Permission: Can and Could Offers; can and could

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c. Permission: Can and Could

Can and Could also have meaning to indicate permission. The following details are the use of can and could to express permission. 16 1 Asking for permission Can and could are all used in asking for permission. Can is probably the commenest of the two though some people consider that can is „not correct’ - Can I have a drop more whisky? Could is rather more hesitant that can, and is used when you are not sure that you will get permission or when you don’t want to sound too sure. - Could I ask you something, if you are not too busy? 2 Giving permission When someone gives permission, heshe uses can, but not Could. Could is suggest respect, so it is more natural in asking for permission that in giving it. - „Could I use your phone?’ – yes, of course you can. „Not:....of course you could.’ 3 Reporting permission When the writer talks about permission that has already been given, may is not usually used. - It’s not fair. Joey can stay up till ten and have to go to bed at eight.not: ...Joey may stay up... - Can you park on the pavement in your country?Not: May you...? In the past, could is used to say that one wass allowed to do something at any time„general permission’ When I lived at home, I could watch TV whenever I wanted to. But the writer don’t use could to talk about permission for one particular action in past. 16 Michael Swam, Practical English usage, …p.131 14 - I was allowed to see her yesterday evening. Not: I could see her... 17

d. Offers; can and could

Can and Could are also often used to offer something to another people. To make offers more polite could is used more approprite than can. The following examples are some of the use when could and can express offers. - I can lend you the money till tommorow, if you need it. - I could do shopping for you, if you are tired. - Can I carry your luggage? - Could I give You dinner tonight? e. Request and Order: can and could Can and Could are also used to make someone to do something, or to orders someone to do as they are orders. For example, in restaurant, when custemers make an order, they may ask waiters to bring them meals such as drinks, desert, cigarette, etc. The following examples show how can and could fit these meanings. - You can start by doing the washing up, and then you can clean the car. - Sofi can do the shopping, and I will do the cooking. Harold can do the washing-up. - You could phone Sofi and see what time she is coming. - Can you come here a minute, please? - Could you help me with this letter? C. Students’ difficulties in using CAN and COULD Modal auxilaries are among the more difficult structure ESL and English teacher have to deal with. One of the reasons for his is the form of modals. The students,who have been told time to time again that present-tense verb with third person singular subjects require an-s ending, overgeneralize this rule to modals this rule to modals- for example, He cans play tennis. 17 Michael Swam, Practical English usage, …p.131 15 And the main verb modal auxilaries is always the bare infinitive infinitive without “to”. It is can not say: he can to play tennis or He could to play tennis but He can play tennis or He could play tennis. This overgeneralization results in error because in English modal Auxilaries can, could,may,will,etc are distinguished from other auxilariey verb be, have, do as well as from ordinary verbs by their lack of tense and their resultant lack of subject-verb agreement; that is, modals do not inflect. In English, modals are derived from verb that did carry tense and take agreement markers during a much earlier stages of the language. It is thus important to emphasize to learners that English no longer inflects modals for tense and number. Another formal property of modals that may cause your students some trouble is that modal directly precede a verb without the intervening infinitive to that is required when two ordinary verbs follow each other in sequence. 18 Modal+ verb verb +verb I can go I want to go. I can to go I want go. Many of the students will treat modals like ordinary verbs and produce error by using a superfluous infinitive to: Jack must to Study Harder. The biggest problem of ESL students face with modals is their meaning. Each modal can have more than one meaning and each meaning is a member of an inter-related system. When a speaker chooses to use one modal, she is deciding not to use any of the other modals, thereby indicating the degree of emphasis.The problem lies not in the surface positioning of modals nor in their wide range of meanings, but in associating the right modal with the right meaning. The difficulties, in interpreting an already complex system, have often been compounded by teaching methods that present modals as a list. Students memorize the modals with their accompanying 18 Diane Larsen Freeman and Marianne Murcia ,THE GRAMMAR BOOK An ESLEFL Teacher’s Course second edition New York: Pearson Education, Inc1999,p.137 16 meanings, but they may have no idea of the subtle social and cultural information each choice conveys. 19 Modals can also appear in the perfect aspect with a have + -en construction. This can also be a difficult area for students. The problems students experience with the perfect modal construction can be attributed to the fact that they often believe the addition of the perfect construction adds perfectiveness to the meaning. Beside that, the difficulties in learning modal auxiliaries were caused by internal factor; the factor comes from inside of the students, such as Interest, motivation, mental health and talent. As Muhibin Syah said “ The internal factor is divided into aspects; physiological aspect and psychological aspect”. 