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Knowledge about empathy is part of the study of artistic expressions, among which stand out works of personalities such as the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci, who was concerned with the connection between science and art during his creative research full of imagination and sensitivity to nature and human anatomy. The word empathy emerged among critics of German art as the term einfühlung, which was used within the aesthetic bias by philosophers and art historians. It emphasized the idea that a viewer perceiving an object could establish a link between it and themselves, projecting the object 'into themselves'. That is, the artwork could be experienced by the observer as if the viewer belonged predominantly to the object, in such a way that its characteristics could be actually felt through the expression of emotions, feelings and thoughts. This analysis of art appreciation required a great deal of knowledge and contemplation of nature, as understood by the German Romanticists, who had enormous admiration for da Vinci and his universal and systematic mind--a mind which reacted against formalisms, building his intellectual and sensory systems based on both his observation of nature and his own criteria. In particular, the art of painting for Leonardo was a way to demonstrate a mental discourse, just as the most important aspect of human portraits is to represent--in gestures and facial expressions--the states of mind and emotions. These are facts that German Romanticists tried to explain as the relationship between empathy and a work of art. The present manuscript aims to describe empathy from an artistic view, considering the roots of this word in German Romanticism; to comment about Leonardo da Vinci and the expression of art in the Renaissance; and, finally, to discuss the expression of his art in relation to empathy. [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]

More and more children and adolescents in Switzerland show serious deficits in their German language skills. In order to specifically promote the language skills of students with a non-German first language, special lessons in German as a second language (GasL) are therefore offered in addition to the regular lessons. The aim of this case study is to evaluate the impact of a pedagogically sound immersive virtual reality learning unit for GasL lessons, which offers students the opportunity to actively speak German and to demonstrate this in the context of two GasL lessons. The research design is based on the "Design Science Research Framework". In this context, the virtual reality learning unit was designed as an innovative prototype (artifact) and iteratively improved. The design considered the didactic framework of the official curriculum as well as the eleven general design guidelines for virtual reality learning units in an educational context. The virtual reality learning unit was tested in a field experiment with five students each at an elementary school and at a secondary school. The students found the virtual reality learning unit as a whole attractive and motivating. But there are operational challenges and necessary prerequisites that have to be considered and created in order to pragmatically and sustainably integrate immersive virtual reality learning units into the existing GasL lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper presents a scoping review of empirical Germanlanguage research concerning the professionalization of Physical Education Teachers (PETs) and Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). This paper provides detailed insight into research activities in the field and gives recommendations for further research. It points out possible thematic, methodical and theoretical commonalities and divergences between German-speaking and international/Anglophone discourses, as well as shared challenges for future research. Methods: Using a scoping review methodology, the original framework was adjusted and extended to fit the needs of a transparent and substantiated inductive approach to thematic mapping. Based on a definition of research on PETE, we formulated inclusion and exclusion criteria and manually searched articles in six periodical Germanlanguage journals and conference proceedings. 160 empirical articles from the period 2010 to 2018 were selected. First, they were analyzed and charted in two stages. In a descriptive analysis following a deductive approach, the research field was mapped along with the categories chronological–numerical development, methods, samples, participants, authorship, and theoretical frameworks. In a thematic synthesis process following an inductive paradigm, a two-dimensional categorization system was developed along which the articles were charted. This system not only enables reporting about numerical findings but also provides information about the nature and interrelation of research domains and topics. Second, Anglophone literature reviews and handbook articles served as a point of reference to compare and discuss results from the German language to the Anglophone discourse. Special attention was given to thematic comparisons concerning similar and differing research trends and challenges. Results: The review shows research foci and identifiable gaps in accordance with present developments in educational policy as well as a significant increase in numerical output in the evaluated time period. While research on particular phases and moments of PETE gathered substantial insights, results especially regarding the understanding of long-term, biographical, professional developments of PETs are lacking in both research fields. To better understand long-term educational developments of PETs and how they are influenced remains the main challenge