Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Research on Heritage Language Speakers

Perspectives from studies of children and adolescents with Turkish background in Germany

Seventh Heritage Language Research Institute Chicago, June 17-21, 2013

Carol W. PfaffFreie Universität Berlin

jfkilxpf@zedat.fu-berlin.deJohn F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies

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Outline

1. BackgroundMotivations, Academic Orientations of my work on Turkish/GermanTurkish-speaking population in Germany and other European countries

2. My Studies of Turkish/German in Berlin EKMAUS ages 5-12 (pre)primary school KITA ages 1 - 8 preschool and early school years LLDM/MULTILIT ages 11-21 late primary, secondary school

3. Psycho- and sociolinguistic methods employed in the studies

4.Selected Findings• Language Mixing • Linguistic Convergence / Separation of systems• Interaction in the Heritage Language Turkish

Conclusions and Perspectives

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Academic Background of My Research in Berlinon development of varieties of Turkish, German, and English

Sociology of Language, migration, social contexts of the speakers

Sociolinguistics variation and change in languages, particularly in contact settings;

Anthropolitical Linguistics political and educational implications of multilingualism

Psycholinguistics cross-linguistic studies of specific features at different ages

Historical Linguistics language change in childhood and history

Anthropolitical Linguistics political and educational

implications of multilingualism

Background: My Social and Linguistic Motivation for work on Turkish/German

My prior work in the USA on linguistic variation in Black English in Los Angeles and Spanish/English code-switching in California & Texas.

Social motivations:Migrants from Turkey are the largest minority populationEducationally and socially disadvantaged

Linguistic motivation:Turkish and German (and other Northern European languages) are genetically unrelated, typologically distant and lexically distant, Ideal for investigation of language contact phenomena development of diaspora varietiesComparison across European countries with Turkish migrants

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HERITAGE LANGUAGE AND L2 ISSUES Relationship of Acquisition Context and Language Practices to Proficiency in Turkish (and German)

Use of Turkish in family and neighborhoodFamily and community instruction in TurkishTurkish foreign language instruction in public schools

Selected aspects of Turkish (and German) development in the Berlin StudiesLanguage choice, language shiftLanguage mixingLinguistic convergence / separation of grammatical systems Language attrition / Language change

Explanations (multiple)Input in (contact varieties) of Turkish, Input in other languages (Kurdish, Arabic, Greek, …)Input in (contact varieties) GermanCognitive and Linguistic “universals” of language acquistion, change

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Languages Investigated

Year(s) Name of study

Participants Number of participants

Method

German 1978 Foreigner class 9-13-year olds

Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Serbo-croatian,

35 Directed conversation

about pictures

German 1978-79 SES Turkish 7th graders German integrated class

Greek afternoon school

42 Directed conversation

about pictures

Turkish

German

1983-86 EKMAUS 3 Turkish/German bilingual Groups

Monolingual comparison groups

80 Games with toys, books

free conversation …

Turkish

German

1987-92 KITA Turkish preschool children 34 Games with toys, books

free conversation

Turkish

German

English

2007-2013

…

LLDM

MULTILIT

Turkish children and adolescents

In Germany and France

Monolingual comparison groups

200+ Video stimulus

Oral and written narrative

and expository texts

Overview of Pfaff Studies in Berlin 1978-2013…

Linguistic FocusTypological Characteristics of Turkish, German & English

Turkish SOV agglutinative, regular postpositions def accusative ,other case suffixesØ definite article no gender marking Ø copula evidential -mIşprodrop

German SVO/SOV inflectional/fusional ,reg& irregularprepositons gender (natural & grammatical)def & indef articles case/gender syncretism: art & pronon-prodrop

English SVO inflectional/analytic, reg & irreg

prepositions case marking on pronouns only

def & indef articles non-prodrop 7

syntax morphology / marked categories

Sociolinguistic Range of ElicitationInvestigation of contexts within contexts

Outside world knowledge: ideas about present, past, future states and events

Setting and ongoing interaction(s) among children and adults

Conversation target child and interlocutor(s) --task or game responses

Personal Narrative

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Background: The Turkish Speaking Populations of Germany and other European Countries

