LANGUAGE SYSTEMS ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND ESSAY

GRAMMAR

Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the

Present

Candidate Name: Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra

Candidate number: 003
Centre Name: Miguel Schultz
Centre Number: MX005

Word count: 2 497

Submission date: 03/10/16

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 Content

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…………………..…….p. 3

Analysis …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 3

Issues ….…………………………………………..……………………………………….….………………… p. 7

Suggestions for teaching …………………………………………………………………………….… p. 8

Bibliography ………………………………………………………..…………………………………………p. 11

Appendixes ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. p. 12

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 Introduction

In my teaching experience, I have frequently found modal verbs confusing both for me and for my
learners. There always seems to be some ambiguity in their uses and forms, full of exceptions and
overlappings. While doing my background reading I learned that most of our confusions come from
our ignorance of what they actually mean, the notion they convey. Reading Michael Lewis (1986) I
discovered that once you understand their underlying logic, even if very abstract, the vast array of
uses, functions, rules, patterns, exceptions become comprehensible and even simple.

I have decided to follow that lead, to understand what specific information modal verbs convey
when used to talk about permission, prohibition and obligation. Because this exploration is more
interested in the “meaning” of the grammar rather than the forms, I have decided to limit it to the
present. I will combine my findings with other structures to explore the past and future in further
studies. Paraphrasing Balstone’s (1994) metaphor of grammar at 30000 ft., 10000 ft., or ground
level, I have decided to stop at 10000 ft. My exploration of the meanings of the modals stops at
three general categories: possibility, inevitability, and necessariness. There are more distinctions at
lower levels, but that too will have to wait for another study.

1. Analysis

1.1 Definition and General Use

Modal verbs are a class of auxiliary verbs used to express modality, i.e. the speaker’s attitude, or
judgement, towards what they are saying (Thornbury, 2006). There are nine modal verbs: can,
could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, and must. The judgements they express can be, broadly
speaking, about the likelihood of a situation as in “He might be at home”, or about the desirability or
necessity of a situation as in “You must work harder”. (Ibidem) Permission, prohibition and
obligation belong to this second broad category.

1.2 Form

As auxiliary verbs, modal negatives are formed by adding “not” (I cannot smoke here) and the
questions by inverting them with their subject (Can you smoke here?). They can also be used in tag
questions and short answers (A: We can’t use a dictionary in the exam, can we? B: Yes, we can). When
there are more auxiliaries in the verb phrase, they always occupy the first position (You must finish
your homework), and they are the one used for the inversion in questions (Could I go to the toilet?).

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
But unlike other auxiliary verbs, modals do not have infinitive form, participles or third person –s.
Furthermore, they cannot co-occur (“I will can go tomorrow”, for example, is incorrect). After a
modal verb, the next verb is always in its base form or bare infinitive (You must be brave) (Swan,
2005).

In addition to the nine “pure” modals listed above, there are other “marginal modals” such as ought
to, need, have (got) to, and dare. They are marginal modals because they only sometimes display the
formal characteristics of modal verbs stated in the previous paragraphs (Lewis, 1986), like in the
following examples:

You ought not to say anything.

Need I ask?
I’m afraid they had to ask, hadn’t they?
She dared not say a word.

Pure modals, on the other hand, always display those characteristics.

1.3 General Meanings

There are other verbs that express modality but are neither modals nor marginal modals because
they never function as auxiliary verbs. Some of these verbs are: wonder, guess, think, hope, wish,
promise, among many others.

But form is not the only difference between other verbs that express modality and modal verbs.
There is also a difference in meaning. Lewis (1986) explains that modals indicate that it is the
speaker’s personal judgement which is being stated (or the listener’s personal judgement that is
being asked for), and not that of the subject of the sentence. Compare “He should be at home” with
“He wishes he was at home”, for example.