for future research. While German-language and Anglophone research cultures both come from their own historical, theoretical and methodological traditions, several attempts to open discourses concerning theoretical frameworks, methodological developments and research foci were revealed. One example is the development of qualitative methods to research implicit orientations and constructs, which originate from a shared qualitative history. This can potentially lead to a better understanding of educational processes and how these implicit constructs effect teaching. Discussion and conclusion: With finding and outlining commonalities and divergences between German-language and Anglophone research, this review provides a basis and status quo outlining possibilities for further research, cooperation and exchange. Moreover, similar trends and challenges were identified on a meta-level. Especially concerning theoretical backgrounds and methodical developments, the different research communities can further mutually improve each other and should enhance interaction and exchange. The results outline several possibilities for mutual enrichment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yiddish Scientific Institute, known by its Yiddish acronym YIVO, was funded in Vilna in 1925. The institute had four sections: Philology, History, Psychology-Pedagogy, and Economics-Statistics. Its principal goal was not only to produce scholarship concerning Eastern European Jewish populations but also to promote Yiddish as a scientific language. This article analyzes the tensions associated with using Yiddish in academia generally and in social science particularly. It demonstrates how this linguistic commitment to Yiddish led to certain compromises dictated by the need to share academic research, expand readership, and secure financial support. It aims to explore these linguistic matters by focusing on the activities and scholarly production of the Economic-Statistical section—the "ekstat" section—from its first meeting in 1926 to 1939. This section offers a particularly relevant case study because of its highly specific situation within YIVO. Located in Berlin and then in Warsaw, the Economic-Statistical section was relatively autonomous from the central headquarters in Vilna. More importantly, the section had closer ties to German academia, which explains its greater openness toward foreign (non-Yiddish) languages. Drawing upon sources including published materials, the administrative records of YIVO, and the personal archives of the section's key members, I document the ways in which this linguistic commitment toward Yiddish informed both the scholarly output of the section and its day-to-day activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Erosion of the Culture of Debate? Arguing in the Academic Education Space" deals with the restriction of academic freedom of speech at German universities. It points out an increase in moral and political reprimands in the academic sphere, which leads to a limitation of the culture of debate. The article is based on empirical data and systematic considerations from the DFG project "Academic Freedom of Speech in the Academic Education Space". Various sources are cited that deal with the erosion of the culture of debate at universities, including a statement by the German Association of Universities, a document by a philosophy professor, and a speech by Federal President Steinmeier. The text discusses the significance of the culture of debate at universities, the role of academic speech, and the debate about academic freedom of speech. Various views and problems related to the culture of debate are discussed, with the idea of a university culture of debate also being critically examined. [Extracted from the article]

Current scholarship on race in Europe has described race as an "absent presence". However, little is known about the dynamics of the absentness and presentness of race, including how various social processes operating at distinct levels (e.g. supranational and national) influence the uses of race and ethnicity concepts. We begin addressing this gap by examining racialised pharmaceutical regulation in the EU and its operationalisation in European countries. We analysed patterns of English-language uses of race and ethnicity terms at the EU level for all new drugs approved in 2014–2018, and systematically compared official translations into 24 languages. We found that "race" was promoted in plain sight and often retained when translated, albeit with much inconsistency across languages, creating peculiar patterns of presentness and absentness of race. Finnish, French, Swedish, and German stood out, as "race" was often translated into ethnicity terms, but even in those languages, "race" lingered despite claims that these countries vehemently opposed "race". Our findings should inform scholarly and political debates about race, ethnicity, and medicine in Europe that tend to assume, incorrectly, an anti-racialist consensus. There are also policy implications, because prescribers may interpret regulator-approved information about race and ethnicity differently because of inconsistent translations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Plath's conflicted attitude toward the German language, which she tried and failed to learn. For Plath, German stood in relation to English in the position that the pre-linguistic verbal activity of the infant stands in relation to the acquired language. A language both intimate and foreign, familiar and alien, forgotten and never mastered, German was the language inside the language of her poetry, binding her to German history and culture. In "Daddy," Plath's play with word-sounds brings the dynamics of language learning into contact with sado-masochistic fantasy and the history