MODAL VERBS REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

MODAL VERBS REFERENCES

What is grammar?

What is grammar? Is it necessary to teach grammar? Will grammar help students to better understand and use the language? These are only some of the questions that need to be answered.

Grammar is defined in the "THE LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH" as "(the study and practice of) the rules of a language by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences".

Unfortunately, in many of the English classes, grammar is taught for its own sake, not with the purpose of being used in communication. The knowledge of the rules of grammar gives the students only some measure of algebraic "accuracy", which by itself can, and perhaps generally does, help them to pass the examinations in English, but does not give them the ability to communicate meaningfully in real-life situations.

What is needed to remedy the situation is a methodology that can effectively blend "accuracy" and "fluency", a methodology that aims at developing "communicative competence". Widdowson (1984:59) points out that: "Fluency and accuracy are complementary and interdependent phenomena: the problem is to know how the dependency works in natural language use and how it can best be developed in the process of language learning."

Grammar can be taught in different ways. One of them is when the teacher actually provides the students with grammatical rules and explanations-the information is openly presented, in other words.

Another way is when grammatical facts are hidden from the students-even though they are learning the language. In other words, the students may be asked to do an information gap activity or read a text where new grammar is practiced or introduced, but their attention will be drawn to the activity or to the text and not to the grammar.

Jeremy Harmer, calls the first type of teaching grammar-overt grammar teaching, and the second type-covert grammar teaching.

With overt teaching we are explicit and open about the grammar of the language, but with covert teaching we simply get students to work with new language and hope that they will more or less subconsciously absorb grammatical information which will help them to acquire the language as a whole.

The middle way is always the best, so teachers should use both covert and overt grammar teaching during their lessons. Students need to learn how to perform the functions of language, but they need a grammatical base as well. Modern courses often teach a grammatical structure and then get students to use it as part of a functional conversation.

Although at an early stage we may ask our students to learn a certain structure through exercises that concentrate on virtually meaningless manipulations of language, we should quickly progress to activities that use it meaningfully. And even these activities will be superseded eventually by general fluency practice, where the emphasis is on successful communication, and any learning of grammar takes place only as incidental to this main objective.

What does learning grammar involve?

In order to be good teachers of English, before even planning the organization of our teaching, we need to have clear in our minds exactly what our subject matter is. Some grammatical structures in English have exact parallels in the native language and are easily mastered; others have no such parallels but are fairly simple in themselves; there are others, which are totally alien and very difficult to grasp.

Some have fairly simple forms, but it may be difficult to learn where to use them and where not; others have relatively easy meanings, b 17517l1124r ut very varied or difficult forms. Some involve single-word choices, others entire sentences.

When we teach any one of these types we should be getting our students to learn quite a large number of different, though related, bits of knowledge and skills: how to recognize the examples of the structure when spoken, how to identify its written form, how to produce both its spoken and written form, how to understand its meaning in context and produce meaningful sentences using it themselves.

Some teachers have a tendency to concentrate on some of these and neglect the others. It is important to keep a balance, taking into account the need of the particular class being taught.

Particularities of Modal Verbs in English

Why teach verbs? Maybe because they are the most important parts of speech. Why modal verbs? Because they are a little bit difficult and a little bit different from their equivalents in Romanian.

The modal verbs are a group of verbal forms which were originally past but which have come to express the meaning of the present tense:

can, may, shall, dare-Past Indicatives

will, must, ought-Past Subjunctives

Formal characteristics of Modal Verbs

At present they are a limited number of items called "closed-system items" which have the same formal characteristics:

they are uninflected-they don't add "-s" for the third person singular;

they are anomalous-they form the interrogative and negative without the auxiliary "do". When the verb phrase consists of two or more auxiliaries, the modal verb always takes the first position in the verb phase;

there are gaps in the TENSE/ASPECT/MOOD paradigms-that is why they are sometimes called "defective verbs";

they can not be conjugated in all tenses, moods;

they are verbs of incomplete predication-that is they must be followed by another verb in the Infinitive (Present or Perfect Infinitive)-by Short Infinitive, with the exception of "ought".

