Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 23

DEALING WITH MODAL MEANINGS IN THE EFL CLASS
Maria Camelia Galaftion, Colegiul Național „Octavian Goga” Sibiu
Abstract: Discussing grammar issues in class is absolutely necessary “since a knowledge of
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grammar is essential for competent users of a language.” And things have developed in the correct
direction lately as there are clear schedules which establish what problem should be dealt with, at
what age and what level of knowledge. If we narrow the discussion to “modality,” there are aspects
that could never be properly and completely understood without some explanations and relevant
examples. We must explain to our students that modals do not get an “-s” in the third person
singular, present and they are followed by short infinitives (without “to”). Otherwise, they might
wrongly interpret that such instances are simple mistakes or misprints in the texts they are reading
and become confused when they have to use modal verbs in their own discourse. Such things must
be discussed but the question is when and how.
Key words: modality, teaching, learning, planning, communication, prioritise, class
Jeremy Harmer believes that the students must be familiar with modal uses and
meanings even from an elementary level. 2 This position is contrary to that of Barry
Sesnan who says that “as a rule, they [modal verbs] should not be taught to
beginners before their fourth year of learning, or later if the number of English
lessons per week is smaller.” 3 He further explains that this is such a difficult topic
that its teaching is rarely successful and the only solution is to expose the students
as widely as possible to genuine reading and hearing English materials. We share
Harmer’s point of view and we must say that it is far more realistic than the latter. If
it is a difficult subject, as Sesnan says, it deserves special attention, of course, this
must be done at the students’ level of understanding. Undoubtedly, the solution
with beginners is to deal with one verb at a time or one single use/meaning at a
time, presented in simple situations but it cannot be avoided because the students
are not able to understand how modal verbs work without a little help from the
teacher especially at lower levels. There is no need for too much theoretical input,
we simply need to draw the students’ attention to the fact that they are a special
case in English and they are used differently than other verbs.
In the Romanian syllabus, modality is represented by the modal verbs and
communicative functions of language at all levels. The subjunctive is not
mentioned in the national syllabus for high school probably because it is
considered a rather obsolete form of modern English. The course books only
contain scattered references to certain constructions containing subjunctive forms
but they are discussed individually and not as part of a complex system such as
the subjunctive (e.g. “I wish you were happy” or “It’s (high) time we left.”). The
teacher explains the special case of the verb “wish”+ subjunctive (at intermediate
level, it is usually referred to as past tense forms – present reference/past perfect –
past reference) or some impersonal constructions such as “It’s time …,” “It’s
1
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching. (London and New York: Longman
Group Limited, 1991), 22.
2
Ibid., 23.
3
Barry Sesnan, How to Teach English. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 73.
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