ALRJournal. 2021; 5(7): 58-67 | DOI: 10.14744/alrj.2021.76993

Common communicative failures in learning German

Khrystyna Dyakiv¹, Maryana Yaremko², Nataliia Bober^3
1Department Of International Communication And Translation, Ivan Franko National University Of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine
²Department Of German Philology, Ivan Franko National University Of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine
³Department Of Germanic Philology, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kyiv, Ukraine

The article analyzes communicative deviations that occur during the communication between German native speakers and non-native speakers, particularly Ukrainians. Despite existing intercultural and sociolinguistic studies, the analysis of language specificity that causes communicative deviations, failures and misunderstandings remains relevant and understudied. The purpose of this article is to identify and explore the German language peculiarities that cause misunderstandings in communication for non-native speakers, in particular Ukrainian speakers, and offer the algorithm for the representatives of different ethnic communities to help them avoid and resolve possible conflicts given the study of German as a foreign language. The status of the concept of communicative deviation in intercultural communication under conditions of insufficient communicative competence is determined in this article. The study uses the term communicative deviation in favor of a generalized term, a broad concept of linguistic, speech and communicative deviations in dialogic speech, in particular between native German speakers and non-native speakers. The empirical research was based on the speech activity of Ukrainian students during classes at the Department of German Studies and Translation (levels B2–C1) of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in 2019–2020 academic years and definitions from the Universal Dictionary of German Duden, in addition to the materials reflected in textbooks and teaching manuals as well as from authentic German-language sources. Communicative deviations are identified and analyzed in phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic aspects.

Keywords: communicative deviation (failure), German as a foreign language, Ukrainian language, communicative competence, intercultural communication.

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