Semantic characteristics of Modal Verbs

The Modal Verbs make up a system specialized for expressing the speaker's attitude towards the action of the sentence. The action is seen to be necessary, probable, befitting. The Modal Verbs are polysemantic words. Each modal verb has at least two meanings: a semantic property also reflected by the syntax of these verbs.

Modal verbs can be divided in two main types having:

a) DEONTIC (primary) values:

- obligation;

ability;

permission;

b) EPISTEMIC (cognitive) values:

-likelihood;

-probability.

Deontic modal verbs do not occur in the continuous aspect, while epistemic modal verbs do.

E.g. MAY

The child may play in the garden. - Deontic Modal Verb-permission

The child may be playing in the garden. - Epistemic Modal Verb-probability

E.g. MUST

He must eat now. - Deontic Modal Verb-obligation

He must be sleeping now. - Epistemic Modal Verb-probability

What do Modal Verbs express?

Modal Verbs may express ability, permission, obligation-necessity, possibility, deduction-likelihood-probability-supposition-assumption, habit and volition-willingness.

Expressing ability

Ability can be expressed by can, could. They express either physical ability or mental ability to perform a certain action.

Can has a present or future time reference.

E.g. Young Tom is very clever. He can play the violin.

Can you come to the meeting tomorrow?

Could can be combined with a Present Infinitive or a Past Infinitive.

Could + Present Infinitive

E.g. I can't do it now but I could do it tomorrow.

She could play tennis like a professional when she was young.

Was/were able to are used to express particular past ability, an individual event that was successfully performed in the past.

E.g. He ran and was able to catch the bus.

Could + Perfect Infinitive expresses past ability.

E.g. I could have learned the poem but I was lazy.

Should, might can also be combined with the idea of ability.

E.g. Ask the policeman over there. He should/might be able to help you.

1.4.2.Expressing permission

Asking and giving permission is a matter of politeness, so the forms we use vary in the different situations. May/might, can/could are usually used to express permission.

May is used in formal style to request for permission (in questions), giving permission (in affirmative sentences) and refusing permission (in negative sentences).

E.g. May I borrow your pen for a minute?

Yes, you may.

No, you may not.

Might expresses a more polite or more tentative request for permission than may. It is used in formal questions.

E.g. Might I trouble you for a light?

Can is used in less formal style than may to express permission.

E.g. Can I borrow your pen?

Yes, you can.

No, you can not.

Could expresses a more polite request for permission than can. It always expresses request and it is always used only in questions.

E.g. Could I ask you something if you are not too busy?

Yes, you can.

Other means of expressing permission are:

to (be) allowed, to (be) permitted

E.g. The children were allowed to go out and play.

to give/have permission

E.g. We had permission to go out for an hour.

mind

E.g. Do you mind if I smoke?

1.4.3.Expressing obligation, necessity

Must, need, shall, should, ought to are usually used to express obligation.

Must expresses internal obligation, the speaker's own feelings about what is important.

E.g. I really must stop smoking.

Have to expresses external obligation.

E.g. What a pity you have to go now.

Need + Present Infinitive

E.g. Need I go there?

Need + Perfect Infinitive

E.g. She needn't have hurried.

Should/ought to express recommendation or advisability, rather than obligation.

Should/ought to + Present Infinitive

E.g. You have watched enough TV; you should go to bed now.

Should/ought to + Present Infinitive

E.g. He should have been a little more polite.

Other means of expressing obligation/necessity:

1.shall

E.g. Books shall be returned within a month.

2.must, be to, have to

E.g. You are to be there at eight o'clock.

3.lexical verbs: to oblige, to compel, to be supposed to

E.g. The crew was obliged to leave the sinking ship.

4.had better

E.g. You had better not make any mistakes next time.

5.adjectives: obligatory, necessary, compulsory, bound to

E.g. I feel bound to tell you the truth.

6.nouns: obligation, necessity, need

E.g. Is there any need for hurry?

1.4.4.Expressing possibility

Possibility can be expressed with the use of may, might, can, could.

May expresses factual or actual possibility, the actual chance of something happening or being true.

