20 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025
Modal Verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English Textbooks for Secondary Schools: A Corpus-Driven Study P-ISSN 2355-2794
E-ISSN 2461-0275
Ikmi Nur Oktavianti1* Noor Raha Mohd Radzuan2 Bambang Widi Pratolo1 Surono1 Tri Rina Budiwati3 Shifak Aisyah1 MasterAos Program of English Education.
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education.
Universitas Ahmad Dahlan.
Yogyakarta 55161.
INDONESIA Department of English Language.
Centre for Modern Languages.
Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, 26600 Pahang.
MALAYSIA Department of English Literature.
Faculty of Literature.
Culture, and Communication.
Universitas Ahmad Dahlan.
Yogyakarta 55191.
INDONESIA Abstract Modality is a salient notion in language, manifested through modal verbs.
However, modal verbs are complex grammatical units since they have multiple functions and Previous studies have shown mismatches between actual language use and its presentation in textbooks, including modal verb representation in both EFL and ESL contexts.
This study explored the distributional frequencies of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks compared to those in Malaysian ESL textbooks.
compiled the textbook conversation corpora from secondary education levels in Indonesia and Malaysia: two Indonesian EFL textbooks (IET) and two Malaysian ESL textbooks (MET), which are nationally endorsed.
The corpora comprised 4,548 tokens collected from the conversations in the textbooks.
Data collection involved corpus queries focusing on nine core/central modal verbs: AocanAo.
AocouldAo.
AomayAo.
AomightAo.
AoshallAo.
AoshouldAo.
AowillAo.
AowouldAo, and AomustAo.
The results show that Indonesian and Malaysian textbooks shared the same most frequent modal verb however, other distributions differed.
Besides.
English modal verbs in Indonesian textbooks are more static with one-to-one correspondence, while Malaysian textbooks present more dynamic modal verb meanings.
Notably.
Indonesian EFL textbooks have complete modal meaning representation, which is * Corresponding author, email: ikmi.
oktavianti@pbi.
Citation in APA style: Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati.
, & Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study.
Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33.
Received November 13, 2023.
Revised May 30, 2024.
Accepted December 17, 2024.
Published Online January 31, https://doi.
org/10.
24815/siele.
Copyright A 2025 by Authors, published by Studies in English Language and Education.
This is an open-access article Creative Commons Attribution International License .
ttps://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by/4.
Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati,& S.
Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study | 21 absent in Malaysian textbooks.
Interestingly, the modal verb distributions in both textbooks differ from those in a native corpus, representing actual English use.
These results highlight the need for more careful consideration when designing and developing teaching materials, especially in ESL and EFL contexts.
Keywords: Corpus, modal verbs, secondary schools, textbooks.
INTRODUCTION
Humans must communicate their truth-value conditions, possibilities, and necessities, referred to as modality (Collins, 2009, 2014.
Oktavianti, 2.
Language users utilise modalities to qualify a proposition (Nordberg, 2010.
Oktavianti & Fajria, 2021.
Perkins, 1.
While there is a modality deficit over time and a decline in the usage of modal verbs in written registers .
s demonstrated by written corpor.
, these developments are not as evident in spoken registers where spoken corpora do not support the modality deficit (Leech, 2.
As a result, modal verb study is still essential and required, particularly in spoken circumstances.
The realisation of modality in English can be seen using diverse linguistic forms, such as modal verbs (Leech, 2.
However, some studies demonstrated some difficulties in learning modal verbs, including native speakers of English (Bouhlal et al.
, 2018.
Holmes, 1988.
RymerBarron, 2.
Considering the challenge, modal verbs must also be considered when teaching and studying the English language (Holmes, 1988.
Mukundan & Khojasteh, 2011.
Oktavianti & Fajria, 2021.
Rymer-Barron, 2.
The modal verbs should be presented in instructional materials .
, textbook.
by instructors and textbook authors appropriately to provide learners with authentic English usage in daily life so they can be competent communicatively (Gilmore.
Timmis, 2015, 2.
Surprisingly, native speakers also find some difficulties using modal verbs (Collins, 2009.
