Das sieht ja ganz anders aus, wie fühlst du dich denn? Teaching Modal Particles ja and denn with the Queer Eye Germany series: a didactic model based on a Descriptive Format

Abstract

This article proposes a linguistically based framework that can be used for the teaching of Modal Particles (MPs) using contextualized examples of authentic interactions from the Netflix's series Queer Eye Germany. For the description of MPs ja and denn we employ the Descriptive Format (Diewald et al. 2017), an interlinguistic schematic table which provides a definition of the morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics of MPs. The format provides a linguistic framework for the development of a didactic material for teaching MPs, that is divided into three stages (Ende et al. 2013): introduction, elaboration and production. Therefore, the activities of the didactic model will be carried out in two phases: (i) the description of the formal and pragmatic characteristics of MPs ja and denn through the Descriptive Format; (ii) the elaboration of a didactic sequence with reception and production tasks using occurrences of MPs in authentic communicative contexts. This proposal aims to fill gaps in the teaching of MPs that takes into account a metalinguistic reflection (Aquino 2020), by which students can critically reflect on linguistic norms and the sociocultural reality of the target as well as of their own language.

Keywords

• German modal particles
• Didactic Model
• Descriptive Format
• authentic materials