Plural variation in L1 and early L2 acquisition of German: social, dialectal and methodological factors

Abstract

Due to high variation and competition of different potential forms, German noun plural formation is known to be challenging for children acquiring German as their first or second language. In order to disentangle linguistic, social and methodological factors, we investigate the acquisition of German noun plurals in 56 kindergarten children living in Vienna (Austria) at four data points from mean ages 3;1 to 4;8. The groups of children were balanced for socio-economic status, language background and gender. We use two different methodologies: (1) a picture-based plural elicitation test in which the plural is formed on the basis of a singular given by the experimenter, (2) spontaneous production data in kindergarten settings. Results demonstrate effects of linguistic background, socio-economic status and methodology: Monolingual high SES children score highest in both settings, but the SES and language gap is greater in the test than in spontaneous speech. If dialect forms are treated as correct plurals, the effects of SES and language background are slightly attenuated. We argue for the use of mixed-methods designs in research projects in order to get a comprehensive picture of children’s linguistic proficiencies, especially when investigating vulnerable populations.

Keywords

• German
• plural
• language acquisition
• methodology
• usage-based theory