Holmes, 1.
For instance, the modal verbs AomayAo and AomightAo convey uncertainty.
However, they are primarily associated with the meanings of AopossibilityAo.
AoabilityAo, and AopermissionAo (Collins, 2.
and can also serve as politeness markers (Holmes, 1.
As expected, modal verbs have become one of the grammatical issues in the EFL environment (Rymer-Barron, 2.
To overcome this, non-native English speakers should not depend on their sole intuition when utilising modal verbs in educational materials.
The process of creating EFL teaching materials must, therefore, consult the corpus, which serves as a representative of the English language, because it offers a vast collection of texts illustrating language usage in real-world contexts (Burton, 2012.
Timmis, 2015, 2.
Some earlier studies have revealed language mismatches between textbook language and actual English use (Arellano, 2018.
Burton, 2012.
Leung, 2016.
Oktavianti et al.
, 2020.
Oktavianti & Sarage, 2021.
Phoocharoensil, 2.
More specifically, previous studies have demonstrated the mismatch between modal verbs presented in textbooks and authentic English.
However, modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks are less studied compared to those in other countries, .
Japan.
Malaysia, and Iran (Mukundan & Khojasteh, 2011.
Nozawa, 2.
Several previous studies on textbooks in the Indonesian context focused on jobs, cultural values, and the depiction of gender roles (Agni et al.
, 2020.
Ayu & Indrawati, 2018.
Lestariyana et al.
, 2020.
Prastikawati & Yonata, 2.
In Malaysia, where English is a second language, mismatches are also found.
As exemplified in a study by Khojasteh and Kafipour .
, modal verbs in Malaysian textbooks differ from how they are used in a native corpus.
The present study explored the distributional frequency of modal verbs in textbook conversations since frequency does matter in language learning.
Ellis .
argued that learners are sensitive to linguistic units or the frequency of constructions from the language input or exposure, which will later attest to why learners are better at some regular forms than irregular In addition, the present study aims to investigate the use of modal verbs expressing modality in Indonesian secondary school English textbooks compared to those used in Malaysian ESL textbooks using a corpus approach.
The comparison can exhibit the differences in modal verbs 22 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025 used in textbooks in two different learning contexts.
However, the present study focused on conversation texts, as they are fundamental to human interactions.
As humans, we show our existence and pass life stages through conversations (Clift, 2.
Therefore, the conversation materials in English language teaching should be as realistic as possible.
To assess the quality of textbooks, many previous studies have employed a corpus-based approach, comparing textbooks to native reference corpora, such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) or the British National Corpus (BNC) (Akhofullah & Oktavianti.
Bouhlal et al.
, 2018.
Ketabi & Karimi, 2019.
Khojasteh & Shokrpour, 2015.
Nordberg.
Oktavianti & Fajria, 2021.
Rymer-Barron, 2.
This approach upholds the importance of corpus consultation in designing and developing teaching materials, also known as corpusinformed materials (Burton, 2012.
McCarthy & McCarten, 2.
Therefore, the existing textbooks should be evaluated using a corpus-based study to identify what is missing from textbooks compared to authentic English usage, including the usage of modal verbs.
Despite the fact that English is a foreign language in Indonesia, it is also valuable to compare how modal verbs are presented in the ESL textbooks and how both EFL and ESL textbooks differ from a native corpus.
These comparisons can help textbook authors improve the quality of the textbooks.
However, little is known about the comparison of modal verbs in the EFL and ESL textbooks.
Thus, this study addressed these research questions: .
What is the distributional frequency of the core/central modal verbs (AowillAo.
AocanAo.
AowouldAo.
AocouldAo.
AoshouldAo.
AomayAo.
AomustAo.
AomightAo.
AoshallA.
in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbook conversations compared to the native corpus?, and .
How are the meanings of the central/core modals distributed in the EFL and ESL textbook corpora? The results of this study are crucial for improving the quality of Indonesian EFL textbooks, which in turn can enhance English teaching and learning in Indonesia and facilitate learnersAo competence and fluency in real-life contexts.
