Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes (Mar 2014)
HUNSRIK LËRNE ‘HUNSRÜCKISCH LERNEN’. DIALEKTUNTERRICHT IN DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHINSEL SÜDBRASILIENS
Abstract
The didactic description of the language islands has been very little noticed in research so far. The literature concerning the German didactics in that field must be seen as poor. Especially the speakers of German as a minority language outside of Europe, as the Hunsrik (Hunsrückisch) in Southern Brazil, get hardly recognized. The main focus of this article lies on this dialect enclave. The theoretic perspectives as well as the empiric ones, try to get to the bottom of the major aspects of teaching methodologies of minority languages. The aim of this paper is to portray the sociolinguistic context of the Hunsrik, focalizing on its usage amongst childrengrowing up in a bilingual environment. Secondly it pictures possibilities how German as a dialectal minority language can be integrated in school. For this purpose the experiences of Project “Hunsrik” from Santa Maria do Herval were taken into account. Before the detailed description of the situation of Hunsrik in an educational environment, the introducing chapters give a short overview of this German variety. Further on the reasons for the decrease of competence and frequency of usage of the dialect in German minorities are discussed, considering especially the situation of language islands overseas. The aspect of bilingualism, which is considered to be a constitutional part of members of a linguistic enclave, is taken into account. The third chapter discusses the advantages of language courses for members of German dialect language islands. The purpose and the content of teaching the mother tongue of members of language islands are highlighted in this chapter. The aims of teaching the first language in an educational environment are the propagation of the variety, the empowerment of minorities and the transmission of cultural identity of linguistic enclaves and of their original homeland. The following chapter presents the materials that were published by the team “Hunsrik” so far. They can be seen as an important contribution to the propagation of that variety and the empowerment of its speakers.