of the Holocaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly controlled experimental setting using a sample of questions from the European Social Survey (ESS) and European Values Study (EVS) was used to test the effects of integrating machine translation and post-editing into the Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretesting, and Documentation (TRAPD) approach in survey translation. Four experiments were conducted in total, two concerning the language pair English-German and two in the language pair English-Russian. The overall results of this study are positive for integrating machine translation and post-editing into the TRAPD process, when translating survey questionnaires. The experiments show evidence that in German and Russian languages and for a sample of ESS and EVS survey questions, the effect of integrating machine translation and post-editing on the quality of the review outputs—with quality understood as texts output with the fewest errors possible—can hardly be distinguished from the quality that derives from the setting with human translations only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous studies have shown that levels for 50% speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise differ for different languages. Here, we aimed to find out whether these differences may relate to different auditory processing of temporal sound features in different languages, and to determine the influence of tinnitus on speech comprehension in different languages. Methods: We measured speech intelligibility under various conditions (words in quiet, sentences in babble noise, interrupted sentences) along with tone detection thresholds in quiet [PTA] and in noise [PTAnoise], gap detection thresholds [GDT], and detection thresholds for frequency modulation [FMT], and compared them between Czech and Swiss subjects matched in mean age and PTA. Results: The Swiss subjects exhibited higher speech reception thresholds in quiet, higher threshold speech-to-noise ratio, and shallower slope of performance-intensity function for the words in quiet. Importantly, the intelligibility of temporally gated speech was similar in the Czech and Swiss subjects. The PTAnoise, GDT, and FMT were similar in the two groups. The Czech subjects exhibited correlations of the speech tests with GDT and FMT, which was not the case in the Swiss group. Qualitatively, the results of comparisons between the Swiss and Czech populations were not influenced by presence of subjective tinnitus. Conclusion: The results support the notion of language-specific differences in speech comprehension which persists also in tinnitus subjects, and indicates different associations with the elementary measures of auditory temporal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extended an existing crosslinguistic model of verb‐marking errors in children's early multiword speech (MOSAIC) by adding a novel mechanism that defaults to the most frequent form of the verb where this accounts for a high proportion of forms in the input. Our simulations showed that the resulting model not only provides a better explanation of the data on typically developing children but also captures the crosslinguistic pattern of verb‐marking error in children with developmental language disorder, including the tendency of English‐speaking children to show higher rates of optional‐infinitive errors and the tendency of Dutch‐, German‐, and Spanish‐speaking children to show higher rates of agreement errors. The new version of MOSAIC thus provides a unified crosslinguistic model of the pattern of verb‐marking errors in typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in non‐technical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article presents the little known so-called Ratiu collection of documents from the years 18501877 regarding the death of the Romanian hero Avram Iancu. The documents were donated in 2015 by Indrei Ratiu to the Lucian Blaga Central University Library in Cluj-Napoca. They are valuable legal historical documents regarding the testaments of Avram Iancu (1824-1872) and of his father, Alesandru Iancu (1797-1855), as well as their trials for succession. The documents were written mostly in the Romanian language with Cyrillic and Latin letters, but inserts and documents in German and Hungarian were also added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since thoroughly validated naturalistic affective German speech stimulus databases are rare, we present here a novel validated database of speech sequences assembled with the purpose of emotion induction. The database comprises 37 audio speech sequences with a total duration of 92 minutes for the induction of positive, neutral, and negative emotion: comedian shows intending to elicit humorous and amusing feelings, weather forecasts, and arguments between couples and relatives from movies or television series. Multiple continuous and discrete ratings are used to validate the database to capture the time course and variabilities of valence and arousal. We analyse and quantify how well the audio sequences fulfil quality criteria of differentiation, salience/strength, and generalizability across participants. Hence, we provide a validated speech database of naturalistic scenarios suitable to investigate emotion processing and its time course with German-speaking participants. Information on using the stimulus database for research purposes can be found at the OSF project repository GAUDIE: https://osf.io/xyr6j/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Informatica (03505596) is the property of Slovene Society Informatika 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 Studii de Ştiintă şi Cultură is the property of Studii de Stiinta si Cultura 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.)

