Our Outreach Philosophy

We at BAEL believe that science should not be a self-enclosed realm. It is for this reason that we try to connect to the world outside the "ivory tower" and establish a dialogue that can benefit both sides. We want to demonstrate that linguistics is not a “dry” branch of science but rather exciting and useful in its applications in society and business.

Therefore we aim at passing on our own inquisitiveness, especially to those who are on the verge of their student life.

Together with our partners, we endeavor to expand into various other fields in order to give and get input.

Current cooperations

CJD logo cjd letters making a smiling face blue text "Das Bildungs- und Sozialunternehmen" blue and green geometrical design elements in the lower two corners
© CJD

CJD Christophorusschule Königswinter

The Christophorus School in Königswinter (CJD) organizes an annual project week (Vertiefungsphase) in which their secondary school students can delve deeper into a field of their interest. BAEL has been involved in these project weeks since summer 2008: Every year, groups of students join us here at Bonn University to get an insight into linguistics and pragmatics in particular. They usually get a mix of tailor-made lectures, reading assignments and workshops focused on a particular topic. On top of this, they attend a regular class held for university students. The centrepiece is the students' very own small-scale empirical project which they carry out by themselves but with the guidance of our staff. The week finishes off with them presenting their results.

The cooperation has been a great success - the number of students joining us has been ever-growing.

Logo Gymnasium zum Altenforst Troisdorf Geometrical sphere made up of blue lines blue text "Gymnasium zum Altenforst Troisdorf"
© GAT

Gymnasium zum Altenforst, Troisdorf (GAT)

The Gymnasium zum Altenforst in Troisdorf (GAT) offers students an elective course in English linguistics under the direction of Dr. Marja Meinl and in cooperation with BAEL. The goal of this project course is to give students first-hand experience in empirical linguistic research by letting them collect and analyse their own language data. During the course, BAEL staff members give input lectures at the GAT, students have the chance to attend lectures at the English Department of Bonn University and learn about scientific literature research at the university library. At the end of the year, the students will write their coursework on a linguistics topic.

Past cooperations

Stepin logo white drawn star inside a solid red circle, "stepin" letters in red next to the circle
© Stepin

Stepin

Stepin organizes international student travel and education programs. The company is interested in the development of pragmatic competence in the course of a study abroad experience. BAEL has already conducted research on this phenomenon and is keen to expand it, which is why the current cooperation has been initiated. The common goal of investigating this phenomenon is the intersection of Stepin and BAEL.

Check out the Stepin website.

CVO logo dark blue background white letter c white letter v in a solid light blue circle light green letter o
© CVO

Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium (CvO)

In the winter term 2009/2010, BAEL supervised five students from the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium Bonn-Röttgen writing linguistic research papers as their official coursework ("Facharbeit"). This project was created and carried out in cooperation with Dr. Marja Meinl, teacher at the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium and former linguistics Ph.D. student at the IAAK.