Learning modal verbs of the students at Ho Chi Minh City Technical and Economic College (original) (raw)
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The study of modal verbs from a pedagogical perspective: An analysis of textbooks and grammars
Atlantis, 2006
This paper shows how the indiscriminate combination of the form-function criterion in the traditional presentation of modal verbs brings more confusion than light to the subject due mostly to the fact that the grammatical simplicity of modal verbs clashes with their semantic complexity. In order to verify the treatment of modals in the EFL classroom, both a reduced but representative sample of textbooks and English grammar books will be analysed. Based on the findings of research conducted in this field, this article concludes that when studying modals in the EFL classroom the pragmatic uses of modal verbs should be primed over potential polysemic often indeterminate semantic values and/or grammatical criteria based on a higher or lower rank of graded modality.
An approach to modality for higher education students of English
It is well known that English modal expressions pose no small problems for Spanish- speaking students. We believe that Higher Education students, due to their capacity for conceptual reasoning, may benefit from understanding the concept and types of modality and by knowing the main expressions of each type. This paper will set forth an approach to the expression of modality in English in these lines: modal auxiliaries will be shown to have a given degree of strength in all their uses, which may apply to two or more types of modality. Due to the functional basis of this proposal, modals will be viewed together with other realizations of all the meanings within the area of modality. We will also suggest diverse activities geared towards familiarization with modal expressions, including analysis of authentic texts and exercises based on communicative functions such as supposing or requesting.
Based on the discrepancies found in many Malaysian English language textbooks, a detailed analysis on the way modal auxiliary verb forms and their semantic functions were introduced and presented in texts and exercises in five Malaysian textbooks was done. For that to be achieved, a qualitative page-by-page content analysis was applied. From the discussion of the grammatical progression in the textbooks, we can see that the presentation of modal auxiliaries in Malaysian English language textbooks is not fully in accordance with their use in natural English. Besides that, although recycling modal auxiliaries throughout different levels in order for the students to fully grasp their various meanings is advised by many linguists, we could see that Malaysian textbook authors used only a few of the same modals to express repetitive semantic functions. Accordingly, changes are recommended in order to bring the English taught in textbooks into accordance with real-life language use.
2007
This paper shows how the indiscriminate combination of the form-function criterion in the traditional presentation of modal verbs brings more confusion than light to the subject due mostly to the fact that the grammatical simplicity of modal verbs clashes with their semantic complexity. In order to verify the treatment of modals in the EFL classroom, both a reduced but representative sample of textbooks and English grammar books will be analysed. Based on the findings of research conducted in this field, this article concludes that when studying modals in the EFL classroom the pragmatic uses of modal verbs should be primed over potential polysemic often indeterminate semantic values and/or grammatical criteria based on a higher or lower rank of graded modality.
The aim of the article is to analyze lexical and grammatical means of expressing modality in the literature on technical sciences in German and the ways of their translating. Basing on the aim of the research, it is necessary to solve the following problems: 1) to distinguish the means of expressing modality in the literature on technical sciences; 2) to define the role of lexical and grammatical means of expressing modality in a special test; 3) to identify the means of expressing modality which are the most difficult to translate and to understand in the test; 4) to give some recommendations as to developing and improving the skills of translating and using the means of expressing modality in speech.
Modal Auxiliary Verbs in Prescribed Malaysian English Textbooks
English Language Teaching, 2011
The use of corpus-based findings in order to inform L2 teaching materials have been emphasized by many researchers owing to the fact that the studies of authentic texts have revealed some inconsistencies between the use of grammatical structures in corpora, and those found in language textbooks that are based purely on hunch. Therefore, by comparing a textbook corpus with the British National Corpus, this study attempts to shed light on the extent in which modal auxiliary verbs presented in the Malaysian prescribed textbooks are identical with those used by native speakers. The findings showed that there are discrepancies between English language textbooks and real language use. Findings from this study contribute to the improvement of pedagogical practices in the teaching of the modal system and provide a sense of familiarity with textbooks’ content thus assisting educators in identifying the particular strengths and weaknesses in textbooks already in use.
