Professor Sascha Stollhans

Profile

As one of the Pro-Deans for Student Education in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, I have strategic oversight of the Faculty’s student education, experience and success portfolio.

I have previously held the roles of Director of Scholarship and Digital Education Academic Lead in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, where I also led the Centre for Excellence in Language Teaching (CELT).

One of my main academic interests is the relationship between linguistics and language teaching methodology, particularly how linguistics-informed content and approaches can enrich language teaching and learning and make it more inclusive. In this context, I research the role of linguistic variation (dialects, colloquial language, forms of online communication etc.) in language teaching and learning. I’m also interested in digital approaches to teaching and learning and in exploring their pedagogical potential critically.

Being a passionate advocate for the study of languages and cultures and the arts and humanities in general, I have been involved in various outreach projects and policy-related initiatives. With my colleagues from the Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages project, I have developed a manifesto for language teaching and learning in schools and presented this at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages at the UK House of Lords. In 2025, we received a Newcastle University Engagement Award for this project in the “Inclusive Education, Lifelong Learning and CPD” category.

Responsibilities

• Pro-Dean for Student Education - Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
• Student Success Centre Academic Lead

Research interests

Linguistics in language teaching and learning

My colleague Anna Havinga (Bristol) and I lead the German strand of the Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages Project, a national research project which investigates the potential of linguistics in school-based language teaching. In particular, I have been researching role of linguistic variation (dialects, colloquial language, forms of online communication etc.) in language teaching and learning. In September 2023, Judith Eberharter and I organised a symposium on cultural and linguistic diversity in German language teaching, and we co-edited a special issue of the German as a Foreign Language Journal on the same topic in 2025. I have worked on gender and LGBTQ+-inclusive approaches to language teaching and learning, and was a member of the International Research Networking Project “Language and Gender: Academic Research and Practical Implementation”.

Language pedagogy and digital approaches to language teaching and learning

One of my interests is the pedagogically grounded use of digital teaching and learning methods. I was one of the editors of an open-access book on innovative language teaching and have worked on the potential of audiovisual ‘screencast’ feedback. In one of my recent papers, I reflect on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of language programmes and the digitsation of language teaching at UK universities. In June 2023, my colleague Rasha Soliman and I organised a national symposium on language education in the (post-)digital era, funded by the University Council for Languages (UCFL).

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

I am interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a form of reflective, action-oriented and collaborative research that has a direct impact on student education and staff professionalisation.

Recent and upcoming talks and presentations

• Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages: reflections on a co-creation project involving academics and teachers (with Anna Havinga). ‘Making the Case for German’, German Embassy London, 30 April 2025.
• Gender-inclusive approaches to language teaching. Invited workshop at University College Dublin, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, 10 April 2025.
• Linguistics in language teaching and learning: towards a more inclusive and motivating approach. Invited presentation at the National Association of Language Advisers (NALA) Annual Conference. University of Nottingham, 29 June 2024.
• A manifesto for linguistics in language teaching (with Michelle Sheehan, also on behalf of Alice Corr, Anna Havinga, Jonathan Kasston and Norma Schifano). Invited presentation at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages, UK House of Lords, 17 July 2023.
• Studying German in the (post-)digital age: pedagogical and linguistic reflections. Invited keynote presentation at the German Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference 2022, University of Galway, 5 November 2022.
• Linguistic diversity in the language classroom. Invited workshop at the Goethe-Institut’s Virtual German Teachers’ Day Northwest Europe, online, 21 May 2022.
• The digitisation of language education – lessons learnt from UK Higher Education during the pandemic. Invited keynote address at Shaping the Future of Modern Foreign Languages in Education, Institute of Government & Public Policy, online, 9 March 2022.

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS)
• Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS)
• Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
• European Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL)
• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)

Student education

My teaching tends to include modules in German language and in (applied) linguistics, e. g. on the MA programmes in Linguistics, Linguistics for English Language Teaching and Professional Language and Intercultural Studies. I have also contributed to the Leeds International Summer School (LISS). In 2016, I won a Lord Dearing Award for “outstanding achievements in supporting the student learning experience” at the University of Nottingham.

Research groups and institutes

• German
• Language pedagogy
• PRIA
• Language variation
• Language at Leeds
• Language acquisition
• Languages
• Linguistics and Phonetics
• Linguistics and Translation