Teaching of the Spanish subjunctive in Germany

In the present paper, we analyze how the linguistic phenomenon of the subjunctive in Spanish is taught in the language classroom in Germany and we argue that the teaching might benefit from the deep knowledge of the subjunctive accumulated in the scientific field of linguistics. For that aim, we closely scrutinized some of the most important textbooks and compared the given explanations and exercises on the subjunctive with the learning goals listed in the core curriculum of the German state Hessen. Three questions were central to the present study: 1) Which learning goals are pupils expected to reach according to the core curriculum? 2) What is the connection between those goals and the teaching units in the textbooks? 3) Is textbook information based on scientific-linguistic knowledge about the Spanish subjunctive? Results revealed that the teaching of the subjunctive is typically characterized by (a) introducing a list of elements (such as certain conjunctions and verbs) that trigger the use of the subjunctive; and (b) an overkill of exercises presenting the subjunctive in single independent clauses rather than longer authentic text passages or those targeting speaking and listening. While the textbooks embrace the learning goals reasonably, it is known that second language learners nevertheless encounter severe difficulties in learning the Spanish subjunctive (e.g. Terrell et al. 1987, Isabelli & Nishida 2005, Gudmestad 2006, 2013). We think that the didactic reductions make the understanding and use of the subjunctive more difficult. A content-driven language education, in turn, focusing on deeper linguistic background information on the function of the subjunctive (e.g. Gsell & Wandruszka 1986, Hummel 2001, Busch 2014) would provide pupils with a better and more comprehensive understanding of why the subjunctive is used.