Katrin Thomson

Prof. Dr. Katrin Thomson is a Professor of Teaching and Learning in English at the Weingarten University of Education, appointed in October 2024. She previously held academic positions at the University of Augsburg, University of Regensburg (as interim professor), and earlier at institutions in Münster and Wuppertal. Her work bridges research and practice in English language teaching and teacher education.

Her research is centrally focused on Classroom Discourse Competence (CDC), teacher language, and the professionalization of prospective English teachers. She also explores literature and cultural didactics, task-based learning, and inclusive education, particularly disability awareness through media. Her doctoral work examined gender in Progressive Era Broadway dramas.

The recent publications, spanning from 2020 to 2027, reveal a strong, consistent research trajectory on classroom interaction and teacher talk. The work centers on conceptualizing and developing CDC in pre-service teachers, analyzing teacher instructions in classroom management, and exploring innovative topics like socio-emotional competence in teacher language and bilingual slam poetry for cultural identity negotiation. A significant strand also addresses disability awareness in ELT using short animation films.

• Hans Eberhard Piepho Prize (awarded for her practical school project on film-based teaching)

She has supervised numerous teacher training students during their Integrated Semester Internship (ISP) and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and teacher training workshops on topics such as text-talk fiction, classroom interaction, and inclusive pedagogy. She has also led projects on internationalization in teacher training at the University of Münster.

Her academic affiliations include membership in the German Society for Foreign Language Research (DGFF), the German University Association (DHV), the Görres Society, and the Research Center for Educational Innovation and Professionalization (ZeBiP).