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Antje
Menk
Biography/Bibliography/Contact
I
was born in Germany
in 1941 and grew up
in Hamburg. After studying
psychology, linguistics
and oriental languages
in Hamburg, Kiel and
at UCLA and a thesis
on Armenian minor clauses
(strictly transformationalist)
I became professor of
linguistics at Bremen
University in 1971.
My
main task has been to
train teachers for German
as a foreign and second
language but it is shifting
now towards teaching
German to native monolinguals
and all kinds of immigrant
multilinguals - usually
in the same class.
I
soon discovered that
immigration led to a
growing linguistic diversity
in town, which opened
up numerous linguistic
questions about languages
other than German and
about problem areas
beyond linguistics.
Together with a midwife
(Edith Reimers) and
a Kurdish friend from
Turkey I developed a
Turkish course for midwives
and doctors (Türkisch
im Kreißsaal 1981)
and worked on language
questions in high school-mathematics
and in the training
of doctor's helpers.
Together with some Kurdish
and German teachers
we made a primer for
the Kurmanci language
(Xwendin u nivisandin
pir xwes e Bremen 1995)
Since
1990 I have done research
on language policy,
especially on the ideas
of majority members
about minority languages.
(Equality of opportunity
and assimilation Or:
We German left-wing
do gooders and minority
language rights to appear
in: Rights to language:
Equity, Power and Education,
Festschrift for Tove
Skutnabb-Kangas July
2000)
Contact
menk@uni-bremen.de
Bibliography
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