May + Present Infinitive

E.g. He may be ill.

Might + Present Infinitive

E.g. He might come tomorrow.

May/might+ Perfect Infinitive expresses speculation or supposition about past events; possibility that an action happened in the past.

May + Perfect Infinitive- the possibility of past action still exists in the present

E.g. He may have had an accident.

Might + Perfect Infinitive expresses the idea that a past action was possible in the past but it did not happen.

E.g. The child got home alone. You shouldn't have let him alone, he might have lost his way home.

Can refers to a general, theoretical possibility. Events or actions are possible without telling the chance of the happening.

E.g. One can travel to England by boat or by air.

Could + Present Infinitive-something is possible but not particularly likely.

E.g. I wonder where Tom is. He could be in the library.

Can/could + Perfect Infinitive expresses a possibility in the past.

Can + Perfect Infinitive occurs in interrogative and negative sentences, but not in affirmative ones.

E.g. She is two hours late. What can have happened?

Could + Perfect Infinitive occurs in all types of sentences.

E.g. Ann couldn't have seen Tom yesterday.

Expressing deduction, likelihood, logical obligation, probability, supposition, and assumption.

Assumption means what we infer to be the most likely interpretation of a situation, of am event; it can be expressed by means of: must, should, ought to, will, would.

Must + Present Infinitive indicates logical deduction about a present action.

E.g. The child must be playing.

Must + Perfect Infinitive indicates logical deduction about a past action.

E.g. Tom is behaving very strangely. He must have been drinking.

Should/ought to are weaker equivalents of must.

E.g. Our guests should be here now.

Will + Present Infinitive expresses a supposition about present state of affairs.

E.g. Is his name Brown? Then he will be English.

Will + Perfect Infinitive expresses present supposition about a past state of affairs.

E.g. They will have arrived by now.

Would + Present Infinitive expresses a tentative assumption about a present state of affairs.

E.g. Would your mane be Brown by any chance?

Would + Perfect Infinitive expresses supposition with past time reference.

E.g. I mat a charming girl last night. That would be my cousin Mary.

1.4.6. Expressing habit

The concept "a customary or repeated action or state" is expressed by: will, would, and used to.

Will + Present Infinitive is mostly used in statements having general current validity. We want to emphasize the characteristic of the subject, rather than the action performed.

E.g. He is no strange. He will sit for hours without saying anything.

Would + Present Infinitive acquires past time reference, expressing habitual actions in the past.

E.g. He would work at it until he found an answer.

Used to + Present Infinitive implies no connection to the present tense.

E.g. There used to be a house at the corner of the street.

1.4.7. Expressing volition, willingness

Volition is expressed using would, shall, will.

Would

E.g. If you lend me the book I would be very glad.

Shall acquires modal person if it is used with second subject, exposing volition.

E.g. He shall finish his work.

Will expresses strong volition or determination.

E.g. He will go out without an overcoat.

CHAPTER TWO

PRESENTATION AND PRACTICE OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURES

2.1. Teaching techniques

Any generalization about the "best" way to teach grammar- what kinds of teaching procedures should be used and in what order - will have to take into account both the wide range of knowledge and skills that need to be taught and the variety of different kinds of structures subsumed under the heading "grammar". The organization suggested here represents only a general framework into which a very wide variety of teaching will fit:

2.1.1. Presentation

2.1.2. Elicitation

2.1.3. Explanation and reproduction

2.1.4. Practice: the teaching continuum

2.1.5 Communicative activities

2.1.6. Discovery techniques

2.1.7. The inductive method

2.1.8. Parallel writing

2.1.9. Testing

2.1.1. Presentation

We usually begin by presenting the class with a text in which the grammatical structure appears. The aim of the presentation is to get the learners to perceive the structure- its form and meaning- in both speech and writing and to take it into short-term memory. Often a story or short dialogue is used which appears in written form in the textbook and is also read aloud by the teacher or students. As a follow-up, students may be asked to read aloud, repeat, reproduce from memory or copy out instances of the use of the structure within the text. Where the structure is a very simple, easily perceived one, the presentation "text" may be no more than a sample sentence or two, which serves as a modal for immediate practice.

