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The German school system employs centrally organized performance assessments (some of which are called "VERA") as a way of promoting lesson development. In recent years, several German federal states introduced a computer-based performance testing system which will replace the paper-pencil testing system in the future. Scores from computer-based testing are required to be equivalent to paper-pencil testing scores so that the new testing medium does not lead to disadvantages for students. Therefore, the current study aimed at investigating the size of the mode effect and the moderating impact of students' gender, academic achievement and mainly spoken language in everyday life. In addition, the variance of the mode effect across tasks was investigated. The study was conducted in four German federal states in 2019 using a field experimental design. The test scores of 5140 eighth-graders from 165 schools in the subject German were analysed. The results of multi-level modelling revealed that students' test scores in the computerized version of the VERA test were significantly lower than in the paper-pencil version. Students with a lower academic achievement were more disadvantaged by the VERA computerized test. The results were inconsistent regarding the interactions between testing mode and students' gender and mainly spoken language in everyday life. The variance of the mode effect across tasks was high. Research into different subjects and in other federal states and countries under different testing conditions might yield further evidence about the generalizability of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of the paper is to offer a personal view on the development of documentation/information and documentation (IuD) in Germany, while pointing out the need to further investigate the specific features of its development paths. The methodology is based on critical review of the available literature sources in the German language. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses the method of critical review of published documents in journals (especially in Nachrichten für Dokumentation), books and reports of state and provincial administrations that are directly related to monitoring and/or encouraging the development of the young field of documentation. Findings: The paper offers a review and interpretation of the most significant development phases, the contributions of individuals and the influence of the official state and information policy based on the consulted sources. Research limitations/implications: This research is limited to the literature written in German language. Practical implications: The paper could be of interest to researchers and professionals who are interested in the development of documentation. Social implications: The paper covers the period after the World War II until the end of 1980s that is especially interesting from the social point of view in divided Germany. Originality/value: To the author's knowledge, there is no comprehensive history of documentation in German-speaking countries written in English. This paper is the result of a research project started three years ago with colleagues from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, that aims to cover all phases of the appearance and development of information science in German-speaking countries and could be understood as a kind of introduction to papers planned to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the initial experience of a mixed-aged group of newly arrived Ukrainian children and their new Ukrainian teacher at a school in Germany. To assess the efficiency of the first four months of the transition period and to outline the recommendations for the further steps in teaching the Ukrainian asylum seekers a mixed method study including qualitative and quantitative analysis was applied. Interviews with the acting Ukrainian teacher, her reflective analysis of the observations of her group of 26 Ukrainian children aged 11-16, indirect feedback collected from the local teachers involved in working with the learners, as well as the answers to two mixed anonymous questionnaires conducted on the twenty learners who consented to participate were used to collect data on the interim outcomes of the transition period. In-class interaction and communication with the teacher, along with the desire to socialize and make new interpersonal connections, were among the most significant factors in fostering positive experiences and engagement for children in school. Learners mentioned up to six subjects lacking in their German schools, with mathematics being the most frequently cited, some students desired additional language classes, including Ukrainian, English, and German. The organization of the initial fourmonth-long stage of the transition period has served the purpose of providing young asylum seekers with sufficient psychological support and an opportunity to get back to normal life. In the upcoming academic year, it is urgent to establish clear academic expectations, avoid treating children as overly special, and prioritize their integration into society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Interkulturelle Germanistik is the property of Transcript Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Taiwan Law Review is the property of Angle Publishing Co., Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Info DaF: Informationen Deutsch als Fremdsprache is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In medical studies, pharmacology is a subject with a high teaching and study load. The COVID-19 pandemic–related switch to distance learning implies challenges for students and teachers. To identify changes of behavior, attitudes, and needs among students and teachers in clinical pharmacology during the pandemic, regular surveys were conducted at Ulm University, Germany. Overall, 884 students and 5 teachers answered the survey. Over time, students' usage of learning materials in print form and further literature (textbooks, guidelines) constantly decreased. In turn, most students used digital materials provided via a learning management system. Attitudes and opinions of students and teachers significantly differed regarding (i) the benefit of certain teaching formats and learning materials, (ii) open-mindedness towards e-learning, and (iii) future visions. Most students and lecturers stated that they spent more time on study or teaching-related activities, respectively, and had less contact with fellow students or colleagues in comparison to pre-pandemic times. Furthermore, the subjective teaching load for most lecturers (80%) increased during the pandemic. To identify determinants of learning success, the survey data were correlated with students' gradings in the written exams of clinical pharmacology. In the first online semester (summer term 2020), the use of paper-based learning scripts was correlated with better exam