The Digital Tool Pygmalion and its Interactive Maps: Visualising Modal Verbs in the Classroom

Abstract

This contribution showcases the free digital tool Pygmalion and its application to the learning/teaching of English modals in both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. This recently developed tool allows users to draw interactive maps of meanings, constructions and semantic relationships without requiring computer skills. While Pygmalion was originally designed to draw diachronic maps of single words (or of etymologically related words), I show how it is possible to draw synchronic maps as well as contrastive maps. After having presented the main features of the tool, I show how Pygmalion can be used to create a synchronic and a diachronic map to compare the modals “can” and “may”, illustrating the procedure step by step. Thanks to its user-friendly design, Pygmalion can be used by teachers, pupils, students not only in a classroom context, but also for autonomous learning.