Modal auxiliary verbs: initial training sessions
At initial level, it is probably unwise to focus on anything but
the essential functions of the nine pure modal auxiliary verbs and
that is what is done here.
Unfortunately, of course, such a focus actually works in the wrong
direction and at more advanced levels it will become necessary to
focus on types of modality and work from those to the ways we have
in English of realising the concepts, only one of which is the use
of modal auxiliary verbs.
It is possible, of course, to focus on modality in the way that a
lot of course books do it with vague and ill-defined terms such as
obligation, necessity, deduction,
speculation and so on (add to the list as you will).
However, that way madness lies because the categories are undefined,
sometimes indefinable, and they overlap.
Websites do that a lot, as in for example:
Modals of
obligation
when what is meant of course, is (or should be):
Modal auxiliary
verbs expressing deontic modality.
Warning:
Do not attempt to use any of the worksheets in this section until
you have covered the essentials of word class and your trainees are
aware of what a lexical or main verb does and what it looks like.
Modal auxiliary verbs are often defined in terms of how they differ
from lexical or main verbs and that is the approach taken in these
worksheets.
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The key ideas |
Usually, there are considered to be nine or ten central or pure modal auxiliary verbs and all the others are dumped into a category called semi-modal auxiliary verbs. This section deals only with the ones listed here.
You may feel that your trainees can cope with more and want to consider dare, need and used (to). They are listed here for completeness.
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The aim of all of this is to give trainees the essential data they need to be able to teach modal auxiliary verbs and recognise the range of communicative functions they represent. It is most certainly not all that people need to know but enough for an initial training course.
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The characteristics of modal auxiliary verbs |
The purpose here is to alert trainees to the three essential
characteristics of pure (or central, if you prefer) modal auxiliary
verbs and to point out how semi-modal auxiliary verbs differ in some
respects.
These three are:
- Invariability
- Questions and negatives
- Non-co-occurrence
The first worksheet tackles the first two characteristics.
The purpose of task three is to alert people to how lexical or main verbs vary grammatically and how we form questions in simple present and past tenses. This is distinguished from how modal auxiliary verbs work with the example of should.
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The modal auxiliary verbs one by one |
The next worksheet focuses on what functions are most commonly realised by the central modal auxiliary verbs. It is not complete and not a very good way of classifying modality but at this level getting into concepts such as epistemic and deontic modality is not advisable.
This is a worksheet which can be done in class or worked on outside a session and reported back. The verbs ought (to), be able to and have to are included here although there are not always considered central modal auxiliary verbs.
You can, if you like, leave it there (and many do think that's
enough for an initial training programme).
However, there is a guide to semi- and marginal modal auxiliary verbs on this
site, linked below.
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Related areas |
Modality is treated at length in the in-service guides but the majority of those are not suitable for initial training course use.
| Related guides | |
| For trainees: | |
| modals one by one | this guide contains a bit more than is on the worksheets, especially in terms of meaning and syntax |
| essentials of modality | this guide considers just the basics |
| For you (as a reminder of what you need to know) | |
| the in-service guides | for the in-service index of modality |
| central modal auxiliary verbs | this is a more advanced and longer guide that the one above. It explains ten tests for these verbs. |
| semi- and marginal modal auxiliary verbs | this guide considers particularly dare, need and used but also ventures into marginal modal auxiliary verbs and the verb let. |
| A-Z index | where you can find guides to or containing specific concepts and terms |