Guest Workers (Gastarbeiter) – labor recruits – 1960s

Family members (spouses, children, others) entered under family reunification, increasingly restricted

Refugees – especially members of ethnic minority

Children, adolescents, adults born in the diaspora

Labor recruitment agreements between Turkey and European countries

and estimates of current population of Turks (2009, 2010)

Country Date of

recruitment agreement

Population estimates 2009, 2010

Germany 1961 3,500,000 - 6,000,000

Austria 1964 350,000 - 500,000

Belgium 1964 200,000 - 250,000

Netherlands 1964 400,000 - 627,000

France 1965 500,000 - 1,000,000

Sweden 1967 100,000 - 150,000

United Kingdom Post WW II displaced persons

150,000 - 200,000 from Turkey (+300,000-350,000 from Cyprus)

Switzerland Post WW II-southern Europe

100,000 - 120,000

Denmark Post WW II mainly refugees

70,000 - 80,000

Sources: various 10

11Source: Hecker 2006 Focus Migration: Turkey

Immigration to European Countries of Refugees from Turkey

Source: Hecker 2006 Focus Migration: Turkey NOTE – graph shows Turkish citizens onlywith German citizens with Turkish migration background, estimated 4 million total in Germany

Western European Countries Populaton of Turkish Citizens (2003)

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Population of Germany:by Migration Status and Citizenship

Microcensus: 2005, 2010

10%9%

81%

Germans withoutmigrantbackgroundGermans withmigrantbackgroundNon-Germans

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German citizenship through descent from a German parent.(jus sanguinis)

Revised Citizenship Law 2000 (jus soli). Children born in or after the year 2000 to long-term residents of Germany can have double citizenship at birth. Must decide at 18 or 23 which citizenship to retain.

Naturalization: After 8 years of habitual residence in Germany, map apply to German citizenship if they prove adequate knowledge of German: • language test (B1 / C1 European Reference Framework

• admission to high level secondary school or German university degree

• passing the German test of an “Integration Course”

Requirements for German citizenship

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Concentration of non-Germans in Berlin districts

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School Population in Berlin by District 2009/2010 Percent non-German & non-German Heritage Language

District

23 districts reduced to 12 2001

% non-German

“ausländische Schüler”

% non-German language

background

nichtdeustcher Herkunftssprache”

Berlin-total all districts 15.3 32.3 Mitte 33.0 68.7 Neukölln 28.1 58.5 Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg 25.8 54.6 Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf 18.2 35.8 Tempelhof-Schöneberg 15.9 35.8 Spandau 10.3 31,3 Reinickendorf 11.9 24.7 Lichtenberg 12.4 24.3 Steglitz-Zehlendorf 9.4 17.4 Marzahn-Hellersdorf 4.5 12.7 Pankow 4.6 7.9 Treptow-Köpenick 3.6 7.0

16Even higher concentrations (95-100%) in individual schools in Neukölln, Kreuzberg

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Sociolinguistic Consequences of Demographic Concentration of minorities

Adult immigrants can continue using Turkish in many situations.

Children’s input includes regional Turkish and non-native German

The co-presence of other ethnic groups has also fostered multilingual proficiencies and polylingual languaging

in the minority populations and also among Germans, especially youth, the rise of „Kiez Deutsch“ (‘German in the hood’)

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Verbal Repertoires of Turkish bilinguals in EuropeMonolingual modes in

Turkish

Bilingual / Polylingual Modes(LANGUAGING)

Monolingual modes in

German FrenchDutchDanishSwedishNorwegianEnglish…

Other languages:•acquired outside school: (Kurdish, Arabic ... English)

•learned at school: (English, Spanish, French …)

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Neighborhood Language Use of Turkish 7th graders (1978)

(1) 7th grade boy (bd) Türkisch, ich spreche auch gern Deutsch wenn ich deutsche Freunde habe, aber ich hab keine deutsche Freunde, da in unser – Strasse oder wie -- da spreche ich immer Türkisch.

