Transcript Slide 1

German in Europe:
who cares?
John Partridge
University of Kent
Canterbury
The pervasive influence of English
1
• English vocabulary and structure are
constantly invading the German language,
for example in:
–
–
–
–
Advertising
Technology, especially IT
Newspapers
Jugendsprache
The pervasive influence of English
2
• English is making territorial gains
•
•
What or who is at fault? The English language or native speakers of
German?
Political and commercial expediency:
– English as a fifth Swiss language
– German universities e.g. Frankfurt/Oder offer degree programmes with English
as a language of instruction
– Science departments in German universities where teachers have an American
or British PhD.
– large German corporations e.g. BMW, Siemens conduct business in English
Some statistics and remarks (Clyne 1995)
• German is a language of intercultural communication
• German is second to Russian in the number of native speakers in
Europe
• German’s communication radius is limited cf. (1995 figures):
–
–
–
–
English 320m across world
French 90m
Spanish 300m
All of these languages are widely spoken on several continents
• In 5 European countries German is the national language and has
regional status in 3.
• German has sole official language status in 3 countries
• English has official status in only 2 European Countries, French in
only 2
Die Osterweiterung
• European cultural organisations are
turning towards the East: not cultural, but
commercial imperialism?
– British Council has reduced its presence in
Germany from five offices to one
– DAAD has reduced its offices in GB from
three to one
The position of German in Europe
1
• The German Language in the Context of a European
Language Policy
• German is mainly a European language
• The future of the German language will be decided in
Europe, for German is first and foremost a European
language. German was not disseminated around the
globe by colonialism. Yet in Europe, it outstrips
every other language apart from Russian in terms of
its number of native speakers (95 million in Europe,
120 million worldwide) and the total number of
countries where it is an official language (seven).
(www.goethe.de/kue/lit/dos/dds/en137712.htm)
The pervasive influence of English
1
• English vocabulary and structure are
constantly invading the German language,
for example in:
–
–
–
–
Advertising
Technology, especially IT
Newspapers
Jugendsprache
The pervasive influence of English
2
• English is making territorial gains
•
•
What or who is at fault? The English language or native speakers of
German?
Political and commercial expediency:
– English as a fifth Swiss language
– German universities e.g. Frankfurt/Oder offer degree programmes with English
as a language of instruction
– Science departments in German universities where teachers have an American
or British PhD.
– large German corporations e.g. BMW, Siemens conduct business in English
The pervasive influence of English
2
• English is making territorial gains
•
•
What or who is at fault? The English language or native speakers of
German?
Political and commercial expediency:
– English as a fifth Swiss language
– German universities e.g. Frankfurt/Oder offer degree programmes with English
as a language of instruction
– Science departments in German universities where teachers have an American
or British PhD.
– large German corporations e.g. BMW, Siemens conduct business in English
Some statistics and remarks (Clyne 1995)
• German is a language of intercultural communication
• German is second to Russian in the number of native speakers in
Europe
• German’s communication radius is limited cf. (1995 figures):
–
–
–
–
English 320m across world
French 90m
Spanish 300m
All of these languages are widely spoken on several continents
• In 5 European countries German is the national language and has
regional status in 3.
• German has sole official language status in 3 countries
• English has official status in only 2 European Countries, French in
only 2
Die Osterweiterung
• European cultural organisations are
turning towards the East: not cultural, but
commercial imperialism?
– British Council has reduced its presence in
Germany from five offices to one
– DAAD has reduced its offices in GB from
three to one
Die Osterweiterung
• European cultural organisations are
turning towards the East: not cultural, but
commercial imperialism?
– British Council has reduced its presence in
Germany from five offices to one
– DAAD has reduced its offices in GB from
three to one
The position of German in Europe
1
• The German Language in the Context of a European
Language Policy
• German is mainly a European language
• The future of the German language will be decided in
Europe, for German is first and foremost a European
language. German was not disseminated around the
globe by colonialism. Yet in Europe, it outstrips
every other language apart from Russian in terms of
its number of native speakers (95 million in Europe,
120 million worldwide) and the total number of
countries where it is an official language (seven).
(www.goethe.de/kue/lit/dos/dds/en137712.htm)
The position of German in Europe
1
• The German Language in the Context of a European
Language Policy
• German is mainly a European language
• The future of the German language will be decided in
Europe, for German is first and foremost a European
language. German was not disseminated around the
globe by colonialism. Yet in Europe, it outstrips
every other language apart from Russian in terms of
its number of native speakers (95 million in Europe,
120 million worldwide) and the total number of
countries where it is an official language (seven).