When talking about permission, prohibition and obligation, therefore, modal verbs can be
paraphrased as saying: “In the present circumstances, my judgement is that it is
possible/necessary/inevitable that …”. The three different options are expressed by the different
modals in the following way:

Possible: can, could, may, and might

Necessary: must
Inevitable: will, would, shall
Lewis (1986)

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
1.4 Specific Uses

1.4.1 Permission: can, could and may vs (be) allowed to

In “You may go” (formal) and “You can go” (less formal), it is the speaker who is explicitly granting
permission by stating that it is she who judges it possible; whereas in “You’re allowed to go”, it is
not clear whether it is the speaker or an external rule or authority. Most commonly it will be the
latter. (Aitken, 1992)

Similarly, when requesting permission, “Could I go”, “May I go” (formal), “Can I go” (less formal)
explicitly ask for the listeners permission; whereas “Am I allowed to leave?” is ambiguous in that
respect. (Ibidem)

1.4.2 Prohibition: cannot, may not, won’t, and shan’t vs (be) not allowed to; and mustn’t vs

In negative permissions, or prohibitions, we can use “He may not go” (slightly formal) or “He cannot
go” (less formal), implying that it is the speaker who denies the permission by indicating that it is
she who judges it not possible, and we can use “He is not allowed to go” when it is not necessarily
the speaker who decides.

“You won’t go” and “You shan’t go” (archaic) are stronger prohibitions as the speaker is suggesting
that she judges it inevitable that the listener does not go.

“You mustn’t go” is also a strong prohibition implying that the speaker judges it necessary that the
listener does not go. (Aitken, 1992)

1.4.3 Obligation: must vs have to

In “You must pay”, it is again the speaker who is imposing the obligation by indicating that it is she
who judges it necessary that the listener pays. In “You have to pay”, on the other hand, it is possible
that the speaker is simply making a reference to an external rule or authority.

“You will pay” and “You shall pay” (archaic) both express a stronger obligation imposed by the
speaker as they imply that the speaker judges it inevitable that the listener pays. (Aitken, 1992)

1.4.4 Lack of Obligation: needn’t vs (do) not have to and (do) not need to

In “You needn’t pay before the end of the month”, the speaker herself is discharging the obligation
by indicating that it is she who judges it unnecessary to pay before the end of the month. “You don’t
have to pay” or “You don’t need to pay”, on the other hand, might make reference to an external rule
or authority. (Aitken, 1992)

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
Despite the difference in meaning, needn’t is less common, especially in USAmerican English, where
(do) not have to is preferred (Swan, 2005)

2.3 Pronunciation

Like all auxiliary verbs, modal verbs have a strong form and a weak form. The strong form is used
when the word is referred to in isolation and when it is a prominent –important- word in its sense
group (i.e. fragments of speech which signal units of meaning) (Richards and Schmidt, 2010). And
the week form is used when they are non-prominent. As they are function words and not content
words (that is, they mainly fulfill a grammatical function but carry little information), they are most
commonly non-prominent and thus pronounced in their weak form (You /məs/ go now). They are
only prominent, thus pronounced in their strong form, when they are used for contrast (I don’t
/hæv tuː/ do it, but I /kæn/ do it), in negative form (I /kɑːnt/ do it), or when they substitute a
main verb (I don’t /hæv tuː/, but I /kæn/). Appendix 1 shows a list of strong and weak forms of
modal verbs.

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 2. Issues
2.1 Mustn’t vs. don’t have to

Students usually learn that must and have to mean the same, that is, that there is an obligation
(Lewis, 1986); but when they encounter the negative forms, they struggle to understand that
mustn’t and don’t have to mean completely different things, the first one indicates a prohibition
whereas the second indicates a lack of obligation. In my experience teaching adults at B1 CEFR, for
example, I have heard students say “You mustn’t wear a tie to work” when they mean that there is
no obligation, or “You don’t have to wear jeans” when they mean there is a prohibition.

2.2 Overuse of strong forms

As mentioned in 1.5, the strong form is used when referring to words in isolation, which is
generally the way new language is presented to learners. Unfortunately, many never explicitly
notice or practice the weak forms. Working as a FCE speaking examiner, for example, I have noticed
that some of candidates speak with unnatural pauses and flawed intonation because they overuse
of the strong forms.

2.3 Needn’t vs don’t need to

Needn’t is less common than don’t need to or don’t have to, especially in USAmerican English, and
the difference in meaning is very subtle, so many students have difficulty understanding its use.
Teaching advanced learners at C1 and C2, for example, I have noticed that many students never use
needn’t or use it inappropriately like: “You needn’t pay in public schools”.