grades. No correlation with grade was found for any other learning materials. Age was inversely correlated with exam grading. Striking a balance between the future visions and needs of students and teachers implies a particular challenge for the educational system of the next years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For some time now, media regulators in Germany and beyond have been trying to cope with the rise of digital intermediaries like social networks and search engines. In this context, the German Network Enforcement Act ('NetzDG') has become the epitome of the concept of new-school speech regulation: the increasing co-optation of intermediaries for governmental content moderation – with all its potential harms to free expression and democratic discourse. Contrary to this trend, however, recent legislative measures in Germany, including the Interstate Media Treaty (IMT), suggest that the country is exploring new avenues in digital intermediary regulation. Not only does the new German legislation focus on procedural instead of substantive aspects of content moderation, offering a case study for concepts promoted by recent literature on platform regulation. By introducing a positive bias for certain 'content of value,' the country also includes the role of beneficial content in its regulation. This paper analyzes the new German countermovement against new-school regulation and presents its potential impact for future regulatory concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tolerance for Ambiguity (TA)--the ability to deal with ambiguous stimuli or situations--represents a central construct for the acceptance of diversity. Although TA can be an important indicator for the functioning of a pluralistic society, it is rarely included in population surveys in Germany, and there are few validated measurement instruments for the German-language area that are suitable for general population surveys. Therefore, this paper proposes a measurement instrument in the German language to address these concerns. This development is based on the English-language Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale (TAS), which is surveyed with 12 items covering four sub-dimensions: valuing diverse others, change, challenging perspectives, and unfamiliarity. These items were translated into German using the TRAPD approach and empirically tested in a three-wave online panel study in Germany (n = 1,370 in each wave). To evaluate the psychometric quality of the translated TAS, validity (factorial and construct validity) and reliability (McDonalds's omega coefficient and test-retest stability) are considered. This article makes at least two contributions. First, it proposes a German-language version of TAS, and second, it tests the scale using a confirmatory approach to factor analysis rather than the exploratory approaches used in previous studies. In summary, the German TAS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring TA in population surveys in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates and deepens our understanding of the wage performance of immigrants in Germany. Using the German Socio‐Economic Panel, it documents that immigrant workers initially earn on average 20% less than native workers with otherwise identical characteristics. The gap is smaller for immigrants from advanced countries, with good German language skills, and with a German degree, and larger for others. The gap declines gradually over time but at a decreasing rate and much faster for more recent cohorts. Less success in obtaining jobs with higher occupational autonomy explains half of the wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of an overview of articles in Info DaF in the 2010 s, this paper aims at tracing the development of research on the education and training of GFL teachers outside of Germany within this decade. It emphasizes the potential of international cooperation in facilitating progress in practice and research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comparatively analyzes strategies of German Jobcenters to bring native and immigrant job seekers into employment. It focuses on clients who receive means-tested basic income for the unemployed, based on data from the Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) from year 2015 to 2020. By way of logistic regression, the study identifies the impact of being an immigrant on the clients' probability of reporting different kinds of offers like job referrals or courses, controlling for a number of other influential factors. The study also looks deeper into the effects of immigrant-specific attributes, such as heterogeneous German language skills. We found that the likelihood of offers by Jobcenters largely depends on the amount of time since immigration. Recent immigrants have the lowest chance of reporting most of the studied measures of active labor market policies. For immigrants having stayed more than 4 years in Germany, however, we do not find a disadvantage, and some measures out of Jobcenters' toolbox are even more often offered to the longer-settled immigrants than to native clients. A possible explanation for the moderately under-average support of recent immigrants in terms of Jobcenters' measures could be an institutional focus on improving German language skills prior to approaching the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotypes, prejudices, hostile images and clichés are different forms of self-images and images of others. This paper establishes stereotypes as a scalable concept to distinguish them from other forms of fixed attributions. It features a comparison of national stereotypes about Germany, the Germans and the German language from a Dutch and Russian perspective and discusses the use of stereotypes in foreign language teaching, which are aimed at culturally reflective learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany introduced with the Network Enforcement Act in 2017 and the Interstate Media Treaty in 2021 a novel approach to platform regulation which goes further than in many other jurisdictions that have few or no or comparable measures in place. The new provisions could be seen as either ambitious or as going too far in meddling with the workings of private online actors. This paper examines the relevant measures in light of the notion of a "militant democracy". Germany has been classified as a militant, democratic state given how its constitution and regulatory frameworks respond to anti-democratic threats. A link can be made between the objective of militant democracy and the German approach to hate speech. The foundation for both is the protection of human dignity, which constitutes an absolute value under the German constitutional law and may not be balanced with other fun-damental rights. Examining the Network Enforcement Act and the Interstate Media Treaty, this paper finds that the classification of Germany as a militant democracy holds true in an online