LL-L "Language learning" 2010.09.23 (03) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 23 September 2010 - Volume 03
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Language learning



Jonny, you wrote:



even 20 years after the reunion between East and West Germany still is
splitted in two parts as far as English is concerned:

http://www.zeit.de/2010/36/S-Englisch



In special the (Upper) Saxon pupils with their special, exceptional dialect
seem to have great difficulties to learn English, though the standard of
their schools is aspected to be high in the internal German ranking system.



I would like to know if things are running better in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
our Hanne's homeland and the most northern province of the former German
Democratic Republic (until A.D. 1990 "Eastern Germany", behind the Iron
Curtain). Is the influence of Low Saxon still strong enough to make it
easier for the people over there to learn English, as it in my youth had
been in comparison between the North and South of (Western-)Germany?



If in this regard there is indeed a difference between students inside and
outside the original Low-Saxon-speaking area, you first need to find out if
this has anything to do with exposure to Low Saxon specifically or with
bilingualism more generally.

People that already know a language other than their main one, even if they
are not fluent in but are at least exposed to it, tend to have an easier
time learning further languages, including those that are not closely
related to the languages they already knew.

What would be relevant is finding out if students that grew up with Upper
Sorbian have an easier time learning English than do other students in the
state of Saxony. Similarly, it would be interesting to see if all over
Germany those students have an easier time that grew up with Turkish,
Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi and other immigrant languages.

Then, *if* there is indeed something special about students with Low Saxon
background you can move on to seeing if it has anything to do with that
language in particular. Then you would also need to look at North German
students that grew up with Frisian or Danish.


Regards,
Reinhard/Ron



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