Language and Identity

Language barriers at public authorities, in schools and businesses often hamper the integration of immigrants. Researchers of different universities are now studying the phenomenon and are seeking solutions.

The form bears the heading “Application for exemption from the obligation to have a TV licence.” Filling it in is a challenge. Excuse me, but what is a “modern receiving device for public broadcasts”? And who could be “eligible for special welfare within the meaning of Section 27 e of the Federal War Victims Relief Act”? “You need highly developed linguistic skills and background knowledge about the institution involved in order to cope with such applications,” says Uta Quasthoff, Professor at the University of Dortmund. For immigrants with little knowledge of German, correspondence with public offices is often an insurmountable barrier. Many people develop avoidance strategies: They do not respond to letters or delegate burdensome official paperwork to relatives. The results can be annoying: “People often overlook information or suffer material disadvantages,” Quasthoff reports. For the philologist it is clear that “the lack of access to the written language is a barrier to integration par excellence.”

Language skills: A key to integration

That is something the researcher is now aiming to change. Together with her colleagues Ludger Hoffmann and Michael Kastner, she is heading the project Writing between languages and cultures, which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The Dortmund researchers are aiming to develop concepts to support immigrants in communicating with public offices, for example by means of simplified forms or help in filling them in. At the moment they are still collecting data. They are using questionnaires and interviews to find out about the experience of Turkish immigrants, but also of monolingual people in social flashpoints in the Ruhr district, with public authorities. This is to lead to proposals for practical improvements.

As well as Quasthoff’s project, the Volkswagen Foundation is also supporting two other research projects that are examining the influence of language on integration. All the experts agree that language skills are the key to successful integration. One of the projects is headed by Michael Bommes of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück. He and his colleagues are studying how children learn to write. The research team observed a year one and a year seven class in Duisburg-Rheinhausen for a year. In both classes, a third of the pupils are growing up multilingually, with most of them speaking Turkish at home. The researchers believe that learning to write is a particular challenge for them because the language of instruction is not their first language. The IMIS team is now hoping to explain how pupils learn to put phonemes into letters and how they differentiate between oral and written language. The researchers are aiming to find out which factors make it easier for schoolchildren to access written language.

Language barriers at work

At work, too, language skills play a key role – and not just for highly skilled staff. This is the surprising discovery of Matilde Grünhage-Monetti of the German Institute for Adult Education in Bonn. “Complex linguistic abilities are needed even for semiskilled jobs,” says the English language specialist, who comes from Italy. One of the aims of her research project “German at work” is to improve language courses for adults. “These courses are not a good preparation for the demands of working life,” reports Grünhage-Monetti. Together with her colleagues, she visited companies where she held interviews and recorded everyday conversations.

Her first conclusion is that immigrants have few problems with specialist terms. Many of them have difficulties with the fact that extremely varied forms of communication are used. Even people with few qualifications, for example cleaners, are exposed to very complex and rule-based language. Staff have to understand safety instructions, fill in order forms and document mistakes. On the other hand, they also have to understand colloquial language in order to be able to follow everything at meetings. Polite phrases, pronunciation and intonation, the studies have discovered, are also of great significance. In the care professions, for example: “People with dementia soon become aggressive if they do not understand something or if they think their conversation partner is being impolite,” says the researcher.

Focus on adult education

Grünhage-Monetti hears sentences like “Our staff are not here to talk but to work” less and less frequently. “Most businesses have realised that the linguistic demands have increased enormously.” As a result of her project, the research team has drawn up guidelines for language teachers. One result is that language courses should teach idioms rather than tenaciously drilling grammar. Also, language teachers should first of all find out what needs the course participants have. “Usually, there is no point in having a set curriculum. Each job has its own demands,” says Grünhage-Monetti. She sees adult education as an important but often neglected factor in the integration process: “If the integration of children is to succeed, one also has to invest in the parents. Then the whole family is involved.”