(www.goethe.de/kue/lit/dos/dds/en137712.htm)
Some statistics and remarks (Clyne 1995)
• German is a language of intercultural communication
• German is second to Russian in the number of native speakers in
Europe
• German’s communication radius is limited cf. (1995 figures):
–
–
–
–
English 320m across world
French 90m
Spanish 300m
All of these languages are widely spoken on several continents
• In 5 European countries German is the national language and has
regional status in 3.
• German has sole official language status in 3 countries
• English has official status in only 2 European Countries, French in
only 2
Die Osterweiterung
• European cultural organisations are
turning towards the East: not cultural, but
commercial imperialism?
– British Council has reduced its presence in
Germany from five offices to one
– DAAD has reduced its offices in GB from
three to one
The position of German in Europe
1
• The German Language in the Context of a European
Language Policy
• German is mainly a European language
• The future of the German language will be decided in
Europe, for German is first and foremost a European
language. German was not disseminated around the
globe by colonialism. Yet in Europe, it outstrips
every other language apart from Russian in terms of
its number of native speakers (95 million in Europe,
120 million worldwide) and the total number of
countries where it is an official language (seven).
(www.goethe.de/kue/lit/dos/dds/en137712.htm)
The position of German in Europe
2
• In the Council of Europe German is not an "official language", but
merely a "working language", which denotes a lesser status here.
• In the politically more significant European Union, a "working
language" enjoys higher status than an "official language". Of
course, German, as the official language of three Member States
(Germany, Austria and Luxembourg), is one of the official EU
languages (of which there are currently 20, as of 1 May 2004).
Article 6 of Council Regulation No 1 determining the languages to
be used by the European Economic Community allows the
institutions of the Community to stipulate which of the official
languages are to be used as working languages in specific cases.
Over time, these are likely to develop into Europe's official
languages and, indeed, its lingua franca. Being one of them is
therefore extremely important for the future of the German language.
The position of German in Europe
3
• English and French are the EU's main working languages.
• German is also a recognised working language in key institutions
such as the Commission and the Council of Ministers (also for
informal meetings), but it is rarely used.
• Germany has been fighting to resist linguistic demotion for years.
Among other things, this led to a clash with Finland during the
Finnish Presidency in Autumn 1999, when it became apparent that
Member States whose own language is not a working language
generally prefer to use English as the sole working language.
• The status of German and even French has thus become more
precarious, especially since EU enlargement.
• This situation prompted France and Germany to sign a joint
"language directive" pledging mutual support in the field of language
policy in July 2000.
German as a minority language in
European states
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German is a recognised minority language in Eastern Belgium and South
Tyrol, where it is also an official regional language
It is also a recognised minority language in Denmark (Northern Schleswig),
France (Alsace-Lorraine), Poland (Silesia), the Czech Republic, Hungary
and Romania.
The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), which is
funded by the Council of Europe and the EU, supports the efforts of the
German-speaking minorities to defend their rights, which are defined in the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. These rights have
been recognised by the signatory states;
Only France, through its enactment of a constitutional law making French
the only official language, has ruled out any ratification of the Charter.
Nonetheless, France does permit the existence of bilingual schools in
Alsace, which offer German as a teaching language.
Recognition of German as a minority language is also important for the
future of the German language.
Language policy in the EU
• Von der EU-Sprachenpolitik als solche zu sprechen, wäre beim
momentanen Stand der Dinge verfehlt. Initiativen gestalten sich
meist punktuell, ein Gesamtkonzept sprachlicher Bildung und
sprachenpolitischer Regelungen gibt es nicht. Bekenntnisse
zur Wahrung der Vielsprachigkeit sind dagegen zahlreich, in
Realität macht sich aber eher eine Sprachhomogenisierung
breit. (europa-digital.de/aktuell/dossier/sprachen/sprache2.shtml)
• Die EU-Sprachenpolitik sendet extrem widersprüchliche
Signale aus: Gerade beim "Jahr der Sprachen" wurde oft trotz
Mehrsprachigkeits-Rhetorik Vielsprachigkeit ausgeschlossen.
So zum Beispiel in einem Projekt des Europäischen
Fremdsprachenzentrums in Graz: Zum Europäischen Jahr der
Sprachen waren Fremdsprachenlehrer aus aller Welt
aufgerufen, sich an dem Projekt "Teachers of the Week" zu
beteiligen. Auf der Homepage heißt es: "teachers of any
language are invited to participate" - aber "submission of
entries is only possible in the two languages English and
French".
