English in Germany: contact, spread and attitudes

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The majority of studies examining English in Germany have been rather narrow in focus, addressing largely the phenomenon of Anglicisms in the German language. In the late 1980s, however, scholars began looking beyond Anglicisms to consider the broader topic of the English language in the German context. This paper presents a qualitative, macrosociolinguistic profile of English in the largest of the German‐speaking countries, and also Europe's most powerful economy, the Federal Republic of Germany. Utilizing Kachru's world Englishes model as a theoretical framework, this study examines the following issues for a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of English in Germany today: the history of contact, the functional range of English, and the attitudes associated with the language.