Search results for: German Nkhonjera

Authors: Wan-Lin Tsai

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Speech act of requests is an important issue in the field of language learning and teaching because we cannot avoid making requesting in our daily life. This study examined whether or not the subjects who were freshmen and majored in German at Wenzao University of Languages were able to use the linguistic forms which they had learned from their course book Schritte International to make appropriate requests through dialogue completed tasks (DCT). The results revealed that the majority of the subjects were unable to use the forms to make appropriate requests in German due to the lack of explicit instructions. Furthermore, Chinese interference was observed in students' productions. Explicit instructions in speech acts are strongly recommended.

Keywords: Chinese interference, German pragmatics, German teaching, make appropriate requests in German, speech act of requesting

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Authors: Dandan Zhang

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Elucidating the original relationship between historical materialism and German historicism from the internal dimension of intellectual history has important theoretical significance for deep understanding and interpretation of the essential characteristics of historical materialism. German historicism contains the triple deduction of scientific historicism, historical relativism, and vitalism. The historicism of science argues for its historical status as science in the name of objective, systematic, and typical research methods, and procedural principles. Historical relativism places history under the specific historical background to study epistemological and methodological issues about the nature of human beings and the value of history. German historicism walks up to natural and cultural relativism on the basis of romanticism. Vitalism emphasizes intuition, will, and experience of life from individuals and places history on the ontology of organic life and vitality. Historical materialism and German historicism have a theoretical relationship in the genetic field. The former criticizes and surpasses the latter. Meanwhile, in the evolution of German historicism, the differences between historical materialism with it are essential features of historical science.

Keywords: German historicism, scientific historicism, historical relativism, vitalism, historical materialism

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Authors: Julia Braun, Sinikka Treuger, Magdalena Mißler-Behr

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The support of start-ups at German universities is an elementary part of the efforts of the universities. Targeted support for innovative and technology-oriented start-ups is an important prerequisite for successful founding. The present study provides in a first research information on whether German universities have concepts and strategies for promoting the internationalization of start-ups, with a focus on various international markets, and whether they have the ability to successfully raise venture capital. The question is clarified as to how many universities in Germany have programs or concepts for the promotion of start-ups and whether they have already established an internationalization concept for the start-ups. Furthermore, it is shown whether the concepts found focus on the acquisition of venture capital. For this research, a website-based search of the concepts at German universities is carried out and evaluated. In a second study, an online survey at a selected German university is used to evaluate whether there is a general interest in such a concept. After that, a possible concept is derived. The aim of the research is to show the current status of German universities and to give an elaborated example of an education concept for a university which can be adapted by other universities.

Keywords: education concept, german universities, internatinalization, start-ups, venture capital

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Authors: Lakshmi Shenoy

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In today’s era of Globalization, arises the need that students and professionals relocate temporarily or permanently to another country in order to pursue their respective academic and career goals. This involves not only learning the local language of the country but also integrating oneself into the native culture. This paper explains the method of understanding a nation’s culture through the study of its language. The method uses language not as a series of rules that connect words together but as a social practice in which one can actively participate. It emphasizes on how culture provides an environment in which languages can flourish and how culture dictates the interpretation of the language especially in case of German. This paper introduces language and culture as inseparable entities, as two sides of the same coin.

Keywords: language and culture, sociolinguistics, Ronald Wardhaugh, German

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Authors: Jutta Ransmayr

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The German language is known to be one of the most varied and diverse languages in Europe. This variance in the standard language can be conceptualized using the pluricentric concept, which has been useful for describing the German language for more than three decades. Up to now, there have hardly been any well-founded studies of how Austrian teachers and pupils conceptualize the German language and how they view the varieties of German and especially Austrian German. The language attitudes and norms of German teachers are of particular interest in the normative, educational language-oriented school context. The teachers’ attitudes are, in turn, formative for the attitudes of the students, especially since Austrian German is an important element in the construction of Austrian national identity. The project 'Austrian German as a Language of Instruction and Education' dealt, among other things, with the attitude of language laypeople (pupils, n = 1253) and language experts (teachers, n = 164) towards the Austrian standard variety. It also aimed to find out to what extent external factors such as regional origin, age, education, or media use to influence these attitudes. It was examined whether language change phenomena can be determined and to what extent language change is in conflict with loyalty to variants. The study also focused on what norms prevail among German teachers, how they deal with standard language variation from a normative point of view, and to what extent they correct exonorm-oriented, as claimed in the literature. Methodologically, both quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative methods were used (interviews with 21 teachers, 2 group discussions, and participatory observation of lessons in 7 school classes). The data were evaluated in terms of inference statistics and discourse analysis. This paper reports on the results of this project.

