Bob, I'm sure you are familiar with modal auxiliaries. For those on the list
who are not, these are what used to be lumped into "helping" verbs

can
may
might
could
should
will
would
must

Technically, these words express the "mood" of a verb. In plain English,
they express the speaker's attitude toward what is being said (how truthful
is it? how believable? how likely is it to be so?) and the speaker's
understanding of his or her relationship to whoever is being addressed (is
the speaker in a position to demand? suggest? allow?)

In addition to modal auxiliaries, the "mood" system includes other features
-- namely, verb tense and polarity (it is/it isn't) and all sorts of
adjuncts (add-ons) like

probably
certainly
surely
perhaps
usually
sometimes
never
definitely
gladly
etc.

If it isn't obvious yet what this has to do with kids interviewing elders,
I'll say what I saw in the video: the kids were paying attention to the
language they used that showed more or less respect for others and more or
less confidence in the questions they asked.

I thought it was neat that children recognized the modality of questions
they composed -- that they could pay attention to it, play around with it.

Judy

At 05:27 PM 6/27/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I think this is an appropriate question to ask about a post entitled
>metalanguage.
>
>I have no idea what is being taught here.  What is the difference
>between high modality and low modality?
>
>Judy Diamondstone wrote:
>> Here's the ANECDOTAL evidence -- oh, but first, let me add my own bit of
>> anecdotal evidence from a video of SFG-based teaching that I saw, some of
>> which I objected to, but other chunks impressed me and everyone else who has
>> viewed them. One in particular was a class of 4th grade students who were
>> preparing for a project interviewing aged(?) people in a home for elders.
>> The teacher had introduced the term "modality" and the students could refer
>> to "high" and "low" modality in the questions they prepared.
>
>Why are these concepts so important for 10 year olds to know when
>visiting old people?
>
>
>Bob Yates
>


Judith Diamondstone  (732) 932-7496  Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183