Turkish, I like to speak German too when I have German friends, but I don’t have any German friends since in our -- street or whatever – I always speak Turkish there. in our – street or whatever – there I always speak Turkish.

(2) 7th grade girl, (aa) Türkisch. Manche Tage spreche ich - ich weiss türkisches Wort nicht so genau – und spreche ich dieses Wörter deutsch. Und meine Mutter versteht nicht Deutsch, sie versteht nicht, ich sage es mein Vater. Manche Wörter spreche ich Deutsch.

Some days I speak – I don’t know (a) Turkish word exactly – and I say these words in German. And my mother doesn’t understand German, she doesn’t understand, I say it to my father. Some words I say (in) German.

(3) 7th grade boy (bu)F: Deutsche oder türkische Freunde? Q: German or Turkish friends?A: Nee, arabische. A: No, Arabic.F: Welche Sprache sprichst du mit denen? Q: What language do you speak with them?A: Die kann Deutsch. A: They know German.

EKMAUS Study (1983-1986): cross-sectional: 80 children ages 5 – 12

Bilinguals • A born in Berlin, little contact to German peers• B born in Berlin, more contact to German peers• C born in Turkey, started school in Turkey before

immigrating

Monolinguals • D Turkish children (Ankara 1983) • E German children (Berlin 1985)

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EKMAUS Elicitation Methods (all spoken)

social background – conversation about parents background and language practices in family, school, after school

Psycholinguistic tasks targeting specific linguistic featur e.g case marking, prodrop, definite/indefinite referencePicture description – directed conversation

Narratives of picture sequences

Personal narratives – triggered by scenes from games

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EKMAUS: Train station picturedirected conversation about scene in pictureprompts for personal narratives getting lostprompts for travel experience (past, future) and family in Turkey

EKMAUS – Actions with Toys: Set 4• 4-11: the boy gives the ball to the kangaroo (or dog).

• 4-12: the girl takes the ball from kangaroo (dog) and gives it to the standing cow

• 4-13: the boy takes the ball from the standing cow and gives it to the rearing horse

• 4-14: the kangaroo (dog) takes the ball from the rearing horse, jumps over the standing cowand gives the ball to the lying down cow.

• 4-15: the standing horse gives the ball to the girl

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 23

Examples – Actions Set 4 – Turkish

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 24

Hüsniye girl 7

A S2 06

Set 4-12

şey böyle eğlimiş, #?# bu yerde duruyo #?# ayakta duranın atın

The thing bent down like this,

#?# this is standing on the ground,

#?# the horse standing on its feet

Elif girl 8

B S6 04

Set 4-12

duruyo ya o ineğe It’s standing you know to that cow

İshsan boy 6

D S7 02

Set 4-14

köpek yuvarlaya yuvarlaya

yatan ineğin yanına

koydu

the dog rollingly rollingly put beside

the lying down cow

Some Linguistic Features in descriptions of Actions, Set 4

Hüsniye - Group A – little contact to German peersTurkish: more developed syntax,

participial modification, evidential -mış

German: characteristics of early L2: articles, nonstandard gender overgeneralization of regular to irregular verbs,

Elif - Group B – more contact to German peersTurkish: restricted syntax: progressive, no modificationGerman: standard irregular verbs, standard case on pro

variation in case marking on art, esp. after prep

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 25

Ilknur - Turkish-dominant girl born 1983 in Berlinlarge extended family, remained Turkish-dominant throughout

Serkan - German-dominant boy born 1983 in Berlinlived in German orphanage for 2 years, speaks Turkish but prefers German

KITA (pre-school day care) Project 1987-1992 : 5-year longitudinal study:

Orhan – boy born 1986 in Berlin, Kurdish/Turkish background, Turkish home language, shifts from Turkish dominant to German dominant (some domains)

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Sample: 34 children, aged 2-6 (+ follow up) Subsample: 10 children, Sub-subsample: 3 children, contrasting language dominance

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Elicitation with toys in KITA study

Kita Study Elicitation setting – FU-Info 17 Jan 1989, p. 7 (photo Pfaff)

