“Aber”, “weil”, “da” and “also”: these tiny words in a piece of academic writing can reveal the author’s first language. “Dutch first language speakers writing in German rely on connectives in ways that show how their first language subtly shapes cohesion in a foreign language,” says Helena Wedig (TricS). Insights on these writing patterns could help improve language teaching and assessment. (Text: Helena Wedig)
Although Dutch and German are closely related, the question of whether Dutch as a first language helps to acquire German remained unanswered. Helena Wedig has taken part in the quest for the answer by specifically looking into connectives, the words or phrases that link sentences or clauses together. For her doctoral research at the Department of Translators and Interpreters, she examined the influence of Dutch on the use of connectives in academic German texts.
Marking connections explicitly
In the study, Helena compared the use of connectives in texts of three groups: German learners with Dutch as their first language, first language German speakers, and German learners with other language backgrounds. Her focus was on the Dutch speakers, who turned out to use connectives in German slightly more frequent than first language German writers. “I found that writers with Dutch as their first language tend to be more explicit,” Helena says. “In comparison to writers with German as a first language, more often they used coordinating connectives such as “und” to merge two grammatically independent sentences into one.”
Viele glauben, die Verwendung [des Dialekts] führe zu schlechten Hochdeutsch-kompetenzen in der Schule und außerdem benutzen Jugendliche ihn öfter auch in der geschriebenen Sprache.
Many believe that the use of [dialect] leads to poor High German skills at school *and* additionally young people use it more often in written language.
Relying on Dutch strategies
The study also uncovered patterns in the connectives preferred by German writers with Dutch as a first language. “Dutch writers were more likely to use words like ‘aber’ (but) and ‘also’ (thus) compared to other writers,” Helena says. “What stood out most was their strong preference for ‘weil’ over ‘da’ (both meaning ‘because’). This could be linked to the more common use of the Dutch equivalents ‘omdat’ instead of ‘daar’, which might make ‘weil’ feel like a natural choice.”
• Trotzdem gibt es Personen, die gegen Kiezdeutsch kämpfen, weil sie meinen es verderbt die deutsche Sprache.
• Nevertheless, there are people who fight against Kiezdeutsch because they believe it spoils the German language.
• Da die deutschen Wörter ohne Varianten nicht im Wörterbuch stehen, handelt es sich nicht um ein vollständiges Wörterbuch.
• As the German words without variants are not in the dictionary, it is not a complete dictionary.
Helpful in language teaching
Understanding this influence of Dutch as a first language on learning German is valuable in language teaching. When learners are aware of similarities and differences between the two languages, they can use this knowledge to improve their writing and overall language skills.
Contact
Helena Wedig – helena.wedig@uantwerpen.be