PhD candidate
Annika Rossmanith is a teaching and research assistant in English Linguistics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She holds a BA in European Studies, with a major in English and a minor in Sociology, from the University of Passau, Germany. She obtained her MA degree from the University of Groningen in Applied Linguistics: Multilingualism. She wrote her MA thesis on Language Attitudes of Russian Heritage Speakers in Toronto, Canada: A Corpus-Informed Discourse Study. During her studies, she spent one semester abroad at Bangor University, Wales and completed a research internship at the University of Toronto, Canada. Annika is currently working on her PhD project on L2 development influenced by socio-affective factors across retirement, which is part of the VARIAGE project, led by Prof. Dr. Simone Pfenninger at the University of Zurich.
Project description
In the VARIAGE project, we analyze (1) whether the transition from work to retirement correlates with rapid L1 and L2 developmental phases and cognitive functioning (and if yes, when exactly); and (2) to what extent individual differences in cognitive, social, emotional, and motivational resources as well L1 Swiss Standard German proficiency relate to L2 performance during the transition from work to retirement.
In order to identify dis/continuity patterns of the entire linguistic spectrum across retirement as well as signature dynamics within and across participants, VARIAGE is designed as an observational micro-development study including 44 older L1 German learners of English in Switzerland, each of them observed in 33 consecutive waves before and after retirement over a period of 20 months. The results will reveal how, when and to what extent retirement is going to impact L2 learning and L1 use and communication skills.