Keywords: Austrian German, language attitudes and linguistic identity, linguistic loyalty, teachers and students

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Authors: Ali Akbar Jabbari

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This study investigates the role of the prior acquired languages, Persian and English, concerning the acquisition of the third language (L3) French and German at the initial stages. The data were collected from two groups of L3 learners: 28 learners of L3 French and 21 learners of L3 German, in order to test the placement of the attributive adjectives and the noun adjuncts through a grammaticality judgment task and an element rearrangement task. The aim of the study was to investigate whether any of the models proposed in the L3 acquisition could account for the case of the present study. The results of the analysis revealed that the learners of L3 German and French were both affected by the typological similarity of the previous languages. The outperformance of the German learners is an indication of the facilitative effect of L2 English (which is typologically more similar to the German than that of French). English had also a non-facilitative role in the acquisition of French and this is proved in the lower performance of the French learners. This study provided evidence for the TPM as the most accepted model of L3 acquisition.

Keywords: cross-linguistic influence, multilingualism, third language acquisition, transfer

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Authors: Vhuhwavho Gadisi, Rebecca Alowo, German Nkhonjera

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It has been noted that technical programming for handling groundwater resources is not accessible. The lack of these systems hinders groundwater management processes necessary for decision-making through monitoring and evaluation regarding the Jukskei River of the Crocodile River (West) Basin in Johannesburg, South Africa. Several challenges have been identified in South Africa's Jukskei Catchment concerning groundwater management. Some of those challenges will include the following: Gaps in data records; there is a need for training and equipping of monitoring staff; formal accreditation of monitoring capacities and equipment; there is no access to regulation terms (e.g., meters). Taking into consideration necessities and human requirements as per typical densities in various regions of South Africa, there is a need to construct several groundwater level monitoring stations in a particular segment; the available raw data on groundwater level should be converted into consumable products for example, short reports on delicate areas (e.g., Dolomite compartments, wetlands, aquifers, and sole source) and considering the increasing civil unrest there has been vandalism and theft of groundwater monitoring infrastructure. GIS was employed at the catchment level to plot the relationship between those identified groundwater parameters in the catchment area and the identified borehole. GIS-based maps were designed for groundwater monitoring to be pretested on one borehole in the Jukskei catchment. This data will be used to establish changes in the borehole compared to changes in the catchment area according to identified parameters.

Keywords: GIS, monitoring, Jukskei, catchment

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Authors: Eda Üstünel, Seval Karacabey

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The students, who are enrolled in German Preparatory Language Programme at the School of Foreign Languages, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey, learn German as a foreign language for two semesters in an academic year. Although the language programme is a skills-based one, the students lack German speaking skills due to their fear of making language mistakes while speaking in German. This problem of incompetency in German speaking skills exists also in their four-year departmental study at the Faculty of Education. In order to address this problem we design German speaking activities, which are extra-curricular activities. With the help of these activities, we aim to lead Turkish students of German language to speak in the target language, to improve their speaking skills in the target language and to create a stress-free atmosphere and a meaningful learning environment to communicate in the target language. In order to achieve these aims, an ERASMUS+ exchange staff (a German trainee teacher of German as a foreign language), who is from Schwabisch Gmünd University, Germany, conducted out-of-class German speaking activities once a week for three weeks in total. Each speaking activity is lasted for one and a half hour per week. 7 volunteered students of German preparatory language programme attended the speaking activity for three weeks. The activity took place at a cafe in the university campus, that’s the reason, we call it as an out-of-class activity. The content of speaking activity is not related to the topics studied at the units of coursebook, that’s the reason, we call this activity as extra-curricular one. For data collection, three tools are used. A questionnaire, which is an adapted version of Sabo’s questionnaire, is applied to seven volunteers. An interview session is then held with each student on individual basis. The interview questions are developed so as to ask students to expand their answers that are given at the questionnaires. The German trainee teacher wrote fieldnotes, in which the teacher described the activity in the light of her thoughts about what went well and which areas were needed to be improved. The results of questionnaires show that six out of seven students note that such an acitivity must be conducted by a native speaker of German. Four out of seven students emphasize that they like the way that the activities are designed in a learner-centred fashion. All of the students point out that they feel motivated to talk to the trainee teacher in German. Six out of seven students note that the opportunity to communicate in German with the teacher and the peers enable them to improve their speaking skills, the use of grammatical rules and the use of vocabulary.

Keywords: Learning a Foreign Language, Speaking Skills, Teaching German as a Foreign Language, Turkish Learners of German Language

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Authors: Ana Luísa Mouro

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When the financial crisis exploded in 2008 in the United States, unleashed by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and contaminated the economies of the European periphery, Germany appeared as the anchor of the stability of all European institutions and countries in difficulty. The solutions provided by the German government have triggered a deep political debate about the key position Germany has conquered at the heart of Europe - a new “German question” has been created. Some say Germany has achieved by peaceful means what was not able to get through military conquest - the domination of Europe – and many fear Germany’s economic power. This debate about the new role of Germany in Europe has received special attention in the European media and Portugal has not been the exception. The present study has been based on the survey, selection and critical analysis of news reporting, opinion articles, interviews and editorials, published in the weekly Expresso and in the daily Público, between 2008 and 2015 (year of the 25th anniversary of Germany’s unification). The findings of this study will show the paradox of German power and its relevance for Europe’s future.

