Oktavianti, Ikmi Nur and Noor Raha, Mohd Radzuan and Bambang Widi, Pratolo and Surono, . and Tri Rina, Budiwati and Aisyah, Shifak (2025) Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: a corpus-driven study. Studies in English Language and Education, 12 (1). pp. 20-33. ISSN 2355-2794. (Published)
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Abstract
Modality is a salient notion in language, manifested through modal verbs. However, modal verbs are complex grammatical units since they have multiple functions and meanings. Previous studies have shown mismatches between actual language use and its presentation in textbooks, including modal verb representation in both EFL and ESL contexts. This study explored the distributional frequencies of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks compared to those in Malaysian ESL textbooks. It compiled the textbook conversation corpora from secondary education levels in Indonesia and Malaysia: two Indonesian EFL textbooks (IET) and two Malaysian ESL textbooks (MET), which are nationally endorsed. The corpora comprised 4,548 tokens collected from the conversations in the textbooks. Data collection involved corpus queries focusing on nine core/central modal verbs: ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘will’, ‘would’, and ‘must’. The results show that Indonesian and Malaysian textbooks shared the same most frequent modal verb distribution; however, other distributions differed. Besides, English modal verbs in Indonesian textbooks are more static with one-to-one correspondence, while Malaysian textbooks present more dynamic modal verb meanings. Notably, Indonesian EFL textbooks have complete modal meaning representation, which is absent in Malaysian textbooks. Interestingly, the modal verb distributions in both textbooks differ from those in a native corpus, representing actual English use. These results highlight the need for more careful consideration when designing and developing teaching materials, especially in ESL and EFL contexts.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Indexed by Scopus |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Corpus; Modal verbs; Secondary schools; Textbooks |
| Subjects: | L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools L Education > LT Textbooks P Language and Literature > PE English |
| Faculty/Division: | Center for Modern Languages |
| Depositing User: | Mrs. NOOR FATEEHA MOHAMAD |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Mar 2025 03:38 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2025 03:38 |
| URI: | http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44062 |
| Download Statistic: | View Download Statistics |
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