Maintenance and Promotion in North Frisian Language Instruction on Föhr, Germany

Abstract

Minority language classes are often diverse, with students ranging from true beginners to native speakers. Language instruction must simultaneously maintain the skills of native speaker students and promote the language by teaching the language to beginner students. This study discusses how the language instruction program on Föhr, Germany tackles maintenance and promotion of North Frisian. This study combines a preliminary description of Frisian language instruction on Föhr with an experimental story-telling task. The results of the native speaker ratings of the story-telling task emphasize the importance of both home language input and Frisian instruction, but more detailed case studies also point to a complex network of factors which influence minority language acquisition.