© 1990 by Oxford University Press
Articles |
Second Language Acquisition of the English Modal Auxiliaries can, could, may, and might
Henley College Coventry
Seventy-five Panjabi-speaking pupils were assessed on their expression of the English modal auxiliaries can, could, may, and might. Responses were elicited for four Root Modality functions—Ability, Permission, Possibility, and Hypothetical Possibility—plus the Epistemic Possibility function, and in Declarative, Negative and Interrogative environments. Six groups of Panjabi-speaking subjects were selected, incorporating the two variables; Years of English, with conditions two, four, and six years; and Age Level, with the factors primary and secondary. Pupils' test sheets were marked for errors and the total and subtotal scores subjected to an error analysis using the SPSS-X ANOVA programme. The beneficial effect of earlier age of first exposure to English was demonstrated by the better overall performance of the primary school pupils as compared to the secondary school groups, except in the Interrogative environment. A plateau effect was noted in the performance of the secondary school subjects between four and six years of exposure to English. Modal acquisition by second language subjects followed first language order, with the three basic functions roughly co-emergent and Hypothetical and Epistemic Possibility much later acquired.