context. These measures are direct responses to novel threats to a fruitful public discourse, to the human dignity of individuals and ultimately to the democratic system at large. In its response to these threats, the German legislator adopts a divided approach towards online platforms, regarding the latter both as a potential 'breeding ground' for online hate, as well as potential allies when it comes to actions against infringements by individuals. This paper will discuss the nuances and challenges of the German approach and draw a comparison with the relevant provisions of current and future EU law, such as the E-Commerce Directive and the Digital Services Act. Despite sharing many of the same objectives, points of (potential) collision between the German and EU approaches are identified. Ultimately, both legislators have identified the need to act against online hate and online threats to a democracy, including a need to provide a stricter framework for platforms. The legislative measures discussed in this paper are some of the first instruments which pursue these goals in the field of platform regulation and oftentimes precision is still lacking in the formulation of relevant provisions. Deutschland hat mit dem Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz im Jahr 2017 und dem Medienstaatsvertrag im Jahr 2021 eine neue Herangehensweise an die Plattformregulierung eingeführt, die weiter geht als in vielen Rechtsordnungen, in welchen keine oder nur wenige vergleichbare Maßnahmen vorhanden sind. Die neuen Vorschriften können entweder als ehrgeizig oder als zu weit gehende Einmischung in die Arbeitsweise privater Online-Akteure angesehen werden. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die entsprechenden Maßnahmen unter dem Gesichtspunkt der „wehrhaften Demokratie". Deutschland wurde, auf Grund der verfassungsrechtlichen und gesetzlichen Bestimmungen zu verfassungsfeindlichen Bedrohungen, als ein solcher wehrhafter, demokratischer Staat bezeichnet. Hier kann ein Zusammenhang zwischen dem Ziel der wehrhaften Demokratie und Vorgehen gegen Hassreden nach deutschem Recht hergestellt werden. Die Grundlage ist jeweils der Schutz der Menschenwürde, welche einen absoluten Wert im deutschen Grundgesetz darstellt und nicht mit anderen Grundrechten abgewogen werden darf. Die Untersuchung des Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetzes und des Medienstaatsvertrags zeigt, dass die Bezeichnung Deutschlands als wehrhafte Demokratie auch im Online-Kontext zutrifft. Diese Maßnahmen sind unmittelbare Reaktionen auf neuartige Bedrohungen für einen fruchtbaren öffentlichen Diskurs, für die Menschenwürde des Einzelnen und letztlich für das demokratische System als Ganzes. In seiner Reaktion auf diese Bedrohungen verfolgt der deutsche Gesetzgeber einen geteilten Ansatz gegenüber Online-Plattformen, indem er diese sowohl als potenziellen „Nährboden" für Online-Hass, als auch als potenzielle Verbündete bei Maßnahmen gegen einzelne Verstöße, ansieht. In diesem Beitrag werden die Nuancen und Herausforderungen des deutschen Ansatzes erörtert und ein Vergleich mit den einschlägigen Bestimmungen des derzeitigen und künftigen EU-Rechts, wie der Richtlinie über den elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr und dem Gesetz über digitale Dienste (DSA), gezogen. Trotz einiger gemeinsamer Ziele werden (po-tenzielle) Konflikte zwischen den deutschen und den EU-Vorschriften aufgezeigt. Letztendlich haben beide Gesetzgeber die Notwendigkeit erkannt, gegen Hass im Netz und antidemokratische Online-Elemente vorzugehen, einschließlich der Notwendigkeit, einen strengeren Rechtsrahmen für Online-Plattformen zu schaffen. Die in diesem Beitrag erörterten gesetzgeberischen Maßnahmen sind einige der ersten Instrumente, welche diese Ziele im Bereich der Plattformregulierung verfolgen, und oft fehlt es den einschlägigen Bestimmungen noch an der notwendigen Präzision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In response to the impending spread of COVID-19, universities worldwide abruptly stopped face-to-face teaching and switched to technology-mediated teaching. As a result, the use of technology in the learning processes of students of different disciplines became essential and the only way to teach, communicate and collaborate for months. In this crisis context, we conducted a longitudinal study in four German universities, in which we collected a total of 875 responses from students of information systems and music and arts at four points in time during the spring–summer 2020 semester. Our study focused on (1) the students' acceptance of technology-mediated learning, (2) any change in this acceptance during the semester and (3) the differences in acceptance between the two disciplines. We applied the Technology Acceptance Model and were able to validate it for the extreme situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. We extended the model with three new variables (time flexibility, learning flexibility and social isolation) that influenced the construct of perceived usefulness. Furthermore, we detected differences between the disciplines and over time. In this paper, we present and discuss our study's results and derive short- and long-term implications for science and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is relatively little research specifically about student understanding of basis. Our ongoing work addresses student understanding of basis from an anti-deficit perspective, which focuses on the resources that students have to make sense of basis using everyday ideas. Using data from a group of women of color in the United States, we previously developed an analytical framework to describe student understanding about basis, including codes related to characteristics of basis vectors and roles of basis vectors in the vector space. In this paper, we utilize the methods of the previous study to further enrich our findings about student understanding of basis. By analyzing interview data from students in Germany, we found that this group of students most often used ideas that we describe by the roles generating, structuring, and traveling, and the characteristics different and essential. Some of the themes that emerged from the data illustrate common pairings of these ideas, students' flexibility in interpreting multiple roles within one everyday example, and the ways that the roles and characteristics motivate students to create additional examples. We also discuss two ways that differences between the German and English languages were pointed out by students in the interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Lithuanica is the property of Institute of the Lithuanian Language and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: This study focused on Ukrainian refugees and migrants, a population that, with an ongoing war, is expected to grow in Germany. Over 1 million Ukrainians with exceptional legal status and access to public insurance in Germany significantly burden governmental services, especially German healthcare. It is thus essential to facilitate their integration into the healthcare system and ensure its proper usage. Identifying the obstacles Ukrainian refugees and migrants encounter while accessing healthcare services is crucial to ease their integration. