Warum Deutsch lernen?

In the present study, we explore the discursive construction of German language learning identities on the Goethe Institute website. With this aim, we depart from critical sociolinguistic approaches to multilingualism and draw on an analytical framework which views discourse as a lens through which one can examine the ways identities are actively accomplished in particular contexts. From the analysis, it appears that on the central body of the Institute website, the German language learners are constructed as elite, global and mobile multilinguals. In contrast, the recipients of the Institute portal “Mein Weg nach Deutchland” are attached to the local and non-elite multilingual identities of immigrants / refugees. Thus, the Goethe Institute website is a socially constructed space invested with hierarchical meanings about “where” German language is an elite multilingual skill and “where” it is not.