Palestinian Faculty Development Program
(PFDP)
Academic Colloquium 2010
Building Partnership in Teaching Excellence
Ramallah Cultural Palace
Ramallah
July 31st –August 1st, 2010
Building Cultural Awareness through English
Grammar Teaching:
The Case of the English Modals
Dr. Anwar Abdelrazeq
Birzeit University
Focus of the Study
Usage of English modals by Native Arabic Speakers
(NAS) in terms of:
1) Use English modals in different contexts from those of
Native English Speakers (NES).
2) Rely on Arabic presuppositions or English presuppositions.
3) Reflect the pragmatic frameworks and norms specific to the
English or Arabic social environment.
Methodology
• Data collected from real-life situations
• The subjects are from a range of occupational and
educational backgrounds.
• Data collected from graduate students and professional
people, e.g., university and college instructors, ...
• Taken only from spoken discourse.
• The result of a naturalistic inquiry approach to data
collection and analysis.
The Subjects of The Study
• Varying levels of English linguistic proficiency.
• Levels range from low to advanced.
• Sociolinguistic competencies vary from poor to very good.
• Individuals with a high level of linguistic proficiency use the
English modals of obligation and necessity inappropriately
in some social situations.
Meaning of the Modals in
English and Arabic
WILL
• NES use “will” for making a request.
Example: Will you teach me how to drive?
• ANS use will to indicate something that will occur in the
future.
On Saturday in sha’a Allah (by God’s
permission), June 24 we will have a party. Can
you come?
I will come to the party in sha’ Allah.
• Inappropriate according to NES’ social rules.
• The speaker will attend the party definitely.
Meaning of Modals Continued
MUST
•
Must instead of Will (NAS).
•
A NAS addressing his close friend:
You must see a doctor.
•
(Urgent advice)
NES would use will as part of a question to show the urgency
of the advice.
Will you see a doctor?
(Question)
You will see a doctor, won’t you? (Command)
Meaning of Modals Continued
• NAS use must only not will in such situations because:
1) the pragmatic use is overlooked.
2) will as an auxiliary verb expressing a future tense.
3) L1 (Arabic) interference. Must in Arabic means
yajibu ‘an while will means sawafa which is a
particle used before the Arabic simple present
verb to indicate a future action.
Meaning of Modals Continued
HAVE TO
• Have to indicates the existence of certain norm-based
procedures.
• A dialogue between a husband and a wife:
“If you receive an invitation from
someone, you have to go. He [his friend]
invited me. I have to go. I have no
choice.
• From an American and Arabic cultural perspective the use
of have to in this context is appropriate because the
speaker might feel an obligation to go.
Meaning of Modals Continued
CAN
• Can / could used to ask for general or specific permission.
• NES use the historical past tense forms of the modal can to
soften their requests.
• ANS employ the historical present tense in their requests.
My wife took the car can you give me a ride to
the airport?
Yes, I can.
• Usage of can instead of could might make the NAS be
perceived as aggressive.
Meaning of Modals Continued
SHALL
•
Shall is used where it is more appropriate to use should.
Shall we go to the mosque? (An invitation)
Shall we eat?
(As in let us eat.)
(In this context it does not pose a problem)
• The problem is in using shall for giving advice.
Shall we pray?
(An invitation to perform the 4th prayer)
• A Native English speaker would say:
Should we pray?
(That is, it is advisable that we pray now.)
Pragmatic Presuppositions and
Sociocultural Values
• A presupposition is a “proposition whose truth is taken for
granted . . . without which the utterance cannot be
evaluated” (Green, 1989, p. 71).
• Pragmatic assumptions profoundly affect the process of
communication and may cause cross-cultural
misunderstanding (Stalnaker, 1991; Ney, 1993).
• Presuppositions, values, and beliefs are found to be
transferable from students’ native language to the target
language (Gonzalez, 1987; Schachter, 1983; Strevens,
1987; Schmidt, 1993).
Summary, Conclusions and
Implications
• There is no relationship between the period of time spent in
the target culture and the level of sociolinguistic
competence.
• Forms and structures + semantic and pragmatic aspects.
• Contrasting cultural norms, traditions, and sociocultural
presuppositions of LI & L2.
Summary, Conclusions and
Implications Continued
•
Use of the English modals is determined by cultural
presuppositions and cultural values.
•
NAS used the English modals differently from NES on topics
such as family relationships, duties towards others, and
traditions.
•
Fundamental differences in obligation, necessity, and
adherence to sociocultural norms and codes between the
western and the Islamic cultures.
Summary, Conclusions and
Implications for Continued
• Analyzing the use of the English modals in native speakers’
spoken and written discourse.
• Documentary films and movies are rich sources of spoken
discourse.
•
Contrasting the modals in the target language and those in
the students’ mother tongue.
Summary, Conclusions and
Implications Continued
• Magazines and newspapers and other written documents
may serve as real-life situations. Analyzing nonnative
speakers’ anonymously recorded spoken and written
discourse.