Sophie Rädel

From Language Learners to New Speakers – The Case of Adult Acquisition of Lower Sorbian

Supervision: Eva Vetter
Period: 2025-
Contact: 

Lower Sorbian (LS) is one of the two languages of the Sorbian minority in Germany and has been in a diglossia situation with German in Lower Lusatia for almost a millennium. Numerous factors have contributed to the steady decline in the number of LS speakers and nowadays, the speech community consists largely of people, who acquire or have acquired the language within the educational system. Like in many other minoritized language communities, a central question is how these learners can advance to New Speakers, which are people that use the language in their daily lives or at least make constant efforts to do so. For LS there are only a few learning resources for adults available, so that the contact to more proficient speakers is of high importance for the language learning process.In my doctoral work I want to investigate the possibilities of learning in those ‘informal’ settings beyond the classroom. Why, where and how do adults learn Lower Sorbian? Which role do the more proficient speakers play for the learning process? For my explorative study I have chosen a Mixed-Methods-design, consisting of a standardized questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and learning diaries.