The use of english modals by first-year students of the department of anglophone studies

IV.1 - THE RATIONALE OF MODALS TEACHING AND LEARNING

Before proposing how to teach modals, it may be necessary to tell why students have to learn them. There are at least three reasons why students should learn modals and use them instead of avoiding them.

First of all, as language learners, students must use English approximately like native speakers. By using modals, students will sound more like native speakers though they cannot be as fluent as them. For instance, by saying «Could (instead of can) I talk to you a minute?» or «Would (instead of will) you open the door?» the students will be perceived less abrupt and aggressive with their request by English native speakers, when they address someone who deserves respect.

The second reason why students must learn modals and use them is that they enable them to express their thoughts accurately. If students want to modalize their statements they must know the right modal to pass their idea on to their addressors. They will not say «The teacher will come today» when they mean «The teacher may come today».

Another reason is the authenticity and the economy of words. Students must appear authentic in their expression by avoiding circumlocutions. By using modals they make economy of words. Compare:

E.g. It's possible that I will go out to dinner with my mother tonight.

(Six words)

Maybe I will go out to dinner with my mother tonight.

(Three words)

I may go out to dinner with my mother tonight.

(Only two words)

Now that we know the importance of modals, let's see how they can best be taught.

IV.2 - SOME SUGGESTIONS IN TEACHING MODALS

While teaching modals, the teacher should raise his students' consciousness about some pragmatic concepts and show the differences between the types of meanings and between the kinds of meanings. (cf section III.2.1.4 and III.2.1.5). We propose four steps for the teaching of modals.

IV.2.1 - Explicate the context of the use of modals

Before teaching modals, the teacher himself should know what are reference, presupposition, implicature and speech act. He should also know the importance of these concepts in modals. In fact, by studying reference the teacher should tell students who are the speaker, the addressor and the addressee because the use of modals depends also on these participants. Presupposition is important for the teaching of modals since through the study of presupposition the image the speaker has of the subject or the importance the speaker attaches to the subject are determined. Yet politeness partly depends on the gap between the status of the speaker and that of the addressee. As for implicature, it is useful in the teaching of modals because it enables to know the intention of the speaker. Through the study of speech act the teacher can tell the students the circumstances of the use of modals. To summarize, the teacher needs to explicate the context of the use of modals because the main way to understand the meaning of a modals is by its context.

After defining the context to students, the teacher should explain the differences between the types of meanings.

IV.2.2 - Explain the differences between the types of meanings

The teacher should teach modals taking into account the epistemic meaning and the deontic meaning. As William DUBOIS said in Syntaxe du francais moderne (1932): «La langue est un perpétuel combat entre la rationalité et l'affectivité»^27(*); that is we use language to express our own opinion while trying to be objective. In other words, language is made of objectivity and subjectivity. The subjectivity refers to deontic meaning and the objectivity, which is a subjective objectivity, refers to epistemic meaning. Students must know the differences between these kinds of meanings because the ignorance of these differences urges students to rush into using modals. For instance, when they see the modal MUST, they say it expresses obligation (74.19/%) ^28(*) even if MUST expresses probability. The first meaning is deontic and the second is epistemic.

The teacher should draw his students' attention on the distinctive features of the types of meanings by asking them to find the speaker's subject social status, the speaker's action orientation, the focus of his intention, and to paraphrase the modals or to give their periphrastic equivalences.

By stating the differences between the types of meanings the teacher should put emphasis on the epistemic meaning while clarifying the subtleties between the deontic meanings.

* ²⁷ Lhérété and Ploton (1990 :132)

* ²⁸ See section III.2.2.1.2