This study presents a reanalysis of existing data to investigate whether a relationship between perception and production abilities regarding a challenging second-language (L2) phonological contrast is observable (a) when both modalities must rely on accessing stored lexical representations and (b) when there is an asymmetry in task focus between perception and production. In the original studies, German learners of English were tested on their mastery of the English /ɛ/-/æ/ contrast in an auditory lexical decision task with phonological substitutions, a word-reading task, and a segmentally focused imitation task. Results showed that accurate nonword rejection in the lexical decision task was predicted by the Euclidean distance between the two vowels in word reading but not in imitation. These results extend previous findings to lexical perception and production, highlight the influence of task focus on the degree of coupling between the two modalities, and may have important implications for pronunciation training methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the Linguistic Landscape (LL) have become a particularly prolific object of study and research in the last fifteen years. The most recent research perspective has led to new categorizations for the LL, which not only form the basis for further empirical research, but are also of great use in foreign language teaching (Malinowski/Maxim/Dubreil 2020). Indeed, working with the LL that is also interculturally specific fulfils one of the primary goals of foreign language teaching, as the close relationship between language and culture also promotes intercultural communicative competence. Our paper will examine in particular the great potential of this tool in the context of teaching German as a Foreign Language in Italy, in order to stimulate greater language awareness and linguistic reflection in the processes of learning and teaching German in which learners are involved. By means of the administration of didactic sheets prepared by us, we will consider the possibility of applying to a didactic context data on both the German language and culture, taken from the observation of the LL of Alto Adige/Südtirol and collected on several occasions within a corpus, the LLSÜDTIROL, which will be discussed below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to propose a reflection on the importance of German varieties in the preparation of interpreters. Like many other languages, German is classified as a pluricentric language, i. e. a language officially spoken in more than one centre or nation. This makes it a very variegated language that boasts a multitude of both standard and non-standard varieties. The task of interpreters who choose German as a foreign language is therefore to be able to understand and translate into another language what is spoken by native speakers of German, many of whom, according to the previous statement, often speak different varieties. To do this, the interpreters' preparation must consider the inclusion of the different language varieties of both standard and non-standard German, especially at the level of auditory decoding, in order to facilitate the understanding of the message at a receptive level. Starting from the definition of a pluricentric language, this contribution will highlight the main difficulties of interpreters at the level of listening comprehension, most of which are found at the level of auditory decoding, before proposing training aimed at decoding the different varieties of standard and non-standard German realised through the use of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article provides a detailed overview of the lexicographical process adopted for the construction of a multilingual corpus-driven online specialised dictionary about COVID-19, which was built within the 4EU+ project Knowledge through Terminology - From Multilingual Data to Domain-specific Knowledge via Terminological Resources (TermiKnowledge). The dictionary is based on four specialised comparable corpora in five languages (Czech, English, German, Italian, Polish), that were compiled and analysed by the students, who also carried out the lexicographical work itself. The contribution thus highlights that the lexicographical process represents a valuable resource for German as a Foreign Language (GFL) teaching, since it fosters the acquisition of specific terminology as well as the reflection on differences and similarities between different text types and languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the role of lexicographic resources in the South Tyrolean (i. e. the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen, Italy) educational context against the backdrop of legal provisions (Das neue Autonomiestatut 2019/1972) and the relevance of language education on the part of educational institutions (Rahmenrichtlinien DE, Rahmenrichtlinien IT), taking into account both normative requirements and their application in practice. The focus is on two questions that have been little researched so far, not only in the specific context but also internationally (cf. Abel 2022; Nied Curcio 2022): To what extent are lexicographic resources represented in the school framework guidelines? How are they actually used in schools? For the case study presented here, the South Tyrolean framework guidelines provided by the German and the Italian school boards at all levels of education for German and Italian as first (L1) and second (L2) languages, as well as for English as a foreign language (L3) were examined by means of a document analysis. In a second step, a questionnaire survey with language teachers at all school levels (German and Italian as L1/L2, English as L3; number of survey respondents: 644) determined the actual use of lexicographic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multilingual approach plays an important role in language teaching, therefore also in the teaching of German as a foreign/second language (DaF = Deutsch als Fremdsprache; DaZ = Deutsch als Zweitsprache) and Italian as a foreign/second language. Aim of this volume is to show how