Dach-Principle in Theory and in Practice and the Place of the Austrian Variety of the German Language in Bulgarian Schoolbooks

This paper focuses on the pluricentricity of the German language and the pluricentric approach in the German course books used in Bulgaria. In the first part, basic terms like pluricentricity and DACH principle are defined. The DACH principle views the cultural diversity as normal and uses the diversity of the German language in the different countries as an opportunity for multidimensionality in teaching German as a foreign language. The second part is dedicated to the most important lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactic specifics of the Austrian variety of the German language which, in my opinion, should be presented in the course books used in Bulgarian secondary schools. The third part contains the results of my study whose aim is to examine the pluricentric approach focusing on the presence of the Austrian German language in selected schoolbooks, approved by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. The results show that the pluricentric approach is barely implemented on a cultural level and the specifics of Austrian German language are totally neglected. Austria is mainly portrayed as one single tourist attraction – in this context, almost every information is limited to the capital Vienna. As opposed to Germany, the limited representation of Austria and its variety of the German language, culture and society is only a superficial “glimpse” in the Bulgarian schoolbooks, which has a significant impact on the students’ general perception of the German speaking countries.