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 modal verbs at levels 1 to 7 according the China’s Standards English Language Ability (CSE). The results quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that: 1) learners CSE 1-7 more in writing than native MICUSP; 2) they consistently overuse CAN, WILL SHOULD but underuse WOULD across levels; 3) salient forms fundamental senses are most recurrent 3 becomes productive variant higher 4) form-meaning pairs seem exist--the past affirmative negative associated rare writing. Cross-register variation structure complexity may account for absence some verb