Lady and the Tramp picture book: different grammatical proficiency

İlknur: Turkish-dominant girl 5;06 burda Weihnachtsmannbaum yapmışlar(they) made a Santa Claus tree here

Serkan: German-dominant boy 6;00

bu Weihnachten diye

this [= tree?, dog?] (is) for Christmas

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“Darling” wife gets “Lady” as a Christmas present

Lexical strategies: Both use the same code-switched lexical items (cultural loan) But differ in strategies for lexical incorporationGrammatical categories: Turkish-dominant child uses evidential, German dominant child does not

Lady and the Tramp picture book: comparison of 2 children --1no code switching, different grammatical proficiency

İlknur Turkish-dominant girl 5;06

burda da köpek hemen koşturuyo burda da. o da köpeğe vurmak istiyo.

‘and here the dog immediately runs here and she wants to hit the dog'

Serkan German-dominant boy 6;00SER: dövüyo ' (=aunt) is hitting (=Lady)'

INT: neden dövüyo? 'why is hitting ?

SER: bu bu bunu hiç görmedi diye 'because this (=aunt) has never seen this (=Lady) before'

SER: bu da korkmuş 'and this (=Lady) was afraid.

SER: sonra kaçıyo 'then (=Lady) is running away' 29

“Aunt Sarah” chases “Lady” away from the baby with a broom

Kita Study: Orhan – development of mixing 2;00-8;00German and Turkish recordings (tokens)

0100200300400500600700800900

1000

Turkish words German words

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

2;06 2;07 2;10 2;11 3;06 4;03 7;02 8;00

Turkish words German words

Conversations in German Conversations in Turkish

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Frequency of Turkish in German declines, frequency of German in Turkish increasesBoth are relatively low frequency – despite perception of speaking mixed

Pfaff 1998 “Changing patterns of mixing in a bilingual child”

Separation of grammatical systems despite lexical mixing and alternation in KITA follow-up interview

INT: siz de de var mı öyle bişey? Do you have something like that too? ORH: nein sie gratuliert no, she congratulates. INT: ne kim? anlamadım ama türkçe ko- what? who? I didn’t understand but speak Turkish ORH: bei Laufen, bei Lau ähm- when running, when ru- um

koşuda on Runde'yi yapa/ yapanlara running to whoever does ten laps INT: mhm mhm ORH: gratulieren yapıyo (she) congratulate does INT: mhm kim yapıyo? mhm who does that? ORH: ähm öğretmen on Runde, weil wir um the teacher, ten laps, because we’ve

zehn Runden gemacht haben done ten laps

Turkish syntax in Turkish matrix language German syntax in German matrix language gratulieren yapıyo

prodrop, compound verb form: infinitive + light verb

sie gratuliert explicit subject pronoun main verb with person-number inflection

on Runde'yi no plural marker on N in plural quantified NP

zehn Runden plural marked N in plural quantified NP

Conversation with Turkish interlocutor about school sports: ORHAN, 8;00

Adult refers to a previous conversation with another graduate of the Kita about primary school “athlete of the day”

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Conversational Strategies in Interactionof Turkish-dominant and German-dominant Kita children

Turkish-dominant girl, Ilknur German-dominant boy, Serkan in Turkish in German in Turkish in German

GLOBAL STRATEGIES

Initiates topics rarely very rarely rarely sometimesDigresses to a different activity or topic

frequently (to personal narrative or conversation)

frequently (to here & now activity)

frequently(to here & now activity)

frequently (to personal narrative or conversation)

Relies on scaffolding little much much little

Delegates turn to another rarely frequently(to sisters)

frequently(to interviewer or mother)

rarely

LOCAL STRATEGIES

Deictic reference some frequent very frequent someSpecifies Detail frequently rarely rarely frequentlyQuestions interlocutor rarely rarely sometimes

(for vocabularysometimes(for information)

Quotes direct speech sometimes frequently(formulaic)

rarely sometimes

32Pfaff 2001 “The development of co-constructed narratives in bilingual children”

Later Language Development of Multilinguals (LLDM) and MULTILIT Study (2007-2013)

cross sectional study of oral and written production of 200+ late primary and secondary pupils

in Turkish, German and English

Background Questionnaire: family and language practicesin Germany and when visiting in Turkey

