The competent use of the specific language in contexts of education is a potential challenge for students (Gogolin 2010). Although there is no empirically verified description of the German language of schooling (Becker-Mrotzek/Roth 2017, S. 23), the passive is classified as typical for educational contexts (Feilke 2012, S. 5f.). Data, collected via corpus-linguistic analysis, has shown, that the German passive is used differently in school and everyday contexts: First of all, the passive is used more often in texts of school contexts than in everyday contexts (χ2 = 1629,2774, df = 1, p < 0,001, critical χ2-value = 10,828, w = 0,153). Furthermore, he passive is used with functional differences: The structure of the arguments in passive-sentences varies significantly depending on the context (χ2 = 32,4879, df = 2, p < 0,001, critical χ2-value = 13,816, w = 0,099). Moreover, the agents in passive-sentences has shown semantic differences depending on the language register of the text, whereby the use of inanimate agents with a reflexive way of reading can be interpreted as an over-generalization of the deagentivated form of representation and is used to express abstract issues linguistically. According to that, a survey of students shows that sentences in passive with a systemic agent are classified more challenging than sentences in passive with a human agent. It can be concluded, that terms and structures of educational language are more frequent in contexts of knowledge transfer, but their functions can differ depending on context and subjects. The challenges in reception arise not (only) from grammatical structure. Therefore, formal analysis of structures are insufficient and too general for the description of the language of schooling. Functional differences and the interaction with other aspects should be considered in the development of instruments for the operationalisation of the language of schooling.
literature: Becker-Mrotzek, Michael; Roth, Hans-Joachim; Lohmann, Cornelia (Hg.) (2017): Sprachliche Bildung - Grundlagen und Handlungsfelder. Unter Mitarbeit von Stefanie Bredthauer. Münster, New York: Waxmann (Sprachliche Bildung, Band 1). Feilke, Helmuth (2012): Bildungssprachliche Kompetenzen - fördern und entwickeln. In: Praxis Deutsch. Zeitschrift für den Deutschunterricht 39 (233), S. 4–13. Gogolin, Ingrid (2010): Durchgängige Sprachbildung. In: Christiane Bainski und Marianne Krüger-Potratz (Hg.): Handbuch Sprachförderung. Essen: Neue Deutsche Schule Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH, S. 13–21.
