The technical side of things

Introduction to the research

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In the past decades, migration and immigration as a result of increased mobility have become the rule rather than the exception in most societies, and there exists a growing trend in both national and international policies to promote integration. Austria in view of its wide array of language varieties ranging from local vernaculars over intermediate varieties to standard German does, however, present a significant challenge for second language (L2) learners. In particular, Austrians oftentimes command a large varietal repertoire in that they can socially and situationally opt (consciously or otherwise) for one language variety over another as a means to communicate or evoke a certain effect from the interlocutor. This ability in combination with understanding the communicative effect(s) engendered by the respective variety is widely referred to as “sociolinguistic competence” (Regan 2010: 22). In particular, proficiency in wielding target-like sociolinguistic variation can allow a second language learner to expand beyond communicating basic linguistic information – it allows learners to fulfill other social functions in the target language community, such as establishing friendships and community ties. In the words of Geeslin (2014: 11): “[t]he ability to ‘live’ in a second language rests on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence.”

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Yet, there exists no research on learner sociolinguistic development in the Bavarian-Austrian context, despite its well-documented difficulty for L2 learners in general (Ender 2017, 2019). Particularly, research pertaining to the following questions remains largely outstanding: (a) How do learners overcome difficulties in the sociolinguistic acquisition process in the Bavarian-Austrian context? (b) Which complex, dynamic constellation(s) of learner individual linguistic, socioaffective and cognitive factors are strongly associated with superior sociolinguistic competence? (c) How do different language varieties of the same first language (L1) – in the case of this dissertation: English – impact the development of the individual sociolinguistic repertoire in the second language? In light of increasing mobility and thus growing counts of expats in Austria (e.g. due to Austria’s growing need for highly qualified workers from abroad, particularly in MINT subjects), it now appears of unprecedented necessity to scrutinize the magnitude of the effects of the myriad individual factors on native English speakers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation and attempt to identify those factors that predict variable sociolinguistic competence in the naturalistic context.

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Project objectives

 

In this dissertation, the general aims are to (1) establish the extent to which my set of predictors (varietal exposure/use, L2 proficiency, cognitive capacity and socioaffect) can explain advanced sociolinguistic competence; (2) determine how different varieties of English differently impact the acquisition (process) of sociolinguistic competence and (3) provide initial insights into the process underlying the L2 sociolinguistic development in German as a second language learners with English as a first language. To do so, I make use of an extensive test battery consisting of new, innovative and interdisciplinary elicitation methods such as virtual reality. Moreover, I take a broader approach to the operationalization of the multidimensional construct ‘sociolinguistic competence’ as compared to what has been seen in previous work. In this dissertation, sociolinguistic competence is operationally measured on the level of production by indices of interpersonal accommodation (as in Dewaele 2004) and inter-situational variation (similar to e.g. Barron 2003, Sax 2003) and on the level of reception by indices of perceived socio-indexicality of dialect vs. standard German (as in Kaiser, Ender & Kasberger 2019) and socio-indexical varietal awareness (as adapted from Kinginger 2008). In doing so, I hope to offer solutions, suggestions and new perspectives on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence on two fronts: On the first, I hope the results from this doctoral project will be the springboard we need to develop scientifically founded pedagogical material for aiding expats and immigrants in better dealing with the language variation in Austria at the beginning of their journey abroad. On the second, the methodological approaches chosen, refined and/or developed in this project should address current issues regarding the limited availability of convenient and successful (statistical) techniques for collecting, analyzing and interpreting data on sociolinguistic acquisition.