Читать книгу New Perspectives on Older Language Learners - Miriam Neigert - Страница 6

This thesis is a product of several years of study and research. In those years, many people have supported and inspired me. In a way, they also made this thesis what it is. At this point, I would like to express my gratitude to them:

First and foremost, without the excellent academic support of my supervisors Prof. Dr. Michael Legutke and Prof. Dr. Martina Möllering this thesis would not have come to fruition. Despite having written hundreds of pages for this thesis already, it is hard for me to find the right words to can express my gratitude to them. I consider myself very lucky that I have been under their guidance while undertaking this PhD-project. With their openness to my research project, endless patience, and incredibly valuable feedback, they pushed me to new levels and, in this way, helped me grow as a person and researcher. I wish to thank Martina and Mitch for giving me the chance to experience both German and Australian academic worlds through their joint supervision – I am especially grateful for the funding and research support through the International Macquarie Research Excellence Scholarship (IMQRES) scheme. Moreover, I also would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kurtz, who was willing to act as my associate examiner at Justus-Liebig University, and who has been very supportive especially in the early stages of my candidature in Gießen.

I thank the study participants and my former course participants for their time, their trust, and cooperation. All of them contributed significantly to this research project by sharing their experiences with me. I have learnt so much from them during my time as a teacher and later as a researcher. I also greatly appreciate the support I received from other teachers at participating vhs centres in the state of Hesse and the coordinating heads of departments at local vhs centres and the central Hessian adult education association hvv. In particular, I would like to thank Werner Leipold and Barbara von der Meden for their support.

Many thanks also go out to the fellow researchers and professors in the GCSC Research Colloquium at Justus-Liebig University, because I learned so much through the insightful discussions in our meetings and from their input. I also benefited greatly from my HDR writing group which was initiated by Dr. Michelle Jamieson at Macquarie University. I would like to thank my fellow-writers in this group – Yujie Zhang, Lina Qian, Suzanne Eiszele-Evans, Marisa Della Gatta, and Anthony Andrist – for their valuable feedback on my writing, as well as for giving me an opportunity to learn from their writing processes, as well. Moreover, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Naren Chitty for giving me the opportunity to present my research progress at the International Graduate Conference at Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2015 and at Macquarie University, in 2016, as it helped me to further refine my research design.

Furthermore, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to some of my closest friends who I have known for so long and who greatly supported me all the way through highs and lows: Hanna Reinshagen, Annika Schäfer, Leila Schmidt, Sabrine Tryba, and Rose Fitz-Patrick. I wish to thank them for keeping me grounded, making me laugh, sharing a cup of coffee or glass of wine when needed, and always giving me a new perspective when things seemed difficult! Furthermore, I was lucky to have fellow researchers, colleagues, friends, and family in Germany and Australia, who inspired and encouraged me in so many ways throughout my PhD-candidature: Susanne Bauer, Reinhard Bentrup, Dr. Susanne Binder, Franziska Burghardt, Dr. Bruce Doar, Constanze Dreßler, Dr. Ulrike Garde, Dr. Ursula Ibaraki, Esther Li, Nicole Mutlow, Susana Catalina Prat, Birgit Sauer, Eva Schmidt, Inke Schmidt, Tamara Seher, Dr. Ian Stephen, Dr. Brangwen Stone, Sebastian Stuhlmann, Juliane Witzenberger, and Dr. Marja Zibelius. Thank you!

The above expressions of gratitude show that undertaking this PhD has been an exciting and rewarding journey. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Michael and Marlies, who have been at my side during all my journeys in life so far, and who were always there for me when I needed them.