| This paper reports a cross-sectional study of the pragmatic comprehension of modal auxiliaries by advanced level adult ESL learners. The problem is defined as one of deviation from 'standard' usage as manifest in the Brown University Corpus (Kucera and Francis 1967), a number of source texts, and a native English speaking sample population. Essays written by college/university entry level ESL students are compared with the Brown Corpus in regard to the frequency of usage of the ten true model verbs.; The pragmatic comprehension of advanced level ESL learners is analysed to validate a paraphrase-based survey questionnaire developed with reference to a list of modal notions and overtones drawn from a variety of sources including ESL and standard English language texts, and papers on the subject of modals and modality.; The same questionnaire is used as the diagnostic Pre-Test in a Teaching Unit covering modal auxiliaries that includes written and spoken exercises and a Post-Test evaluation in the form of a written sentence completion task.; Further, all participants in this research program completed a Scalar Evaluation Sheet designed to identify the scalar rating of the modal verbs in regard to such concepts as 'likelihood', 'necessity', and so on. The Scalar Evaluation also provides data for an analysis of the acceptability of the modals for use in a variety of interpersonal relationships.; Throughout the description of the research program, emphasis is placed on the ESL learners' actual interpretations of the contextualized modal and on the potential ambiguity, misunderstanding and mis-production caused by the polysemy and polylexy of these words. The evidence provided by the foregoing analyses suggests that the ESL learners involved in this study are unsure of the use of the connotative structure and implications carried by the majority of the modal verbs in their non-core uses. The paper ends with a brief discussion of the relationship of this research to the field of Applied Linguistics and to ESL classroom practice. |