A great number of scholars have long dealt with the question “what is modality” and it is still a much-examined topic, especially from a cross-linguistic point of view. The aim of this paper is to examine the use of English modal verbs by native speakers and German students of English in an academic setting. More precisely, it aims to compare and contrast the employment of the modal verbs may, might, must, ought to, shall and should in the BAWE (British Academic Written English) and the ICLE (International Corpus of Learner English) corpora. The data recovered from the quantitative and qualitative analyses will not only be deployed to show the similar and different linguistic strategies native and non-native speakers enact, but will also be used to understand the motives underlying the differences and similarities. While the modal verbs can, could, will and would are used very similarly by both native and German mother-tongue speakers and thus not particularly interesting material to analyse, the remaining modal verbs produce results that are more engaging when trying to understand the different approaches native and non-native speakers have towards the English language. In fact, native speakers’ use of may, might, must, ought to, shall and should discloses a wider but at the same time more specific range of usage, unlike German mother-tongue speakers who, being bound by grammar rules, find it hard to use these modals in such a flexible and versatile manner. It would seem that the errors that occur in the German mother-tongue speakers’ use of these modals could indeed be explained by the lack of a true equivalence between these English modals and their German counterparts and by the interference played upon the foreign language by the mother-tongue.
A Pedagogic Corpus Analysis: Modal Auxiliary verbs in Malaysian English Textbooks
i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 2011
Using corpus approach, over the past two decades, a growing number of researchers started to blame textbooks for neglecting important information on the use of grammatical structures in real language use and provided ample information about the mismatch between language used in textbooks and real language in use. Likewise, the prescribed Malaysian English textbooks used in schools are reportedly prepared through a process of material development that involves intuition and assumption. Hence, a corpus-based study was adopted here to allow the researchers to identify modal auxiliary verbs' order and ranking in both whole text-types and spoken text-type of five Malaysian English language textbooks. This study has revealed that for almost all of the modal auxiliaries, there is a discrepancy between frequency order in the textbook corpus and the three major reference corpora. The findings of this study also show that the currently used pedagogical language in Malaysian textbooks is mainly based on written rather than spoken English. This study does not suggest making drastic changes in the Malaysian textbooks in order to create a textbook that mirrors exactly the language used by native speakers. However, the most salient facts reflected from natural language corpora should not be ignored in the textbooks.
Investigating Students' Ability in Identifying English Modals
Modal verbs are also called auxiliary verbs, helping verbs and modal auxiliaries. They are special auxiliary verbs that express the degree /of certainty of the action in the sentence, attitude or opinion of the writer concerning the action. These auxiliary verbs are can, could ,may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would and had better. Modality is one of the most difficult aspects of learning English, because the form of modals does not follow the conventional rules of grammar, and there are so many meanings of modals that students often get confused about which modal to use. Also, many EFL learners face difficulty in choosing the proper modal verb that fit certain situations because each modal verb has many functions. The present study is conducted to investigate fourth-year-college students " ability in signifying English modals appropriately and using them correctly. To fulfill the basic requirement of this study, the researchers organized a test, which consists of two questions; the first one is recognition, the second is production. The results show that the students have a real problem in recognizing and using modals. Section one: Introduction 1.1 The problem and Significance of the Study Modals of English derive from a special Germanic class of verbs (the ancestor of English and the other Germanic languages). They always differ from ordinary verbs, and in the course of history of English, they have diverged from verbs even further, to the point where they now belong to a syntactic category of their own (Siewierska, 1991: int.).They are important because they form tenses and alter the meanings of sentences to show "necessity, demand, strong deduction, recommendation, permission and desire"(phpBB Group, 2014:int.). Modality refers to the speaker " s attitude towards the judgment / or assessment of what he says. The complexity and multi-use of English modal auxiliaries comprise a serious challenge to EFL Students. EFL students have serious problems in using modals. Such problems are: 1. The misuse of modal auxiliary, that is attributed to the fact that the same modal can express different meanings in different contexts as in Mathies(1995: 73).