20 1. Physiological Aspect This aspect is about the conditions of the students’ body from every part of the body. For instance, when the students got headache, they could not study well. The condition of the body can influence students’ intensity and spirits in studying. So, if their bodies are healthy, they can study well; can receive the information about what they are learning and can get a good achievement. However, if they are not, it will influence too. The students become lazy and no spirit to study. 2. Psychological Aspect This factor emphasize on the inside conditions of the students. It consists of the students’ intelligence, talent, interest, motivation, mental health and special types of learner. a. Intelligence The level of intelligence which the students have, give the influence in their learning. If the students have to resolve their problems which are over than their competences or their potentials, 19 http:www2.gsu.edu~wwweslissue1modaldif.htm 20 Abu Ahmadi dan Widodo Supriyono,... p.75 translated by the writer 17 they will face the difficulties, especially in their learning. The higher IQ that students have, the higher achievement they will get. b. Talent Talent is the basic potential or basic competence which is gotten from born. Everyone has different talent. Someone will be easy learning something that is not suitable with their talent will get bored, give up and unhappy. c. Interest Interest is a tendency and high spirit or desire to something. The students’ interest can be seen by the way students follow the learning process, complete or incomplete their note and pay attention to the italic word in those learning. Without interesting to the learning process, they will get learning difficulties. So, for those who have high interest in learning process, they will study hard to get what they want happily. Nevertheless, for those who have less interest in learning process, they will study just as long as they want. d. Motivation Motivation is as inner factor that functions for making, basing and pointing to the learning. Students’ motivation can determine good or bad in their learning achievement. The higher motivation they have, the higher learning success they will get. Furthermore, there are two kinds of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a motivation that comes from the inside students that can force them to study. Extrinsic motivation is motivation comes from outside students that give energy to study. It means the extrinsic motivation is the verse of intrinsic motivation. e. Mental Health In learning process, there is not only about intelligence but also about their mental health and their emotion. The quite emotion and the 18 mental health will make the good result in learning process. In addition, if the students get successful in their learning, they will have self- esteem. The appearance of someone’s self-esteem is the factor of mental health. f. Special types of learner As we know, there are three types of learning styles, those are: visual, motorist, and visual-motorist. If the learning process is suitable with their learning style, they will study happily. Besides the internal factor, there is external factor that causes learning difficulties. In this case, the students did not concentrate to the material given because their friends disturbed them, or there is the parent did not support them to study. It is meant, the difficulties were caused by the external factors. The external factor includes social environment and non social environment. 21 1. Social Environment The social environment here is the human environment outside students who have contact directly with them such as family, in their school, neighbors and mass media. Family is the first center of education. But it can be the cause of learning difficulties if the families give less attention to their children. Social environment in school such as teachers, staff administration and classmates can influence the students. The teacher can be a cause for learning difficulties when: a. Unqualified teacher b. Bad relationship between the teacher and the student. c. The high learning standard from the teacher d. Has no skill in diagnosing the students learning difficulties, and e. The unsuitable method. Moreover, the neighbors or people surrounding them can also influence in their learning activities. 21 Abu Ahmadi dan Widodo Supriyono,...p.79translated by the writer 19 2. Nonsocial Environment The factors which include the nonsocial environment are the location of student’s house, the school’s building, learning instruments, curriculum, and school timing. All these factors are thought could be the influence for the students’ achievement. 20

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Purpose of the Research

The writer wants to know the students’ difficulties in learning modal auxiliary especially o f „Can’ and „Could’ in determining the meaning, function and form of Modal Auxiliary and then the writer wants to analyze why they face the difficulties in using Modal auxiliary.

B. Place and Time of the Research

The research was held at Mts Muhammadiyah 1 Ciputat, which is located on Jl.Nangka No. 21 Ciputat, T angerang. It’s not far and only about 20 minutes from the writer’s lodging house. This research began by doing the observation at school and the research was carried on May 2010.

C. Method of the Research

This study uses descriptive analysis technique in a form of research about the students ’ difficulties in learning modal auxiliary. The descriptive analysis is designed to obtain the current status of phenomenon and is directed toward determining the nature of situation as it exists at the time of the study.