Keywords: Euro crises, German Europe, intercultural hermeneutics, Portuguese quality press

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Authors: Simone D'Armi

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The notion of the representational soul is widely discussed within the German metaphysical landscape of the 18th century. The enunciation of the notion implies, within the 18th-century German rationalism, a number of generally accepted metaphysical notions. However, in the pre-critical writings of Immanuel Kant, it is possible to identify a critical stance towards this notion. The paper thematizes two central aspects: on the one hand, it discusses the notion of the vis of the representative soul, and on the other, it addresses the question of the fundamental forces ( Grundkraefte) of the soul. The aim of the present paper is to show how Kant, in the Nova Dilucidatio and in his Lectures on Metaphysics, probably delivered in the mid-1770s, despite the Wolffian terminology he employed in the field of psychology, criticizes the central aspects connected with the notion of the soul as a representative force. Beginning with a critical analysis of the relationship between Kantian ideas and those of some key exponents of German metaphysical rationalism, it emerges how the Kantian position stands as an alternative to its own historical context.

Keywords: German metaphysics, soul, power, pre-critical philosophy

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Authors: Mustafa Arikan, Ibrahim Ercan

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In this paper, protection of program formats was investigated in terms of program formats. Protection of program formats was studied in the French Law in the sense of competition law and CPI. Since the English Judicial system exhibits differences from the legal system of Continental Europe, its investigation bears a special significance. The subject was also handled in German Law at length. Indeed, German Law was investigated in detail within the overall framework of the study. Here, the court decisions in the German Law and the views in the doctrine were expressed in general. There are many court decisions in the American legal system concerning the subject. These decisions also present alternatives in terms of a solution to the problem.

Keywords: comparative law, protection of television programme formats, intellectual property, american legal system

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Authors: Dagnew Dessie Mengie

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The purpose of this study was to investigate German tourists' demand for Ethiopian tourism destinations. The author has made every effort to identify the differences in the preferences of German visitors’ demand in Ethiopia comparing with Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and South African tourism sectors if they are invited to visit at the same time. However, the demand for international tourism for Ethiopia currently lags behind these African countries. Therefore, to offer demand-driven tourism products, the Ethiopian government and tour and travel operators need to understand the important factors that affect international tourists’ decision to visit Ethiopian tourist destinations. The aim of this study was to analyze German Tourists’ Demand for Ethiopian destinations. The researcher aimed to identify the demand for German tourists’ preference for Ethiopian tourist destinations compared to the above-mentioned African countries. For collecting and analysing data for this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are being used in this study. The most significant data are collected by using the primary data collection method i.e. survey and interviews which are the most and large number of potential responses and feedback from nine German active tourists,12 Ethiopian tourism officials, four African embassies, and four well functioning private tour companies and secondary data collected from books, journals, previous research and electronic websites. Based on the data analysis of the information gathered from interviews and questionnaires, the study disclosed that the majority of German tourists do have not that high demand for Ethiopian Tourist destinations due to the following reasons: (1) Many Germans are fascinated by adventures and safari and simply want to lie on the beach and relax. These interests have leaded them to look for other African countries which have these accesses. (2) Uncomfortable infrastructure and transport problems are attributed to the decreasing number of German tourists in the country. (3) Inadequate marketing operation of the Ethiopian Tourism Authority and its delegates in advertising and clarifying the above irregularities which are raised by the tourists.

Keywords: environmental benefits of tourism, social benefits of tourism, economic benefits of tourism, political factors on tourism

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Authors: Melanie Verhovnik

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School shootings are a well-known phenomenon in Germany, 14 of which have occurred to date. The first case happened half a year after the April 20th, 1999 Columbine shooting in the United States, which was at the time the most serious school shooting to have occurred anywhere in the world. The German media gave only scant attention to the subject of school shootings prior to Columbine, even though there were numerous instances of it throughout the world and several serious instances in the United States during the 1990s. A mixed method design of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was employed in order to demonstrate the main features and characteristics of core German media’s coverage of Columbine.

Keywords: Columbine, media coverage, qualitative, quantitative content analysis, school shooting

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Authors: A. Ishag, E. Witruk, C. Altmayer

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Motivation and attitudes are considered as hypothetical psychological constructs in explaining the process of second language learning. Gardner (1985) – who first systematically investigated the motivational factors in second language acquisition – found that L2 achievement is related not only to the individual learner’s linguistic aptitude or general intelligence but also to the learner’s motivation and interest in learning the target language. Traditionally language learning motivation can be divided into two types: integrative motivation – the desire to integrate oneself with the target culture; and instrumental motivation – the desire to learn a language in order to meet a specific language requirement such as for employment. One of the Gardner’s main ideas is that the integrative motivation plays an important role in second language acquisition. It is directly and positively related to second language achievement more than instrumental motivation. However, the significance of integrative motivation reflects a rather controversial set of findings. On the other hand, Students’ attitudes towards the target language, its speakers and the learning context may all play some part in explaining their success in learning a language. Accordingly, the present study aims at exploring the significance of motivational and attitudinal factors in learning foreign languages, namely English and German among Sudanese undergraduate students from a psycholinguistic and interdisciplinary perspective. The sample composed of 221 students from the English and German language departments respectively at the University of Khartoum in Sudan. The results indicate that English language’s learners are instrumentally motivated and that German language’s learners have positive attitudes towards the German language community and culture. Furthermore, there are statistical significant differences in the attitudes toward the two languages due to gender; where female students have more positive attitudes than their male counterparts. However, there are no differences along the variables of academic grade and study level. Finally, the reasons of studying the English or German language have also been indicated.

