“Made” to Study German?—Imagined Native-Speaker & Learner Communities and the Im/Plausible German Language Self

ABSTRACT

This study explored how 296 U.S. learners of five foreign languages (FLs), including German, imagined stereotypical native speakers (NSs) and likely learners of German. Results showed that (a) when students of different languages imagined NSs of German, they emphasized different stereotypes; learners of German named the most and the most diverse stereotypes, which was particularly remarkable as all groups emphasized negative characteristics; (b) descriptions of characteristics of NSs corresponded with those of learners of German; (c) many respondents—especially those who were not students of German—considered heritage connections as an essential characteristic of a learner of German; and (d) non-learners of German gave more detailed descriptions of likely learners than of NSs of German. Results outline pathways of imagined self- and other-exclusion from German-speaking communities, which, in turn, raise questions about how the study of a foreign language can reach its stated goals of personal transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• German
• identity
• imagined communities
• intercultural understanding
• second language learning
• second language teaching

Notes

1 Fall 2017; Issue 3.

2 For learners of Russian, disposition was equally prominent with culinary & cultural interests.

3 Learners of Japanese were exceptional with the rate of responses for description of NSs (1.4) narrowly exceeding that for learners (1.5).