Abstract

 Linguistic variation figures both within the inter-linguistic as well as the intra-linguistic domain. The latter phenomenon is of high relevance for a comprehensive Hindi L2 syllabus due to the rich internal diversity displayed by the Hindi language. Hindi varieties which especially matter for Hindi L2 learners at an intermediate level are educated and literary styles based on tatsama vocabulary and expressions. These are crucial in order to access educated and literary debates—such as debates located in the domain of journalism and academics (domains like belles-lettres or weltanschauung etc.) but also other kinds of technical language.

The present paper focuses on tatsama-centric varieties of Hindi and presents a communicative intermediate language textbook which aims at introducing the academic style. (The textbook was developed to teach 4th semester South Asia students at Copenhagen University.) The presentation comprises a discussion of methodological principles as well as their implementation in form of the various exercise types which structure the sequences of the teaching unites. The methodological framework applied draws on various disciplines comprising the linguistics of variety, morphology, language teaching studies and translational studies. The communicative content of the teaching material developed draws on debates on the history of modern Hindi and its literature.