Keywords: motivation and attitudes, foreign language learning, english language, german language

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Authors: Dagnew Dessie Mengie

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate German tourists' demand for Ethiopian tourism destinations. The author has made every effort to identify the differences in the preferences of German visitors’ demand in Ethiopia comparing with Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and South African tourism sectors if they are invited to visit at the same time. However, the demand of international tourism for Ethiopia currently lags behind these African countries. Therefore, to offer demand-driven tourism products, the Ethiopian government, Tour & Travel operators need to understand the important factors that affect international tourists’ decision to visit Ethiopian tourist destinations. The aim of this study was intended to analyze German Tourists’ Demand towards Ethiopian destination. The researcher aimed to identify the demand for German tourists’ preference to Ethiopian tourist destinations comparing to the above-mentioned African countries. For collecting and analysing data for this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are being used in this study. The most significant data are collected by using the primary data collection method i.e. survey and interviews which are the most and large number of potential responses and feedback from nine German active tourists,12 Ethiopian tourism officials, four African embassies, and four well functioning private tour companies and secondary data collected from books, journals, previous research and electronic websites. based on the data analysis of the information gathered from interviews and questionnaires, the study disclosed that majority of German tourists have not that much high demand on Ethiopian Tourist destinations due to the following reasons; Many Germans are fascinated by adventures, safari and simply want to lie on the beach and relax. These interests have leaded them to look for other African countries which have these accesses. Uncomfortable infrastructure and transport problems attributed for the decreasing the number of German tourists in the country. Inadequate marketing operation of Ethiopian Tourism Authority and its delegates in advertising and clarifying the above irregularities which are raised by the tourists.

Keywords: environmental benefits of tourism, social benefits of tourism, economical benefits of tourism, political factors in tourism

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Authors: Angelika Dorawa, Lena Kreppel

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Writing in the disciplines plays a major role at Universities. On the one hand, lectures look at the substance of assignments and on the other hand, they expect students to meet professional standards of layout and proofreading. However, the integration of writing concepts into the range of subjects is new to German Universities of Applied Sciences, which are focused on technical and scientific contexts. The Westphalian University of Applied Sciences (WH) established a successful program Talente_schreiben (Writing_Talents) that was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to improve written language skills for first-semester students at the WH. Besides having the main focus on basic language skills on all language levels, we also concentrate on subject-specific programs such as writing in the disciplines and are pioneers in this field in Germany. Since 2013, we started to include learning-to-write programs since first-semester students of Business Law studies must complete a writing assignment in the form and writing style of a legal opinion in order to fulfill their undergraduate degree requirements. To support our students at its best, our course for business lawyers focuses not only on the writing skills per se, but also on teaching both, the content and the particular discourse of the discipline. Hence, a specialist in German studies and a faculty tutor share the experience of processing, producing and reflecting a text. Whereas the German studies specialist refers to the rhetorical context such as orthography, grammar etc., the tutor acts as a guide on the side referring to the course content itself. In our presentation, we want to give an insight of the practice of a business law discipline, the combination of rhetoric and composition and discuss the methodological and didactic approaches.

Keywords: German for business lawyers, talent development, pioneer program, Germany

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Authors: Jorn Meyer, Stefan Sturmer

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The assessment of attachment patterns in toddlers and adults has been well researched, and valid diagnostic methods (e.g., Strange Situation Test, Adult Attachment Interview) are applicable. For middle and late childhood, on the other hand, there are only few validated methods available so far. For the Child Attachment Interview (CAI) promising validation studies from English-speaking countries are available, but so far a comprehensive study on the validity of a German sample is lacking. Within the scope of a longitudinal project, the results of the first point of measurement are reported in this study. A German-language version of the CAI was carried out with 111 primary school children (56% female; age: M = 8.34, SD = 0.49). In relation to psychometric quality criteria, parameters on interrater reliability, construct validity and discriminant, and convergent validity are reported. Analyses of the correlations between attachment patterns and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems from parent and teacher reports are presented. The implications for the German-language assessment of attachment in middle and late childhood in research and individual case diagnostics, e.g., in the context of conducting expert evaluation reports for family courts, are discussed.