Elicitation of oral and written texts with video “everyday problems in school” (Berman / Verhoeven cross-linguistic study of L1 monolinguals in 7 languages

Group conversations in Turkish, German and English33

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Elicitation in late primary and in secondary settingswatching video on interpersonal problems in school

12th grade class in Berlin 2007

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7th grade class in Berlin July 1, 2009

Stimulus Questions for Elicitation on Videofor production of oral and written texts

in 2 Genres in 3 languages

• Have you ever experienced anything like what we’ve seen in the video? What happened?

--Personal narrative

• What is your opinion of this kind of behavior?-- Expository Evaluation, Suggestions

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Texts / Data Sets for each Participant in LLDM/MULTILIT Studytr = Turkish, de = Deutsch, en = English

Pupil

oe tron tr

on de oe de

oe enon en

wn tr we tr

we dewn de

we enwn en

Group diskussion

writtenwn = written narrativewe = written expository

oralon = oral narrativeoe = oral expository Questionnaire

LLDM/MULTILIT: 2 of 200+ participants to date

Melih, 5th grade boy, age 11• attends a Turkish/German bilingual class in Berlin-Wedding.• speaks both Turkish and German in his family, listens to Turkish and

German radio programs, reads Turkish and German newspapers, finds Turkish the most pleasant language to read and German the most pleasant for computer games and group work.

• He wants to become a football player or astronomer .

Hâle, 12th grade girl, age 18• Attends a Gymnasium in Berlin-Kreuzberg, advanced English• uses Turkish with her mother, both Turkish and German with her father

and mixes with her siblings. She enjoys mixing.• Watches/listens to Turkish and German TV, radio reads Turkish and

German magazines, but has not had formal instruction in Turkish• She intends to study and wants to become an architect.

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 38

Untersuchungsmuster: Merih, schreibt, liest, versteht „sehr gut“ D/T/E, liest türk. Zeitungen, dt. Zeitschriften, am angenehmsten ist ihm beim Lesen Türkisch, beim Computerspielen u. bei der Gruppenarbeit Deutsch.

MULTILIT

Schriftlicher Text (Erzählung/Türkisch)

Schriftlicher Text (Erzählung/Deutsch)

Schriftlicher Text(Erzählung/Englisch)

Ben Dollnick öğretmenime reportacımda birşeyler söyledim: Z.b. ben dövüş etmeyi görmüştüm çok fena dövüşmüştüler. Bir kız görmüştüm parayı aldı, ben dedim parayı bana ver ben parayı öğretmene veririm. Yada fotoğraf çekiminde bir oğlan beni sinir etti ve ben hemen öğretmene gittim ve söyledim: „Öğretmen şu oğlan beni sinir ediyor.“! Sonra öğretmen o çocuğa kızdı. Evet bu benim gördüklerim ve Dollnick öğretmenime anlattığım şeylerdi.

Ich habe Christin erzählt:Dass einmal zwei Jungen sich gestritten haben, und ich ein Lehrer holen wollte, aber ich habe keinen gefunden. Einpaar Minuten später haben sie sich geprügelt, aber dann habe ich auch jemanden gefunden undzwar ein Lehrer. Den habe ich dann gerufen und er hat die zwei Kinder getrennt.Oder z. B. bei dem Foto da hatte mich ein Junge genärft. Dann bin ich zum Lehrer gegangen und habe gesagt: „Endschuldigung dieser Junge hat mich genärft, dann hat der Lehrer den Jungen wo anders sitzen lassen aber nicht in meiner nähe und das war nun meine Lösung.Oder einmal ist eine Lehrerin vorbei gegangen und wollte ihr Portmoune aus der Tasch raus holen aber dabei ist ein 50€ Schein runter gefallen und neben mir der Junge hat den 50€ Schein genommen, und ist rennent nach Hause gegangen. Ich wollte der Lehrerin bescheid sagen, aber die war auch schon weg. Naja ich konnte in diesem Moment nichts machen.

Directed by M. Y. Producted by M. Y.

