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A few years ago I shared a flat with a mouse. It was a very considerate mouse in that it would always do its business just beside my shower drain. Unlike other mice I have known, this one never left me inconvenient “packages” in places where I didn’t want to receive them (in my wardrobe, on my kitchen worktop, etc).

After a few weeks, I started to think that perhaps I should be a bit more concerned. My flat mate was a tidy mouse but what if he or she found a mate and started to reproduce? Would the new family members be so thoughtful?

I wanted to turn my mouse dilemma into a lesson plan. I thought I could show my students the photographic evidence, tell them about my predicament and then ask them for advice. I systematically decided that this would be a lesson on ‘should‘. After all, we are always told that this modal auxiliary verb is “used to give advice and make recommendations.”

But a problem became apparent when I told a couple of friends about the mouse in my house. They were full of advice and none of it contained the word should.

“We had mice in our house and we got a trap.”

(Photo by It’s Meng!)

“Get a cat!”

(Photo by Jciv)

Here is another situation: A mother is trying to advise her son that:

• He should eat fish (or specifically the tuna salad that she has prepared).
• Have a mercury test.
• Take a sweater with him when he goes out because he might get cold.

Watch the clip below and listen to the number of times she uses should.

I counted two uses of should. In general, however, her language was a lot more subtle and varied:

Eat fish

• “I just made some fish. Would you like some fish?”
• “You don’t like fish?”
• “This is tuna fish. I mixed some chopped celery in there so it has a little crunch to it.”
• “You know, fish is really healthy.”
• “All the healthiest people eat fish.”
• “In fact, I think the healthiest people eat more fish than they do beef or chicken.”
• “I’m not saying that people should eat just fish, fish, fish all the time because if you overdo it you can get too much mercury.”
• “Have you ever tried it with chopped celery?”
• “How would you know you wouldn’t like it if you haven’t tried it?”
• “Maybe it’s the tuna. Have you tried salmon?”
• “OK, you probably shouldn’t have too much too eat now anyway because we’re going to the restaurant in a little while”

Get your mercury levels tested

• “Have you ever been tested for mercury?”
• “Mercury isn’t only in fish”

Take a sweater

• “Are you just wearing that?”
• “You might want to bring a sweater”
• “I’m going to bring one. You may want to bring one too”
• “All right! All right! It might get colder later and you’ll be freezing but do what you want.”

Of course, you could say that the mom is trying to persuade rather than advise. But there is a thin line. Think of the times when you have had a cold and everyone seems to have their own personal miracle cure that they want to recommend to you. Are they trying to advise or convince and persuade? When my friends were telling me what to do about my mouse, they were almost arguing between themselves about which would be the best course of action to take.

Language can be difficult to trap. Here is another example involving modals of deduction.

I got two copies of an image and chopped one of them up as shown. This was to be an activity in which learners were to use:

• It could be …
• It can’t be …
• It might be…

Similarly, the language that came out of this activity (when done with both learners and proficient English users) was different to the language that I had anticipated:

It looks like a shop.
It looks like he is holding a crash helmet.
It looks like a fire.
Are those oranges or pumpkins?
Is that a crane?
There’s a fire.
There’s a window here.
I think it’s a house.

There are a lot of standard activities which are assumed to generate a lot of standard language. One way to test the material or language production activities that you intend to take into class is try them out with friends, family members or other teachers first. If you listen to the language that is produced during this “trial period”, you will be able to identify the language to focus on in the classroom (”looks like” for example).

Joel Sternfield, 1978: McLean, Virginia