Language acquisition across varieties in the Alemannic area

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Domahs; Professor Dr. Alfred Lameli; Professorin Dr. Cordula Loeffler
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 513727642

Language acquisition research has made significant progress in describing milestones of acquisition and children's language processing abilities. Nevertheless, studies on German largely focus on the development of Standard German and underestimate the impact of regional varieties whose presence alongside the standard language is commonplace in many parts of the German-speaking area. The Alemannic region of the D-A-CH states offers ideal conditions for incorporating dialect-standard variation into research on child language acquisition. The overall objective of the project LAVAR is to investigate language acquisition in children aged 2 to 8 years in the bilectal context (local Alemannic dialect and Standard German) under varying degrees of prevalence of the two varieties. The project aims to identify phonological and grammatical milestones in both varieties and the acquisition of writing in the standard language. Additionally, the project sets out to investigate the developmental trajectory of the perception and processing as well as children's knowledge about the social meaning and situational functions of the ambient varieties. Furthermore, the project aims to build up the first empirical database of the acquisition of regional dialects competing with standard language. These objectives will be pursued by an international team of variationist linguists and researchers in language acquisition and psycholinguistics from four institutions (Universität Marburg, PH Weingarten, SHLR Rorschach and Universität Salzburg). The project will carry out a cross-sectional study from early childhood until the end of the second year of school (2 years to 8 years of age) with a controlled random sample of 540 children. A combination of methods from language acquisition research, socio- and psycholinguistics is tailored to the different age groups and subprojects: Some instruments, such as the questionnaire on the language learning environment and a discrimination task, will be used for all age groups and in all subprojects. Additionally, according to research questions and goals, adaptations of classical tests for phonological and grammatical development, and instruments to study children’s speech accommodation behavior and elicit free speech samples will be administered. Tasks to determine writing capacities, to ascertain children's preferences towards varieties, or detect differences between the online processing of dialect and standard language are included as well. In focusing on the development of the target varieties in different country-specific social and educational contexts, the project will provide differentiated and pioneering insights into the question of how bilectal acquisition depends on language usage contexts, language attitudes and language education conditions and how it differs from the findings described so far with regard to the acquisition of Standard German only.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF); Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Mirja Bohnert-Kraus; Professorin Dr. Andrea Ender; Dr. Irmtraud Kaiser