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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 580

Part of Session 181: Folk linguistics and society (Other abstracts in this session)

The pluricentricity of German: academic ideal or everyday reality

Authors: Davies, Winifred Vaughan
Submitted by: Davies, Winifred Vaughan (Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom)

This paper discusses data collected by myself and two colleagues from teachers of German in Germany, Luxembourg and German-speaking Switzerland. The project as a whole has two aims. The first is to investigate the teachers' role as transmitters of (socio)linguistic norms. Generally, in the maintenance phase of standardisation, teachers have been seen as norm transmitters and norm authorities (norm referring here to standard German), but since German is taught under different conditions in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany we were curious how this would influence their role. There are still few empirical studies (e.g. Davies 2000) in this field, and Cameron’s (1995) assertion that the processes whereby norms ‘get into’ or are ‘taken up’ by language users are little studied in linguistics is still valid. Secondly, we research the extent to which the ‘pluricentric’ model of German is relevant for ‘ordinary’ language users, or even language norm authorities (i.e. teachers). The pluricentric model, which postulates that linguistic variants and varieties linked with national centres are equally valid forms of German rather than deviations from one supra-national form of standard German (Ammon et al. 2004: XXXII), is, despite some dissenting voices, the dominant model for academics and has been embraced more or less enthusiastically by writers of textbooks for learners of German as a foreign language, but it is less clear that it is known or accepted outside academia and it is also not clear what effect it has had on mother-tongue teaching in the German-speaking world. This aspect of the project, which will be the focus of this paper, also addresses the issue of the complicated relationship between experts and lay users of language and the difficulties attendant upon communication between the two groupings.  

Teachers are therefore an important social group when it comes to researching language attitudes since they mediate not only between the codex (the reference works in which the rules of standard German are codified) and the speakers, but also between theoretical concepts like pluricentricity and everyday practice. We collected data via questionnaires from 50 grammar-school teachers of German in each country  -  Germany (specifically the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), Luxembourg and German-speaking Switzerland - in order to throw light on teachers’ attitudes and practices, and also analysed documents relating to linguistic policy, e.g. subject curricula and policy papers. This paper will sketch the sociolinguistic context of the project and, based on an analysis of teachers’ responses to questions regarding the acceptability of three grammatical constructions, it will discuss their knowledge / awareness of the concept of pluricentricity vis à vis the requirements of the curricula. It will also consider the implications of their (lack) of knowledge for their classroom practice.

References:

Ammon, U. et al. 2004. Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen. de Gruyter.

Cameron, D. 1995. Verbal Hygiene. Routledge.

Davies, W. V. 2000. ‘Linguistic norms at school: a survey of secondary-school teachers and trainee teachers in a central German dialect area’, ZDL 67: 129-147.