Textbooks, norm, deviation, comprehensibility

In dem Beitrag wird untersucht, wie sich DaF-Lehrwerke mit der Norm und deren Abweichungen bzw. Besonderheiten der Sprache auseinandersetzen. Die Autorin konzentriert sich vor allem darauf, welche sprachlichen Erscheinungen als abweichend bzw. peripher thematisiert werden, auf welche Weise und an welchen Beispielen sie den Studierenden verständlich vermittelt und wie sie geübt werden können.

Learning a foreign language should not just mean learning the standard codified form of the language, but also acquiring knowledge of the living language from all possible perspectives - including various deviations from the norm, non-standardforms, and tendencies in the language´s development. Textbooks play an important role in this process, though not the only role. This research into German as a foreign language focused on the extent to which textbooks incorporate these elements of the language and how these elements are presented in terms of comprehensibility. Four textbooks were analyzed; all are designed for beginners at secondary school level. A relatively broad concept of "norm" was applied in the analysis. Besides exploring the presentation of deviations from the norm, the analysis of selected examples showed how the textbooks explain irregularities in the language, which in a sense also represent a form of deviation from the "norm" that is communicated to beginners at the outset. The analysis also observed which elements of a selected topic were included in the textbook and which were omitted - i.e. what is considered central and what is considered peripheral for the given topic and the given level of students´ proficiency. The textbooks were then compared with each other in terms of the above-listed parameters.