Browsing by Subject "German language--Study and teaching (Higher)--Foreign speakers"

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Functions of codeswitching in classes of German as a foreign language
(2003) Seidlitz, Lisa Michelle; Southern, Mark R. V.
Codeswitching is the alternating use of two or more languages in discourse. The goal of this study was to find order in the apparent chaos of codeswitching in foreign language classes and to find patterns within the seeming random alternation of languages. This study is based on twenty hours of audio and videotaped data collected in second-year German language classes taught by graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin and compares my data with the typologies created by previous research in language alternation. I first considered Gumperz’s model, which considers language use as a function of the dynamics of interactions (Gumperz 1982). Polio and Duff’s research similarly studied micro-level functions of codeswitching in interaction; their work focused on interaction within foreign language classes in the U.S. (Polio and Duff 1994). I also considered the types of codeswitching identified by Myers-Scotton’s Markedness Model (Myers-Scotton 1987 & 1988), which consider linguistic variation to be derived from the sociological attributes of the speaker and the situation rather than from the details of specific interactional episodes. Most of the functions and types of codeswitching identified by previous research were also found in the current study; nevertheless, there was variation among teachers. Most significantly, native language seems to be the most significant variable affecting the functional distribution of languages in the classroom among the teachers I studied. The American teachers codeswitched more frequently, especially for the grammar practice, instructions, humor and praise, while Germans used overall much less English. These observed patterns suggest that there is order to the way teachers allocate their languages in the classroom. This systematicity provides support for the notion that foreign language classrooms can be considered emerging speech communities, ones which are perhaps still in the process of determining norms but which do demonstrate patterns.
Preparing students for the upper-division literature/culture classroom: a multiple literacies approach
(2005) Conner, Matthew Michael; Swaffar, Janet K.; Arens, Katherine, 1953-
This dissertation examines new ways to sequence literature and culture courses for advanced foreign language learners. Traditional language programs frequently institutionalize a split between language and content learning in their curricula. In effect, primary language learning ends with the fourth semester and students in more advanced courses are presumed competent to read literature intended for native speakers. Courses beyond the first two years of study frequently fail to provide students access to the social, historical, and cultural contexts in which literary texts are situated. Such a lack of context compounds the comprehension difficulties students face when confronted with their first longer literary text. Drawing on research from the literacy movement in applied linguistics, I illustrate pedagogical choices instructors can make in such courses in order to enable students to interact with texts from unfamiliar historical and cultural contexts. I examine the existing research on teaching literature beyond the first two years of language study and how this research points or fails to point towards approaches that introduce students to the multiple literacies available to native speakers of a language. I then extend the discussion into how instructors can introduce students to historical and cultural background materials in an initial advanced course, one focusing on Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, and a more advanced course, which includes Arthur Schnitzler’s “Traumnovelle” as one of its primary texts. In the pedagogical treatment of Schnitzler’s novella, I examine how literary and cultural theory can inform an instructor’s choices in setting up reading tasks for learners. I also provide illustrative examples of how these precepts can be adapted to preexisting curricula. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of how graduate programs can merge the graduate study of literature with pedagogy in practical ways. I suggest how graduate programs can help their graduate students integrate their existing courses in literature, culture and linguistics with the pedagogical knowledge necessary to develop courses that enable learners to undertake culturally-based readings of literature.