Chinese ELF Learners’ Acquisition of Modal Verbs: A Corpus-Based Study

Yan Xiao

doi:10.5539/ijel.v7n6p164

Abstract

By adopting a corpus-based approach, the study explores how Chinese EFL learners differ from native English speakers in the use of modal verbs in different genres. Results show that Chinese EFL learners significantly overuse modal verbs both in speaking and writing. In addition, their overuses of the high-value modal verbs of must, should and have to also achieve the significant level. However, Chinese EFL learners significantly underuse the low-value modal verbs of would, might and could in comparison with native English speakers. It is hypothesized that Chinese EFL learners’ improper uses of modal verbs are caused by the negative transfer from Chinese, in which the meaning potentials of modal verbs are different from those in English.

Highlights

Modal verbs, as a key means to express modality, substantiate their users’ attitudes to the propositions or events being described in the utterances, and the use of these words could be viewed as a facet of pragmatic competence (Leech, 1983)
This paper explores how Chinese EFL learners differ from native English speakers in the use of modal verbs in speaking and writing in the hope of providing some suggestions for the teaching of English to non-native speakers
As for specific modals, Chinese EFL learners tend to significantly overuse ought in writing than in speaking, while no such traits are found among other modal verbs

Summary

Introduction

As a key means to express modality, substantiate their users’ attitudes to the propositions or events being described in the utterances, and the use of these words could be viewed as a facet of pragmatic competence (Leech, 1983). Speaking, appropriate use of modal verbs can enhance the acceptability of the utterances by being more euphemistic and polite, and strengthen the mood by being more authorarive and imperative. For these reasons, modal verbs have received numerous research in linguistics since 1970s. Few studies are designed to explore the use of modal verbs in the spoken genre, and even fewer research discusses how L2 learners differ from native speakers in the use of modal verbs Taking these into consideration, this paper explores how Chinese EFL learners differ from native English speakers in the use of modal verbs in speaking and writing in the hope of providing some suggestions for the teaching of English to non-native speakers

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion