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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 General Background
In the recent 20 years, the researches into modal verbs have been a heated topicin linguistics. Halliday discovered their functions from the perspective of systemicfunctional grammar (2000). Papagragou concluded the meanings of modal verbsrelying on their contexts in the view of semantics and pragmatics (2000). Bartlett(2004) analyzed the role of modal verbs in the critical discourse. Indeed, the use ofmodal auxiliaries plays an indispensable part in both oral and writing texts in English.That's why it is always placed in a critical position from traditional grammar tomodern grammar.In China, the related researches originated from Ma (1983)，who held that modalverbs were a branch of auxiliaries and Yang (1998), Qin (1994)，Lei (2008)，Zhao(2011) and other linguists all conducted relevant researches to further develop themeanings and functions of modals. However, the studies associated with the teachingof modal verbs seem to be limited in China.At present, the development of corpus-based studies enlarges the perspective toconduct researches regarding modal verbs in a huge variety of registers. It is highlyeffective to compare different groups of users in the use of modal verbs to proposeforcible evidences for EFL teaching and learning in countries with English as aforeign or second language.
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1.2 Significance of the Study
The use of modal verbs is one of the most important means to convey modality(Palmer 1974:7). In actual use ‘"the recognition and proper use of the meaningsunderlying the English modal verbs are a problem for tiie students of English as aforeign language (EFL) even in relatively advanced stages. The problem lies not inthe surface positioning of the modals，nor in their wide range of meanings，but inassociating the right modal with the right meaning" (Cook 1978:8).Therefore, it will be valuable to conduct a research to learn Chinese EFLlearners' features in applying modals in their writings compared with native Englishspeaking writers by comparing the two groups in their use of modal verbs. Thepresent research is expected to affirm whether advanced Chinese EFL learners aresimilar to their counterparts in native English countries in dealing with modalauxiliaries. Eventually, it is hoped that the results of this study will shed some light onthe common problems of the use of modals in EFL/ESL speaking environment.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Definitions of Modality and Modal Verbs
In traditional grammar, the forms，concepts or logics of modality are frequentlyemphasized while the language that modality is closely related to receives limitedattention. In the systemic-functional perspective, modality expresses the speaker'sopinions or attitudes to the proposition that the situation implies (Lyons 1977). Palmerregards modality as tibe subjective perspective or opinion of the speaker (1974:16).Similarly, Quirk believes modality reflects the judgment of the truth of a certainproposition (Quirk et al, 1985). In addition, Halliday (2000) focuses on the polarityconnected with modality and defines modality as the area of meaning between yesand no, namely, the intermediate ground between positive and negative polarity.According to Saeed (2000:125)，m本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。