In other words, presentation is the stage at which students are introduced to the form, meaning and use of a piece of language. When we introduce a new piece of grammar we must teach not only the form, but also one of its functions and not only meaning but also use. If we are going to introduce a grammatical item, we need to decide what structure patterns we are going to use to present this grammatical point. A more sensible approach is to select the new pattern and look for examples of use which fit this pattern.

At the presentation stage, students the grammar that they will need for their most important experience of the new language- applying it to themselves. We call this experience personalisation: this is the stage at which students use a new piece of grammar to say things which really mean something to them.

Sometimes presentation takes place using personalisation immediately: the teacher uses the students and their lives to introduce new language. Sometimes personalisation is the final part of a presentation, which is done through the use of texts or pictures.

A good presentation should be clear. Students should have no difficulty in understanding the situation or what the new language means.

A good presentation should be efficient. The aim is to get to the personalisation stage as soon as the students can manipulate the new language. The more efficiently we can do this, the better.

A good presentation should be lively and interesting. We want students to get interested and be involved during the presentation stage. With the help of a good situation and lively teaching it can be one of the most memorable parts of a language course. And if it is, there is a good chance that students will remember the new grammar more easily.

A good presentation should be appropriate. However interesting, funny or demonstrative a situation is, it should be appropriate for the language presented. In other words it should be a good vehicle for the presentation of meaning and use.

Lastly, a good presentation should be productive. The situation the teacher introduces should allow students to make many sentences and/or questions with the new language.

1. Using charts

In this example the teacher wants to present the pattern: What X could do when he was young, to express past ability. The teacher puts the following chart on the board:

The teacher can then ask a student" What could your father/mother/brother do when s/he was young?" The student chooses one of the options and the teacher writes the name in the "name" column and ticks the appropriate "hobby" column. For example, if Diana's father, Bob could swim, the first entry on the chart will look like this:

The teacher then fills up the chart with information about other students. When the chart is full, he can model the question and answer:

What could your father/mother/brother do when s/he was young?

S/he could swim.

This kind of exercise could be used at the beginner's level. For more advanced students it is better to make them create the sentences.

Using a mini situation

In this example for intermediate students, the teacher wants to present the "must have done something" pattern. The teacher can put these mini-situations on the board one by one (or have them already prepared on flash cards).

Clark's photographer-"photographs taken"

Ace garage-"cars repaired"

Sidney: hairdresser-"hair cut and styled"

Rosie Lee-"fortunes told"

Student's then ask and answer like this:

Clark went to the photographers. What did he do there?

He must have had his photographs taken.

Using texts for grammatical explanation

In this example from "High Flyer"- intermediate student-s book 7, elementary students read a text which gives examples of the new language (modal verbs). The grammar is then explained before they are asked to put the modal verbs in the correct place in the charts. This is the text:

" Did you know."

Sport is good for your muscles

Sport will not only develop the volume of your muscles, it will make you stronger, more elastic and better toned.

Weight lifting is not for everyone

Young people under eighteen mustn't do body building with weights. The muscles may be pulled away from the bones. This in turn might cause ugly and painful deformities.

You are what you eat

Your diet should depend on the sport you do. Before a race a sprinter shouldn't eat anything heavy, but s/he ought to eat some form of sugar. It will be absorbed quickly and will tone the muscles. Fruit is excellent for this. Marathon runners, on the other hand, should eat big meals three hours before the start of a race. The sugar contained in cereals is absorbed more slowly. Are you taking part in a long race? Eat some pasta. It will fuel your body for a longer time than fruit.

Mind your head

Heading or hitting the football with the top of your head might cause headaches, vertigo and even slight memory loss. The ball weights 425 grams and can travel at 100 km per hour so it can be a dangerous missile for the heads of footballers. A professional player might heat the ball over 5,000 times in a period of fifteen years.

Exhale!

During exercise it is mare important to breathe out than to breathe in. If you blow out all the used air and avoid panting, you won't get tired so easily.