Indonesian EFL learners will then be prepared to encounter global competitions.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Modal Verbs Modal verbs in the English language are under the category of auxiliaries that express modality (Bouhlal et al.
, 2018.
Chen, 2022.
Leech, 2014.
Li, 2022.
Yang, 2.
, as opposed to the auxiliaries that do not express modality, e.
AodoAo.
AohaveAo.
AobeAo.
Modal verbs qualify propositions and embrace various modal meanings, such as AopossibilityAo.
AoabilityAo.
AopermissionAo.
AoobligationAo.
AonecessityAo, and AohypotheticalityAo (Collins, 2.
Those modal meanings share something in common, that is, they involve some non-factuality, or the situation being represented is not a straightforward fact (Collins, 2.
As a grammatical category, morphosyntactically, modal verbs exhibit a set of properties distinguishing them from lexical verb categories (Collins.
Although classified as auxiliaries in English, modal verbs differ from lexical verbs.
Biber and Quirk .
classified modal verbs into central modals, marginal modals, modal idioms, and semi-auxiliaries.
Meanwhile.
Collins .
divided modal verbs into two significant categories: core modals and quasi-modals.
Central modals are equivalent to core modals, encompassing nine modal verbs Ae AomayAo.
AomightAo.
AocanAo.
AocouldAo.
AoshallAo.
AoshouldAo.
AowillAo.
AowouldAo, and AomustAo.
On the other hand, quasi-modals are periphrastic modal forms with more less-defined traits akin to modal verbs yet semantically align with the modal verb category (Collins, 2009.
Oktavianti, 2.
Morphosyntactically, quasi-modals conform to the subject, unlike core/central modals, which may result in finite forms in the past tense (Oktavianti, 2.
Semantically, quasimodals do not epitomise modal meanings, unlike their modal counterparts (Collins, 2009.
Oktavianti, 2.
Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati,& S.
Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study | 23 Corpus and Textbooks in Indonesian Context Studies on textbooks employing the corpus approach are common.
Several previous studies have investigated linguistic features and gender representation in textbooks.
Oktavianti and Prayogi .
, for example, analyse future tense markers in textbooks in comparison to a reference corpus as a representation of real-life English.
Beyond tenses and written register, conversational features in textbook conversations have also been studied.
Oktavianti et al.
reported that conversations in textbooks are not authentic and do not align with natural conversation, differing significantly from conversations in corpus-based textbooks.
Some studies have also focused on collocates in textbooks, including those by Intamanjana and Sada .
Oktavianti and Sarage .
Samudra et al.
, and Sarjono et al.
Oktavianti and Sarage .
, for instance, argued that the adjective collocations used in textbooks are inconsistent with those in a native corpus.
Similarly.
Samudra et al.
reported some discrepancies in verb collocates in Indonesian EFL textbooks compared to a native corpus.
Another study by Ardi et al.
focused on lexical bundles in English textbooks.
Additionally, a corpus approach has been utilised to research gender representation in textbooks, as demonstrated by Suwarno et al.
and Adawiyah and Oktavianti .
These studies revealed imbalances or biases in gender representation within Indonesian EFL textbooks, highlighting the need to re-examine teaching materials and enhance the quality of textbooks.
Previous Studies on Modal Verbs in Textbooks Numerous studies have reported the differences between modal verb usage in textbooks and their use in real-life English (Akhofullah & Oktavianti, 2023.
Bouhlal et al.
, 2018.
Ketabi & Karimi, 2019.
Khojasteh & Kafipour, 2012.
Khojasteh & Shokrpour, 2015.
Li, 2022.
Nozawa.
Khojasteh and Kafipour .
, for instance, investigated the introduction and presentation of modal verbs in texts and activities across Form 1 to Form 5 of Malaysian English language They found that the use of modal verbs in Malaysian English textbooks differs from their use in everyday speech.
This finding is interesting given that English is already a second language in Malaysia.
As a result, adjustments are strongly advised to teach English in ways that reflect everyday language use.
