I joined the English Department at the University of Education Freiburg in March 2022. Prior to this, I worked as a lecturer and graduate teaching assistant at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg from 2014 to 2022, where I also earned my Ph.D. in English Linguistics and my M.A. in English Language and Linguistics. I hold a Bachelor's degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) from Istanbul University.

In addition to my work in higher education, I have over 20 years of experience teaching in diverse educational contexts, including adult education and language institutes. I am currently also involved in the Rucksack Program in Freiburg, where I serve as a pedagogical supervisor supporting multilingual learning and family engagement in early education.

My primary research interests include corpus linguistics, both first and second language acquisition, and multilingualism, with a particular focus on vocabulary learning and formulaic language. I also have a deep love of literature—especially children’s literature.

Outside of academia, I’m a proud mother of two wonderful children who continue to inspire my passion for language, learning, and education.

2021: Ph.D. in English Linguistics

2011: M.A. in English Language and Linguistics (MELLing)

2007: B.A. in English Language Teaching (ELT)

 Further training:

 May 2021 - Feb 2022: Fachkraft für (früh-)kindliche Sprachentwicklung und Sprachförderung, Institut für Lernsysteme GmbH (ILS)

Özen, Seval und Dilek Fidan. [in Bearbeitung] Öğretmenlerin Farklılaştırılmış Öğretim Hakkındaki Görüş ve Anlayışlarına Derinlemesine bir Bakış: Öğretmen Eğitimi için Çıkarımlar [Ein detaillierter Blick auf die Ansichten und das Wissen von Lehrern über differenzierten Unterricht: Implikationen für die Lehrerausbildung]. 

Özen, Seval. 2021. Multi-Word Verb Usage by Turkish Learners of English: A Corpus-Based Study. NIHIN Book Series “New Ideas in Human Interaction (NIHIN)”. Freiburg: Rombach. DOI: doi.org/10.6094/UNIFR/223433

 Kömürcü, Seval. 2016. “Color Terminology in the Written Fashion Discourse”. In Geda Paulsen, Mari Uusküla and Jonathan Brindle (eds.), Color Language and Color Categorization. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 199-233. 

 Kömürcü, Seval and Hasan Özkan. 2015. “Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language via Distance Learning: A Descriptive Case Study”. In Coskun et al. (eds.) Türkçenin Eğitimi-Öğretimine Yönelik Çalışmalar [Studies Devoted to Turkish’s Education and Instruction] Ankara: Pegem Akademi, pp. 75-85.

TRANSLATIONS:

Hayalet Hikayeleri (The Ghost Stories, Wharton, E., 1973). İstanbul: Everest Yayınları. [in Bearbeitung]

Vampir Kanı (The Blood of the Vampire, Marryat, F., 1897). İstanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2024. ISBN: 9786253690885