Language History for Teaching and Learning German

Lightfoot, Douglas

doi:10.1111/j.1756-1221.2007.tb00028.x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Integrating PG into the language classroom brings many benefits: Learners gain deeper insight into the target language and culture, as well as the notions of language and culture themselves. Knowing how language develops can reduce frustration about seemingly illogical grammar rules (Lightfoot, , pp. 34‐35).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enriching the Curriculum with Pennsylvania German

Meindl

2016

Die Unterrichtspraxis

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The German classroom should prepare students for the linguistic diversity of the target culture, including regional varieties and German spoken outside of the D‐A‐CH region. Because textbooks do not often include materials on regional varieties, this article presents a model to incorporate Pennsylvania German (PG) into the curriculum. The model does not aim on learning PG but employs PG to support the acquisition of Standard German and the development of language awareness. Furthermore, PG can be used as a basis for lessons on culture, critical thinking, and intercultural competence. Teachers can implement the model without PG experts or adding large amounts of content to the classroom. The article presents basic knowledge about PG, its speakers, and their cultural context, as well as information on easily accessible PG texts and dictionaries. Furthermore, the article outlines learning goals and provides suggestions for lessons. An appendix lists readily available resources for more information on Pennsylvania German culture.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enriching the Curriculum with Pennsylvania German

Meindl

2016

Die Unterrichtspraxis

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“…Among these changes were the Second Germanic Sound Shift and various semantic shifts. Since then, several scholars have echoed these claims (Crawford, 1988; Horsford, 1987; Lightfoot, 2007; Wolff, 1993), suggesting that historical instruction would placate the feeling of “foreignness.” While Arteaga & Herschensohn (1995) found that explicit historical instruction on the French circumflex aided the learning of English–French loanwords, to date, no empirical studies have examined the effects of receiving historical instruction on the learning of English–German cognates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the German verb “sterben [to die]” is cognate with the English verb “to starve.” Although “starve” originally meant “to die” (Old English “steorfan [to die]”), throughout the history of the English language, its meaning narrowed semantically to refer to a specific type of death (i.e., death by hunger). While associative and semantic elaboration (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Craik & Tulving, 1975) have been shown to have positive effects on memory and learning (Bolger & Zapata, 2011; Hulstijn, 2001; Kirsch, 2012; McNamara & Scott, 2001; Prince, 2012) and scholars have been calling for the use of historical instruction in the German L2 classroom for quite some time (Horsford, 1987; Lightfoot, 2007; Smith, 1968; Wolff, 1993), to date, no empirical studies have tested the effects of explicit historical instruction on the learning of English–German cognates. Declarative knowledge of these historical changes may allow English‐speaking L2 learners of German to create an instant connection between English and German cognates, while also providing them with a tool kit to correctly predict the meaning of cognates they have not encountered before.…”

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confidence: 99%

Intentional and Incidental Vocabulary Learning: The Role of Historical Linguistics in the Second Language Classroom

Stratton

2022

The Modern Language Journal

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Although English and German are both Germanic languages, due to various historical changes, many of their cognates are no longer easily recognizable. This study examined whether knowledge of language history can be beneficial to learners when learning English–German cognates. Thirty‐five English‐speaking second language (L2) learners of 3rd‐semester German at an American university were assigned to either an intentional or incidental learning condition. The intentional group received explicit instruction on 2 historical sounds shifts (Second Germanic Sound Shift, Ingvaeonic Palatalization) and relevant historical semantic changes. In contrast, the incidental group carried out various activities that exposed learners to cognates through reading and oral communication tasks. Results indicate that the intentional group significantly outperformed the incidental group, suggesting that knowledge of language history can be beneficial to learners when learning historically related languages. Declarative knowledge of the historical changes led to significantly greater vocabulary gains and it also provided learners with a tool kit to correctly predict the meaning of several cognates they had not previously encountered before. This study has broad implications for vocabulary learning, language teaching, and applied historical linguistics.

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“…For further discussion on linguistic bias of different types of speakers, see Lightfoot (, pp. 35‐37).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Much of the discussion in Lightfoot (, pp. 35‐41) is useful here, as well as Barbour and Stevenson ().…”

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confidence: 99%

Aspects of Authentic Spoken German: Awareness and Recognition of Elision in the German Classroom

Lightfoot

2016

Die Unterrichtspraxis

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This work discusses the importance of spoken German in classroom instruction. The paper examines the nature of natural spoken language as opposed to written language. We find a general consensus that the prevailing language measure (whether pertaining to written or spoken language) in instructional settings more often typifies the rules associated with a written variety to the relative exclusion of norms associated with natural spoken language. A discussion of authentic spoken language and pragmatics in the classroom follows. The principle linguistic notion examined is elision (dropping certain sounds), but we also look at assimilation (sounds becoming more alike) due to its high frequency of occurrence with elision. The article then presents suggestions for classroom instruction on awareness and recognition of spoken language, along with the contexts in which spoken language occurs.

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Language History for Teaching and Learning German

Cited by 6 publications

References 14 publications

Enriching the Curriculum with Pennsylvania German

Enriching the Curriculum with Pennsylvania German

Intentional and Incidental Vocabulary Learning: The Role of Historical Linguistics in the Second Language Classroom

Aspects of Authentic Spoken German: Awareness and Recognition of Elision in the German Classroom

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