Search

This paper presents the ongoing project "German as a Second Language in a Dialect-Speaking Environment" which is concerned with the acquisition of German as a second language by immigrant children in the German-Speaking part of Switzerland. As this is one of the areas where a distinct dialect coexists with the standard variety, the language acquisition poses a challenge for immigrant children: The daily input does not correspond at all, or only in part, to what the immigrant children should learn (e.g. for achievement in school and career opportunities), namely standard German. The aims of the project are to evaluate existing language measuring methods for preschool children and to develop a test that is adapted to the bilingualism of the immigrant children and the specific diglossic learning situation. Furthermore, an empirical pilot study deals with the language abilities of primary school children and examines how and to what extend the local dialect influences the use of standard German in spoken and written texts.