Yes I (hatte) a problem with the photo. We are go in the room 300. And we have a photo. My friend nerv my, and I say: Wahts your problem! And (dann) I going to my teacher and I say: The people nerv my! Can you my help. The Teacher say: Yes I can help you. And (dann) is the Teacher to the boy going and say: You don‘t nerv M., it is not good. (Dann) (wäre) my problem not a problem. EndI (hatte) a problem with my friend too. My class have a history test. And my friend is in front of my. It is a boy. My friend cheating my history test! And (dann) I say my fiend: You don‘t cheating my history test! And (dann) is my problem in the sky of high.

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Some Linguistic Features of Melih’s textsTurkish: complex syntax, generally std morphosyntax• nominalizations, • Orthography, spelling as pronounced, influence from German

reportac (=röportaj) ‚reportage‘

German: complex syntax, generally std morphosyntax• orthography, separation of words, capitalization • spelling as pronunced genärft (=genervt), rennent (=rennend)• influence of Turkish construction types ?(rennent nach Hause gegangen)

English: complex syntax but apparent transfer from German, • Word order, capitalization, spelling (n.b. nerv not nerf)• nst agreement and case of pronoun, my ‘my’ and ‘me‘, aux verbs• colloquial English input? what’s your problem, sky high

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 40

Hâle 18;02 – oral text in Turkish violence at school

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 41

… bizim okulda geçen sene olması lazım, öğretmen dövüldü, küçük bir ilkokul öğrenci tarafından öğretmen dövüldü. Falan. Böyle şeyler çok yaşanıyor son zamanlarda özellikle. Eee Tabii bu da, biz Türkler olarak, genelde bunları yabancılar yaptığı için, biz burda çok dışlanıyoruz. Hani yabancılar böyle yapıyor diye. Aslında alakası yok. ... Ama bizde suçlanıyoruz bunlar böyle yapınca. ‘... in our school, it must have been last year, a teacher was beaten up, by a little primary school pupil a teacher was beaten up And so on. We experience especially such things more frequently recently. Um, and that naturally, we as Turks, since it’s mostly foreigners that do these things, we are strongly discriminated against. Because foreigners act like this. Actually it has nothing to do with that...But naturally we are accused, when they act like that.’

Hâle 18;02 – oral text in German - cheating

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 42

Also zu dem Thema Spicken kann ich eigentlich sagen, dass es wirklich in der Schülerschaft ganz normal ist. Also wenn man eine Klausur schreibt, dann spickt man halt, also das ist wirklich was ganz normales geworden, und. Aber man musste ja vorher nachdenken, bei wem, welchem Lehrer man spickt, weil es gibt Lehrer, die wirklich während der Klausur die Videoüberwachung spielen, und es gibt auch Lehrer, die während der Klausur sitzen und die Zeitung lesen, und bei den Lehrern überlegt man sich, warum sollte ich mich zu Hause hinsetzen, fünf Stunden lernen, während andere sich hinsetzen und ne halbe Stunde für 'n Sp-, Sp-, uhm, für einen Spicker gebrauchen, und dann hinterher eine bessere Note schreiben. 'On the topic of cheating I can say actually that it's completely normal among pupils. So whenever you write an exam you cheat, that has really become something completely normal and. But you have to think ahead of time about with whom, with which teacher you cheat because there are teachers who really play video surveillance during the exam and there are also teachers who during the exam sit and read the newspaper, and with those teachers you think, why should I sit at home and study for five hours, while others use a half hour for a ch-, ch- um for a cheat sheet, and then afterwards get a better grade.'

Hâle 18;02 – oral text in English - ostracism

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 43

from my own experience I can tell you that we had a girl on

our class and me and two friends of mine, we didn't like her

really, and we always made jokes to her and we sometimes

exaggerate really, and I can remember that, that when we

four were, were, in a room, that we three laughed about

stories which she didn't know, and we xxxxxx xxxxxx and so

on. and, but she wants to be one of our best friends, but we

didn't like her, and, but she wasn't nasty, or so, she xxxxxx

quiet lovely girl, but we didn't like her, and now she gaved

up.

