Language acquisition across varieties in the Alemannic area

语言习得研究在描述语言习得的里程碑和儿童语言加工能力方面取得了重大进展。然而，对德语的研究主要集中在标准德语的发展上，而低估了地区变体的影响，这些变体与标准语言一起出现在德语地区的许多地方是司空见惯的。D-A-CH州的阿勒曼尼亚地区为将方言标准变异纳入儿童语言习得研究提供了理想的条件。LAVAR项目的总体目标是调查2至8岁儿童在双语环境（当地阿勒曼方言和标准德语）中不同程度的语言习得情况。该项目旨在确定变体和标准语言写作习得中的语音和语法里程碑。此外，该项目旨在研究儿童感知和加工的发展轨迹，以及儿童对环境变量的社会意义和情境功能的认识。此外，该项目旨在建立第一个与标准语言竞争的地区方言习得的经验数据库。这些目标将由来自四个机构（Universität Marburg, PH Weingarten， SHLR Rorschach和Universität Salzburg）的变异语言学家和语言习得和心理语言学研究人员组成的国际团队来实现。该项目将开展一项横断面研究，从幼儿期到第二年（2岁至8岁）结束，对540名儿童进行控制随机抽样。结合语言习得研究、社会语言学和心理语言学的方法，为不同的年龄组和子项目量身定制：一些工具，如语言学习环境问卷和歧视任务，将用于所有年龄组和所有子项目。此外，根据研究的问题和目标，将对语音和语法发展的经典测试进行改编，并使用工具来研究儿童的语言适应行为并引出自由语言样本。这些任务包括确定写作能力，确定儿童对多样性的偏好，或检测方言和标准语言在线处理之间的差异。通过关注目标语言在不同国家特定社会和教育背景下的发展，该项目将为双语习得如何取决于语言使用环境、语言态度和语言教育条件，以及它与迄今为止仅关于标准德语习得的研究结果有何不同等问题提供与众不同的开创性见解。

Language acquisition research has made significant progress in describing milestones of acquisition and children's language processing abilities. Nevertheless, studies on German largely focus on the development of Standard German and underestimate the impact of regional varieties whose presence alongside the standard language is commonplace in many parts of the German-speaking area. The Alemannic region of the D-A-CH states offers ideal conditions for incorporating dialect-standard variation into research on child language acquisition. The overall objective of the project LAVAR is to investigate language acquisition in children aged 2 to 8 years in the bilectal context (local Alemannic dialect and Standard German) under varying degrees of prevalence of the two varieties. The project aims to identify phonological and grammatical milestones in both varieties and the acquisition of writing in the standard language. Additionally, the project sets out to investigate the developmental trajectory of the perception and processing as well as children's knowledge about the social meaning and situational functions of the ambient varieties. Furthermore, the project aims to build up the first empirical database of the acquisition of regional dialects competing with standard language. These objectives will be pursued by an international team of variationist linguists and researchers in language acquisition and psycholinguistics from four institutions (Universität Marburg, PH Weingarten, SHLR Rorschach and Universität Salzburg). The project will carry out a cross-sectional study from early childhood until the end of the second year of school (2 years to 8 years of age) with a controlled random sample of 540 children. A combination of methods from language acquisition research, socio- and psycholinguistics is tailored to the different age groups and subprojects: Some instruments, such as the questionnaire on the language learning environment and a discrimination task, will be used for all age groups and in all subprojects. Additionally, according to research questions and goals, adaptations of classical tests for phonological and grammatical development, and instruments to study children’s speech accommodation behavior and elicit free speech samples will be administered. Tasks to determine writing capacities, to ascertain children's preferences towards varieties, or detect differences between the online processing of dialect and standard language are included as well. In focusing on the development of the target varieties in different country-specific social and educational contexts, the project will provide differentiated and pioneering insights into the question of how bilectal acquisition depends on language usage contexts, language attitudes and language education conditions and how it differs from the findings described so far with regard to the acquisition of Standard German only.