Staff
Paul Pilger
MMag. Phil.
Lecturer in German
Tel: +(44) 141/ 848 3867
Fax: +(44) 141/ 848 3533
e-mail: paul.pilger@paisley.ac.uk
I am an Austrian national, and I completed degrees in English and History with Education, and Translation and Interpretation (English/German), at the University of Graz, Austria. After teaching English, German and History/Politics at various institutions in Austria I took up a post as Lektor (German language) at the University of Durham in 1991, and I moved on to Paisley as lecturer in German in 1992.
I have been teaching German language and Area Studies at Paisley since 1992, and I have been co-ordinator of all German language and Area Studies modules since 1996.
Beside co-ordinating German, I was also responsible for EFL operations at Paisley from 1996 to 2000. In 1998, I was subject specialist assessor for German for the SHEFC Quality Assessment of Modern Languages. Currently, I am external examiner for German at Napier University.
Research Interests
My main interest is in "Business Language" or languages in organisations. Within this general context, I have been focussing on the use of foreign languages in governmental organisations, both at national and international level, within the EU context. The aim of my work is to provide a comprehensive overview of how languages are distributed and used in inter-governmental communication in the EU. I consider this area to be of interest as, with increasing internationalisation of all walks of life, more and more people are using foreign languages at work - in businesses and in government organisations - and keeping track of these developments can help to inform national and international cultural and educational policies.
My other research interests include various aspects of foreign language teaching and learning such as syllabus design and performance measurement.
Selected Publications
Foreign Language Use in German Government Organisations (2004), Centre for Contemporary European Studies Working Paper 2004/1, Paisley.
Paisley Business School Research Seminar (2002), Foreign Language Use in German Government Organisations, Paisley.
With D Barbereau, F Leon-Solis, R Russow (2001), Establishing Public Attitudes Towards the Euro, Proceedings of the Third Scottish Trade Union Research Network Conference , Paisley.
Use of Web Based Language Materials By Ab Initio Learners of German (2001), Poster Presentation, European Languages and the Implementation of Communication and Information Technologies Conference, Paisley.