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted from February 2023 to April 2023. Thirty semi-structured interviews were performed with Ukrainian migrants and refugees. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, organized, and categorized. Thematic analysis was performed to identify barriers related to the use of German healthcare services. To assess possible differences in the experiences of Ukrainian refugees and migrants, the responses of these two groups for each topic were analysed separately. Results: Ukrainian migrants and refugees experience similar barriers while accessing German healthcare services. Predominantly, language barriers and a lack of understanding of the German healthcare system posed the main barriers in both groups. Additionally, structural challenges, such as differences in referral processes, appointment scheduling, and consultation duration, presented further challenges. Conclusion: This research study emphasizes the importance of addressing cultural and structural barriers to improve healthcare accessibility and utilization for Ukrainian refugees and migrants in Germany to better facilitate their integration into the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss the tenses Doppelperfekt and Plusquamperfekt in spoken High Alemannic and Upper-Rhine Alemannic in south-western Germany with a usage-based approach and a statistical evaluation. I show that both Doppelperfekt and Plusquamperfekt have a past perfect meaning, i. e. they refer to a point of time in the past placed before another point of time in the past. Furthermore, I account for a language change in the timespan from 1974 to 2013 in which the Plusquamperfekt becomes more frequent in relation to the Doppelperfekt. Additionally, I show that speakers use the Doppelperfekt in the old data with both auxiliaries (sein and haben), and in the new data only with the auxiliary haben. In contrast to this, the Plusquamperfekt is used in the old data only with the auxiliary sein, and in the new data with both auxiliaries sein and haben. These results could lead to the conclusion that the Doppelperfekt und Plusquamperfekt cannot exist simultaneously in an equivalent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatian & Comparative Public Administration is the property of Institut za Javnu Upravu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Our paper is based on the Swiss research project 'Interpreting in Medical Settings: Roles, Requirements and Responsibility', which was supported by a grant of the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (KTI) and carried out by an interdisciplinary team comprising medical specialists from the University Hospital of Basel (Marina Sleptsova and colleagues) and interpreting studies/applied linguistics researchers from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) (Gertrud Hofer and colleagues). It explores videotape transcriptions of 12 authentic interpreted conversations between German speaking doctors/medical staff and patients of Turkish or Albanian origin. The analysis finds that culture-specific expressions produced by the patients occur rarely and do not pose any interpreting problems. By contrast, phatic tokens and hedges play an important role in medical personnel's presentation of their interactional, trust building, diagnostic and therapeutic intentions. Although these expressions are essential communication elements geared at building patients' compliance and establishing doctors' safeguards, they are rarely or inconsistently rendered by the interpreters. It is argued that, while medical interpreters may have plausible reasons not to render these expressions, they would still need to be made aware of the significance of such pragmatic aspects of communication in training courses and/or pre-encounter briefings. More generally, empirical research - similar to that on questioning style and questioning techniques - should focus more on the exploration of discourse markers, meta-discourse comments and rapport-building expressions of different types of utterance and discourse practices in healthcare interpreting settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, a German minority in the Czech Republic accounts for only fraction of its once numerous representation. According to the census, the minority amounts to 18,772 members; only very few of them maintain a German language at the level of a native language. According to the latest census, none of the municipalities registers at least 10% of Germans, which would grant this minority some benefits anchored in Czech legal system, such as using the language in communication with the authorities or establishing bilingual names of municipalities. The paper herein examines the attitudes of citizens in the cities in Krušné Hory (Ore Mountains) in Karlovy Vary region vis-à-vis such activities. In three of them which were selected - Abertamy, Pernink, and Horní Blatná - the share of 10% was, actually, exceeded in the years 2001-2011. Yet, the minority there never claimed such rights. The research is both qualitative and quantitative and, besides a questionnaire research, it also contains interviews with the persons of German nationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes debates on animal language in eighteenth-century German philosophy and science. Adopting a history of ideas approach, I explain how the study of animal language became tied to the investigation into the origin and development of language towards the end of the eighteenth century. I argue that for large parts of the eighteenth century, the question of the existence of animal languages was studied within the context of the philosophical question of whether animals possess reason. In Germany, the debate concerning animal reason was influenced by Christian Wolff and was taken up by diverse thinkers such as Winkler, Meier, and Reimarus. I argue that in the second half of the eighteenth century the study of animal language became more loosely related to the question of whether animals possess reason: animal language was studied not only in light of the debate on animal reason but also because it sheds light on the nature of animals, on the differences and similarities between animals and humans, and on the origin and development of language. This systematic study of animal language coincided with the rise of linguistics, anthropology, and biology as independent sciences. • Explains the debate on animal language in eighteenth-century Germany. • Explains the debate on animal reason in eighteenth-century Germany. • Explains how animal language was studied in eighteenth-century anthropology. • Explores animal language and the