metalinguistic and cross-linguistic awareness, central pillars of multilingual didactics, can be developed through the use of lexicographic resources, corpora and new technologies. The contributions present research and didactic experiences of various kinds that are of interest to different levels of education (school, university, etc.); although the didactics of German is in the focus of many essays, references to other languages, primarily Italian, but also English, Romanian, Ladin and other Italian dialect varieties, are not missing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labor market is highly dependent on vocational and academic education, training, retraining, and further education in order to master challenges such as advancing digitalization and sustainability. Further training is a key factor in ensuring a qualified workforce, the employability of all employees, and, thus, national competitiveness and innovation. In the contribution at hand, we explore an innovative way to derive knowledge about learning pathways by connecting the dots from different data sources of the German labor market. In particular, we focus on the web mining of online resources for German labor market research and education, such as online advertisements, information portals, and official government websites. A key question for working with different data sources is how to find the ground truth and common data structures that can be used to make the data interoperable. We discuss how to classify and summarize web data from different platforms and which methods can be used for extracting data, entities and relationships from online resources on the German labor market to build a network of educational pathways. Our proposed solution is based on the classification of occupations (KldB) and related document codes (DKZ), and combines natural language processing and knowledge graph technologies. Our research provides the foundation for further investigation into educational pathways and linked data for labor market research. While our work focuses on German data, it is also useful for other German-speaking countries and could easily be extended to other languages such as English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2023, the US Supreme Court delivered its highly anticipated verdict in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products. The case involves a parodic use of the famous Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey trade dress, name, logo and appearance by VIP Products, which sells dog toys called 'Silly Squeakers.' The disputed toy, named 'Bad Spaniels,' resembles the whiskey bottle in shape and design but with humorous alterations. Jack Daniel's argued that this use could confuse consumers and harm the company's reputation. VIP Products, on the other hand, claimed it was exercising its First Amendment right to free speech through parody. Jack Daniel's requested VIP Products to stop advertising and selling the toy. The central issue is the balance between brand protection under US Trademark Law and the right to a parodic use in a commercial context when a mark is used as a mark with a source-identifying purpose. Additionally, the impact of consumer surveys for determining the likelihood of confusion in case of an infringement action is emphasized. Overall, the case raises critical questions about trademark protection and freedom of speech, with potential implications for future parodic uses of famous marks in commercial contexts. The distinction between actions for infringement and dilution by tarnishment lies in their respective purposes. Dilution actions aim to safeguard the reputation of a famous mark's owner, while infringement actions seek to prevent confusion among consumers. These fundamental principles hold true in both US and German trademark law. The forthcoming analysis will delve into the implications and consequences of the US Supreme Court's ruling, comparing it with pertinent German case law concerning freedom of speech and artistic expression. Particular focus will be given to the potential authorization of parodic use of a mark resembling another's trademark for commercial purposes. Notably, a relevant case involving canines, referred to as the 'Leaping Poodle,' will be central to this contemplation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a summary of the contents of the journal "Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German." The journal includes three types of articles: Praxis articles, Research articles, and Forum articles. Praxis articles provide practical guidance and examples for German teachers, while Research articles present academic research. The Forum articles in this issue focus on recruitment and retention in German language programs. The journal also includes Invited Reviews of teaching and learning materials. The articles cover a range of topics, including genre-based writing, linguistic landscapes, teaching about the Holocaust, and strategies for student recruitment and retention. The journal aims to support German teachers in implementing effective teaching methods and addressing common challenges. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the "German in the Professional and Business World" course at Rhodes College, which aims to promote cross-disciplinary learning and attract career-minded students. The course incorporates traditional elements of business German, such as vocabulary and grammar, but also includes experiential learning opportunities and a guest speaker series. The speaker series allows students to engage with professionals from various backgrounds and careers, both locally and internationally. The course has been successful in improving student retention and enrollment, with many students declaring a German double major and continuing their study of German past the language requirement. The course also attracts non-German students and fosters connections with the surrounding community. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses a collaboration between a high school and a college German program aimed at increasing engagement, belonging, and retention within and beyond their programs. The collaboration involved guest teaching in a high school German class, providing students with the opportunity to interact with a German professor and learn about a German program at a liberal arts college. Additionally, a virtual language exchange was implemented, allowing high school and college students to communicate and practice their language skills. The collaboration aims to increase program retention and strengthen the pipeline from high school German programs to post-secondary German programs. [Extracted from the article]

