scholarly journals Das Projekt "Deutsch als Zweitsprache in Dialektumgebung"

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Ender ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Katharina Straßl
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Immigrant Children ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Deutsch Als Zweitsprache ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Ongoing Project

This paper presents the ongoing project "German as a Second Language in a Dialect-Speaking Environment" which is concerned with the acquisition of German as a second language by immigrant children in the German-Speaking part of Switzerland. As this is one of the areas where a distinct dialect coexists with the standard variety, the language acquisition poses a challenge for immigrant children: The daily input does not correspond at all, or only in part, to what the immigrant children should learn (e.g. for achievement in school and career opportunities), namely standard German. The aims of the project are to evaluate existing language measuring methods for preschool children and to develop a test that is adapted to the bilingualism of the immigrant children and the specific diglossic learning situation. Furthermore, an empirical pilot study deals with the language abilities of primary school children and examines how and to what extend the local dialect influences the use of standard German in spoken and written texts.

scholarly journals “Which mouse kissed the frog?” Effects of age of onset, length of exposure, and knowledge of case marking on the comprehension of wh-questions in German-speaking simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE DOROTHEE ROESCH ◽  
VASILIKI CHONDROGIANNI
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
German Speaking

AbstractStudies examining age of onset (AoO) effects in childhood bilingualism have provided mixed results as to whether early sequential bilingual children (eL2) differ from simultaneous bilingual children (2L1) and L2 children on the acquisition of morphosyntax. Differences between the three groups have been attributed to other factors such as length of exposure (LoE), language abilities, and the phenomenon to be acquired. The present study investigates whether four- to five-year-old German-speaking eL2 children differ from 2L1 children on the acquisition of wh-questions, and whether these differences can be explained by AoO, LoE, and/or knowledge of case marking. The 2L1 children outperformed the eL2 children in terms of accuracy; however, both bilingual groups exhibited similar error patterns. This suggests that 2L1 and eL2 bilingual children are sensitive to the same morphosyntactic cues, when comprehending wh-questions. Finally, children's performance on the different types of wh-questions was explained by a combination of knowledge of case marking, LoE, and AoO.

scholarly journals Contention Between English as a Second Language and Special Education Services for Emergent Bilinguals with Disabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Solange A. Lopes-Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Emergent Bilinguals ◽  
Special Education Services ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Related Services ◽  
Education Services ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Steady Growth

The debate surrounding the prioritization of services for emergent bilinguals with disabilities is an area in need of attention. The generalized belief that disability-related services must take priority over English as a Second Language services suggests that there is a critical need to develop school professionals’ understanding that these learners, in addition to receiving special education services, need substantial support in developing their second language abilities. The steady growth of emergent bilinguals and multilinguals in public schools, that is, students acquiring English as a new language, calls for well-trained practitioners able to meet these students’ diverse linguistic, academic, cultural, emotional, and intellectual needs. The typical challenges this population faces acquiring a new language have, well too often, been misrepresented, neglected, or led them to programs for students with true disabilities. However, when emergent bilinguals are legitimately referred to special education, it is not uncommon for their disability-related needs to be prioritized over their English as a Second Language-related needs, and they end up not receiving the support they need to develop social and academic skills in the new language. This review article is intended to stimulate reflection on the types of services being delivered to emergent bilinguals and multilinguals with disabilities in U.S. public school settings.

scholarly journals Effects of the Informal Contact on Learners L2 Proficiency: A Review of Five Studies

1985 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina M. Spada
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Number Of Factors

In this paper, the findings of studies investigating the effects of informal contact on adult classroom learners' second language abilities are discussed and a number of factors are proposed which might have contributed to their conflicting results. This will involve a close examination of five of these studies in terms of differences in: I) type of contact 2) type of measurement instruments 3) type of learner 4) differences in quantitative measures of contact S) intensity and duration of instruction 6) interactions between type of instruction and contact.

scholarly journals The role of case and animacy in bi-and monolingual children’s sentence interpretation in German: a developmental perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jana Gamper
Keyword(s):  
Primary School Children ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Adjustment Process ◽  
Developmental Approach ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Dative Case ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Case Markers

AbstractGerman-speaking children appear to have a strong N1-bias when interpreting non-canonical OVSsentences. During sentence interpretation, especially unambiguous accusative and dative case markers (den ‘the-ACC’ and dem ‘the-DAT’) weaken the N1-bias and help building up sentence interpretation strategies on the basis of morphological cues. Still, the N1-bias prevails beyond the age of five (Brandt et al. 2016, Cristante 2016, Dittmar et al. 2008) and remains until puberty (Lidzba et al. 2013). This paper investigates whether prototypical case-animacy coalitions (denACC + NINANIMATE and demDAT + NANIMATE ) strengthen a morphologically based sentence interpretation strategy in German. The experiment discussed in this paper tests for effects of such case-animacy coalitions in mono- and bilingual primary school children. 20 German monolinguals, 12 Dutch-German and 17 Russian-German bilinguals with a mean age of 9;6 were tested in a forced-choice off-line experiment. Results indicate that case-animacy coalitions weaken the N1-bias in OVS-conditions in German monolinguals and Dutch-German bilinguals, while no effects were found for Russian-German bilinguals. Together with an analysis of individual differences, these group-specific effects are discussed in terms of a developmental approach that represents a gradual cue strength adjustment process in mono- and bilingual children.