rise of linguistics, anthropology, and biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pluricentric Research on German by means of a listener judgment experiment. • Interpolation of speech samples between Austrian and German German standard language. • Interpolated samples are perceived as a continuum by Austrian and German listeners. • Listener groups judge the original and interpolated speech as closer to their own respective standard. • Judgments are based more on spectral information than the F0 contour. This article focuses on the perception of standard varieties produced by Austrian and German TV newscasters from the perspective of listeners from both countries, Germany and Austria. Thus, the paper's sociolinguistic scope is located in the pluricentric realm. It assesses (the perception of) standard language variation on fine phonetic levels. In addition to naturally produced stimuli (read sentences), "intermediate" samples were generated by means of a two-step interpolation procedure: First, the symbolic phone sequences were aligned with a Levenshtein-distance algorithm. Second, a phone-level Dynamic-Time-Warping (DTW) algorithm was applied to align the two utterances on a frame level, taking phoneme boundaries into account. Additionally, the spectrum and the fundamental frequency (F0) contour of the utterances was manipulated to be either interpolated or fixed to a given speaker. This procedure allowed for assessing these features' contribution to listeners' judgments of whether a given utterance sounds as if spoken by a speaker from (rather) Germany or (rather) Austria. Results of the judgment task showed that the interpolated samples were perceived in a continuous fashion, similarly by both groups, and with overall greater reliance on spectral than F0 information. These findings suggest that even fine phonetic differences between Standard German from Germany and Austria are recognized and evaluated by listeners from both countries. An overall bias towards perceiving all speech samples as closer to the listeners' own national standard points to a factor of familiarity with one's own and uncertainty towards the 'foreign' standard. The similar degree of this bias indicates that both groups have similar levels of familiarity with their own and uncertainty about the other standard variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that German literary studies was, from its inception, an entirely nationalist and nation‐building endeavor, perhaps the quintessential nationalist project. Among the discipline's foundational premises are its belief in and commitment to a diversity of culturally individuated national communities (rather than one uniform humanity), a non‐hierarchical plurality of vernaculars (rather than classical languages), and historically inflected and culturally expressive aesthetic forms (rather than transhistorically and transregionally valid templates of excellence). Three disciplinary activities of early Germanistik—Germanic historical linguistics, vernacular canon formation, and national literary history—are introduced as key instruments of nationalization. In conclusion, the paper claims that contemporary German Studies in the US, thankfully a reflective and critical enterprise, nonetheless remains institutionally completely dependent on the paradigm of the linguistically and culturally defined nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assess the developmental trajectories by which children approach adult levels of complexity and informativeness in the linguistically and conceptually challenging domain of spatial language. To this end, we look at three types of spatial relations (localization, spontaneous and caused motion) in spontaneous German child speech (age 2;6 to 2;11 and 4;6 to 4;11), and in elicited Frog Story narratives from German child and adult speakers (3-, 5-, 9-year-olds, and adults. Children are generally sensitive to typological preferences. From early on, their productions reflect target-languagespecific lexicalization patterns. Our analyses show that they still approach adult-like levels of information complexity and density only gradually. This concerns the local complexity (structural repertoire for the conceptual slots figure, verb, path/ground), as also established in previous research, but in particular the global complexity, as investigated in this study. Global complexity measures the structural integration of information, or the combinatorial complexity that surfaces at the utterance level. As predicted by usage-based theories, adult-like degrees of informativeness and information density are only reached gradually, although the component parts at the local level are available earlier in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the significant role of scientific knowledge pertaining to public health, the discipline of public health remained outside the centre stage within the pandemic discourse. Against this background, we investigated the role of German public health academics during the pandemic in our study, focusing on their orientations and associated values. Methods: We interviewed 21 public health scholars from Germany and collected 36 documents published by public health scientific societies. We analyzed data by grounded theory and situational mapping. Results: We identified five types of self-images identified among healthcare academics: the scientific study supplier, the expert facing political issues, the restrained scholar, the public informer and the changemaker. The typology yields insights into the multiple dimensions of public health and its role in times of crisis. Conclusions: The findings provide implications to inter- and transdisciplinary interaction and to managing the expectations of public health professionals in relation to crisis management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical literacy (PL) is a lifelong process of developing the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engaging in physical activity throughout life. It is also an important concept for understanding and promoting physical activity in children and adolescents and is becoming a theoretical basis for analysing physical education in schools. One of the best known, well-operationalised assessments of PL is the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy – CAPL-2. The aim of the study was to translate and culturally adapt the CAPL-2 questionnaires in two EU languages, German and Polish. Data from Poland and Germany were combined for this study, with a total sample size of N=802, consisting of 58.6% Polish and 41.4% German students. We used the TRAPD (the Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pre-test and Documentation) approach to translate the CAPL-2 questionnaires. The main results of this study show that the proposed Polish and German versions of the CAPL-2 questionnaires are satisfactory for use in research or for teachers to assess PL in physical education. Our results also indicate