Syntax-based teaching of capitalization in German primary school

德国小学大写句法教学

• 批准号: 247372975
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Iris Rautenberg
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Lehren und Lernen / Allgemeine Psychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/247372975?language=en
• 关键词: Syntax; based; teaching; capitalization; German

For successful participation in our literate society, orthographic skills are crucial. However, especially in this field German pupils very often fail. In German orthography, particularly capitalizations within the sentence are error-prone. This result is surprising, as capitalizations are taught from the beginning of primary school. Therefore, current teaching methods need to be reconsidered. In primary school, children learn that the upper case is directly linked to the semantic properties of the lexical category substantive. This rule, however, distorts the fact that the function of upper case in German is not lexical or semantic, but rather syntactical. An alternative approach for teaching capitalizations is the syntax-based approach, in which the link between capitalization and lexical class is abandoned. Instead, the rule for upper case is motivated syntactically: The root of a noun phrase that can be expanded by adjective attributes is written with a capital. Several single-case studies with primary school children provide evidence for assuming that the syntax-based approach is more successful than a traditional approach that focuses on lexical class. However, experimental studies that have proven its effectiveness are still missing.The proposed study will try to fill this gap by evaluating the syntax-based teaching method empirically. Therefore, an experimental pre-/post-/follow-up study with second grade children is conducted. Two experimental groups (comprising 10 second-grade classes) each receive a different version of tuition following the syntax-based approach. A control group of another 10 second-grade classes learns capitalizations traditionally, using a lexical-class-based approach. Additionally, one group of pupils from grade 6 (control group 2, comprising 5 classes) is investigated. The children's orthographic and meta-linguistic skills concerning capitalization are measured. In order to draw the sample, a short survey of the teaching method of capitalizations is conducted with 150 primary-school teachers. This will form the basis for the selection of the two experimental groups and the control group 1. The two teachers of the experimental groups will participate in a workshop, in which they get to know the syntax-based approach. Along with the project team they will develop teaching materials and different methods. These materials and methods will be applied in class for the following three months, while the control group receives conventional classes.Upon completion of the evaluation project, interested teachers, representatives of school authorities and linguists will be invited to a conference where the research findings are presented and discussed.

要想成功地参与我们的识字社会，拼写技能是至关重要的。然而，特别是在这一领域，德国学生经常失败。在德语拼写法中，特别是句子中的大写字母很容易出错。这一结果令人惊讶，因为从小学开始就教大写字母。因此，目前的教学方法需要重新考虑。在小学阶段，儿童学习到大写字母与词汇范畴实体的语义属性直接相关。然而，这一规则扭曲了这样一个事实，即德语中大写字母的功能不是词汇或语义上的，而是句法上的。另一种教学大写的方法是基于句法的方法，这种方法摒弃了大写和词汇课之间的联系。相反，大写字母的规则在句法上是有理据的：可以由形容词属性扩展的名词短语的词根用大写写成。几个针对小学生的个案研究提供了证据，证明基于句法的教学法比注重词汇课堂的传统教学法更成功。然而，已经证明其有效性的实验研究仍然缺乏。本研究将试图通过对基于句法的教学方法进行实证评估来填补这一空白。因此，本研究对二年级儿童进行了实验性的前/后/后跟踪研究。两个实验组(包括10个二年级班)按照基于句法的方法，每个班接受不同版本的补习。另外10个二年级班级的控制组传统上使用基于词汇的方法学习大写字母。此外，还对六年级的一组小学生(对照组2，共5个班)进行了调查。测量了儿童有关大写字母的拼写和元语言技能。为了抽取样本，笔者对150名小学教师进行了一项关于大写教学方法的简短调查。这将成为选择两个实验组和控制组1的基础。实验组的两名教师将参加一个研讨会，在研讨会上他们了解以句法为基础的教学法。他们将与项目团队一起开发教材和不同的方法。这些材料和方法将在接下来的三个月里在课堂上应用，而对照组接受常规课程。在评估项目完成后，感兴趣的教师、校方代表和语言学家将被邀请参加一个会议，在那里展示和讨论研究结果。