2.4 treating modals as main verbs

Some learners treat modals as main verbs and not as auxiliaries, especially by putting the next verb
in infinitive. In the Cambridge Learner Corpus, for example, the authors of the C2 course book
Objective Proficiency found “Animals could be kept in zoos, but they must to have a comfortable
place to live in”. (Capel and Sharp, 2013)

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 3. Suggestions

3.1 Matching – Adapted from (Oxenden and Latham-Koenig, 2011)(See Appendix 1)

Aim: For learners to understand and apply the different meanings of mustn’t and (do) not have to

Procedure:

1. Learners match cutouts of sentences containing mustn’t and (do) not have to cutouts of
pictures illustrating them. (Picture cutouts are taken from handout in Appendix 1, but full
sentences will be written and printed by the teacher.)
2. Learners copy the following table form the board and complete it with mustn’t and (do) not
have to:

Prohibition:
Lack of obligation:

3. Learners write 2 examples about their jobs/schools using mustn’t and 2 using (do) not have
to.
4. Learners discuss their sentences with their partners, elaborating on the ideas and asking
follow up questions.
5. Learners receive the handout (Appendix 1) in its original form and complete the sentences
that describe the pictures with have to, mustn’t, don’t have to and a verb from the box at the
top of the handout.
6. Learners fold the handout in half in order not to read the sentences and try to remember
them.

Evaluation:

By matching the sentences to the pictures and the phrases to their use, learners will notice and
understand the difference between mustn’t and (do) not have to. By writing and discussing their
own sentences, learners will apply the distinction they learned in the previous activity and
personalise the target language. Finally, by rewriting and remembering the sentences in steps 5 and
6, learners will consolidate their ability to formulate accurate and appropriate sentences using
mustn’t and (do) not have to.

Variation:

For more analytical and reflective learners, a more complex table could be used in step 2 to include
more modals and to show the correlation between lack of obligation and permission:

Prohibition can’t mustn’t Obligation must have to

Permission can may Permission not to don’t have to

(lack of prohibition) (lack of obligation) needn’t

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
3.2 Drilling - Taken from (Goldstein, 2012)(See Appendix 2)

Aim: For learners to automatise the pronunciation of the contraction and negative of would.

Procedure:

1. Learners complete 5 sentence stems containing wouldn’t, I’d and It‘d with their own ideas.
2. Learners listen to a recording of speakers using those same stems with their own ideas and
identify the ideas that were similar to their own.
3. Learners listen again noticing the pronunciation of I’d, it’d and wouldn’t.
4. Learners listen again and repeat.
5. Learners read out their own sentences (from step 1) focusing on the pronunciation of I‘d,
It’d and wouldn’t.

Evaluation:

By drilling the phrases (sentence stems) containing the contracted and negative of would, learners
are gaining “articulatory control” over them (Thornbury, 2005). But learners will also be storing the
phrases as whole units (Ibidem), which is useful as they are common formulaic phrases. Both the
articulatory control and the automatisation of formulaic phrases will have a positive impact on the
learners’ speaking fluency.

Variation:

At more advanced levels the same activity could be implemented with formulaic phrases containing
past modals such as “I should have known that…”, “I couldn’t have said it better myself”. The
teacher can create her own samples and read them out for the activity.

3.3 Awareness raising (see Appendix 3)

Aim: To raise learners awareness of the different use of needn’t and don’t need to.

Procedure:

1. Learners receive handout and identify who the speaker is in each picture.
2. Learners select the correct form of need used when giving permission not to do something.
3. Learners select the correct form of need used when talking about a general necessity.

Evaluation:

By noticing the two different contexts in which needn’t and don’t need to are used and by
discriminating the correct form for the different uses, learners will become aware of the different
uses of the two forms. This understanding will thus provide a solid foundation for future practice
using needn’t appropriately.

Variation:

For higher levels, the design of the handout can be amended to fit a Test-Teach-Test sequence by
leaving a blank for each word where the phrases with “need” are and having students complete
them with the correct words.