Additionally, only a few of the same modal verbs were consistently used in Malaysian English textbooks to describe recurring semantic functions.
More specifically.
Nozawa .
investigated how modal verbs convey politeness in English textbooks.
It was reported that only 11% of politeness requests in two EFL textbooks employ modal verbs, and this lack of modal verbs needs further attention.
Given what occurred in the EFL setting, it is impossible to meet the learnersAo needs to improve target language exposure from teaching materials.
Similarly.
Khojasteh et al.
investigated how accurately Malaysian English textbooks portray the semantic functions of the modals Aoobligation/necessityAo and Aovolition/predictionAo.
Five English-language textbooks for secondary schools in Malaysia served as the corpus data.
The results showed that the five textbooks focus more on less common use of modals rather than their more typical uses, creating a skewed representation of modal verbs.
Similarly.
Khojasteh and Shokrpour .
explored the use of permission, possibility, and ability among modal verbs AocanAo.
AocouldAo.
AomayAo, and AomightAo in Malaysian ESL textbooks and examined the alignment with those of native speakers.
English-language textbooks with 280,000 words were employed as the pedagogical corpus in five secondary schools in Malaysia.
The findings of this study indicate that real-life language is inadequately reflected in Malaysian English language textbooks.
Bouhlal et al.
made a similar comparison by exploring the semantics of four modal verbs (AomustAo.
AocanAo.
AomayAo, and AoshouldA.
used in textbooks.
The study found that the modal meanings in textbooks are less ideal than native speakersAo usage.
Despite the wide variety of modal use in the textbooks, the semantic coverage is limited, and there seem to be discrepancies between modal meanings in the textbooks and the native corpus.
This could pose challenges for English language learners since they are exposed to a restricted set of modal meanings, leaving them unequipped with the actual use of modal verbs.
24 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025 Furthermore.
Ketabi and Karimi .
compared nine core/central modal verbs in the textbooks of Iran and Malaysia, especially in the three grades of lower secondary levels.
The results of the study showed some similarities in the frequency distribution.
However, some modal verbs were identified more frequently in the Malaysian textbooks compared to the Iranian Furthermore, there were discrepancies between the frequency distributions in the textbooks and those in BNC.
The results suggest revisiting teaching materials to better reflect actual English use as recorded in BNC.
Recent studies on modal verbs and textbooks include research conducted by Oktavianti and Fajria .
Li .
, and Akhofullah and Oktavianti .
Oktavianti and Fajria .
claimed that there are some misrepresentations of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks, identified by the different frequencies of modal verb use in textbooks compared to those in the native corpus.
COCA.
Some modal verbs were identified as frequently used in the spoken subcorpus of COCA, such as AowouldAo.
AocanAo.
AowillAo, and Aobe going toAo.
This result differed from those found in the Indonesian EFL textbooks, which reported modal verbs AocanAo.
AowillAo.
Aohave toAo, and AoshouldAo with the highest frequencies.
Regardless of the frequencies, this study also claimed that the use of quasi-modals in textbook conversations is limited, and the textbooks lack the contracted forms that are characteristic of colloquialism.
What is more surprising is the absence of the modal verb AowouldAo in the textbook, even though it is the most common modal verb in spoken sub-corpus of COCA.
The results from the textbook do not align with those in the COCA, which makes textbook conversations less natural.
Li .
compared modal verbs in textbooks used in mainland China and a reference corpus.
BNC2014, by investigating their frequency, meaning, and co-occurrence.
This study emphasised the mismatches between textbook presentations of modal verbs and their actual use in a native corpus.
Similarly, in a more recent study.
Akhofullah and Oktavianti .
explored the distribution of nine central modal verbs and compared it to their distribution in COCA.
The study concluded the discrepancies were inevitable as the presentation of modal verb usage in Indonesian EFL textbooks did not align with that in COCA.
Considering all those previous studies, the present study compared similar textbooks and a native corpus by analysing modal verbs in textbooks of grades 7 and 8 of secondary levels in Indonesia and Form 1 and Form 2 of Malaysian textbooks to a native corpus.