Germany's language policy
• In recent years, German politicians have focussed greater attention
than before on the status of the German language in Europe
(CDU/CSU’s Verbreitung, Förderung und Vermittlung der deutschen
Sprache, of 3 April 2001,and Deutsch als Arbeitssprache der
Europäischen Union, 17 February 2002)
• However the Federal Government’s language policy still lacks
theoretical rigour and practical consistency. It simply accepts the fact
that in Stellenausschreibungen von Organen mit Deutsch als
Arbeitssprache kaum je Deutschkenntnisse, stets aber Englisch
oder Französischkenntnisse verlangt werden.
• In Germany, the Greens even conducted their campaign for the
European elections in English – as if they already regard German,
as a lingua franca in Europe, as dead and buried In Germany, the
Greens even conducted their campaign for the European elections
in English – as if they already regard German, as a lingua franca in
Europe, as dead and buried.
Languages in eastern Central
Europe
German in Mittel- und Osteuropa 1
• Die deutsche Sprache kann in der MOE-Region lange historische
Traditionen und in diesem Zusammenhang auch massive
Ressourcen aufweisen. Tabelle 1 zeigt anhand von Zahlenangaben
aus Polen, Tschechien, der Slowakei und aus Ungarn, dass Deutsch
in Ostmitteleuropa heute (noch) die am meisten beherrschte
Fremdsprache ist (Quelle: IMAS - Ost-VA Frühjahr 1995). Was diese
Daten hier allerdings nicht verraten, ist, dass sich dieser günstige
Wert für das Deutsche vor allem aus der bei den älteren
Generationen verbreiteten Deutschkompetenz ergibt, sodass man in
einigen Jahren wahrscheinlich schon mit anderen statistischen
Angaben - d.h. mit einer Verschiebung zugunsten des Englischen rechnen muss.
• http://www.vein.hu/german/gm.html
German in Mittel- and Osteuropa 2
• In all countries of central and eastern Europe except
Lithuania and Romania, around 40 % of pupils at most
learn German in general secondary education.
• This also applies to Belgium (the Flemish Community),
most of the Nordic countries and Luxembourg, in which
German is a mandatory language, whichaccounts for its
high percentage at both levels of education.
• These percentages are also especially marked inthe
Czech Republic (73.5 %), Denmark (71.8 %), Slovenia
(83 %) and Slovakia (78.2 %).
• The countries in which less than 10 % of pupils learn
German are those in which the Romance languages are
spoken or other countries of southern Europe.
German in Mittel- and Osteuropa 3
• In Slovenia and Romania the percentage of pupils learning a second
language (German and French respectively) has clearly been rising.
This situation is not apparent in the Czech Republic, Latvia and
Lithuania, in which the increase in the percentage of pupils learning
English has occurred alongside a slight falling off in the percentage
of those learning German.
• Variations for German and French […] are overall not as marked as
for English
• The percentage of pupils learning German has also decreased in
the majority of countries. In the case of this language, (positive or
negative) variations are bigger in a greater number of countries.
• A decrease of 10 percentage points or a little over is apparent in the
Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovakia.
• Only Slovenia recorded a very marked increase between 1998 and
2000.
Consequences of mandatory
language learning
• Making German or French mandatory has
a clear-cut impact on the proportion of
pupils who learn them. Indeed, only in
countries in which these languages are
mandatory is this proportion equal to or
greater than 90 %
The teaching of German in Europe
1
• In all European countries with the exception of Belgium
and Luxembourg, English is the most widely taught
foreign language in primary education.
• In 10 countries, it is taught to 50 % or more of all pupils
at this level.
• German is the most widely learnt language in
Luxembourg.
• In four other countries all in central and eastern Europe,
namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and
Slovakia, the proportion of pupils in primary education
who learn German is greater than 10 %.
The teaching of German in Europe
2
• In the great majority of countries for which data
are available, English is the most widely taught
language in general secondary education. Just
three countries are exceptions, namely Belgium,
Luxembourg and Romania.
• German is the second most widely taught
language in over a third of the countries
considered. This applies in particular to the
Nordic countries and those of central and
eastern Europe.
Kurzfassung Teil 1
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German has over 100 million native speakers on the European landmass. In
numerical terms it is the most strongly represented language in Europe
other than Russian.
Its influence, although one of the official languages of the European Union,
ranks far behind that of English, French and Spanish.
As the number of member countries continues to increase, so too does the
influence of the German language decrease politically, as the languages of
the member countries are considered equal in status.
The cultural organisations of the German-speaking countries are
increasingly turning their efforts to the East as the countries of the old
Ostblock turn theirs to the west.