There is a need for a continued focus on language learning in advanced language classes beyond the foundations that are formed in the beginning and intermediate levels. Despite this need, little work exists on how to implement language‐focused instruction in upper‐level courses. As one possible solution, this paper outlines a functional, meaning‐based approach to teaching language that could be easily adopted by all instructors, regardless of their professional training and/or research interests. As an example of this approach, the study described in this paper investigates the instruction of Subjunctive 1 through its function as indirect speech in a literary context. Eight participants in a fourth‐semester German course engaged with the Subjunctive 1 form through a lesson focused on Kafka's authorial choices in the text Vor dem Gesetz that create a sense of uncertainty. This approach complements the traditional teaching of Subjunctive 1, such as in journalistic contexts, by centering it as a tool for meaning making in an author's lexicogrammatical toolkit. An analysis of pre/posttests that included both quantitative and qualitative data was used to assess the effectiveness of the approach. The results indicate an overall positive effect for the instruction but also individual variation by the learner. These findings support both the utility of and need for functional, meaning‐based approaches in upper‐level courses. Finally, I discuss how this type of approach could be adopted for any linguistic feature and by any instructor teaching advanced courses to support students' linguistic growth throughout the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second‐language (L2) learner motivation has been a thriving subfield within L2 acquisition research for decades, particularly since the development of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), a multi‐faceted motivational theory. This survey‐based study examines (1) whether L2MSS facets differ between students intending to continue (or discontinue) learning German past the language requirement and (2) whether any relationship exists between the different selves within the L2MSS, students' L2 Learning Experience (L2E), and their Willingness to Communicate (WTC). Third‐semester learners' mean ratings of their Ideal Self, Anti‐Ought‐To Self, WTC, and Attitudes Toward the L2 Community were significantly higher among students intending to continue German study beyond the language requirement (N = 28) than those discontinuing study (N = 46). Multiple regression analyses predicted a positive effect of the Ideal Self on ratings of both L2E and WTC. Qualitative analysis revealed themes of fear and positive attitudes toward the German language/culture among learners intending to continue German study, while non‐continuers predominantly mentioned the language requirement. Both continuers and non‐continuers mentioned the concrete and abstract utility of language learning as an additional motivation. The implications of these results for student recruitment and retention in German language programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relative ease or difficulty of grammar commonly taught in intermediate (second‐year) German at the university level. Previous studies have investigated the ease or difficulty of specific grammar structures, factors that make it difficult to learn L2 grammar, and teachers' and learners' perceptions of difficult grammar. The aim of the present study was to provide an overview of a year's worth of grammar instruction to guide decisions about grammar sequencing, instructional approaches, and instructional time. Grammar was grouped into units consisting of a pre‐test, an instructional sequence, and a post‐test. Test data were gathered from 498 grammar pre‐ and post‐tests over a 3‐year period. The authors hypothesized that certain grammar topics (e.g., vowel‐changing present‐tense verbs; the perfect) would be relatively easy, while others (e.g., noun and pronoun case; pluperfect) would be relatively difficult. These hypotheses were only partially confirmed. Results showed the pluperfect, comparative and superlative, and preterite were relatively easily learned, whereas fixed prepositions, pronouns, relative clauses, dative verbs, and the passive were much more difficult to learn. The results suggest that instructors focus on easy and essential grammar, introduce difficult grammar without formal assessment, and use test data to sequence topics within and across course levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the institutional context and student beliefs in the German Studies program at the University of South Carolina Upstate. The region is home to many German companies, leading to the establishment of German high school programs and the German School Upstate. The university has made efforts to improve the German Studies program, including offering a certificate option and dual enrollment courses. The article also highlights the importance of addressing factors both within and outside of faculty control to enhance recruitment and retention in the program. [Extracted from the article]