COCA.
The comparison can shed light on the differences in language teaching materials in the EFL.
ESL, and native contexts, thereby improving the quality of teaching materials in the EFL context.
METHODS
This study employed a corpus approach by collecting textbook conversations from Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
This study also utilised a corpus tool and conducted corpus analyses.
This section provides detailed descriptions of the methods.
Corpus Construction The corpus was constructed from four English textbooks, i.
, two Indonesian EFL textbooks and two Malaysian EFL textbooks for secondary schools, containing a total of 4,548 These textbooks were selected as they are nationally endorsed textbooks in Indonesia and Malaysia, which means they are widely used in both countries.
The focus of the study is on the conversations in the textbooks.
thus, the collected data consisted of spoken content from the The textbook corpus construction was assisted by AntFileConverter, which converted the files from PDF to plain text file format.
The conversion was done by importing the textbooks to the software.
Given the diverse registers and text types within the textbooks, it was crucial to clean the corpus.
Subsequently, the converted plain text files were cleaned to retain only the conversational content.
Table 1 presents the details of the corpora under study.
Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati,& S.
Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study | 25 No.
Total Table 1.
Corpus details.
Corpus English for Nusantara - Grade 7 English for Nusantara - Grade 8 Pulse 2 - Form 1 Pulse 2 - Form 2 Size of tokens 1,244 1,405 1,153 4,548 Corpus Tool The present study utilised AntConc developed by Anthony .
to conduct corpus queries and other data collection processes.
AntConc was chosen because its features are required for analysis, such as KWIC (Keyword in Contex.
and File.
When using the KWIC feature, the specific keyword must be entered Ae in this case, the modal verbs under study.
In order to have fuller contexts of use, this study also employed the File feature in AntConc.
In addition.
AntConc is quite compatible with any operating system, making it easy and accessible to use.
Modal Verb Queries This study focused on delineating core or central modal verbs, namely AocanAo.
AocouldAo.
AomayAo.
AomightAo.
AoshallAo.
AoshouldAo.
AowillAo.
AowouldAo, and AomustAo, which were selected for specific Previous studies have demonstrated that those core/central modal verbs are among the most frequently used in English (Biber et al.
, 2021.
Leech, 2014.
Oktavianti & Fajria, 2021.
Rymer-Barron, 2.
Therefore, it is important to study them further.
Data Collection and Data Analysis The selected queries were processed in AntConc during the data collection stage using the KWIC and File features.
KWIC was used to investigate the frequencies and concordance of the The File feature was used to gain deeper insights into the linguistic unit, enabling the description of the sample.
To determine whether the modal verb AocanAo conveys the meaning of AoabilityAo or AopossibilityAo, a fuller context of the queries is needed, which can be provided by the File feature in AntConc.
After the data collection stage, frequency information was also gathered and calculated as percentages using the KWIC feature in AntConc.
The analysis interpreted the frequencies of modal verbs in the textbooks and the native corpus.
COCA, to identify the distribution of modal verbs in the textbook corpora and COCA.
In addition, the present study analysed the meanings of the modal verbs based on Collins .
Collins .
categorised three major meaning categories of modal verbs, namely .
AopossibilityAo.
AoabilityAo.
AopermissionAo, .
AonecessityAo and AoobligationAo, and .
AopredictionAo and AovolitionAo.
The meaning classification utilised the context of the modal verbs used in the utterances.
Although modal verbs are polysemous, their meanings cannot co-exist.
they are discrete (Collins, 2.
Moreover, the present study compared the distribution and meanings of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
Lastly, conclusions were drawn after addressing each research
RESULTS
The current study presented results encompassing the distributional frequencies of modal verbs in the textbook corpora compared to COCA and the meanings of modal verbs in textbook 26 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025 Distributional Frequencies of Modal Verbs 1 Distributional frequencies of modal verbs in Indonesian textbooks and Malaysian In the Indonesian EFL textbooks, the most frequent modal verb is AocanAo .
%), and the least frequent one is AowouldAo .
%).
Some modal verbs are absent from the textbooks, such as AocouldAo.
