How to teach linguistics of Modern Foreign Languages

Students as researchers

Patrick Stevenson, University of Southampton

Benefits

• the active student: not an empty vessel• the engaged student: sharing responsibility for the course• the inspired/aspirational student: you too can be a researcher

• developing individual research skills• building team working skills

Skills

• Developing individual research skills• searching and evaluating wide range of sources• gathering and processing data

• Building team working skills• asking research questions• devising and designing projects• working within constraints• managing group dynamics• coordinating findings• producing outputs in different formats for different audiences• giving timed oral presentations and answering questions• participating in conference-like settings

Issues

• ethics

• sources

• work-sharing / fair evaluation

• assessment: content vs presentation

• knowledge vs skills

Progression: a German Linguistics curriculum

• Year 1: Introduction to German Linguistic Studies

• Year 2: Language and Society in the German-speaking World

• Year 3: Year Abroad Research Project

• Year 4: Language, Politics and Communication in Germany

Progression: a German Linguistics curriculum

Introduction to German Linguistic Studies

• group project on an aspect of contemporary language use/change based on primary and secondary sources: e.g.• language and gender• patterns of address• language in the media• German around the world

• group oral presentation (single mark for whole group)

• takeaway exam (2 essay topics)

Progression: a German Linguistics curriculum

Language and Society in the German-speaking World

• group project on an aspect of contemporary language use/change – more extensive and in-depth than Year 1: e.g.• The linguistic integration of anglicisms in German• An investigation into Kiezdeutsch• The public reception of the spelling reform

• group oral presentation (single mark for whole group) plus individual report

• individual essay on self-selected topic

Progression: a German Linguistics curriculum

Year Abroad Research Project

• Preparation module in Year 2: devising, designing and conducting an individual research project

• Research proposal on self-selected topic: e.g.• Language debates and school reform in Switzerland• Impact of crisis situations on interpersonal relations: address

patterns and solidarity in German business contexts• The role of dialect in Austrian political campaigns

• Empirical research project (October – June)

Progression: a German Linguistics curriculum

Language, Politics and Communication in Germany

• individual exercise in critical discourse analysis, based on self-selected topic and primary material: e.g.• Bundestag speech on the plagiarism accusation against former

German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg• a political campaign song performed by Heinz-Christian Strache,

leader of the right-wing Austrian Freiheitliche Partei• interview with Angela Merkel in the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet on

‘integration’• student protests against university ‘reform’ in Germany:

Bundesweiter Bildungsstreik vs Bundesweit gegen den Bildungsstreit

• individual essay on self-selected topic