What's Hard in German

Funded by:

and

Project description:

This project seeks to systematically identify linguistic structures of German that pose a specific difficulty for the acquisition of German as a foreign language (GFL). Conventionally, this is done by observing learner errors. However, if learners avoid difficult elements, this method fails. We claim that the relative underrepresentation of structures in learner data implies that these structures are difficult to acquire. Therefore, we propose a systematic study of underrepresented structures.
Work Package 1 (WP1) attempts to identify learner difficulties regardless of the learner’s mother tongue (L1), i.e. problems that do not result from interferences of the learner’s L1. WP1 relies on written data from the learner corpus FALKO-A. We aim to develop a method of retrieving the systematic underuse of particular structures in the learner data. These findings are then further evaluated by a qualitative analysis. The method offers new insights into the perceived complexity of German and the learnability of GFL. More generally, this method will help to evaluate theories of foreign language acquisition and open up new research perspectives in this field. Building on and incorporating the results of WP1, WP2 examines the structural acquisition process for these difficulties in British learners of GFL. The question is to what extent the difficulties apply to British learners and in what order difficult structures are acquired. To this effect, a learner corpus of British GFL learners (FALKO-B) will be compiled and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively, triangulating the method mentioned above with further learner surveys. Insights gained in WP2 aim – in the long run – at the development of didactic concepts and materials in Great Britain that particularly take into account the identified acquisition problems.

Project duration:

July 2009 - June 2010

Project leaders:

Prof. Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Dr Astrid Ensslin, Bangor University

Research staff:

Berlin:

Marc Reznicek, Chan Jia Wei

Bangor:

Cedric Krummes

Partner universities:

Aberystwyth University, German Department

Bangor University, German Department

Bristol University, Department of German

University of Leeds, Department of German, Russian and Slavonic Studies

University of Liverpool, German Department

University of Manchester, German Department

University of Nottingham, Department of German

Queen Mary, University of London, Department of German

University of Sheffield, Department of Germanic Studies

Contact:

Dr Astrid Ensslin

'What's Hard in German' Project

School of Creative Studies and Media

Bangor University

College Road

Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG

Tel: 0044-(0)1248-383619

Fax: 0044-(0)1248-383948

Email: a.ensslin@bangor.ac.uk

Conference papers:

Krummes, Cedric, Marc Reznicek, Chan Jia Wei, Hagen Hirschmann, Thomas Krause, Amir Zeldes, Astrid Ensslin & Anke Lüdeling (2010) '"What’s Hard in German?": Touching the Void of Over- and Underuse', paper given at the Forum for Germanic Language Studies Conference, January 8-9, 2010.