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 3.4 Peer and self-correction

Aim: To develop learners’ ability to self-monitor and self-correct the form of their productions with
modal verbs.

Procedure:

1. Learners receive a collection of sentences with modal verbs that they have produced
themselves in writing assignments. Some sentences contain grammatical errors in the use
of modals and some are correct.
2. Learners identify the errors and correct them.
3. Learners discuss their answers in pairs.
4. Learners receive feedback.

Evaluation:

By identifying and correcting their own and their peers’ mistakes, learners are developing their
ability to self-monitor and self-correct. This is important because these kind of formal mistakes do
not usually stem out shortcomings in their declarative knowledge -knowledge about the language-
but out of shortcomings in their procedural knowledge –knowing how to use the language. As
Larsen-Freeman points out, grammar, or “grammaring”, is also a skill and it requires practice.
(Larsen-Freeman, 2003)

Variations:

1. When there are no samples available, the teacher can extract sentences from the course
book –to ensure they are graded at the right level- and amend them to include mistakes.
2. To practice these monitoring and correcting skills in oral language as well as written
language, the teacher can read out the sentences for learners to identify the mistake instead
of handing them out in written form.

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
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 Bibliography

Aitken, R. (1992) Teaching Tenses. United Kingdom: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd.

Batstone, R. (1994) Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003) Teaching Language. From Grammar to Grammaring. Boston: Thomson

& Heinle

Lewis, M. (1986) The English Verb. An Exploration of Structure and Meaning. Hove, UK: Language
Teaching Publications.

Richards, J. and Schmidt, R. (2010) Longman Dictionary of Teaching English and Applied Linguistics.
(Fourth Edition). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Swan, M. (2005) Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thornbury, S. (2005) How to teach speaking. Harlow: Longman.

Thornbury, S. (2006) An A-Z of ELT: A Dictionary of Terms and Concepts Used in English Language
Teaching. Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Course Books
Capel, A. and Sharp, W. (2013) Objective Proficiency. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

Goldstein, B. (2012) The Big Picture Intermediate. Oxford: Richmond Publishing.

Oxenden, C. and Latham-Koenig, C. (2011) New English File Pre-Intermediate. Teacher’s Book.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
 Appendixes

Appendix 1

Oxenden, C. and Latham-Koenig, C. (2011) New English File Pre-Intermediate. Teacher’s Book. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 157

Appendix 2

Goldstein, B. (2012) The Big Picture Intermediate. Students Book. Oxford: Richmond Publishing, p. 119.

Goldstein, B. (2012) The Big Picture Intermediate. Teacher’s Book. Oxford: Richmond Publishing, p. 1009

Appendix 3 (Own creation)

We have interest free monthly They have interest free monthly

payments. You needn’t pay now. payments. You don’t need to pay now.

A. B.
1. Look at picture A. Who is speaking? shop assistant / costumer
2. Look at picture B. Who is speaking? shop assistant / costumer
3. Look at the way the different speakers used “need”. What is the difference? Why do you think there is a
difference?
4. We normally use needn’t / don’t need to to give permission no to do something.
5. We normally use needn’t / don’t need to to talk about a general necessity.

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra
Appendix 4: Table of the strong and weak forms of the modal verbs and marginal modal verbs
used for permission, prohibition and obligation.

Modal verb Negative Strong form Weak form Negative

Contraction Contraction
can can’t /kæn/ /kən/ /kn/ kɑːnt
could couldn’t /kʊd/ /kəd/ ˈkʊdnt
may /meɪ/ /məst/ /məs/
might /maɪt/
must mustn’t /mʌst/ /məst/ /məs/ ˈmʌsnt
will (‘ll) won’t /wɪl/ /l/ wəʊnt
would (‘d) wouldn’t /wʊd/ /wəd/ /d/ ˈwʊdnt
shall shan’t /ʃæl/ /ʃəl/ ʃɑːnt
have to /hæv tuː/ /həvtə/ /əvtə/ /vtə/
need needn’t /niːd/ /niːdnt/

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Modal Verbs for Permission, Prohibition and Obligation in the Present
Juan Miguel Reyes Guerra