Der litauische Diskurs über die deutsche Sprache und seine Auswirkungen auf die Sprachlernmotivation

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the attitudes to language learning, particularly to German language, in the Lithuanian public discourse. Texts on this topic chosen for the analysis appeared in two news portals – the national news portal delfi.lt and the regional news portal kaunodiena.lt. The database covers the period from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019; it consists of 82 articles from both news portals. For studying the image of German, the paper applies the framework of Language Learning Motivation Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis taking into account different argumentation strategies regarding learning or not learning German as a foreign language. As for the status of German, the texts analyzed reveal an ambiguous picture: on the one hand, German is claimed to be not popular in Lithuania, while on the other it is emphasized that Germany remains an important target country for high-quality Lithuanian experts and students. The argumentation for learning German includes several important reasons: German is represented as a commodity in such domains as studies and professional career; it is indispensable in international politics, for upholding cultural relations and while residing in Germany.