Members of the Scientific Committee:

Edith Matzer is Assistant Professor at the Department of Romance Languages, University of Graz, Austria. Her main academic interests are in the areas of psycholinguistics, language learning strategies and language teaching methodology with a specific focus on individual plurilingualism and “plural approaches to languages and cultures”. She has coordinated the development of the Austrian national curricula and the first draft of national standards for modern languages. Concerning international activities she was involved in the Sokrates/Lingua-Project „Eveil aux langues“ and in the evaluation of several Sokrates/Lingua-Project-proposals. Email: edith.matzer@uni-graz.at

Hermine Penz is Assistant Professor at the English Department of the University of Graz. Her main areas of research include: Discourse analysis, pragmatics and sociolinguistics with a focus on ‘language and culture’ and ‘language in the media’. Her current research focuses on the use of lingua franca English as a means of intercultural communication at the ECML. She has participated in various ECML projects, was a trainer in the Staff Development Programme of the UN in Vienna (Interpersonal and intercultural communication skills, 1999-2000) and has served as a consultant for the 2nd Medium Term Programme of the ECML. Email: hermine.penz@uni-graz.at

Sabine Schmölzer-Eibinger is Assistant Professor at the German Department of the University in Graz and lecturer at the Universities in Vienna and Modena. She has been long time author of schoolbooks and teacher trainer and has participated as contributor in numerous international conferences. Her main academic interests are Research on Language Teaching and the Didactics of German as Foreign and Second Language. Her current research interest is Textual Competence and Learning in the Second Language. Email: sabine.schmoelzer@uni-graz.at

David Newby is associate professor of linguistics and language teaching methodology and research at Graz University, Austria. He has coordinated several projects for the European Centre for Modern Languages and has worked extensively for the British Council and Council of Europe in a variety of countries. He is currently coordinating the ECML project ‘European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages’. He is the author of school textbooks and reference grammars. His main academic interest is the theory and practice of pedagogical grammar. Email: david.newby@uni-graz.at

Muriel Warga is Assistant Professor at the Department of Romance Languages, University of Graz, Austria. Her main research interests are in the areas of interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics and second language acquisition. Publications include Pragmatische Entwicklung in der Fremdsprache. Der Sprechakt 'Aufforderung' im Französischen [Foreign Language Pragmatic Development. The Speech Act 'Request' in French] (Narr 2004). Recent articles by the author have also appeared in the Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics and in Vox Romanica. Email: muriel.warga@uni-graz.at