Some Linguistic Features of Hâle’s texts

Turkish: Some nst morphology, transfer from German?• missing compound ending ilkokul öğrencisi ‚primary school pupil‘.

German: complex, essentially standard morphosyntax

English: quite complex, some “typical “ learner errors• Standard: case marking, gender, agreement, relative clauses , …• Nonstandard

– choice of preposition, – overgeneralization of regular to irregular verb: gaved

Pfaff: Feb 11, 2011 Berkeley Language Center 44

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Selected Results – Language Practices of adolescentsLLDM- MULTILIT secondary pupils’ in Berlin

Language Choice with family and friends

Participant to interlocutors, interlocutors to participants– in Germany – in Turkey

Self reported extent of language mixing

Language in social media, literacy practices

Languages Practices: Self reports of 10th and 12th graders (2007)

• Family language includes German -- often with parents as well as siblings

• Language mixing is common, seen as normal

• Turkish media and trips to Turkey support maintenance

• Formal instruction of Turkish – supports Turkish maintenance

• But even without formal instruction, many learn to read (and write) Turkish from relatives and friends.

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Language choice in Germany(Akıncı & Pfaff 2008)

“German and Turkish” includes both mixing Turkish & German as well as language alternation.

Additional languages not included in the table. -Other languages spoken in Turkey Kurdish, Arabic or Greek especially with grandparents and/or parent(s) -English (including with grandparents & parents)

(n=43) Participant to Interlocutor Interlocutor to Participant

Interlocutors

German only

Turkish only

German and

TurkishNo

answerGerman

onlyTurkish

onlyGerman

and Turkish

No answer

Grandparents 0% 83.3% 16.7% 0% 0% 78.4% 13.5 8.1%

Mother 0% 35.7% 64.3% 0% 0% 50% 47.6% 2.4%

Father 2.3% 20.9% 74.4% 2.3% 7.5% 22.5% 67.5% 2.5%

Siblings 22% 0% 78.0% 0% 16.7% 0% 78.6% 4.8%

Friends 7.1% 16.7% 76.2% 0% 2.3% 14% 81.4% 2.3%

Language choice in Turkey(Akıncı & Pfaff 2008)

(n=43) Participant to interlocutor Interlocutor to Participant

Interlocutors

German only

Turkish only

German and

TurkishNo

answerGerman

onlyTurkish

onlyGerman

and Turkish

No answer

Grandparents 0% 75.6% 9.8% 14.6% 0% 76.3% 10.5% 13.2%

Mother 0% 53.6% 39% 7.3% 0% 61.5% 30.8% 7.7%

Father 0% 37.2% 51.2% 11.6% 0% 45.2% 45.2% 9.5%

Siblings 2.4% 16.7% 69% 11.9% 2.8% 25.0% 63.9% 8.3%

Friends 7.3% 46.3% 29.3% 17.1% 7.3% 46.3% 29.3% 17.1%

“German and Turkish” includes both mixing Turkish & German as well as language alternation.

Additional languages not included in the table. -Other languages spoken in Turkey Kurdish, Arabic or Greek especially with grandparents and/or parent(s) -English (including with grandparents & parents)

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Conclusions 1: Maintenance / Shift / Change in Turkish

Turkish has high ethnolinguistic vitality among immigrant languages in Europe, particularly in ethnic enclaves such as Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Over time, it will probably decline as communities shift to the majority languages in educational and work domains.

But in the meantime, diaspora varieties are developing (and stabilizing?)

Ongoing research of the TINWE Group of researchers on Turkish in North Western Europe

Conclusions 2: The state of the Turkish language in Europe

Children and adolescents are increasingly bilingual. Some approach German-dominance, others remain Turkish-dominant, at least in their younger years.

Attrition / incomplete acquisition and decline in social domains of use affect Turkish diaspora varieties,

Mixing and Code-switching doesn’t mean that the Turkish word has been lost..Often the Turkish equivalent – or a Turkish paraphrase is used immediately after the German word. Grammatical separation can be maintained despite mixing.

