Introduction

Student: Can I go to the bathroom sir?

Teacher: Im sure you can, but you may not.
This old joke plays on different interpretations of can. The student is asking for permission,
whereas the teacher is talking about ability. Some people might say that the students use of can
is incorrect (i.e. the student should say May I go to the bathroom?). This view, however, is based
on a very narrow understanding of modality and modal verbs in English

MODAL VERBS 1

Tip: When explaining structural rules of modals, point out that they are auxiliary verbs. They thus
conform to many of the same rules as other auxiliary verbs (like do, have, be), i.e. negative is with
not, inversion for the question etc. This is helpful as it gives you a chance to review those areas
of auxiliary verbs that many students find difficult in English.
Below you will find some great activities for teaching modals.

Different abilities
The use of the modal verb can for ability lends itself well for any kind of personalised
questionnaire about different abilities. Many coursebook materials have a 'mixed bag'
questionnaire of abilities, for instance:

Can you ski?

Can you bake a cake?
You can always adapt or extend this kind of activity by having a themed questionnaire (Im a big
fan of themed questionnaires, youll see these in other sections of the Grammar reference
pages). So, for example,

Art and music

Can you paint?
Can you draw?
Can you read music?
Can you play an instrument?
Sport and health
Can you play a sport? Which sport?
Can you ski?
What sports cant you do?
Can you touch your toes?

Permission drill
Heres a simple drill to practise the different uses of can/could/would for asking for permission.
Write the following on the board and do it with a student to demonstrate.

A Can I use your pen?

B Yes, of course you can.
A Could I use your pen?
B Yes, of course you can.
A Would you mind if I used your pen?
B Yes, of course you can.
Note the use of the past tense form in the last question. Drill this chorally, then ask students to do
it in pairs. Once they get the hang of it, write the following phrases on the board and tell them to
repeat the drill with the new phrases.
borrow your phone ... open the window ... go to the toilet ... take a picture etc.
You could adapt this drill so that the B student says No, Im sorry you cant each time, or
alternates between the two responses.

Self evaluation I can do it

One feature of many modern European coursebooks is self-evaluation. This has been inspired by
the Common European Framework of Languages and a series of published can dostatements
that indicate at what level a student is. You can make your own Can do self-evaluations sheets
and set students up to interview each other. Prepare a list of statements. The students put a tick
or a cross next to each one. They then turn the statements into questions and interview a partner.
This could take different forms:
1.

As revision of material studied in class. Your statements here would cover things youve
done in class. For example:
I can remember the difference between past simple and present perfect.
I can understand how to make questions in English.
I can now talk about my family in English.
As a diagnostic for future needs/uses of English. Your statements here would not necessarily be
what youve done in English but rather what you think your students need or areas theyve told
you they want to work on. You could give options here, for example:

I can speak on the phone in English.

Very well
Well
I can, but its difficult.
I cant.

How your English has changed can vs. could

This activity is suitable for students of an elementary level or intermediate level. Ask students to
think about their level of English when they first started learning. What could they do? What
couldnt they do? Tell them to complete the following sentences:
When I started learning English I couldnt but now I can.
I could and now I can do it better.
I couldnt and I still cant.

Once they have finished, tell them to compare in pairs. This activity is good for building selfesteem. A variation on this would be to ask students to find someone with a higher level of
English and interview them about things they couldnt do in English before but can now.

Modals in discourse
Because modals help convey the speakers or writers impression of an event they are a rich area
to look at in texts. A simple way of doing this is to ask students to take modals out of a text and
compare the new text with the original. For example, take this short text written by President
George Bush to his Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during a UN meeting:
I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?
Many reporters laughed at this note, because it made him sound like a child. Part of this was
because of the use of the modal verb MAY. By deleting the modal verb, or changing it, the shade
of meaning changes. Students could be encouraged to do this with other texts.

Ill do it - offers
The use of will to make offers is a very common one. This lends itself well to short roleplays. The
roleplay could take place in a restaurant, with the following incidents. Students work in pairs. A is
the customer and B is the waiter. They should go through each situation briefly.

A You are sitting in the non smoking section

and someone is smoking. Tell the waiter.

B Offer to tell the other person to put out

their cigarette.

A You dont have a soup spoon.

B Offer to bring a soup spoon.

A Your food is not hot enough.

B Offer to take it back and change it.

etc.
Other roleplays in stages like the one above could take place in a hotel (offer to take the bags,
offer to change the room etc).

Fortune teller or fortune cookies

The classic exercise for teaching will for future predictions is some variation on the fortune teller.
Here are some examples:

Get students to write different predictions on small pieces of paper (e.g. you will meet a
tall dark stranger) Tell them to fold the predictions. Circulate with a hat, or box, or bag and ask
students to throw their predictions in there. Then get students to pull out new predictions and read
them out loud.
Have students roleplay a conversation in pairs. One person is the fortune teller and the
other plays himself/herself.
A variation on the above would be to assign different students the roles of fortune teller
and tell them to choose their method of fortune telling (palm reading, tea leaves etc). They set up
shop at the front of the class. Other students take turns going and visiting the different fortune
tellers. At the end do some feedback who was the best fortune teller?