This article presents an exploratory genre‐based writing lesson conducted in a third‐year collegiate German language course. While genre‐based approaches to writing have gained recognition in second language (L2) contexts, little attention has been given to learner perceptions of genre‐based writing activities. Additionally, there is a lack of pedagogical strategies and materials for intermediate‐level German language classes. This article addresses these gaps by introducing a lesson on consumer music reviews designed following genre‐based pedagogical principles, the flipped classroom approach, and the use of language corpora. The lesson, consisting of two 75‐min class periods, aimed at familiarizing students with the structure and style of consumer music reviews, culminating in the writing of their own reviews. Using authentic texts and incorporating the Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache corpus tool for vocabulary building, students engaged with contemporary German‐language music. Data from student surveys indicated positive perceptions of the lesson, particularly regarding vocabulary acquisition, lesson structure, and topic relevance. Students also found the corpus tool beneficial for contextual understanding and word usage. This exploratory lesson highlights the potential of genre‐based writing pedagogy, the flipped classroom model, and corpus tools for L2 writing development and contributes to the growing body of literature on genre‐based writing in L2 classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German program at Oregon State University has introduced microcredentials as an additional option for students interested in learning German. These microcredentials offer a range of credential options for different proficiency levels, allowing students to learn German without committing to a full degree program. Initial data shows positive enrollment growth, with over 170 students signing up for at least one microcredential. The German program at Oregon State University has faced challenges in the past, but the introduction of microcredentials has helped increase visibility and attract new students. [Extracted from the article]

Backchannels (BCs; listener signals such as 'mmhm' or 'okay') are a ubiquitous and essential feature of spoken interaction. They are used by listeners predominantly to support the ongoing turn of their interlocutor and to signal understanding and agreement. Listeners seem to be highly sensitive to the exact realisations of BCs and to judge deviations from typical forms as negative. Very little is known about the use of BCs by speakers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In dialogue recordings of 28 German adults in two groups of disposition-matched dyads (i.e., both interlocutors were either autistic or non-autistic), we found that the ASD group was characterised by (1) a lower rate of BCs per minute (particularly in the early stages of conversation), (2) less diversity in the lexical realisation of BCs and (3) a less diverse and flexible mapping of different intonation contours to different BC types. We interpret these results as reflecting more general characteristics of autistic as compared to non-autistic individuals, namely different strategies in signalling attention towards an interlocutor and less flexible behaviour in social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses Polnische Sprach⸗Kunst (1734), a grammar of Polish written by Jerzy Schlag, a German who taught Polish in Silesia. Schlag's handbook stands out among the grammars of the time: the author has intentionally foregone grammar terminology and departed from the traditional Latin-based language description. The article presents Schlag's innovative description of the language system, and verifies the extent to which the author actually managed to follow his intention of foregoing grammar terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes is the property of University of Oradea, Faculty of Economic Sciences 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.)

The article discusses a collection of articles on the topic of Pietism and economy, which originated from a conference held in Mainz in 2012. The anthology consists of twenty articles, with fifteen in German and five in English, divided into three sections. The articles explore various aspects of religious-economic connections, practices of business/economy, and cultural and religious "economies." The anthology provides a definition of the term "economy" and examines its use in the seventeenth century. While the focus is primarily on Hallensian Pietism, there are also three articles that explicitly deal with Moravian case studies. The volume offers insights into the economic practices of different pietist groups and their reactions to the feudal economy. Additionally, it explores the role of religion and economic choice in colonial America and presents case studies on various topics such as Reformed Pietist ethics, Pietist fundraising trips, and Moravian economic activity. The final section examines the influence of economic thinking on ethics and piety, as well as the concept of time management in Pietist institutions. Overall, the anthology provides a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between Pietism and economy during the period of 1650-1750. [Extracted from the article]

Some languages make a distinction between formal and informal pronouns of address. When organizations communicate in such a language, they have to choose between the formal and informal form. The goal of this paper is to explore the role of the V-T distinction in organizational communication, specifically in generic job advertisements, through two empirical studies and to obtain a preliminary evidence-based framework for V and T in organizational communication. In a corpus study, we explore which form organizations from different industry types tend to use. We find that the choice of pronoun of address is associated with industry type in Netherlandic Dutch, German, French, and Spanish, but not in Belgian Dutch. In an experimental follow-up study, we explore the effect of pronouns of address on Dutch addressees in light of the perceived personality of the companies using these forms. We find an interaction between the pronoun of address used and the level of competence a company is associated with. Based on these studies and the existing literature, we propose a framework for V and T in organizational communication. In this framework, local linguaculture and industry culture play a role in the organizational choice between V and T. Furthermore, the way in which pronouns of address affect the addressee is determined by an interplay of company characteristics and addressee characteristics. [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]

