Teach English in LijiAhe Zhen - Enshi Tujiazu Miaozu Zizhizhou

Roleplay as the Most Effective Teaching Method for Modal Auxiliary Verbs Modal auxiliary verbs are modals that are added to supplement a verb and do not change depending on the individual. Examples could include the following: can, should, could, would, may, might, shall, must, will, have to, have got to, need to, needn’t to, and ought to. They are expressed as an obligation, a possibility or probability, a permission or prohibition, and an ability or advice. Modal auxiliary verbs can be exemplified in your lessons by the introduction of roleplay as an interaction between a doctor and their patient, a travel agent and their client, a teacher and their students, or a parent and their children. These examples can be practiced in roleplay during the activate phase of a straight arrow ESA lesson plan or a boomerang ESA lesson plan. An example of modal auxiliary verbs in a conversation between a doctor and their patient could include something like the following: Doctor: “What brings you in today?” Patient: “I am experiencing insomnia. I mustn’t miss out on a good night sleep. I ought to be getting to bed early and managing to fall asleep at a proper hour. If I couldn’t sleep the night before, I have a hard time functioning at work.” Doctor: “I should prescribe you a sleep aide, or rather I should book you for a sleep study to further investigate the cause behind your lack of sleep.” Alternatively, a teacher could prompt an exemplary dialogue between a travel agent and their client – and while this exchange could be similar to the example prepared between the doctor-patient, it could be fruitful to offer more modal auxiliary verbs in proper use. The teacher should feel encouraged to diversify the participants used in the examples to demonstrate how modal auxiliary verbs come into play in daily activities and interactions. While the argument here is for teaching modal auxiliary verbs through roleplay in the activate phase, we need not forget that the teacher must lay down some of the groundwork in both the engage phase and study phase(s). For example, in the engage phase, the teacher could open discussion about who are the persons of authority in society or at home, and how or what might they implore others to do. The teacher can play a short clip to introduce dialogues being exchanged in daily activities and then open the platform for the students to discuss and speculate over the commonality between the types of words used in the clip. The teacher should encourage the student to produce vocabulary in a board-work exercise and graduate into the study phase by introducing what the language point of the lesson is and discussing the type of phrasing used in the clip. The study phase could include handouts or an activity booklet that gets the students thinking about modal auxiliary verbs through matching activities connecting the modal with the other side of the sentence, a questionnaire for paired students as a group-work activity, and/or a dialogue as a fill in the blanks puzzle. Graduating into the activate phase, a suggested lesson plan could include a dialogue between a travel agent and a client looking to book a vacation. A teacher can offer a script prepared before the start of class and can prompt students to engage with the scripted dialogues in pairs or small groups. If the students are hesitant due to confidence, the straight arrow ESA lesson plan is best to be practiced until the students have become more adept at language production and familiarized themselves with the material sufficiently. This activate stage could also be utilized in a boomerang style lesson plan in that between study phases, the teacher can offer the scripted skits in the first activate phase and a student-prepared roleplay to encourage language production in the second activate phase. The students would be able to prepare their own written dialogues or prepare them in real-time as they communicate through improvisation acting through a character instead of practicing a prepared script. Roleplay activities during the activate phase of your lessons on modal auxiliary verbs can strengthen student understanding and language comprehension. Since the student is able to mask themselves by acting through a different character, they are able to shed away much of their discomfort from fears of communicating in a silly manner that would leave them embarrassed. Through roleplay, a student lacking confidence to experiment with the language, as I once was myself, we can blame our mishaps or errors on the language abilities of the character so forth adding some cushion to the blow if they were to mess up on a phrase. With the students being provided with exemplary dialogues, writing dialogues themselves or producing them in real-time, the student will build confidence experimenting with the language and improving upon their abilities of language production and level of fluency achieved. Therefore, the less confident student will be able to build with confidence and composure when communicating in the second language and be more willing to experiment or mess up a few phrases because it was be less concerning to their self-esteem if they can say that the character happens to struggle with the phrasing. Roleplay activities normalize the concepts introduced in the lesson in that they demonstrate proper sentence production in casual and formal conversation while easing any fears of messing up for your less confident students. Regular practice will make students comfortable with the grammatical concept and help them with their language production further incorporating it as part of their natural dialogue.