Keywords: attachment, attachment assessment, developmental psychology, longitudinal study

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Authors: Noah Brandon

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Grammatical gender can create a restrictive roadblock for the usage of gender-inclusive language. This research describes grammatical gender structures used in English, Dutch, and German and considers how these structures restrict the implementation of gender inclusivity in spoken and written discourse. This restriction is measured by the frequency with which gender-inclusive & generic masculine forms are used and by the morphosyntactic complexity of the gender-inclusive forms available in these languages. These languages form a continuum of grammatical gender structures, with English having the least articulated structures and German having the most. This leads to a comparative analysis intended to establish a correlation between the complexity of gender structure and the difficulty of using gender-inclusive forms. English, on one side of the continuum, maintains only remnants of a formal grammatical gender system and imposes the fewest restrictions on the creation of neo-pronouns and the use of gender-inclusive alternatives to gendered agentive nouns. Next, the Dutch have a functionally two-gender system with less freedom using gender-neutral forms. Lastly, German, on the other end, has a three-gender system requiring a plethora of morphosyntactic and orthographic alternatives to avoid using generic masculine. The paper argues that the complexity of grammatical gender structures correlates with hindered use of gender-inclusive forms. Going forward, efforts will focus on gathering further data on the usage of gender-inclusive and generic masculine forms within these languages. The end goal of this research is to establish a definitive objective correlation between grammatical gender complexity and impediments in expressing socially constructed gender.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, language and gender, gender, Germanic linguistics, grammatical gender, German, Dutch, English

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Authors: Judith Hanke

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Due to the increase of students with reading difficulties, digital reading support with diagnostics was developed to foster the individual student's reading comprehension. The digital reading support focused on the reading comprehension of elementary school students. The digital reading packages consist of literary texts with aligned reading exercises. The number of students with German as a second language is growing in Germany. Students with multilingualism, language 1, and language 2 learn German together in school. The research's focus is on determining whether and to what extent multilingualism, language 1, and language 2 affect reading comprehension. For the methodology, an ABA design was selected for the intervention study to examine the reading support. The study was expedited from April 2023 until July 2023 and collected quantitative data of individuals, groups, and classes. It comprised a survey group (N = 58) and a control group (N = 53). The quantitative data was collected from 3 classes of 3 teachers and 47 students for all three test times. To show differences between the groups, a standardized reading comprehension test was used for the three test times, pretest, posttest, and follow-up. The standardized test consists of three subtests regarding word comprehension, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension. The main findings include that students who spoke German as their first language had the best test scores. Interestingly, students with a different language had better testing scores than students with German as the first language and (an) other language/s. Also, the students with another language outperformed the native language speakers in one of the subtests of the post-testing. The variables of spoken language at home and German as a second language were also examined and correlated with the test results. One significant correlation was found between spoken language at home and the text comprehension test of the pretesting. Additionally, the variable German as a second language had multiple significant correlations in the pretest, posttest and follow-up. The study's significance is to understand the influence of several languages, language 1, and language 2, on reading comprehension.

Keywords: multilingualism, language 1, language 2, reading comprehension, second language

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Authors: J. Gochermann

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German energy market is under historical change. Turning-off the nuclear power plants and intensive subsidization of the renewable energies causes a paradigm change from big central energy production and distribution to more local structures, bringing the energy production near to the consumption. The formerly big energy market with only a few big energy plants and grid operating companies is changing into a disperse market with growing numbers of small and medium size companies (SME) generating new value-added products and services. This change in then energy market, in Germany called the “Energiewende”, inverts also the previous innovation system. Big power plants and large grids required also big operating companies. Innovations in the energy market focused mainly on big projects and complex energy technologies. Innovation in the new energy market structure is much more dispersed. Increasing number of SME is now able to develop energy production and storage technologies, smart technologies to control the grids, and numerous new energy related services. Innovation is now regional distributed, which is a remarkable problem for the old big energy companies. The paper will explain the change in the German energy market and the paradigm change as well as the consequences for the innovation structure in the German energy market. It will show examples how SME participate from this change and how innovation systems, as well for the big companies and for SME, can be adapted.

Keywords: changing energy markets, disperse innovation, new value-added products and services, SME

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Authors: Omotayo Olalere

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The relevance of code-switching for intercultural communication through literary translation cannot be overemphasized. The translation of code-switching and its implications for translations studies have been studied in the context of African literature. In these cases, code-switching was examined in the more general terms of its usage in source text and not particularly in Ngugi’s novels and its translations. In addition, the functions of translation and code-switching in the lyrics of some popular African songs have been studied, but this study is related more with oral performance than with written literature. As such, little has been done on the German translation of code-switching in African works. This study intends to fill this lacuna by examining the concept of code-switching in the German translations in Ngugi’s Petals of Blood. The aim is to highlight the significance of code-switching as a phenomenon in this African (Ngugi’s) novel written in English and to also focus on its representation in the two German translations. The target texts to be used are Verbrannte Blueten and Land der flammenden Blueten. “Abrogration“ as a concept will play an important role in the analysis of the data. Findings will show that the ideology of a translator plays a huge role in representing the concept of “abrogration” in the translation of code-switching in the selected source text. The study will contribute to knowledge in translation studies by bringing to limelight the need to foreground aspects of language contact in translation theory and practice, particularly in the African context. Relevant translation theories adopted for the study include Bandia’s (2008) postcolonial theory of translation and Snell-Hornby”s (1988) cultural translation theory.

