Teaching Modals
Functions and Modality
Epigraph: “As long as you’re just hanging there, pay attention. The only rules that matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do.” The words of the cunning Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, the film my kids used to cite when it was first released.
Why are these words – must, can, should – called modal? How can I possibly remember that I should use this very modal verb, and why, when used in different contexts, it means something quite different? If two or more modals are synonymous, express almost one and the same thing, what is the difference? The way we answer these questions, present and practice modals with our pupils – the methodology of grammar teaching – can be the curse, and can be the blessing of language teaching.
Language is not a set of structures or habits to be learnt by heart. If it were so, we wouldn’t be able to create anything new, express ourselves in a unique way. Language is a vehicle for the expression and the comprehension of meanings. That means that the number of possible sentences is presumably infinite. To steer our way through the innumerable ways of putting an idea into words, the following notions should be considered: function, modality, and structural pattern.
A function is the social purpose of the utterance, the reason why we communicate, e.g. greeting, making requests, expressing preferences. The same functions occur in many different situations, specifying the language used. The use of functional labels clearly relates to learners’ reasons for learning the language. “Today we are going to practice telling our friends what sports we do” will make more obvious sense than “practicing the modal verb can”, which is too abstract, or role-playing a dialogue such as “Can you fly? – No, why?” which is too arbitrary.
Modality in the general sense is the subjective attitude to the event. People are subjective in all their thoughts and deeds, and such a sentence “His name’s NN” at the level of (or modality of) the utterance will mean “I’m sure that his name’s NN” (expressing the degree of likelihood), “Please shut the door” – “I would like you to shut the door” (impulse to perform the action), “Is his name NN or ZZ?” – “His name is possibly NN, but it can also be ZZ, – Will you answer?” will correspondingly mean supposition and the impulse to answer. Speaking about modal verbs, these words express modality explicitly, in a very clear manner. We can recognize different categories of modality here, such as possibility, obligation, ability and so on.
Taking all this into consideration, the main aim, the most important thing we want to achieve in a lesson, can be described as:
1) what we will be doing – to understand and practice new language (/to reinforce and consolidate the use of language the pupils already know/to revise language they have learnt);
2) function – e.g. telling/asking our friends what sports we/they can do;
3) in the context – e.g. in the context of sports activities;
4) using the example exponent – e.g. I can swim and play soccer and tennis. Can you swim?
The exponent – an example of the target language we are planning to teach – includes not only the modal verb itself, but also the typical utterance it the situational context mentioned above.
1) How many modal verbs are there in English?
2) What is ability? Capability?
3) Which approach to presenting the language to choose: deductive or inductive?
4) How should the practice be organized?
Presentation
Modal verbs show the speaker’s attitude toward the action or state indicated by the infinitive, i.e. they show that the action is considered as possible, impossible, obligatory etc. The modal verbs are: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, ought, must, need, dare, be and have. A.Thomson and A.Martinet also include “used” in the list.
The majority of foreign grammars hold the descriptive pattern, showing one and the same modal verb in all its functional settings, and Russian grammars of English follow suit. In the end, the learners of English study the language as such but find it hard to express themselves on the spot. “Could” is used to indicate ability, but also probability; at the same time ability can be expressed by “can” and the modal expression “be able to”, while probability by “must”, etc. Thus, instead of remembering the possible options to express the function and choosing the best alternative – in the globular way – the learners resort to the linear way of choosing the first alternative, considering the ban, another alternative, another ban, etc. until the target verb is found.
The success of the functional approach to grammar teaching hinges on how user-friendly is the way of choosing alternatives, i.e. the rule. The teacher needs to consider truthfulness and the limitations of the rule on the one hand, and clarity and simplicity, on the other. It should be expressing much in a few words, brief and to the point – i.e., concise.
Another thing to take into consideration is which approach to presenting the rule we employ: deductive or inductive. A deductive approach, you will remember, starts with the presentation of a rule and is followed by examples in which the rule is applied, an inductive approach starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred. As for teaching modals, experience shows that modality resists easy rule formulation, so the inductive approach will only take time to work out the rule at the expense of the time spent in productive practice. As for the deductive approach, a lot depends on the teacher’s presentation. An effective presentation will be 1) short, 2) illustrated by examples, 3) pupils’ understanding will be checked, 4) pupils will have an opportunity to personalise the rule.