I studied English and German at Humboldt University Berlin and obtained a Ph.D. from the same university in 1985. My dissertation was based on a study of synonymy in English word-formation and took a comparative view of German. For some time I worked as a lecturer at the Higher College of Education (Institute of Foreign Languages) of the University of Aden/Yemen. I then returned to Humboldt University.

I have taken part in two research projects on contrastive linguistics and national varieties of English. I am currently doing research work in a team undertaking a detailed investigation of English in West Africa.

Current projects

• Englisch in West Africa, Pidgin/Creole, University of Ibadan/Nigeria (Dr. Herbert Igboanusi) and University of Yaounde I (Prof. Augustin Simo Bobda)