At the University of Helsinki, focus areas in German philology include multilingualism, transculturalism and multimediality.
Central research themes include
- Comparative and contrastive linguistics
- Language acquisition
- Language didactics and interference
- Use and optimisation of electronic tools in teaching German
- Linguistic media and mass communication studies
- Phraseology, or the study of set expressions and idioms
- Text linguistics (particularly in the language of mass media)
- Valence and construction grammar and grammatisation
- Lexicography
- Historical syntax
- Modern German literature and culture (particularly narrative research, as well as the significance and reception of German literature)
- Literature and culture in Austria
- Syntax and word formation.