AomayAo.
AomightAo, and AoshallAo.
Conversely, within the Malaysian ESL textbooks, modal verb AocanAo also emerges as the most prevalent .
%), while AowillAo appears the least .
%).
The Malaysian textbooks do not feature some modal verbs, such as AomayAo.
AomightAo.
AowouldAo, and AomustAo.
Figure 1 provides more complete information on the distributional frequencies.
Indonesian textbooks Malaysian textbooks Figure 1.
Distributional frequencies of modal verbs in both textbook corpora.
Figure 1 shows that, in general.
English textbooks from Indonesia and Malaysia are dominated by the use of the modal verb AocanAo.
However, the more specific description of the modal verb distribution in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks reveals slight The modal verb AowillAo emerges as the least frequent in both Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
This indicates that discrepancies can also be found between a native corpus and a textbook corpus.
Missing modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks, such as AocouldAo and AoshallAo, can be found in Malaysian ESL textbooks.
On the other hand, some missing modal verbs in Malaysian ESL textbooks, such as AomustAo and AowouldAo, can be identified in Indonesian EFL textbooks.
Apart from the discrepancies, there is a necessity to include two modal verbs, such as AomayAo and AomightAo, in Malaysian and Indonesian English textbooks.
This distribution is noteworthy as these two modal verbs have relatively similar meanings and fall under the same modal meaning category.
In some contexts, the modal verb AomightAo is used as the preterit form of AomayAo (Biber et al.
, 2.
2 Comparison with the corpus of contemporary American English The distributional frequencies in the present study were compared to those found in COCA as the control corpus.
As the native corpus.
COCA reflects the actual use of modal verbs in the English-speaking settings.
Figure 2 compares modal verb frequencies in three different corpora under study.
Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati,& S.
Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study | 27
COCA
Indonesian textbooks Malaysian textbooks Figure 2.
Distributional frequencies of modal verbs in both textbook corpora and COCA.
Figure 2 shows some notable discrepancies regarding modal verb usage across corpora.
COCA, the most frequent modal verb is AowouldAo, occupying 25% of the whole corpus of modal verbs, followed by AocanAo .
%) and AowillAo .
%).
Meanwhile, the least frequent modal verb is AoshallAo, with a frequency of just 1%.
Apart from this matter, as a large corpus, it is common that all modal verbs are found in COCA, which differs from the condition in a small corpus, such as a textbook corpus.
These distinct distributions indicate mismatches in modal verb usage among different types of English speakers, including native speakers.
ESL speakers, and EFL speakers.
Meanings of Modal Verbs in Indonesian Textbooks vs.
Malaysian Textbooks There are some notable findings regarding the meanings of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
In Indonesian EFL textbooks, all modal verb meanings are Meanwhile, the representation of modal verb meanings in Malaysian ESL textbooks is incomplete and requires improvement.
Figure 3 presents the distributional frequencies of modal verb meanings.
Possibility Ability Permission Necessity Obligation Prediction Volition Indonesia EFL Textbooks Malaysia ESL Textbooks Figure 3.
The distributional frequencies of modal verb meanings.
28 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025 Figure 3 illustrates the discrepancies in modal verb meanings in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
As mentioned, all modal verb meanings can be identified in Indonesian EFL textbooks, such as AopossibilityAo.
AovolitionAo.
AonecessityAo.
AoabilityAo.
AopermissionAo.
AoobligationAo, and AopredictionAo.
In Malaysian ESL textbooks, the meaning categories of AoobligationAo and AovolitionAo are absent, while the remaining modal meaningsAeAopossibilityAo.
AoabilityAo.
AopermissionAo.
AonecessityAo, and AopredictionAoAeare covered.
Concerning the distribution of meaning categories, it is interesting to note that modal verbs in Indonesian EFL textbooks are more static.
This observation suggests that there is a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning.
For example, the modal verb AocanAo is exclusively used to represent AopossibilityAo.
Similarly, the meanings of AoabilityAo and AopermissionAo meaning are also conveyed by AocanAo.