better predictive characteristics of the CAPL-2 questionnaires for children who are very close to or who meet the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommendations for health as defined by the WHO. We recommend that adaptations be made that are consistent with the original Canadian version, but which are deeply embedded in the language and culture of the country in question, especially in their wording and terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some twenty years since the reunification of Germany, the cultural and interpersonal communication between eastern and western Germans remains problematic – complicated by oversimplified media representations of the GDR-past that induce an attitude of mistrust towards eastern Germans as well as making them feel unacknowledged. This paper explores the question of German integration post-1989 through an analysis of the documentary series Die Kinder von Golzow (Winfried and Winfried, 1961–2005). The aim is to show how the series, even if marginal in the public memory, offers a cultural meeting ground by narrating the recent past from the perspective of everyday-life. The paper argues that the construction of a political community is not only the result of institutional politics, but also of everyday praxis. In other words, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of integration in the case of the reunification of Germany: on the one hand the acceptance of institutions of the Federal Republic; and on the other the exchange of historical (collective and individual) experiences, since these form the basis of a cultural and mutual acknowledgment of identity and difference among eastern and western Germans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper will give a short outline of the project DDC German. The project is not limited to a mere translation of DDC 22, but aims at the implementation of Dewey in the library networks of the German-language countries. Use of DDC mainly for retrieval purposes, not for shelving, leads to certain new approaches in classifying with Dewey which are described in detail and presented together with the German web service Melvil. Based on the German experience of cooperation and data exchange in the field of verbal indexing, the paper develops some ideas on future Dewey cooperation between European and American libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare health service use (HSU) between migrants and non-migrants in Germany. Methods: Using data from the population-based German National Cohort (NAKO), we compared the HSU of general practitioners, medical specialists, and psychologists/psychiatrists between six migrant groups of different origins with the utilization of nonmigrants. A latent profile analysis (LPA) with a subsequent multinomial regression analysis was conducted to characterize the HSU of different groups. Additionally, separate regression models were calculated. Both analyses aimed to estimate the direct effect of migration background on HSU. Results: In the LPA, the migrant groups showed no relevant differences compared to nonmigrants regarding HSU. In separate analyses, general practitioners and medical specialists were used comparably to slightly more often by first-generation migrants from Eastern Europe, Turkey, and resettlers. In contrast, the use of psychologists/psychiatrists was substantially lower among those groups. Second-generation migrants and migrants from Western countries showed no differences in their HSU compared to non-migrants. Conclusion: We observed a low mental HSU among specific migrant groups in Germany. This indicates the existence of barriers among those groups that need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) proposed by Kroll and Stewart has been one of the most influential models of late multilingual language processing. While the model has provided valuable insights into language processing mechanisms, the role of contextual factors for the RHM has not been investigated to date. Such contextual effects could be manifold, including individual speakers' language profiles (such as age of acquisition, proficiency, and immersion experiences), experimental factors (such as different instruction languages), and environmental factors (such as societal language(s)). Additionally, it also appears promising to investigate the applicability of the RHM to non-native multilingual speakers from diverse backgrounds. To investigate whether some of the mentioned contextual factors affect non-native language processing, we designed three online experiments requiring answers in German and English, but tested speakers whose first language was neither German nor English. They performed a series of translation, picture-naming, and recall tasks based on Kroll and Stewart, as well as providing detailed information on their proficiencies, profiles of language use, and exposure. Experiment 1, conducted with speakers living in Germany, established the paradigm and investigated the role of individual differences in linguistic background. While Experiment 2 focused on the short-term effects of the experimental context by varying whether instructions were provided in German or in English, Experiment 3 examined the longer-term role of the current language environment by comparing individuals living in German-speaking countries with speakers living in societies where neither experimental language is spoken regularly. As in Kroll and Stewart, both the response language and the list type constituted key variables affecting response times and accuracy, known as language asymmetry and category interference. Importantly, the strength of this asymmetry was affected by participants' immersion experiences, suggesting a certain dynamic development in multilingual language processing. In addition, context also seemed to play a role for experimental performance, especially the language environment examined in Experiment 3. Hence, speakers' individual linguistic backgrounds and experience with the experimental languages, as well as additional contextual factors, need to be considered when conducting multilingual experiments and drawing conclusions about multilinguistic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the structure and emergence of a new construction in German, the wie-X- ist-das-denn! exclamative (roughly corresponding to 'How X is that!'), usually with X being an evaluative adjective. A quantitative and qualitative investigation based on the DeReKo (German reference corpus) shows that the construction is spreading also in written German. It also reveals a clear prototype with little variation (the latter affecting the placement and use of the modal question particle denn, the use of other pronouns than das, and the use of non-evaluative adjectives in the X position). On the basis of a discussion of the construction's relationship to various neighbouring constructions it is shown that it strongly resembles the German leading question construction, but differs from the latter above all in invariably placing the nuclear accent on the demonstrative das. It is argued that the most plausible origin of the new construction therefore is a blend of the leading question construction with the prosodic exclamative construction, which has led to the cancellation of the implicature inherent in leading questions. While in leading questions, the implicature is that the proposition contained in it is wrong, the new exclamative construction has a direct semantic-pragmatic reading which can be paraphrased as an expression of the speaker's surprise about the degree to which the property expressed in the X-position applies to the referent of das. