Modal Verbs in a Curriculum-Based EFL Textbook of Senior High School in Indonesia: A Corpus-Based Study

Modality is ubiquitous among language users, and its use is highly necessary to qualify a proposition (Perkins, 1982). Interestingly, modal verbs as the prototype manifestation of modality are said to be among the most problematic grammatical unit among non-native students (Holmes, 1988; Mukundan & Khojasteh, 2011; Römer, 2004). It is then appealing to examine the use of modal verbs in an EFL textbook as EFL textbooks are designed to equip the learners with sufficient linguistic knowledge to be communicatively competent (Gilmore, 2007). In an EFL context, corpus might assist the design of teaching materials since it can provide the closest representation of actual language use (Römer, 2004). Regarding the condition in which corpus consultation in EFL textbooks in Indonesia is unknown, given that corpus is not widely recognized and used in Indonesia (Crosthwaite, 2020), it is important to revisit the language content in Indonesian EFL textbooks. This study focuses on the analysis of modal verbs in conversation sections in a curriculum-based EFL textbook, Bahasa Inggris, for grade XII as comparison with the spoken sub-corpus of a general reference corpus, Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The study analyzes the frequency of use of modal verbs in the textbook and the corpus to find out the similarities and the mismatches of modal verbs usage. The results show that both textbook and COCA use core modals (e.g. must) and quasi-modals (e.g. have to) and the use of have to are more frequent than must in both of the data sources. Despite the similarities, there are some mismatches of modal verbs usage in textbook and COCA. In COCA, modal verbs would, can, will, be going to occupy the highest position, while modal verbs can, will, have to, should are most frequently used in the textbook. In terms of variants, there are limited numbers of quasi-modals and contracted forms of modal verbs used in conversation in the textbook that do not correspond to the nature of spoken language. Besides, textbook conversations lack the reduced form of modal verbs (e.g. ‘ll) and modal verb would is absent (while would is the most frequent in COCA), making it unnatural for spoken context. Pedagogically speaking, these findings should be taken into account by ELT materials writers in Indonesia to enhance the quality and authenticity of the language input for the learners. Keywords: corpus, modal verb, EFL textbook, Indonesi