The complete description is provided in Table 2.
Table 2.
Distributions of meaning categories in Indonesian EFL textbooks.
No.
Meaning category Possibility Ability Permission Necessity Modal verb Obligation Prediction Volition Sample Yes, we can play with my siblings, too.
I love manga.
But.
I canAot draw.
Monita, can you tell me where the teachersAo office is? Well.
IAom quite hungry now.
Should we grab something at the canteen before going home? A I must go to the toilet first.
Do you know where it is? We will learn at the science laboratory.
OK.
I will join the pencak silat club next Tuesday.
Would you take us on a house tour? On the contrary, the meaning categories of modal verbs in Malaysian ESL textbooks appear more varied as they include more than one modal verb for each meaning.
For instance, the AopossibilityAo meaning is represented by the modal verbs AocanAo and AocouldAo.
Similarly, the meanings of AoabilityAo and AopermissionAo are conveyed by two modal verbs: AocanAo and AocouldAo.
Table 3 presents a detailed description of meaning distribution in Malaysian ESL textbooks.
No.
Table 3.
Distributions of meaning categories in Malaysia ESL textbooks.
Meaning category Possibility Modal verb Ability Permission Necessity Prediction Sample A we can write an interview with Sally Ride and act it out.
What do you think? We could also put in a copy of todayAos newspaper so people can see what happened in the world.
Parkour is the only urban sport that you can do without any This play was in modern English, so we could easily follow it Hello there, how can I help? A but I donAot really like water! Could I feed the animals? What shall we put in the time capsule? I think we should revise our draft before we do that.
Then people in the future will know what kind of music we listened to.
However, one notable difference between the portrayal of modal verb meanings in both countries lies in the variation of meanings.
All modal verb meanings can be identified in Indonesian EFL textbooks, despite the limited number of modal verbs expressing each meaning.
Meanwhile, some meanings are missing in Malaysian ESL textbooks, specifically AoobligationAo and AovolitionAo.
DISCUSSION
This section discusses the findings of the present study compared to those of previous Regarding distributional frequency, the most frequent modal verb is AocanAo in both I.
Oktavianti.
Radzuan.
Pratolo.
Surono.
Budiwati,& S.
Aisyah.
Modal verbs in Indonesian and Malaysian English textbooks for secondary schools: A corpus-driven study | 29 Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbook conversations.
This aligns with Oktavianti and Fajria .
, who reported that the modal verb AocanAo outnumbers other modal verbs in the Indonesian textbooks.
However, this result does not correspond to COCA, which indicates that the modal verb AowouldAo is the most frequent modal verb in the spoken sub-corpus.
More interestingly, the modal verb AowouldAo is absent or infrequent in both textbook corpora.
These discrepancies are consistent with the findings of Oktavianti and Fajria .
, who noted that modal verb distributions in Indonesian EFL textbooks do not align with COCA.
Although the modal verb AocanAo occupies the first rank in modal verb frequency in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks, there are discrepancies in the least frequent modal In Indonesian EFL textbooks, the least frequent modal verb is AowouldAo, while it is AowillAo in Malaysian ESL textbooks.
Interestingly, both fall under the category of AopredictionAo and AovolitionAo modal verbs (Collins, 2.
Meanwhile, the least frequent modal verb in COCA is AoshallAo, which differs from the textbook findings.
This result aligns with the findings by Sujatna et al.
and it is consistent with Khojasteh et al.
Khojasteh and Shokrpour .
, and Oktavianti and Fajria .
, who reported discrepancies in distributional frequencies, including the least frequent modal verb between textbooks and a native corpus.
COCA.
In general, the analysis identified mismatches in modal verb usage between Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks.
The two textbook sets differ in their least common modal verbs but share the same results for the most common modal verb, i.
AocanAo.
Moreover, the investigation of Malaysian ESL textbooks reveals discrepancies in modal verb usage compared to COCA, which represents actual English usage.
This is unsurprising as English language presentation in Malaysian ESL textbooks, including modal verbs, is regulated (Khojasteh & Kafipour, 2012.
