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“Stop doing this at once!”: The preferred use of modality for advice-giving by English language learners

Abstract This study seeks to explore (1) how English Language Learners (ELLs) of Chinese, German and Brazilian backgrounds develop their pragmatic knowledge of modality use for advice/suggestion-giving in English, and (2) if they demonstrate some common or diverse pattern(s) of its use. For that purpose, a dataset was developed by analyzing 270 advise-giving ELLs’ essays from the EF-Cambridge Open Language Database for the use of modal devices by learners at elementary, intermediate and advanced proficiency levels; from China, Germany, and Brazil. Three main statistical analyses were performed: MANOVA, VanValen’s test, and Discriminant Function Analysis. The results of this study indicate that the development of pragmatic knowledge of modality use is not a linear process; and that ELLs demonstrate common patterns of modality use regardless of the sociocultural background they belong to.