Heidi Altmann

Dr. Heidi Altmann is a Researcher at the University of Stuttgart, affiliated with the Institute of Linguistics and the Division of English Linguistics (IfLA). She is also the Study Programme Manager and Academic Advisor for the BA English (Teacher Training) and M.Ed English programmes. Her research focuses on Second Language Acquisition, particularly L2 phonology, L2 teaching and testing, and the interfaces between phonology, morphology, and sociolinguistics (e.g., language and gender).

• Education:
  • PhD in Linguistics (2006), University of Delaware (USA)
  • M.A. in Linguistics (2000), University of Delaware (USA)
  • M.A. in Foreign Languages (German) (1998), University of Wyoming (USA)
  • Intermediate Exam in English and Sinology (1992), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)

Her publications bridge phonology and second language acquisition, with a focus on stress, segmental length, and prosodic features in L2 English and German. She has presented at conferences such as GASP 2024, EUROSLA, and the Manchester Phonology Meeting, emphasizing the persistence of L1 phonological knowledge in L2 processing.

Altmann’s work integrates experimental methodologies across subfields like vowel reduction, syllable structure, suprasegmental features, and the role of prosody in grammatical disambiguation. Her research has implications for language teaching, particularly in pronunciation strategies and L2 assessment frameworks.

She has held academic roles at multiple institutions, including the University of Konstanz, University of Würzburg, and University of Delaware. Her teaching experience spans ESL, German as a foreign language, and linguistic theory, with an emphasis on empirical approaches to language learning.