Volume 2024, Issue 80

Well-developed vocabulary skills are crucial for effective communication. Didactically speaking, it is therefore essential to explicitly foster the development of lexical competence in the classroom. This applies to both learners of German as a first and second language. The design of systematic vocabulary activities should aim to increase both the quality and quantity of learners‘ word knowledge and to ensure long-term retention of acquired words. While various approaches exist for teaching vocabulary in foreign language teaching, systematic and targeted approaches for supporting vocabulary acquisition in teaching German as a first language have yet to be established and, more importantly, effectively implemented in the classroom. Drawing upon findings from language acquisition research and linguistic models, we propose a framework for explicit vocabulary activities that facilitates the integration of new words into learners‘ mental lexicons (vocabulary breadth) and, in connection with this, promotes the development of semantic, relational, and formal word knowledge (vocabulary depth). The article will demonstrate how this framework was implemented in Deutsch Kindergarten, a new teaching resource developed in Switzerland. It will also highlight broader didactic principles, such as criteria for vocabulary selection and principles for vocabulary teaching, which should be considered in the classroom.

This quantitative study examines self-reference in conference presentations by L1 and Polish L2 speakers of German. It analyses which linguistic structures are used to express different types of self-reference. Usage of the first person is shown to be lower than in spontaneous oral conversation, but considerably higher than in written academic texts. Moreover, speakers use a variety of types of agent demotion (such as the passive voice) that are also common in written academic language. The data shows that the L1 speakers use more first person pronouns than the L2 speakers. This may be due to cultural differences between German and Polish academia. An alternative explanation is that L2 speakers have a stronger tendency to rely on written manuscripts for their presentations. Distinguishing between discourse comments, methodical comments and eristic comments, the study also shows that different types of self-reference correlate with different linguistic structures.

This article analyses how the social meaning of ‘Austrian German’ (AG) is mediated through YouTube videos. To many Austrians (and also Non-Austrians), AG is a socially meaningful register which indexes national linguistic identity in discourse. It includes features of standard, colloquial, or dialect repertoire as well as style shifting between those levels. The discursive process of creating the register through metacommunication (enregisterment) often involves the stylisation of linguistic features and practices but also relies on the utilisation of numerous other semiotic resources (multimodality). Yet, there is little research on the enregisterment of AG in online environments, let alone its multimodality. This article provides the first in-depth investigation into the enregisterment of AG on the large video-sharing platform YouTube. A qualitative socio-semiotic analysis of widely viewed videos on AG reveals relevant discursive topics and ideologies, genres, technical modes, and linguistic stylisations of this national register, such as the ironized sociolinguistic dominance of Germany’s German and the interplay of linguistic features and visual as well as musical stereotypes.

In Swiss media, one can easily find statements that evaluate consensus and compromise positively and present them as typical of Switzerland. At first glance, these statements seem to fit perfectly with the assessments of numerous political scientists, according to whom Switzerland is a prime example of a consensus democracy. This article explores the characteristics of contemporary political discourses on consensus and compromise in Switzerland and identifies the underlying political concepts of ‘consensus’ and ‘compromise’ by use of methods from discourse analysis and conceptual history. These methods are applied to dictionaries and digital corpora covering media, parliamentary, and government language usage in Switzerland. Whenever possible, corresponding German data are also analyzed for comparison. The analysis shows that Swiss political discourses on consensus and compromise are characterized by linguistic patterns that cannot be found in corresponding German discourses to the same extent. These results strongly suggest a connection between the political discourses on consensus and compromise, the respective concepts, and the elements of consensus democracy in the Swiss political system, a finding which has various potential applications.

This article examines stereotypical gay speaking using a performative and speaker-centered approach. For this, the default and staged gay ways of speaking of four speakers were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and compared with each other, supplemented by a perception test. It is argued that stereotypical gay pronunciation can refer to a particular gay persona (i. e., an affected, diva-like extroverted gay man) by analysing which characteristics the speakers used in which way to construct this persona. The results show general usage patterns and the selective use of variants, more specifically an increase in (1) mean pitch, (2) vowel duration, (3) first and second formant of /ɛ/, and (4) intensity as well as de-/nasality and enhanced precision of articulation. The constructions of a persona occur locally, i. e., in a specific context and in combination with other linguistic features. Based on this study’s approach and results, this article contributes to previous studies on the connection between language and sexuality in German speakers.

To date, no studies exist attempting to capture the temporal-relational emergence of dialect and standard German features in the second language (L2) across residence time in the Austro-Bavarian naturalistic context. In order to address this desideratum, 40 migrants with L2 German completed translation tasks assessing their ability to translate from standard German into dialect and vice versa. Taking a cross-sectional developmental perspective, our goal is to examine when dialect features (e. g., a -darkening, l -vocalization) manifest in participants’ multivarietal repertoires during residence in Austria over a timespan of approximately 13 years. The results of Bayesian binary logistic multilevel modeling reveal that participants quickly acquire dialect features such as negation particles (e. g., standard nicht vs. dialectal ned ), fricative reduction (e. g., standard ich vs. dialectal i: ), and Bavarian article use (e. g., standard das vs. dialectal des ), but, even after over a decade of residence, do not produce morphological or syntactic dialectal features such as 2. person plural -s (e. g., standard braucht vs. dialectal brauchts ) or relative clause connectors (e. g., standard die vs. dialectal de wos ). Our results add to discussions concerning how the Austro-Bavarian naturalistic context impacts on patterns of L2 language variation and use and lend key insights into inquiries concerning which dialect features L2 learners acquire and when .