Language Variation in Foreign Language Teaching

Language variation in foreign language teaching has been given little attention so far. Yet variation might be a useful tool for the development of communicative competence among learners. For this reason, awareness of and attitudes toward language variation were explored among college-level students of German. Participants were asked to listen to language samples in L1 and L2, fill out a questionnaire and volunteer for interviews. Findings indicate a high level of variation awareness, a positive attitude towards learning about variation, and a clear understanding of the role of variation in identity, culture and communication. The inclusion of variation into curricula, materials, and teacher training might thus be useful in preparing learners for real-life encounters with native speakers.

Autorentext

The Author: Claudia Kunschak received her Master's degree in translation and interpreting from the University of Vienna in 1992. After several years of teaching languages at universities in Europe and the USA, she complemented her training with a Ph.D. in education and foreign language teaching at the University of Arizona in 2003. For the past two years, she has been teaching translation and general language classes at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. Her research interests include language variation, curriculum development, evaluation, and language planning.

Inhalt
Contents: Language variation in foreign language teaching Awareness of and attitudes toward language variation Language, culture and communication Learner-centered instruction Language planning for communicative competence.