The aim of this paper is to show the results of a corpus-based analysis of the way modality is presented in four English textbooks for the First Certificate Exam (FCE):1 1) Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2) Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998a, Mission – Coursebook 1, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 3) Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998b, Mission – Coursebook 2, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 4) Moutsou E. and Parker S., 1998, Plus – First Certificate, MM Publications, London, U.K. In particular, this study is concerned with the occurrence of four core modal verbs – can, could, may and might – in the dialogues provided as oral input for learners of English as a foreign language. The main objective of this research is to observe to what extent teaching materials and pedagogic grammars are in line with up-to-date linguistic studies. I decided to start my research on modality and ELT from can, could, may and might, which translate the same Italian verb, potere, but in future I would like to develop my study and incorporate a wider investigation of the way the other modal verbs are presented to students of English at a B2 level. The reason why textbooks for the FCE were selected for this research is that a more accurate presentation of modality can be expected in these language courses, given that the learners for whom the works have been written are supposed to have a fairly high standard of English.2 1 These books are still in print and quite popular among teachers of English today. The corpus is quite balanced, the average number of words per book being 5,298.2 (see Table 1). 2 The FCE is an intermediate level Cambridge ESOL exam, corresponding to B2 Vantage level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF) designed by the Council of Europe. A Corpus-based Analysis of Modality in four English textbooks 261 The main focus of this research is the oral language, and an ad hoc corpus3 was created by selecting all the dialogues in the coursebooks that contained any of the four modal verbs mentioned above. The corpus consists of 26,491 words altogether. Table 1 shows the number of words collected from each of the textbooks considered.4 Table 1. TEXTBOOKS WORDS 1.a Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press (Student’s Book), Oxford. 4308 1.b Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press (Teacher’s Book), Oxford. 4934 2 Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998, Mission – Coursebook 1, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 3936 3 Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998, Mission – Coursebook 2, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 5485 4 Moutsou E. and Parker S., 1998 Plus – First Certificate, MM Publications, London, U.K. 7828 The software used to access this corpus is Concordance 3.0 for Microsoft Windows.5 The analysis of the corpus considered not only the number of occurrences and the frequency of each of the four modal verbs selected for this study, but also the different meanings (epistemic, deontic and dynamic)6 these verbs took on in different communicative contexts. Taking the collocations of the items found in the corpus into account, it was then possible to establish whether the use of the core modal verbs can, could, may and might reflected their actual use in authentic communication or rather, if the examples given in the textbooks had been created to present a set of stereotyped grammar structures.7 Finally, to support the results 3 For a classification of the different kinds of corpora see Hunston, 14-16. 4 Notice that two distinct figures are given for the number of words from the dialogues contained in the Student’s Book and in the Teacher’s Book of Countdown to First Certificate respectively. The dialogues contained in the Student’s Book are used for listening/comprehension activities, while those contained in the Teacher’s Book are used in grammar sections, to exemplify the use of specific structures. 5 Concordance 3.0 for Microsoft Windows is software designed for concordancing and text analysis produced by R J C Watt, 19 January 2002. A test version can be downloaded from the internet at http://www.rjcw.freeserve.co.uk/ 6 For a detailed study of the epistemic, deontic and dynamic meanings of modal verbs see Palmer 1986. 7 Current linguistic studies on the uses and meanings of the four core modal verbs in authentic communication have been taken as the main reference point for this study to provide necessary evidence. 262 ENRICO GRAZZI of this research with further evidence, the grammar sections contained in the four FCE textbooks mentioned previously were compared to recent theoretical works on modality to verify the extent to which pedagogic grammars are consistent with advanced academic metalinguistic descriptions (e.g. Lewis; Palmer 1990; Palmer 2003).
Grazzi, E. (2009). A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF MODALITY IN FOUR ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR THE FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM. In Forms of Migration Migration of Forms (pp.260-274). BARI : Progedit.
