A cross-sectional investigation of the use of modal verbs in Chinese EFL learners’ English writing

This study, based on a corpus of Chinese EFL learners’ writing, has investigated their use of modal verbs at levels 1 to 7 according to China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE). The results of quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that: 1) Chinese EFL learners at CSE 1-7 levels use more modal verbs in writing than native learners in MICUSP; 2) they consistently overuse CAN, WILL and SHOULD whereas underuse WOULD in writing across levels; 3) salient forms and fundamental senses of modal verbs are the most recurrent in writing at CSE 1-3 levels and learners’ use becomes more productive and variant at higher levels; and 4) form-function pairs seem to exist--modal verbs with the perfect aspect structure and their associated senses are rare in Chinese learners’ writing. Cross-register variation and structure complexity may account for the absence of some modal verb forms in learners’ writing.