Gluteus maximus

The largest and strongest muscle in our bodies is the gluteus maximus, the muscle in our bottoms. It is particularly well developed in weight lifters."

Here is the explanation:

Advice

You shouldn't pant, you should/ought to blow out all the used air.

Degrees of probability

100% certain-positive

Pasta will fuel your body for a longer time.

Not certain but possible

The muscles may/might/could be pulled away from the bones.

100% certain-negative

Avoid panting. You won't get tired so easily.

And this is the exercise: Put the modal verbs in the correct place in the charts:

Degrees of obligation

Using fingers

Many teachers use hands and fingers as a way of demonstrating grammatical structures. For example, if we consider how "must not" is frequently contracted, we might be focusing on a sentence like:" Children must not drink coffee". After modeling it (saying it aloud), the teacher holds up five fingers and says this sentence, pointing to a finger for each word:

Children must not drink coffee.I

The teacher then puts fingers two and three together and now says pointing with the other hand:

Children mustn't drink coffee. I

The act of pointing can also be used to increase the student's speed, rhythm and stress.

2.1.2. Elicitation

During the elicitation stage the teacher tries to see if the students can produce the new language. At the elicitation stage-depending on how well (and if) the students can produce the new language- the teacher can decide which of the stages to go to next. If the students can't produce the new language at all, for example, we will move to the explanation stage. If they can, but with minor mistakes, we may move to the accurate reproduction stage to clear up those problems. If they know the new language but need a bit more controlled practice in producing it we may move directly to the creativity stage.

Elicitation is vitally important for it gives the teacher information upon which to act: it is also motivating for the students and actively involves their learning abilities. There are two ways of doing the learner activation:

1.Texts used for simple exposure in this way should be selected or composed to present instances of the grammatical structures being learnt in as natural a context as possible: an advertisement, for example is likely to produce instances of comparative and superlative adjectives. Such texts can later serve as modals for compositions, or bases for interactive tasks (Ur, Grammar Practice Activities, p.26)

2. In minimal-response activations the learners are given a written or spoken text- which may be an isolated sentence or a longer passage of discourse and asked to react to some aspect of it by physical gesture, brief answers or written symbol. Discrimination exercises, for example when the learner picks out specific items come under this category, as do those requesting brief physical responses to questions.

Tag question domino

Each group of 2-3 students gets a set of domino cards (see below, 13 in total). They lay down the one and distribute the other 12 cards equally. They must lay down the cards that fit on either side of the previous card. The student who has first put down all his or her cards has won.

Material:

Set of domino cards with tag questions.

On the right side of each card, write the nucleus of a tag question and on the left hand side, write the tag that fits the nucleus of the previous card. When all the cards are finally put down, they should close like a circle.

Possible set of 13 cards which include a few modals.

can she? He's Canadian,

isn't he? He can't speak Chinese,

can he? I'm tall,

aren't I? She doesn't eat meat,

does she? We don't eat stew for breakfast,

do we? It isn't warm today,

is it? He plays well,

doesn't he? I will go to college some day,

won't I? She can't ski,

can she? He reads a lot,

doesn't he? That doesn't hurt,

does it? I could drive this way,

couldn't I? She can't swim,

The teacher could also have the different groups make their own set of domino cards and then pass them on to another group to try them out.

2.1.3. Explanation and reproduction

At this stage we move away from the context, and focus, temporarily, on the grammatical items themselves: what they sound and look like, what they mean, how they function-in short, what rules govern them. The objective is that the learners should understand these various aspects of the structure. In some classes we may need to make extensive use of the students' native language to explain, translate, make generalizations and so on.

In more academic classes, or where the structure is particularly difficult for the students to grasp, this stage may take some time. However, where the structure is simple or very close to a parallel intuitively rather than intellectually, it may take only a minute or so or be entirely omitted.

During the reproduction stage, the students are asked to repeat and practice a certain number of models. The emphasis here will be put on accuracy of what the students say rather than meaning or use. The teacher makes sure that the students can form correctly the new language, getting the grammar right and perfecting their pronunciation as far as it is necessary.

Exemplification of Presentation and Explanation of Modal Verbs