Khojasteh & Shokrpour, 2015.
Mukundan & Khojasteh, 2.
Although Indonesian EFL textbooks also display frequency differences compared to COCA, this is not attributed to the regulation of language presentation in textbooks.
As evidenced by previous studies, there are some mismatches between actual English usage and textbook language presentation, often reflecting a lack of quality input.
This issue is not limited to modal verbs but also extends to other linguistic units, such as lexical bundles and collocation (Ardi et , 2023.
Aziez & Aziez, 2018.
Oktavianti & Prayogi, 2020.
Oktavianti & Sarage, 2.
These results highlight the poor quality of language in Indonesian EFL textbooks due to the absence of native corpus consultation or expert judgment by native speakers in the development of teaching Regarding meaning variations, the present study shows that Indonesian EFL textbooks provide complete modal verb meanings.
Interestingly.
Malaysian ESL textbooks still lack complete modal verb meanings.
However.
Malaysian ESL textbooks convey more dynamic modal meanings since one meaning is expressed through more than one modal.
On the other hand.
Indonesian EFL textbooks exhibit a more static modal meaning system, with a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning.
Despite the distinct frequency of modal verbs compared to a native corpus.
Malaysian ESL textbooks present a more realistic language usage, especially regarding modal verbs.
As stated by Perkins .
Holmes .
Rymer-Barron .
, and Collins .
, modal verbs are complex linguistic units in English, and their meanings are intricate, as various modal verbs can express a single meaning, and one modal can convey multiple meanings (Depraetere, 2.
From the findings of this study.
Indonesian EFL textbook writers tend to oversimplify modal verb meanings.
This may result from the absence of a direct modal verb equivalent in the grammatical system of the Indonesian language (Oktavianti, 2.
In addition.
IndonesiaAos EFL status leads to a lack of exposure to the language, which may distort the intuition of the textbook writers when designing and developing materials.
These discrepancies can affect learnersAo understanding of the use of modal verbs in real-life settings and hinder their ability to become communicatively competent.
Therefore, the textbook writer should consider consulting a native corpus to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of their materials, especially in the EFL context.
Language educators should also ensure that the language presented in textbooks is both suitable and authentic for learners to maximize its benefits.
30 | Studies in English Language and Education, 12.
, 20-33, 2025
CONCLUSION
The present study revealed some discrepancies in the use of modal verbs in Indonesian EFL and Malaysian ESL textbooks at the secondary school level.
Furthermore, some frequently used modal verbs in COCA are either less frequent or absent in the Indonesian EFL textbooks, emphasising the mismatch between modal verb usage in the textbooks and the actual use of English.
In terms of meanings.
Indonesian EFL textbooks convey more limited meanings compared to Malaysian ESL textbooks.
These results highlight the gap between modal verb usage in Indonesian EFL textbooks and their counterparts in native and ESL contexts.
Despite their importance, modal verbs in English remain challenging to learn and teach.
the primary source of language input in the EFL context, textbooks often fail to present authentic modal verb usage.
Some discrepancies are found in modal verb distributional frequencies and meanings in both EFL and ESL textbooks.
Additionally, mismatches exist between the use of modal verbs in ESL textbooks and a native corpus.
This underscores the complexity of modal verbs as prominent auxiliary verbs in English, which must nonetheless be taught and learned Thus, textbook writers should consider corpus consultation to make the presentation of modal verbs more realistic in textbooks.
However, the present study only focused on analysing grade 7 and grade 8 textbooks of junior high schools, excluding senior high school textbooks.
This limitation makes the studyAos coverage narrower.
Future studies should expand the analysis by including more corpora from grade 9 and senior high school .
rade 10-.
textbooks for a more comprehensive understanding.
Additionally, building textbook corpora from privatelypublished English textbooks in Indonesia is necessary to enrich the corpus and enhance the breadth of analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors express sincere gratitude to Lembaga Penelitian dan Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat.
Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, for funding this research under the scheme of International Collaboration Research with Grant Number 20/RIA/LPPM-UAD/VI/2023.
REFERENCES