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A subset of German control verbs allows for the discontinuous linearization of their infinitival complements, a word-order pattern known as the "third construction" pattern. Compared to alternative word-order options (notably, extraposition), third constructions are very rare in present-day German. Here we ask whether the third construction pattern's low occurrence frequency can be accounted for by processing factors. We report the results from a self-paced reading task and a production priming task investigating whether third constructions are difficult to comprehend, difficult to produce, or both. Our results show that the third construction pattern's local structural ambiguity impedes comprehension, and that the pattern is also resistant to priming. We conclude that this word-order pattern is an example of a "latent" construction that is grammatically licensed but strongly dispreferred in language use because easier-to-process word-order variants are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pronominal adverbs in German, which consist of da 'there', hier 'here', or wo 'where' as first element and a preposition as second element, like davor 'before', hierbei 'hereby', worin 'wherein', have often been explained by a movement of the first element out of the complement position of the preposition. This article points out some of the problems of movement analyses and presents an alternative account based on the diachronic development of pronominal adverbs. It is argued that the pattern after which pronominal adverbs are formed can be traced back to the univerbation of two adverbs with spatial meaning. This is accompanied by processes often associated with grammaticalization, such as semantic bleaching, phonological reduction, and a loss of separability in the standard variety. Some of the reduced forms are obligatory in phrasemes and particle verbs, thus constituting a split which can occur during grammaticalization. The reduction of the first element of pronominal adverbs and a doubling of the first element can be seen as part of a grammaticalization cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an empirical study on selected aspects of the orthographic performance of mono- and bilingual students in German. Particular attention is paid to the question whether a connection can be drawn between the orthographic performance of the bilingual students in German and their first language. For this purpose, a corpus is analyzed with data from approx. 800 test students. One group is monolingual in German, one is bilingual German–Turkish and one is bilingual German–Russian. A highly significant influence of Russian resp. Turkish on the performance to differentiate between tense and lax vowels is found. This corresponds to expectations insofar as in opposition to German, neither in Turkish nor in Russian, tense and lax vowels are distinguished phonologically. In other areas of orthography, this influence of the first language is not measurable or not to the same extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Slovo a Slovesnost is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Language Institute 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.)

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Copyright of Critical Language & Literary Studies / Naqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī is the property of Shahid Beheshti University 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 Critical Language & Literary Studies / Naqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī is the property of Shahid Beheshti University 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 Critical Language & Literary Studies / Naqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī is the property of Shahid Beheshti University 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 Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

SETAC has a long-standing history of supporting students and early career scientists in the fields of ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry. The Student Advisory Council (SAC) advocates for the diverse interests of young SETAC members offering guidance to peers and serving as a resounding voice for aspiring scientists in dialogues with the SETAC Europe Council. Founded and shaped by a rewarding liaison between SETAC Europe and its German Language Branch, the SAC now has a strong international representation, with its members being distributed all over Europe. With this publication, we want to build upon the relationship between the SETAC Europe students and the SETAC German Language Branch. The Young Environmental Scientists (YES) Meeting, which was first held as a regular conference 14 years ago, is a keystone event organized by the students of SETAC and the SAC. This year, in 2023, the 12th YES meeting took place in Landau in der Pfalz, Germany. Not only has it been the first European in-person YES Meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic, but with this year's iteration, the YES meeting returned to its roots in Landau, where 2009 the very first YES meeting was hosted. From August 28th to September 1st, 107 participants from 37 countries and five continents had the opportunity to showcase their research in seven thematic sessions, engage in four workshops, listen to six expert/career talks, and two keynotes from established scientists. In reference to the meeting-motto science through crises, this comment pays special emphasis on topical program points in touching the ongoing multiple crises. We are convinced that sharing our experience from hosting this conference will underline the importance of continuing this unique meeting format and hopefully inspire future scientific events organized by students for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]