Structures: Most grammatical structures of Turkish are robustly maintained – even without formal Turkish instruction.

Morphosyntactic diversity – Some decline is noticed speakers who have shifted most to German, but in Nancy Dorian’s well known phrase,

Turkish if it’s dying, is dying with its morphological boots on.

Constructional and discourse patterns are changing, more empirical support for the role of pragmatic transfer from German is still needed.

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Thank you!

Comments and questions are most welcome

jfkilxpf@zedat.fu-berlin.de

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Selected References• Akıncı, Mehmet-Ali and Carol W. Pfaff 2008 “Language Choice, Cultural and Literacy practices of Turkish bilingual

adolescents in France and in Germany” International Association for Applied Linguistics (AILA) Essen.

Akıncı M.-A., M. Dollnick, C. W. Pfaff and S. Yılmaz. 2010. “Development of lexical richness in Turkish written texts of bilingual children in Germany” International Conference on Turkish Linguistics 15.

• Backus, Ad, Jens Normann Jørgensen and Carol W. Pfaff (2010) "Linguistic effects of immigration: Language choice, codeswitching and change in Western European Turkish" LINCOM Language and Linguistics Compass. 4/7 (2010): 481–495, 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00215.x

• Berman, R & L. Verhoeven 2002. “Developing text-production abilities across languages, genre and modality. Written Languages and Literacy, 5,1, 1-43.

• Hayasi, Tooru, Carol W Pfaff & Meral Dollnick (2012) "Continuity and contact-induced-change in varieties of Turkish in Berlin: grammatical judgments and production of demonstrative pronouns of Turkish/German bilinguals" (with Tooru Hayasi and Meral Dollnick). Paper presented at SS19 panel Relating the Productions of Multilingual Children and Adolescents in their Languages. Berlin, Germany.

• Pfaff, Carol W. 1991a. "Turkish in contact with German: language maintenance and loss among immigrant children in West Berlin". International Journal of the Sociology of Language 90. 97-129.

• Pfaff, Carol W. 1991b. "Mixing and linguistic convergence in migrant speech communities: linguistic constraints, social conditions and models of acquisition". Code-switching and Language Contact: Constraints, Conditions and Models. Strassbourg: European Science Foundation. 120-153.

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References cont’.

• Pfaff, Carol W. 1993. "Turkish language development in Germany. In: G. Extra and L. Verhoeven (eds.) Immigrant Languages in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 119-146.

• Pfaff, Carol W. 1998 "Changing patterns of language mixing in a bilingual child" In: Extra, G. and L. Verhoeven (eds.) Bilingualism and Migration. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 97-121.

• Pfaff, Carol W. (2000b)."Bilingual verbal repertoires as represented in the speech of Turkish / Danish and Turkish / German bilingual children in the Køge and Kita projects". In Anne Holmen and Normann Jørgensen (eds.). Det er Conversation 801 Değil mi?. Perspectives on the Bilingualism of Turkish Speaking Children and Adolescents in North Western Europe. Køge Series K7. Copenhagen: Royal Danish School of Educational Studies. pp. 195-229.

• Pfaff, Carol W. (2001) "The development of co-constructed narratives of Turkish children in Germany". In Ludo Verhoeven & Sven Strömquist (eds.). Narrative Development in a Multilingual Context. Studies in Bilingualism 23. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 153-188.

• Pfaff, Carol W. 2011. Multilingual Development in Germany in the Crossfire of Ideology and Politics: Monolingual and Multilingual Expectations, Polylingual Practices. TRANSIT on line publication. University of California Berkeley. http://german.berkeley.edu/transit/2011/articles/Pfaff.html

• Pfaff, Carol W. 2012. “Sociolinguistic Practices and Language Policies for Migrants in Germany”. In Annikki Koskensalo, John Smeds, Rudolf de Cillia & Ángel Huget (eds.) LANGUAGE: Competence - Change - Contact. SPRACHE: Kompetenz - Kontakt - Wandel Dichtung – Wahrheit – Sprache Bd. 11, 2012. Berlin-Münster-Wien-Zürich-London: LIT Verlag. pp. 103-118.