On the basis of a sociolinguistically oriented and ecolinguistically inspired approach, the talk presents webinars on the teaching of Low German. We assume that, in addition to school lessons, a holistically oriented teaching of the regional language adressing various New Speakers (Jaffe 2015) with digital support is necessary.
In 2017, the Competence Center for Teaching Low German was founded at the University of Greifswald. The aim is the training, advanced training and further education of teachers of the regional language Low German as well as the development of innovative didactic concepts. In addition to questions of standardization, research into (1) holistic and (2) digital teaching methods is the focus of our work (Arendt et al. i.pr.). On the basis of a sociolinguistically oriented and ecolinguistically inspired approach, we assume that, in addition to school lessons, a holistically oriented teaching of the regional language to various New Speakers (Jaffe 2015) with digital support is necessary. In the talk we want to concentrate on out-of-school educational offers on the basis of webinars for New Speakers, which have been carried out since 2019. We will address questions of motivation as well as the appropriateness of didactic materials for heterogeneous groups of learners. The webinars are also relevant for the teaching of the regional language in schools, because in this way regional language networks can be set up online and offline in the sense of Communities of Practice, which can support the teaching in schools. As a possible affinity space (Hayes/Gee 2010), the Internet can play an important role in language maintenance and teaching. literature Arendt, B. et al. (eds.) (i.pr.): Niederdeutschdidaktik. Frankfurt/M. Hayes, E./Gee, J. (2010): Design, resource, and affinity spaces. In: Sandlin, J.A./Schultz, B. D./ Burdick, J. (Hgg.): Handbook of public pedagogy. Education and learning beyond schooling. Oxon: Routledge, 185-194. Jaffe, A. (2015): Defining the new speaker: theoretical perspectives and learner trajectories. In: International Journal of the Sociology of Language 231, 21-44.