Universal Grammar in the classroom: the effects of formal instruction on second language acquisition

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha W. Felix ◽  
Wilfried Weigl
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Second Language ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Formal Instruction ◽  
L2 Learners

One of the dominating issues in recent second language acquisition research has been the question of whether or not L2 learners have access to principles of Universal Grammar. It seems that currently there is fairly strong evidence both for and against UG-access by L2 learners. Consequently, the question arises what kinds of factors may potentially further or block UG-access and whether such factors can be related to certain properties of the learning environment. In this paper we wish to approach this question by looking at a somewhat extreme learning situation, namely the acquisition (or maybe non-acquisition) of English as a second language by 77 German high school students who learned and were exposed to English exclusively during classroom hours. These students were tested for their ability to correctly judge grammaticality contrasts in English that are standardly attributed to UG principles. The results suggest that - even under a most liberal interpretation - these students did not show any evidence of having UG-access. Rather, they utilized a number of strategies that (a) tied them very tightly to properties of German and (b) prevented them from making any generalizations that went beyond what had been explicitly taught in the classroom.

Prototypical influence in second language acquisition: What now for the Aspect Hypothesis

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin McManus
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sentence Interpretation

AbstractThis paper presents empirical evidence on the development of aspect by English- and German-speaking university learners of French L2 collected from a spoken narrative task and a sentence interpretation task. Contrary to the Aspect Hypothesis's predictions, this study's results suggest that increased use of prototypical pairings goes in hand with increased L2 proficiency. Following a small but growing number of studies, this study questions the route of L2 development proposed by the Aspect Hypothesis.

scholarly journals Processing reflexives in a second language: The timing of structural and discourse-level constraints

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDIA FELSER ◽  
IAN CUNNINGS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Binding Condition ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Nonnative Speakers Of English ◽  
Language Influence

ABSTRACTWe report the results from two eye-movement monitoring experiments examining the processing of reflexive pronouns by proficient German-speaking learners of second language (L2) English. Our results show that the nonnative speakers initially tried to link English argument reflexives to a discourse-prominent but structurally inaccessible antecedent, thereby violating binding condition A. Our native speaker controls, in contrast, showed evidence of applying condition A immediately during processing. Together, our findings show that L2 learners’ initial focusing on a structurally inaccessible antecedent cannot be due to first language influence and is also independent of whether the inaccessible antecedent c-commands the reflexive. This suggests that unlike native speakers, nonnative speakers of English initially attempt to interpret reflexives through discourse-based coreference assignment rather than syntactic binding.

Can research into the diagnostic testing of reading in a second or foreign language contribute to SLA research?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 30-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.Charles Alderson ◽  
Ari Huhta
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Diagnostic Testing ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
General Level ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Potential Synergy

Language testing researchers have recently shown interest in diagnostic testing. However, diagnostic testing requires a better understanding of language abilities at a less general level than has been normal in language testing, and this has posed challenges to testers to define their diagnostic constructs both theoretically and operationally. In theory, second language acquisition (SLA) should be able to offer insights into the construct of reading in a second or foreign language (S/FL), and testing ought to be able to base diagnostic tests of S/FL reading on theoretical insights from SLA. It is, however, unclear whether this happens in practice. In this paper we examine the potential synergy between second language acquisition and second and foreign language testing, and we report on progress in three inter-related research projects into S/FL reading.

www-Ressourcen zum Bereich Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache / www-Resources in German as a Foreign / Second Language

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Özdil
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Deutsch Als Zweitsprache

AbstractDer vorliegende Artikel soll eine Orientierungshilfe geben, einen Überblick über einschlägige Eingangsportale verschaffen sowie eine Auswahl besonders nützlicher Einzelangebote vorstellen. Dabei können lediglich diejenigen Webangebote berücksichtigt werden, die sich insgesamt thematisch auf Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF) und Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ) spezialisieren; solitäre Inhalte wie vereinzelte Publikationen, die in einem thematisch anders angesiedelten Rahmen zur Verfügung gestellt werden, mussten aus Platzgründen unberücksichtigt bleiben.

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