Sociolinguistic Competence and Varietal Repertoires in a Second Language: A Study on Addressee-Dependent Varietal Behavior Using Virtual Reality.

Mason Wirtz, Simone Pfenninger, Irmtraud Kaiser, Andrea Ender

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The present study takes a variationist perspective to explore the varietal repertoires of adult German as a second language (L2) learners, that is, their variable use of standard German, Austro-Bavarian dialect, and mixture varieties. Forty L2 learners completed a virtual reality task involving interactions with dialect-speaking and standard German-speaking interlocutors. Using Bayesian multilevel modeling, the goal was to explore differential outcomes in the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by determining whether participants adjusted their varietal behavior to match that of the interlocutor (i.e., varietal convergence). The results show that there were no inter-individual addressee-dependent convergence tendencies. A holistic person-centered analysis of individual learners’ intra-speaker variation revealed that only select L2 learners adjusted their usage patterns, but did not entirely invert their usage of dialect and standard language as a function of the variety of the interlocutor. Introspective qualitative data speak to potential drivers behind the differential development of L2 (multi-)varietal repertoires.
Original languageEnglish
JournalModern Language Journal
Volume108
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. The Modern Language Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, Inc.

Keywords

  • Bayesian modeling
  • acquisition of variation
  • sociolinguistic competence
  • varietal repertoires
  • virtual reality

Fields of Science and Technology Classification 2012

  • 602 Linguistics and Literature

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