German as a Pluricentric Language in Teacher Education at the Universities of Rio de Janeiro *

Abstract

A pluricentric perspective of the German language has been established in German as a Foreign Language teaching since the 1980s (with the ABCD theses). Organizations such as the International Association of Teachers of German (IDV) promote this standpoint currently through the DACH principle. Therefore, there is a growing interest in the linguistic and cultural diversity of the German-speaking areas. Although this is a topic widely discussed in conferences and publications, there is little empirical research on how this issue has been addressed, especially in teacher education and in non-German-speaking countries. This chapter will focus on the pluricentric approach in German undergraduate courses at the universities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In order to investigate this approach, we analyzed the teaching material used in class and conducted questionnaires with university lecturers and students. In the teaching material analysis, we identified characteristics of a pluricentric approach, although they were present superficially. Standard Austrian German and Standard Swiss German appear always marked and compared to the Standard German German. The findings indicate that a pluricentric approach of the German language in the Portuguese/German programs at the universities of Rio de Janeiro is still in its early stages.