Keywords: code switching, german translation, ngugi wa thiong’o, petals of blood

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Authors: Felix Boehnisch, Alexander Lutz

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Based on the number of users and the amount of content posted daily, Facebook is considered the largest social network in the world. This content includes images or text posts from companies but also private persons, which are also commented on by other users. However, it can sometimes be difficult for companies to keep track of all the posts and the reactions to them, especially when there are several posts a day that contain hundreds to thousands of comments. To facilitate this, the following paper deals with the possible applications of sentiment analysis to social media comments in order to be able to support the work in social media marketing. In a first step, post comments were divided into positive and negative by a subjective rating, then the same comments were checked for their polarity value by the two german python libraries TextBlobDE and SentiWS and also grouped into positive, negative, or even neutral. As a control, the subjective classifications were compared with the machine-generated ones by a confusion matrix, and relevant quality criteria were determined. The accuracy of both libraries was not really meaningful, with 60% to 66%. However, many words or sentences were not evaluated at all, so there seems to be room for optimization to possibly get more accurate results. In future studies, the use of these specific German libraries can be optimized to gain better insights by either applying them to stricter cleaned data or by adding a sentiment value to emojis, which have been removed from the comments in advance, as they are not contained in the libraries.

Keywords: Facebook, German libraries, polarity, sentiment analysis, social media comments

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Authors: Stefana Francisca Lupu, Jasmin Chantah, Mara Krone, Ingo Roden, Stephan Bongard, Gunter Kreutz

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Long-term music interventions could enhance both musical and nonmusical skills. The present study was designed to explore cognitive, socio-emotional, and musical development in a longitudinal setting. Third-graders (N = 184: 87 male, 97 female; mean age = 8.61 years; 115 native German and 69 migrant children) were randomly assigned to two intervention groups (music and maths) and a control group over a period of one school-year. At baseline, children in these groups were similar in basic cognitive skills, with a trend of advantage in the control group. Dependent measures included the culture fair intelligence test CFT 20-R; the questionnaire of emotional and social school experience for grade 3 and 4 (FEESS 3-4), the test of resources in childhood and adolescence (FRKJ 8-16), the test of language proficiency for German native and non-native primary school children (SFD 3), the reading comprehension test (ELFE 1-6), the German math test (DEMAT 3+) and the intermediate measures of music audiation (IMMA). Data were collected two times at the beginning (T1) and at the end of the school year (T2). A third measurement (T3) followed after a six months retention period. Data from baseline and post-intervention measurements are currently being analyzed. Preliminary results of all three measurements will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: musical training, primary-school German and migrant children, socio-emotional skills, transfer

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Authors: Christopher Dick

Abstract:

While the translation of 'literal language' poses numerous challenges for the translator, the translation of 'figurative language' creates even more complicated issues. It has been only in the last several decades that scholars have attempted to propose theories of figurative language translation, including metaphor translation. Even less work has applied these theories to metaphoric translation in literary texts. And almost no work has linked an analysis of metaphors in translation with the recent scholarship on conceptual metaphors. A study of literature in translation must not only examine the inevitable shifts that occur as specific metaphors move from source language to target language but also analyze the ways in which these shifts impact conceptual metaphors and, ultimately, the text as a whole. Doing so contributes to on-going efforts to bridge the sometimes wide gulf between considerations of content and form in literary studies. This paper attempts to add to the body of scholarly literature on metaphor translation and the function of metaphor in a literary text. Specifically, the study examines the metaphoric expressions in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. First, the issue of Hemingway and metaphor is addressed. Next, the study examines the specific metaphors in the original novel in English and the German translations, first in Annemarie Horschitz’s 1928 German version and then in the recent Werner Schmitz 2013 translation. Hemingway’s metaphors, far from being random occurrences of figurative language, are linguistic manifestations of deeper conceptual metaphors that are central to an interpretation of the text. By examining the modifications that are made to these original metaphoric expressions as they are translated into German, one can begin to appreciate the shifts involved with metaphor translation. The translation of Hemingway’s metaphors into German represents significant metaphoric loss and shifting that subsequently shakes the important conceptual metaphors in the novel.

Keywords: Hemingway, Conceptual Metaphor, Translation, Stylistics

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Authors: Vhuhwavho Gadisi, Rebecca Alowo, German Nkhonjera

