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In:Variation in Language Acquisition: Unity in diversity
Edited by Laura Rosseel and Eline Zenner
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 34] 2025
► pp. 108–124

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Chapter 5
Adolescents’ attitudes towards varieties of German and Dutch in the German-Dutch border region

A developmental perspective

 | University of Münster
 | University of Cologne
Published online: 4 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.34.05vog
Abstract
Recent studies have shown (pre-)adolescence to be a key period in the development of attitudes towards language variation, which also correlates with general social development. Similarly, attitudes towards foreign languages are also known to develop with age. This article investigates attitudes in 10–18-year-olds living in Dutch and German border towns, both towards varieties spoken in their home country and in the neighbouring country. Quantitative analysis shows that prestige and solidarity attitudes become dissociated, and also reveals asymmetries between the Netherlands and Germany in the extent to which the neighbouring standard variety assumes prestige during adolescence, and in the evaluation of local dialects as solidarity varieties.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Developing attitudes in the German-Dutch border region
    • 2.1Attitudes: A developmental perspective
    • 2.2The German-Dutch border region
    • 2.3Research questions
  • 3.A border town study
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1The structure of adolescent attitudes (RQ1)
    • 4.2The attitudinal landscape in the German-Dutch border area (RQ2)
    • 4.3Correlations with social development (RQ3)
  • 5.General conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (37)
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