFL/GSL). She has been teaching GFL/GSL since 2007 across multiple countries, including Germany, the United States, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, and now Australia. Her research specializations include applied linguistics with a focus on the pragmatics of spoken language, teaching German as a foreign language, and multilingualism. Ongoing research encompasses her PhD thesis on the grammar (pragmatics) of the German lexeme "so"; didactisation of German post-colonial topics for the L2 classroom, such as the creole language Unserdeutsch; scientific language and interdisciplinarity in the German L2 classroom; and linguistic landscaping projects in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Notable publications include "Comics as Additional Lesson Material in the Vietnamese GFL Classroom" co-authored with T. M. T. Nguyen (ASEAN Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2024); "Slam Poetry: Performte Texte zwischen Wirklichkeit und Fiktion" (Sprache - Denken - Wirklichkeit, 2024); "Mehrsprachigkeit in familiärer und politischer Institution im Dokumentarfilm Alles gut - Ankommen in Deutschland" (Mehrsprachigkeit und Mehrkulturalität im Konflikt, 2022); "Die zwischenmenschliche Syntax" (Von Anapher bis Zweitsprache, 2021); and she co-edited "Von Anapher bis Zweitsprache - Facetten kommunikativer Welten" (2021). In 2024, she received LLCL Education Funding alongside colleagues for recruiting and retaining students in European Languages, recognizing her contributions to the program.