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This article sets out to detail an investigation of groundwater management in the Juksei Catchment of South Africa through spatial mapping of key hydrological relationships, interactions, and parameters in catchments. The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) noted gaps in the implementation of the South African National Water Act 1998: article 16, including the lack of appropriate models for dealing with water quantity parameters. For this reason, this research conducted a drastic GIS-based groundwater assessment to improve groundwater monitoring system in the Juksei River basin catchment of South Africa. The methodology employed was a mixed-methods approach/design that involved the use of DRASTIC analysis, questionnaire, literature review and observations to gather information on how to help people who use the Juskei River. GIS (geographical information system) mapping was carried out using a three-parameter DRASTIC (Depth to water, Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of the vadose zone, Hydraulic conductivity) vulnerability methodology. In addition, the developed vulnerability map was subjected to sensitivity analysis as a validation method. This approach included single-parameter sensitivity, sensitivity to map deletion, and correlation analysis of DRASTIC parameters. The findings were that approximately 5.7% (45km2) of the area in the northern part of the Juksei watershed is highly vulnerable. Approximately 53.6% (428.8 km^2) of the basin is also at high risk of groundwater contamination. This area is mainly located in the central, north-eastern, and western areas of the sub-basin. The medium and low vulnerability classes cover approximately 18.1% (144.8 km2) and 21.7% (168 km2) of the Jukskei River, respectively. The shallow groundwater of the Jukskei River belongs to a very vulnerable area. Sensitivity analysis indicated that water depth, water recharge, aquifer environment, soil, and topography were the main factors contributing to the vulnerability assessment. The conclusion is that the final vulnerability map indicates that the Juksei catchment is highly susceptible to pollution, and therefore, protective measures are needed for sustainable management of groundwater resources in the study area.

Keywords: contamination, DRASTIC, groundwater, vulnerability, model

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Authors: Legkikh Victoria

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The purpose of keeping bi/multilingualism is usually a way to let the child speak two/three languages at the same level. The main problem which normally appears is a mixed language or a domination of one language. The same level of two or more languages would be ideal but practically not easily reachable. So it was made an experiment with a girl with a natural multilingualism as an attempt to avoid a dominant language in the preschool age. The girl lives in Germany and the main languages for her are Italian, Russian and German but she also hears every day English. ‘One parent – one language’ strategy was used since the beginning so Italian and Russian were spoken to her since her birth, English was spoken between the parents and when she was 1,5 it was added German as a language of a nursery. In order to avoid a dominant language, she was always put in international groups with activity in different languages. Even if it was not possible to avoid an interference of languages in this case we can talk not only about natural multilingualism but also about balanced bilingualism in preschool time. The languages have been developing in parallel with different accents in a different period. Now at the age of 6 we can see natural horizontal multilingualism Russian/Italian/German/English. At the moment, her Russian/Italian bilingualism is balanced. German vocabulary is less but the language is active and English is receptive. We can also see a reciprocal interference of all the three languages (English is receptive so the simple phrases are normally said correctly but they are not enough to judge the level of language interference and it is not noticed any ‘English’ mistakes in other languages). After analysis of the state of every language, we can see as a positive and negative result of the experiment. As a positive result we can see that in the age of 6 the girl does not refuse any language, three languages are active, she differentiate languages and even if she says a word from another language she notifies that it is not a correct word, and the most important are the fact, that she does not have a preferred language. As a prove of the last statement it is to be noticed not only her self-identification as ‘half Russian and half Italian’ but also an answer to the question about her ‘mother tongue’: ‘I do not know, probably, when I have my own children I will speak one day Russian and one day Italian and sometimes German’. As a negative result, we can notice that not only a development of all the three languages are a little bit slower than it is supposed for her age but since she does not have a dominating language she also does not have a ‘perfect’ language and the interference is reciprocal. In any case, the experiment shows that it is possible to keep at least two languages without a preference in a pre-school multilingual space.

Keywords: balanced bilingualism, language interference, natural multilingualism, preschool multilingual education

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Authors: Paul Gurr, Maik Moser

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In Europe, some countries recently abolished air passenger taxes (APT), while others issued or consider issuing an APT. From a fiscal perspective, APT can benefit the environment, while generating a vast amount of tax revenue with relatively low administration costs. However, they may have significant negative effects on the economy. Focusing on the German air passenger tax issued 2011, this work estimates the elasticity of tourism outflows using data on passenger departures from German airports between 2010 and 2016 aggregated by destination country. The results are obtained by estimating a model of the demand for outbound tourism. In line with theory, the regression results indicate a negative relationship between taxes and departures from Germany. Furthermore, on average, an increase of the air passenger tax rate results in a relatively higher decrease of passenger departures. The elasticity of tourism outflows can be used to estimate tax revenue changes and hence evaluate possible policy actions. Neglecting environmental reasons, the results suggest that tax revenue might be maximized by reducing the air passenger tax rate. Besides Germany, this work is also important for countries which have or consider implementing APT.

Keywords: air passenger tax, Germany, Outbound tourism, panel data

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Authors: Violetta Cataldo, Renata Savy, Simona Sbranna

