Recording German speakers in the Barossa and beyond: Maintaining and renewing a heritage language
German speaking immigrants settled the Barossa and regional South Australia in the mid 19 century. German was the community language for social, business, education and cultural purposes. The Lutheran communities built churches,established German schools and colleges,and conducted religious and social activities in German.However, the impact of two World Wars and dominance of English resulted in the dramatic retraction of German from the middle of the twentieth century. Children were warned not to speak German, schools teaching in German were closed by government decree, German-speaking citizens were incarcerated and German place names were eliminated. Remarkably a few descendants from the nineteenth century immigrants have retained the ability to use German for different functions.
We have been talking with and recording elderly speakers of German, noting their experiences and their desire to use German again. For this reason the community and our research team have met for German speaking gatherings over 'Kaffee und Kuchen'. The response has been overwhelming. The community is now working to renew German use and to support the teaching of German in schools. We have established the Barossa German Language Association Inc., which organises events such as a Spielgruppe for pre-schoolers, regular public gatherings with guest speakers and Kaffee und Kuchen, activities in German for seniors in Barossa German Village, lantern processions and publishes a bilingual newsletter, the Blatt. In this seminar I will tell of this remarkable story of German language maintenance over almost two centuries, of the process of documentation of speakers and of the renewal activities of the Barossa German Language Association. The story highlights the human side of people’s language use and identity, and how documentation and renewal is enthusiastically supported in the local community.
About the Speaker
Dr Peter Mickan is Visiting Research Fellow (Applied Linguistics) in the Faculty of Arts. He established and managed the Postgraduate Applied Linguistics program in the University of Adelaide (2000-2013), designing and teaching in postgraduate courses in Language and Meaning (Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics), Language and Learning, English for Academic Purposes, Language Teaching in Specific Settings and Language Teaching Methods.
Theoretically his work is based on Halliday's language as a social semiotic and learning as socialisation experiences. The theory frames his studies in curriculum design, in languages pedagogy, in academic literacies, in language and literacy, in workplace communication, in German language revival, and in language assessment.