Grammar and variation in the classroom
A roadmap for a qualified solution to grammatical cases of doubt in contemporary German
Vít Dovalil | Charles University Prague
Adriana Hanulíková | University of Freiburg
Grammar is the structural foundation of successful communication, language use, and literacy development. Grammar is therefore sometimes viewed as the heart of language with an important place in language teaching. In a classroom setting, regulation of grammar knowledge through teachers is strongly influenced by teachers’ linguistic competence and beliefs. In this paper, we will first show the diversity in this knowledge by means of teacher interviews and speeded grammatical-acceptability data from pupils and students. We will then sketch a socio- and psycholinguistic perspective on several selected morphosyntactic variables in German. These will be discussed with reference to social forces that determine what is standard in a language (language norm authorities, language experts, model texts, and codifiers). Finally, we will draw a roadmap for teachers, language practitioners and editors looking for a qualified solution to grammatical cases of doubt in contemporary German and provide practical examples by drawing upon the German reference corpus.
Keywords: variation, standard variety, norm, social actors, grammaticality judgments, grammatical cases of doubt, teaching German grammar
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.A few notes on standard(s), norms, and language variation
- 3.Grammar knowledge and regulation of knowledge: Two methodological perspectives
- 4.A roadmap for teachers
- 5.Showcases
- 5.1Past participle of winken ‘to wave’
- 5.2Structures tun ‘to do’ + infinitive
- 5.3Declension of two or more adjectives as attributes in nominal phrases without article
- 5.4Case government of the preposition wegen ‘because of’
- 5.5How to conduct a simple search in the German Reference Corpus
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Declaration of conflicting interest
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 12 January 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.21017.dov
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.21017.dov
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