Nils Jaekel, Associate Professor in English Foreign Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy

My main research interests are foreign and second language learning with particular emphasis on early foreign language learning, multilingualism in education, content and language integrated learning (CLIL), and the self-efficacy of language teachers and learners.

I received my PhD at the Ruhr University of Bochum and my docent title (~higher doctorate) from the University of Oulu. Before joining the University of Copenhagen, I worked at the University of Oulu and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

I continue working closely with the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Oulu for my project funded by the Research Council of Finland entitled, Linguistic distance, language learning, and educational attainment: investigating multilingual students’ attainment in Finland and Germany (2023-2027) (link).

My long-term goal is to support the continuous development of language education through rigorous, evidence-based research that identifies universal and context-specific factors in language teaching. My research has received international recognition for our article From Early Starters to Late Finishers? A Longitudinal Study of Early Foreign Language Learning in School, the Outstanding Article of the Year Award from the journal Language Learning in 2017, and the annual Research Article Award by the American Association of Applied Linguistics in 2019.

Research interests

• Foreign and Second Language Education
• Early Foreign Language Learning
• Bi- and Multilingualism in language education
• Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
• Individual Differences & Positive Psychology in Language Education
• Equity and inclusion in (language) education

 Teaching areas:

• Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy

Supervision:

• Second Language Acquisition 
• Language education, pedagogy and didactics
• Multilingualism in language education
• Individual Differences & Positive Psychology in Language Education