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, Germany has officially registered over 1.3 million refugees, many fleeing the Syrian civil war during the most recent European migrant crisis. The majority reaction of 82 million German citizens and their government to the crisis led to the welcoming culture (Willkommenskultur)—the development of multiple government, non-government organization (NGO), and private programs of accommodation, resettlement, German language training, and more general education, acculturation, and inclusion into German society for many of these refugees. With government and private funding for supplies, training, and administration, the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft or DPG) under the guidance of Professor Dr. Arnulf Quadt of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen established a program in which volunteers provide physics educational experiences to these refugee children and possible future German citizens called Physics for Refugees (Physik für Flüchtlinge or PfF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores the consequences of thinking philosophy's labor of the negative through art, as what Antoine Berman calls the experience of the foreign, and through the very history of the art of philosophy itself. It focuses on G.W.F. Hegel's anxiety over a philosophy in the mother tongue of German. For Hegel could not say everything in the language of philosophy, and still less through the nationalistic hypostasis of this philosophy as "The Philosophy of History." Rather, he was driven to think both philosophy and history through disciplines such as natural history and aesthetics. In his lectures on "Aesthetics," moreover, there is no form of art that properly speaking is not foreign, or if there is, it does not speak properly. It is suggested in conclusion that the three moments of the art of philosophy are involved in a perpetual supplementing and rethinking of each other.

This article combines linguistic discourse analysis with role theory to create a role-theoretic discourse analysis framework for German security policy. To illustrate this, we employ topos analysis on 30 plenary minutes of parliamentary debates regarding the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, conducted by German Members of Parliament between 2001 and 2014. We interpret their perception of Germany's roles in light of key behavioral norms related to German security policy. The parliamentary discourse, shaped by topoi, sets the stage for decisions on German military operations abroad. The use of topoi is influenced by dominant thought patterns, particularly the perspective on Germany's role in security policy held by the political elite. Political decisions, in turn, reflect behavioral preferences guided by these viewpoints. Our research reveals how changes in German security policy are mirrored in the discourse. This discourse is structured around five categories of topoi for legitimizing or delegitimizing military operations abroad: necessity, obligation, self-interest, capability and preparedness, and solution. An evaluation of the use of topoi through the lens of role theory indicates that perceptions of Germany's role have evolved over time, encompassing roles such as a "civilian power," a "normal state," and an "agenda-setting role" in sync with its foreign military engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Nazi concentration camps the prisoners were frequently of 30 to 40 different nationalities, and German and Polish Jews were in the majority. With German as the only official language in the lager, communication was vital for the prisoners' survival. In the last few decades, there has been extensive research on the language inmates used (referred to as 'lagerszpracha,' 'lagerjargon,' or 'Krematorium-Esperanto'); investigation, however, of the mediating role of interpreters between SS guards and prisoners, on the one hand, and among inmates, on the other, has been nearly inexistent. This paper claims that the different kinds of interpreting activities shaped the everyday life in concentration camps considerably. In what way has interpreting contributed to the survival of the deported? Did interpreting have an impact on the hierarchical order imposed on the prisoners? What metaphors can best describe the interpreting activity in order to convey the extreme terror the lager prisoners experienced? These questions will be explored through a series of survivor accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to what I perceive as a lack of a meso level framework in the study of English in the mediascapes of the 'expanding circle'. I shall make my case on the example of German. Traditionally, most research on German/English language contact is on Angli-cisms, that is, lexical borrowings from English. Other approaches do exist, but Anglicisms research, which originated in the 1960s, still seems the dominant framework and, as most of this work is carried out on mass (mostly printed) media data, it has also become the dominant way of looking at English in the media. I argue in this paper that the Anglicisms paradigm does not account for a range of patterns of national language/English contact. As an alternative, I propose an approach labeled 'English on top', which focuses on the textual positions and discourse functions of English rather than its lexical structure. In a prelimi-nary working definition, 'English on top' is a pattern of bilingual discourse in which English is a complementary code used in addition to ('on top' of) the predominant national language for specific discourse functions. As the discussion shall make clear, it is not the case that the usage patterns this metaphor aims at capturing have never been noticed before, but it does seem they haven't been systematically considered so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of modern technology, a human is in constant contact with a variety of informational and communicative technologies. A school place is not an exception here, therefore there is a constant need for new methodical and didactic approaches in this area. An example of good practice that includes modern technology in the educational process is a work with digital working sheets. This paper was writt en to introduce a working method