MODAL VERBS 2
Noticing
If modal verbs are an area you havent thought much about, start looking out for them yourself in
different English texts. Examining modality can give a lot of background information about the
speaker or writers impression of the event. For example, what impression does the previous
sentence give if you replace the word can with will? What does it give if you delete the can
altogether?
With your students, this could simply mean underlining different modal verbs in a text and
discussing their meaning. More advanced students could also rewrite a text using different modal
verbs (in order to sound more confident, or less confident).

Reformulating
Many students tend to avoid modals, especially if they dont have them in their own language.
When monitoring speaking activities, you could choose to focus only on modal verbs. Listen out
for examples of English that could be better replaced by a modal verb, e.g.
It is possible that he went to the dentist.
Write these on the board at the end of the activity and ask students to reformulate them using a
modal verb.
You could also do this with samples of students writing.

Activity: agony aunt variations

One of the most popular and common activities to practise the modal verbs should (and
sometimes ought to) are situations in which people ask for advice. Many newspapers have
agony aunt columns (sometimes called Dear Abby columns in North America). There are two
ways you can use these in class.
1.

Find some original letters and their answers on the Internet. You can do this by entering
agony aunt or dear abby on a search engine. Select some questions and the answers given
(better if they are short). Mix up the questions and the answers and distribute them to the
students, who have to match them. When they have finished, ask them to go through and find
any modal verbs in the text. As a follow up, ask students to write their own advice to those
people.

2.

Ask students to each write about a problem they have (real or imaginary) that they would
like advice on. They should write these on a slip of paper, but not write their name. Collect all the
slips of paper and put the students into groups of four. Give each group four problems at
random. Tell them to select two and give advice to the writer about their problem (including modal
verbs such as should, ought to, shouldnt etc). When groups have finished, ask them to read out
the problem and the advice.

Activity: regrets
To practise should have you could ask students to think about regrets theyve had in the past. To
get them started, give a few examples of your own, e.g.

I should have visited my grandparents more.

I shouldnt have started smoking.
I really should have learnt another language when I was young.
Write on the board the sentence stems:

I should have
I shouldnt have
I really should have
Ask students to complete the sentences for themselves. Tell them that these should be regrets
that they dont mind sharing with others. When they have finished, ask them to work in pairs and

compare their sentences.

As a follow up you can make this into an instant roleplay. Tell students to work with a new partner
and explain the following situation:
You are the presidential candidate for your country. You have just lost the election. You are
speaking to one of your aides. Ask students to think of ways of completing the sentence stems
above.

Activity: modal verb drill

To focus on form and meaning, you can set up a drill like the following. Write on the board the
words:

POSSIBLE
IMPOSSIBLE
CERTAIN
Say different phrases and show how the sentence changes depending on if its possible,
impossible or certain, e.g.
We go out. (point to CERTAIN) Well go out.
We stay at home. (point to IMPOSSIBLE) We cant stay at home.
We go to the cinema. (point to POSSIBLE) We might go to the cinema.
Continue, giving other cues. These cues could be spoken, or written on cards, which you can
show the students, e.g.
I have a drink. (CERTAIN)
I have coffee. (IMPOSSIBLE)
I have tea. (POSSIBLE)
We work tonight. (POSSIBLE)
You work tonight. (IMPOSSIBLE)
I work tonight. (CERTAIN)
Prepare six to twelve more examples.

Activity: jump to conclusions

Tell the students you are going to describe a situation that is open to interpretation (see box for
examples). When you finish, ask them to work in pairs and make as many sentences as possible
as to what may have happened. For this they should use modal verb + have + past participle, e.g.
When I arrived at school today, there were papers all over the floor in the hall and the directors
office.
Possible conclusions:

There may have been a break-in.

The director might have gone crazy and thrown the papers around.
Some students may have played a joke.

The director must have been furious.

Possible situations:
You were stuck in traffic for two hours.
You heard loud dance music coming from the staff room.
No students came to class.
When you walked in, all the students started laughing.
X (a students name) was fifteen minutes late.

Activity: those are the rules

One activity to get students to practise modal verbs of obligation is to ask them to make rules.
Here are some ways of doing it:
1.

Ask students to work in groups. Give each group the name of a place (e.g. library,
swimming pool, jail, school, bus, amusement park) and ask them to write rules for this place
(using must, mustnt, have to and dont have to). When they finish, groups read out their rules and
the others guess the place.

2.

Ask students to work in small groups or pairs. Ask them to imagine that they are in
charge of designing the rules for a perfect language school. They should include what the
students and teacher should do, mustnt do and can do. At the end of the activity, ask different
groups to read out their rules (or post them on the wall). Who has the best school?

3.

Prepare a series of sentences about typical rules in society (see below for examples) and
ask students to complete them with a modal verb so that they are true for their country, e.g.
You ____________ vote in elections.
You ____________ drink alcohol at the age of 18.
You ____________ get married at the age of 15.
You ____________ drive a car at the age of 14.
You ____________ do military service when you are 18.