Writing and reading means dealing with language(s). At Leuphana, you write exam texts in German or English. But you, yourself, might have an even broader language background.
Multilingual people often say that their personalities change when they switch between languages. These attitudes and behavior towards languages influence how we use them. That is why we distinguish between three types of language that are used in academic work and writing (Knorr 2019: 701):
Preferred Langauge(s): Language(s) in which your function entirely comfortable, without any effort. You may have one preferred language or several.
Working Language(s): Language that is or must be used in certain situations in order to achieve a communicative goal. Working languages are considered to be sufficiently "mastered."
Other Languages «Other languages" are those that a person has but rarely uses, which are "not mastered" or which have been partially forgotten.
Reflection exercise.
What communicative repertoire do you have? Download the "Language Portraits Worksheet" (pdf) and color it in. Assign a color to each language, place it in the outline and write down why this language is in this place for you. (This is the "what" part of this exercise).
In the next step, consider whether and how you use your personal language repertoire when reading and writing. (This is the "so what" part of the exercise).
What conclusions do you draw from your considerations? (This is the "now what" part of the exercise).
The pictures are some language portraits by previous students.
You can download the "Worksheet for you language portrait" (pdf) here.