This paper describes the process of acquisition in learner varieties with respect to referenceand referential movement in the domain of modality. The findings are based on data from thelongitudinal ESF and P-MoLL projects and on cross-sectional data of Italian learners of German,as well as German and Italian native speech. The theoretical framework is provided by Klein andvon Stutterheim's (e.g., 1987) “quaestio model” and their concept ofreferential movement. The concept of modality is based on Dietrich's (1992) theory ofmodality. The present findings show that, in instructional discourse, the German native speakersprefer implicit, contextual-based modal means when referring to maintained topic information inthe domain of modality, whereas in the learner varieties at least three main stages can beobserved: a phase of formulaic speech and pragmatic mode, a phase of high explicitness, and aphase of approach toward implicit reference based on (target) principles of referential movement.With the help of a new category—subquaestio—I show how, with respect to thechange of modal means, the use of explicit modal marking in German native speech generallyarises from specific local difficulties. In contrast, the use of explicit modal reference in learnervarieties remains to a large extent unaffected by whether the modal marking depends on theoverall text quaestio or on local problems.