Second language acquisition and teaching
Research on second language acquisition focuses on the L2 acquisition of Estonian, and the effects of language teaching and sociolinguistic factors on language acquisition. The focus of research in the Institute is on how learners of Estonian with diverse language backgrounds acquire Estonian and how language proficiency develops over time. We investigate the interaction of learners’ attitudes, motivation and language policy regulation in the development of language skills. Teaching methods are developed to support learners of Estonian, and e-learning is also under investigation.
Researchers related to the field
Birute Klaas-Lang
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Head of Department, Professor of Estonian as Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-434
Area of Rector
Board Member
+372 737 5225
+372 506 9749 (5225)
Birute Klaas-Lang is professor of Estonian as a foreign language since 1999.
Birute Klaas-Lang
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Head of Department, Professor of Estonian as Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-434
Area of Rector
Board Member
Mare Kitsnik
Narva College
Department of Teacher Education
Associate Professor of Estonian as Foreign Language, Programme Director of the Master's Programme Teacher of Languages in a Multilingual School
Raekoja plats 2–203, Raekoja plats 2 – 203
Mare Kitsnik has graduated as linguist and psychologist. She works as an associated professor of Estonian as a second language didactics. Her main scientific interests are the natural development paths of acquiring the Estonian as a second language and the impact of language learning techniques on the development of language skills and learning motivation. Mare is very experienced in developing teaching methods and teaching materials. She is the author or co-author of more than ten systematic and modern Estonian as a second language study kit (Avatud uksed, Complete Estonian, Sõnajalaõis, Naljaga pooleks etc). Recently, Mare is developing an innovative gamified active learning methodology: creating teaching materials and training programs and researching their impact.
Mare Kitsnik
Narva College
Department of Teacher Education
Associate Professor of Estonian as Foreign Language, Programme Director of the Master's Programme Teacher of Languages in a Multilingual School
Raekoja plats 2–203, Raekoja plats 2 – 203
Raili Pool
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Lecturer in Estonian as a Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-437
+372 737 5307
Raili Pool is an associate professor in Estonian as a foreign language. Her field of research is the acquisition of Estonian as a second language. Her research focuses on the structure of Estonian language, especially the acquisition of syntax, but she has also studied the oral communication between an Estonian learner and a native speaker. She is also interested in contrastive grammar and learners' dictionaries and has compiled a verb valency dictionary for Estonian language learners. In co-operation with the Institute of the Estonian Language, she researches the grammar competence of Estonian language learners at different language proficiency levels and compiles descriptions of grammar competetence.
Raili Pool
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Lecturer in Estonian as a Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-437
+372 737 5307
Maarika Teral
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Lecturer in Estonian as Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-436
Maarika Teral is a lecturer of Estonian as a foreign language. Her field of research is the acquisition of Estonian as a second language. She has mainly dealt with the issues of computer-based learning of Estonian and studied the structure and vocabulary of the Estonian language. She has previously researched bilingualism and language contacts on the example of the Danish Estonian community. Maarika Teral has participated in the development of several web-based Estonian language courses and study materials.
Maarika Teral
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Applied Linguistics
Lecturer in Estonian as Foreign Language
Jakobi 2-436
Katrin Leppik
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Junior Research Fellow in Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
Jakobi 2–409
Katrin Leppik is a PhD student in phonetics and a Junior Research Fellow. Her thesis focuses on second language acquisition and foreign accent. She analyses the perception and production of Estonian vowels and quantity degrees by native Spanish learners of Estonian. Katrin is also involved in developing an Estonian pronunciation training app. She has participated in other projects such as the development of the Phonetic Corpus of Estonian Spontaneous Speech and the prosody and information structure of surprise questions in Estonian in comparison with other languages.
Katrin Leppik
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Junior Research Fellow in Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
Jakobi 2–409
Anton Malmi
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Research Fellow in Phonetics
Jakobi 2-408
Anton is a Research Fellow who is interested in acoustic and articulatory phonetics. In his studies, Anton has been mainly studying how the phonemes are coarticulated in speech. In his PhD thesis, Anton used acoustic and articulatory methods to analyze Russian bilinguals living in Estonia and focuses of the acquisiton of Estonian palatalization. Anton is also involved in developing a smartphone app that helps to train Estonian pronunciation and in annotating the Phonetic Corpus of Estonian Spontaneous Speech.
Anton Malmi
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Research Fellow in Phonetics
Jakobi 2-408
Adele Vaks
doctoral student
Adele Vaks is a doctoral student of general linguistics. Her research interests lie mainly in the fields of multilingualism and language acquisition. For her thesis, she researches the language use of Estonian-Norwegian bilingual children, focusing on the influence of factors such as language input and cross-linguistic influence. In addition, she is a part of a project led by Virve-Anneli Vihman and Marika Padrik, working on creating language assessment tools suitable for bilingual children in Estonia.
Agu Bleive
doctoral student
Agu Bleive is a PhD student at the University of Tartu since 2020. His main research interests are connected to second language acquisition and linguistic typology. For his PhD thesis (supervised by Ilona Tragel) he is researching the acquisition of Estonian language by Chinese native speakers. Before that, he has been active in the field of second language teaching in practice, namely by teaching Estonian in China at the Beijing International Studies University (2019-2020) and in Germany at the University of Göttingen (2016-2018) and at the University of Greifswald (2014-2015).
Katrin Mikk
doctoral student
Katrin Mikk is a doctoral student in general linguistics who studies the impact of language learning techniques on the acquisition of Estonian as a second language.