| dc.description.abstract | This study seeks to investigate to what extent previous knowledge of spoken German dialect in the area where the research was conducted fosters or hinders students from learning the standard language. Four high school students, speakers of German dialect, whose curriculum includes German classes, were selected to participate in this project. During four months, they wrote study journals and autobiographies. They also participated in a semi-structured interview led by the researcher and in the Deutsches Sprachdiplom II proficiency test. The data suggest that previous knowledge of the dialect fosters learning the standard language, mainly, concerning three aspects, namely, oral and listening skills and text comprehension. Other aspects regarded as advantages of bilingual speakers over monolingual speakers were also evidenced, such as, higher metalinguistic consciousness, code switching sensitive to context and to the interlocutor and higher grades in different kinds of tests. In addiction to analyzing the data | en |