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Background: Foreign Language Learning (FLL) is characterised by prosodic transfer phenomena regarding pitch accents placement, intonation patterns, and pitch range excursion from the learners’ mother tongue to their Foreign Language (FL) which suggests that the gradual development of general linguistic competence in FL does not imply an equally correspondent improvement of the prosodic competence. Topic: The present study aims to monitor the development of prosodic competence of learners of Italian and German throughout the FLL process. The primary object of this study is to investigate the intonational features and the f₀ range excursion of Italian and German from a cross-linguistic perspective; analyses of native speakers’ productions point out the differences between this pair of languages and provide models for the Target Language (TL). A following crosscheck compares the L2 productions in Italian and German by non-native speakers to the Target Language models, in order to verify the occurrence of prosodic interference phenomena, i.e., type, degree, and modalities. Methodology: The subjects of the research are university students belonging to two groups: Italian native speakers learning German as FL and German native speakers learning Italian as FL. Both of them have been divided into three subgroups according to the FL proficiency level (beginners, intermediate, advanced). The dataset consists of wh-questions placed in situational contexts uttered in both speakers’ L1 and FL. Using a phonetic approach, analyses have considered three domains of intonational contours (Initial Profile, Nuclear Accent, and Terminal Contour) and two dimensions of the f₀ range parameter (span and level), which provide a basis for comparison between L1 and L2 productions. Findings: Results highlight a strong presence of prosodic transfer phenomena affecting L2 productions in the majority of both Italian and German learners, irrespective of their FL proficiency level; the transfer concerns all the three domains of the contour taken into account, although with different modalities and characteristics. Currently, L2 productions of German learners show a pitch span compression on the domain of the Terminal Contour compared to their L1 towards the TL; furthermore, German learners tend to use lower pitch range values in deviation from their L1 when improving their general linguistic competence in Italian FL proficiency level. Results regarding pitch range span and level in L2 productions by Italian learners are still in progress. At present, they show a similar tendency to expand the pitch span and to raise the pitch level, which also reveals a deviation from the L1 possibly in the direction of German TL. Conclusion: Intonational features seem to be 'resistant' parameters to which learners appear not to be particularly sensitive. By contrast, they show a certain sensitiveness to FL pitch range dimensions. Making clear which the most resistant and the most sensitive parameters are when learning FL prosody could lay groundwork for the development of prosodic trainings thanks to which learners could finally acquire a clear and natural pronunciation and intonation.

Keywords: foreign language learning, German, Italian, L2 prosody, pitch range, transfer

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Authors: Elvira Loibl

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In Western countries, the demand for adoptable children, especially healthy babies, has been considerably high for several years. Rising infertility rates, liberal abortion politics, the widespread use of contraception, and the increasing acceptance of unmarried motherhood are factors that have decreased the number of infants available for domestic adoption in the U.S. and Europe. As a consequence, many involuntarily childless couples turn to intercountry adoption as a viable alternative to have a child of their own. However, the demand for children far outpaces the supply of orphans with the desired characteristics. The imbalance between the number of prospective adopters and the children available for intercountry adoption results in long waiting lists and high prices. The inordinate sums of money involved in the international adoption system have created a commercial ‘underbelly’ where unethical and illicit practices are employed to provide the adoption market with adoptable children. Children are being purchased or abducted from their families, hospitals or child care institutions and then trafficked to receiving countries as ‘orphans’. This paper aims to uncover and explain the factors of the German adoption system that are conducive to child trafficking for adoption purposes. It explains that the tension between money and integrity as experienced by German adoption agencies, blind trust in the authorities in the sending countries as well as a lenient control system encourage and facilitate the trafficking in children to Germany.

Keywords: child trafficking, intercountry adoption, market in adoptable babies, German adoption system

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Authors: Ioannis Souris

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In this paper, we would like to present how we taught German through playwriting and analyze the usefulness of this method for teaching languages and cultivating a sense of political agency in students and teachers alike. Last academic year, we worked at the German Saturday School in Greenwich, London. This school offers Saturday German lessons to children whose parents are German, living in London. The lessons are two hours long, and the children’s level of German varies according to how often or how much German is spoken at home or how often the families visit Germany (as well as other factors which will be discussed in more detail in the paper). The directors of the school provide teachers with learning material and course books, but they strongly encourage individual input on lesson structure and methods of teaching German. The class we taught consisted of six eight-to-nine-year-olds. Midway into the academic year, we ran out of teaching material, and we, therefore, decided to write a play. In the paper, we would like to explore the process we followed in creating or writing this play and how this encouraged the children to collaborate and exercise their skills in writing, storytelling, speaking, and opinion-sharing. We want to examine the impact this project had on the children who wrote and performed the play, the wider community of the Saturday school, and the development of our language teaching practice. We found, for instance, that some students, who were quiet or shy, became very open and outspoken in the process of writing and performing the play. They took the initiative and led the process, putting us, their teachers, in the role of simple observers or facilitators. When we showed the play in front of the school, the other children and teachers, as audience members, also became part of the process as they commented on the plot, language, and characters and gave feedback on further development. In the paper, we will discuss how this teaching project fits into recent developments in the research of creativity and the teaching of languages and how engagement with creative approaches to teaching has the potential to question and subvert traditional notions of ‘lesson’, ‘teacher’, and ‘student’. From the moment a questioning of norms takes place, we inadvertently raise questions about politics, agency, and resistance. We will conclude the paper with a definition of what we mean by ‘political agency’ within the context of our teaching project and education, in general, and why inspiring creativity and imagination within teaching can be considered a political act. Finally, our aim in this paper will be to propose the possibility of analyzing teaching languages through creativity and political agency theories.

Keywords: innovation in language teaching and learning, language acquisition and learning, language curriculum development, language education

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