with digital sheets as a new form of work in a classroom where German is taught as a second language. In the introductory part the paper presents, among other things, how countries like Germany and Slovenia are successful in their inclusion of informational and communicative technology in the educational process. The theoretical part also tries to defi ne the digital working sheet. In the following part of the paper a step-by-step preparatory process of a digital working sheet is introduced in more detail. Individual steps are illustrated with practical examples followed by tasks. These namely enable an integrated teaching and interdisciplinary interconnection of knowledge, and make sense of the usage of a working method with digital sheets in a language classroom. In this way the development of key competences in learners is stimulated, to which, in a modern technology era, indubitably also the digital competence belongs. The following chapter focuses on some advantages of usage and work with a digital working sheet such as, for example, autonomous learning, where each individual can be active in completion of working sheet and in search for the Internet information in his/her own tempo and extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, sung speech is used as a methodological tool to explore temporal variability in the timing of word-internal consonants and vowels. It is hypothesized that temporal variability/stability becomes clearer under the varying rhythmical conditions induced by song. This is explored crosslinguistically in German — a language that exhibits a potential vocalic quantity distinction — and the non-quantity languages French and Russian. Songs by non-professional singers, i.e. parents that sang to their infants aged 2 to 13 months in a non-laboratory setting, were recorded and analyzed. Vowel and consonant durations at syllable contacts of trochaic word types with CVCV or CV CV structure were measured under varying rhythmical conditions. Evidence is provided that in German non-professional singing, the two syllable structures can be differentiated by two distinct temporal variability patterns: vocalic variability (and consonantal stability) was found to be dominant in CV CV structures whereas consonantal variability (and vocalic stability) was characteristic for CVCV structures. In French and Russian, however, only vocalic variability seemed to apply. Additionally, findings suggest that the different temporal patterns found in German were also supported by the stability pattern at the tonal level. These results point to subtle (supra) segmental timing mechanisms in sung speech that affect temporal targets according to the specific prosodic nature of the language in question. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Germans and the English differ in their experience of friendship. This paper departs from the observation that German manners books in the nineteenth and twentieth century are preoccupied with 'friendship' and the use of the personal pronoun, the informal you: Du. The topic 'friendship' is virtually absent in English manners books. In English books, until the 1970s, rules for introductions were a major if not the most prominent topic, whereas these rules attracted hardly any attention in the German ones. From an analysis of manners books from the last decade of, this paper compares friendship in Germany with introducing in England. Establishing a 'friendship' as well as 'being properly introduced' are both ritual transitions from a rather distant and hierarchical relationship in the direction of greater 'equality' and intimacy. These different forms are explained by placing them in the context of their national class structures and by connecting them to differences in the functioning of their good society, particularly the regulation of social mobility, as well as to differences in the processes of social emancipation and national integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Noser Library at Divine Word University has substantial German language holdings relating to Papua New Guinea, which are inaccessible to English-speaking citizens. Funds have been received from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Canberra to translate three Germanlanguage books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries into English and the paper discusses how they were selected and possible future steps to translate more works from the Noser collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I first look at how the notions of 'politeness' and 'impoliteness' have been discussed in the literature including my own ideas of relating universal levels of impoliteness to culture and language-specific levels. Given this framework and my earlier postulation of a set of dimensions along which German speakers were found to prefer expressions that are more direct than indirect, more explicit than implicit, and generally more content-oriented than addressee-oriented, I provide several examples of German speakers interacting with members of other cultures in everyday talk and academic advising sessions. In interpreting the results of the analyses of these interactions, I attempt to relate them to the concept of impoliteness, to German speakers' communicative preferences and to the distinction between an emic and an etic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inputs of plastic impurities into the environment via the application of fertilizers are regulated in Germany and the EU by means of ordinances. Robust and fast analytical methods are the basis of legal regulations. Currently, only macroand large microplastic contents (>1 mm) are measured. Microplastics (1-1,000 µm), are not yet monitored. Thermal analytical methods are suitable for this purpose, which can determine the mass content and can also be operated fully automatically in routine mode. Thermal extraction desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS) allows the identification of polymers and the determination of mass contents in solid samples from natural environments. In accordance with the German or European Commission (EC) Fertiliser Ordinance, composting plants should be monitored for microplastic particles with this method in the future. In this context a compost plant was sampled. At the end of the rotting process, the compost was sieved and separated in a coarse (>1 mm) and a fine fraction (<1 mm). The fine fraction was processed using density separation comparing NaCl and NaI as possible salt alternative and screened for microplastic masses by TED-GC/MS with additional validation and quality assurance experiments. With TED-GC/MS total microplastics mass contents of 1.1-3.0 µg/mg in finished compost could be detected with polyethylene mainly. What differs much to the total mass of plastics in the coarse fraction with up to 60 µg/mg, which were visually searched, identified via ATR-FTIR and gravimetrically weighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]