Die Diskrepanz zwischen Linguistik und Fremdsprachenunterricht - am Beispiel der sogenannten Abtönungspartikeln im Deutschen

It is beyond question that linguistics and foreign language teaching should go hand in hand, but unfortunately, this is not always the case. A good example of this phenomenon are the German modal particles: small words such as wohl in Achmed? Er ist wohl Türke, as denn in Meine Ferien waren super. - Wo warst du denn? or as mal in Komm mal!. Although numerous scientific publications have been made on this topic, it is sufficient to examine German textbooks in use to find out that they often fail to utilise the scientific insights developed from linguistics, regarding these words. After a description of German modal particles seen from the point of view of linguistics, the present article analyses representative German textbooks in order to understand how the topic has been treated during the last 45 years and proposes new strategies for teaching them more effectively.