Pronunciation competence

The research interest relates to refugees with the first languages Arabic and Persian (as well as the variety Dari) who intend to study in Germany. The research project is financed by funds from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art. In addition to the University of Kassel, the universities of Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Giessen and Marburg are also participating in the ministry's measure with their own individual projects.

In the long term, the Kassel project aims to develop an empirically based and scientific language-oriented pronunciation training for refugees with study prospects, which can be used in German courses for this target group. The basis for this is formed by two individual projects on the social acceptance of foreign accents and phonetic deviations in the German language and on the influence of the factor 'age' on foreign language pronunciation competence, the findings of which will be incorporated into the design of the pronunciation course.

In the first year of the project, two pilot pronunciation courses for refugee students with Arabic and Persian (Dari) as their languages of origin were held. Methods and techniques for teaching intonation and articulation were tested. Contrastive studies of the participants' languages of origin were consulted in advance and pronunciation tests were conducted to determine potential pronunciation deviations and to identify topics.