The DAAD’s activities in Britain have been steadily reduced in face of a
decreasing national interest in foreign language apart from Spanish.
Britain lives under a governmental culture where lip-service is paid to
foreign languages, German included, although it is regarded as a hard
language to learn, but support for languages has faded spectacularly,
despite protestations from on high and valiant retrospective efforts
Kurzfassung Teil 2
•
Who cares?
– Teachers of German
– Cultural organisations
– Business employers and national economies
– losing huge amounts of profit because the language
needs of German-speaking customers who have no
English are ignored despite the rôle of English as a
lingua franca.
– Also non-German-speakers can be disadvantaged by
not understanding their commercial partners’
conversations(David Lodge’s Nice Work).
– In fact English is an asymmetrically dominant language,
not a lingua franca in these contexts. (Ammon/Clyne
1995)
Language policy in the UK 1
• September 2004: learning a language in
maintained schools ceased to be a
mandatory part of the curriculum for pupils
in the last two years of their compulsory
education.
• Instead it became an entitlement for all
students who chose to continue after their
three years of mandatory study.
Language policy in the UK 2
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At the same time as the changes at secondary level, the Government
launched a programme to provide an opportunity for all pupils in primary
schools to learn a language by 2010.
The take up of languages in primary schools has gone very well, and a
recent survey suggests that already some 70 per cent of primary schools
are now offering a language or are close to doing so.
Reports indicate that languages are enjoyed by children across the ability
range and that there is no lack of enthusiasm, interest or keenness to learn.
This has the potential to feed through into the secondary schools, improve
performance, and encourage pupils to continue with languages. This is true
of the traditional study of French, German, and Spanish, and there is
potential amongst community languages, which over the coming two
decades will become of increasing commercial importance, and a potential
national asset.
At the secondary level by contrast, the number taking languages has fallen
sharply. Last summer, the numbers continuing with a language to the GCSE
at secondary level had fallen to 51 per cent. Inclusion of those takingother
language qualifications increases this to only 52 per cent. A survey showed
that therewill be a further fall this year. The preliminary signs were that
thereafter the fall was levelling off.
Language policy in the UK 3
• While the policy of languages for all is working
well across the whole range of social class and
ability in primary schools; at secondarylevel,
even before languages ceased to be
compulsory, it was never fully achieved.
• Twenty per cent were being exempted as far
back as the year 2000; a third had dropped
languages by the time they became an
entitlement rather than a requirement; and we
have regressed further from it since then.
Language policy in the UK 4
• The programme of action proposed in the DfES report to enable
many more pupils to engage successfully in the study of languages
at the secondary level will take two years to complete.
• If action can be taken quickly on proposals to support language
teachers in secondary schools, this together with the opportunities
for new approaches to fully accredited learning now offered by the
Languages Ladder, and innovative approaches to the GCSE; and
with the progressive realisation of our other proposals, schools could
be aiming in September 2008 to have made progress towards the
50 to 90 per cent benchmark for entrants to languages in secondary
schools proposed last year, and aim to complete their progress to it
for entrants to languages in secondary schools in the school year
beginning in September 2009,when all proposed changes could be
fully in place.
(DfES Languages Review 2007)
Trends in Languages take-up in GB
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UCAS statistics: latest news on 2007 applications as of 30 June 2007
Current UCAS data indicates that many languages are experiencing increases in firstdegree UG applications this year (applications as of end June 2007 compared to end
June 2006). This data is for single and major honours applications only.
In particular, Japanese applications are up by 41%, German applications up by 20%,
and Modern Middle Eastern studies up 10%. This is compared with a 6% overall
increase in applications across all subjects, compared to this time last year.
A-level languages statistics
Total A2 level language entries for 16-18 year olds in schools and colleges across
England have been falling over the past 10 years. Entries in German saw large
decreases of 44% from 1996 to 2005. The decrease was quite sharp at the end of the
1990’s and has been slowing down since 2002. A turnaround in the latest year 2006
saw the first increases for a decade of 5% respectively.
Spanish A2 level entries across England have been slowly and tentatively rising, from
a lower base, and an overall increase of 27% was seen in the past 10 years. Total
Spanish entries (5,200) have now almost caught up with the total number of German
entries (5,500), following the decrease in German.
We have also seen a proportionately large increase of 46% in A2 level entries for
other languages (all languages other than French German and Spanish) from 1996 to
2006. This equates to an increase of about 1,500 and totals 5,000 entries across all
the other languages available.
(source http://www.cilt.org.uk)
/