TY - BOOK AU - Claudia Kunschak PY - 2021 CY - Berlin, Germany PB - Peter Lang Verlag TI - Language Variation in Foreign Language Teaching T2 - On the Road to Communicative Competence UR - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1098291 N2 - Language variation in foreign language teaching has been given little attention so far. Yet variation might be a useful tool for the development of communicative competence among learners. For this reason, awareness of and attitudes toward language variation were explored among college-level students of German. Participants were asked to listen to language samples in L1 and L2, fill out a questionnaire and volunteer for interviews. Findings indicate a high level of variation awareness, a positive attitude towards learning about variation, and a clear understanding of the role of variation in identity, culture and communication. The inclusion of variation into curricula, materials, and teacher training might thus be useful in preparing learners for real-life encounters with native speakers. KW - Deutsch, Sprachvariante, USA, Deutschunterricht, Awareness of language variation, Learner-centered instruction, Fremdsprachendidaktik, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Language variation, Language planning, communication LA - English ER -