Prospectus

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Einführung in die soziolinguistische Feldforschung: Deutschsprachige Communities in den Niederlanden

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Gute Beherrschung der deutschen Sprache in Wort und Schrift.

Description

The course aims at exploring how German is used and perceived in the Netherlands while contributing to making German more visible to the public. At the core of the course is sociolinguistic fieldwork in the form of interviews on the language practices of ideologies of the German-speaking communities in Leiden and The Hague—an overlooked population despite the closeness of neighboring German-speaking countries and previous studies on e.g. English in the Netherlands (Edwards 2016). The course relies on the active participation of the students in a research project led by them. Taking this class involves being ready to actively look for German speakers in Leiden and The Hague, conducting interviews, and transcribing and analyzing the data.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, students will have:

  • knowledge of different varieties of German;

  • a critical understanding of the main concepts and methods in sociolinguistics;

  • tools to reflect on and, if necessary, challenge their own language attitudes;

  • the ability to conduct a small-scale research project in sociolinguistics, including data collection and analysis;

  • the ability to present readings and their research results orally and in written form in (academic) German.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar

  • Excursion

Assessment method

Assesment

  • aktive Teilnahme

  • Transkription und Analyse von 2 Interviews

  • Hausarbeit (5000 Wörter für BA-Studierende)

Attendance is mandatory. Students may miss a maximum of two sessions (with a valid reason, to be reported to the lecturer prior to the missed lecture).

Weighing

  • aktive Teilnahme: 10%

  • Transkription und Analyse von 2 Interviews: 40%

  • Hausarbeit (5000 Wörter für BA-Studierende): 50%

The final grade for the course is determined by the calculation of the weighted average based on partial grades. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.

Resit

Die Transkription der Interviews und die Hausarbeit müssen ausreichend sein und dürfen wiederholt werden.

Inspection and feedback

No later than upon announcement of the exam results, it will be indicated how and at what time the exam review will take place. In any case, a review will be organized if a student requests it within 30 days after the announcement of the results.

Reading list

Edwards, Alison. 2016. English in the Netherlands: Functions, forms and attitudes (Varieties of English Around the World). Vol. G56. Amsterdam /Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g56.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Registration À la carte education and Exchange

Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.

For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.

Remarks

None.