A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF MODALITY IN FOUR ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR THE FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM
GRAZZI, ENRICO
2009-01-01
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to show the results of a corpus-based analysis of the way modality is presented in four English textbooks for the First Certificate Exam (FCE):1 1) Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2) Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998a, Mission – Coursebook 1, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 3) Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998b, Mission – Coursebook 2, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 4) Moutsou E. and Parker S., 1998, Plus – First Certificate, MM Publications, London, U.K. In particular, this study is concerned with the occurrence of four core modal verbs – can, could, may and might – in the dialogues provided as oral input for learners of English as a foreign language. The main objective of this research is to observe to what extent teaching materials and pedagogic grammars are in line with up-to-date linguistic studies. I decided to start my research on modality and ELT from can, could, may and might, which translate the same Italian verb, potere, but in future I would like to develop my study and incorporate a wider investigation of the way the other modal verbs are presented to students of English at a B2 level. The reason why textbooks for the FCE were selected for this research is that a more accurate presentation of modality can be expected in these language courses, given that the learners for whom the works have been written are supposed to have a fairly high standard of English.2 1 These books are still in print and quite popular among teachers of English today. The corpus is quite balanced, the average number of words per book being 5,298.2 (see Table 1). 2 The FCE is an intermediate level Cambridge ESOL exam, corresponding to B2 Vantage level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF) designed by the Council of Europe. A Corpus-based Analysis of Modality in four English textbooks 261 The main focus of this research is the oral language, and an ad hoc corpus3 was created by selecting all the dialogues in the coursebooks that contained any of the four modal verbs mentioned above. The corpus consists of 26,491 words altogether. Table 1 shows the number of words collected from each of the textbooks considered.4 Table 1. TEXTBOOKS WORDS 1.a Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press (Student’s Book), Oxford. 4308 1.b Duckworth M. and Gude K., 1999, Countdown to First Certificate, Oxford University Press (Teacher’s Book), Oxford. 4934 2 Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998, Mission – Coursebook 1, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 3936 3 Evans V. and Dooley J., 1998, Mission – Coursebook 2, Express Publishing, Newbury, U.K. 5485 4 Moutsou E. and Parker S., 1998 Plus – First Certificate, MM Publications, London, U.K. 7828 The software used to access this corpus is Concordance 3.0 for Microsoft Windows.5 The analysis of the corpus considered not only the number of occurrences and the frequency of each of the four modal verbs selected for this study, but also the different meanings (epistemic, deontic and dynamic)6 these verbs took on in different communicative contexts. Taking the collocations of the items found in the corpus into account, it was then possible to establish whether the use of the core modal verbs can, could, may and might reflected their actual use in authentic communication or rather, if the examples given in the textbooks had been created to present a set of stereotyped grammar structures.7 Finally, to support the results 3 For a classification of the different kinds of corpora see Hunston, 14-16. 4 Notice that two distinct figures are given for the number of words from the dialogues contained in the Student’s Book and in the Teacher’s Book of Countdown to First Certificate respectively. The dialogues contained in the Student’s Book are used for listening/comprehension activities, while those contained in the Teacher’s Book are used in grammar sections, to exemplify the use of specific structures. 5 Concordance 3.0 for Microsoft Windows is software designed for concordancing and text analysis produced by R J C Watt, 19 January 2002. A test version can be downloaded from the internet at http://www.rjcw.freeserve.co.uk/ 6 For a detailed study of the epistemic, deontic and dynamic meanings of modal verbs see Palmer 1986. 7 Current linguistic studies on the uses and meanings of the four core modal verbs in authentic communication have been taken as the main reference point for this study to provide necessary evidence. 262 ENRICO GRAZZI of this research with further evidence, the grammar sections contained in the four FCE textbooks mentioned previously were compared to recent theoretical works on modality to verify the extent to which pedagogic grammars are consistent with advanced academic metalinguistic descriptions (e.g. Lewis; Palmer 1990; Palmer 2003).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
