Deconstructing the myth of Standard German: Navigating language ideologies in the L2 German university classroom

Abstract Previous research has established a connection between Standard Language Ideology (SLI) and prestige and power and has highlighted the existence of a dominant cultural narrative that idealizes Standard High German as a provider of cultural elevation and unity, viewing nonstandard Germanic varieties as exotic. Nevertheless, scholars have likewise emphasized the importance of familiarizing L2 German students with the standard and nonstandard regional and dialectal varieties that are widely used within and across Germanic‐speaking countries. Through a grounded ethnographic approach involving classroom observations and interviews, the study suggests that the L2 German university students observed seemed to believe in the superiority of Standard German despite efforts by their instructors to counter this belief. The study extends previous research by illustrating L2 German instructors' negotiation strategies, used to highlight the communicative legitimacy of German and Austrian dialects to their students.