Standardsprache im Kindergarten - eine neue sprachdidaktische Herausforderung

Preparing kindergarden teachers for the class-room use of Standard High-German is a new challengeto teacher training in the German speaking part of Switzerland.The pre-school use of spoken High-German is due to the presence of a host of pupils who do notspeak German when starting kindergarden at the age of four or five. Teachers using Standard High-German in their class-rooms take to the norms and models of written - or rather - literary language.Kindergarden teachers in a long term school-project in the city of Basle - after all used to speakingSwiss German dialect in class - do not entirely succeed in living up to their own linguistic expectationsas teachers of Standard High-German as a second language - neither in terms of correctness nor infollowing up their own maxims of linguistic modelling and routine. Some maxims have to be revised ormodified: A clear distinction between different qualities of spoken Standard High-German isnecessary. For beginners an adjusted and elaborate input is appropriate whereas advanced learnersof German as a Second Language will benefit from a naturalistic and spontaneous class-roomcommunication in the target language.