Question 1:
For me as a future High school teacher this article was very interesting and helpful. Her practical examples showed where and why problems can occur and how a professional teacher should deal with them. The kind of school I’m going to teach at in Germany is attended by many Turkish students. They have established their own kind of German which marks them off from “German Germans”. Although among teenagers their ‘slang’ is totally hip and accepted, they will have trouble in professional life. For me as a teacher it is important to accept their style of language to a certain degree, however as soon as it comes to writing essays, they just have to be able to use proper German. I am especially concerned about figuring out an appropriate borderline: to what degree is ‘slang’ acceptable and when do you cross the border? I think this is very hard to find out and then even harder to explain to students.
6 Comments:
I wonder why it is that writing is more formal than speaking? Usually, it is not a huge problem to use incorrect grammar and slang in speaking. In writing, however, perfection is expected. Is this related to the fact that writers have more time to carefully shape their language, instead of having to improvise on the spot? Further, is the degree of perfection that is expected in German similar to the degree of perfection expected in English?
Keeping background and cultural aspects of students in mind is definitely a good perspective to have when teaching students of various cultures. I agree that when speaking, it is less formal and therefore slang is acceptable, but when it comes to writing, proper grammar is of the utmost importance. I believe it will serve your students well to be able to write properly. As for the borderline, in my opinion, slang is not really acceptable in formal writing unless it is intentional, trying to serve a purpose or create a mood.
It is so important for your future students to be able to communicate effectively. It will help them for the rest of their lives.Do you think they will respond better to explicit or more indirect instructions?
I'd say the biggest borderline between 'slang' and other forms of communication in language is professionalism. Professionalism, for me, is usually the time when I need to get serious and cut the 'slang' from the vocabulary. It doesn't matter if it is writing or speech, professionalism can be conveyed either way. In addition, it all comes back to the idea of audience. We need to be able to adjust our vocabularies and language to accomidate our needs and the needs of others.
I think that whenever you write something, it is expected that it will be read with a closer focus than it would have been if merely heard. Somebody said that there is time to slow down when writing, and I think that helps perpetuate these expectations, but might not be the reason for it.
I think the purpose of writing something down is to either cement an idea you had tossed about in your head or aloud, or to present something, in which case you want the idea to be the sole focus, and so you must adhere to the common grammar so that your audience isn't constantly having to translate your words into ideas.
I think you make an important point here. Language is constantly shifting and evolving. It is difficult as a teacher to keep up with it and it is even more difficult to educate students so that they can use "proper" language in their professional life. You have to be on the cutting edge of pop language so that you can relate to the students while at the same time give the students a good background in proper linguistics. It's tough.
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