| Acknowledgements | 第1-9页 |
| List of Tables and Figures | 第9-11页 |
| List of Symbols | 第11-12页 |
| Abstract | 第12-15页 |
| 内容摘要 | 第15-17页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第17-22页 |
| ·Research orientation | 第17-18页 |
| ·Rationale for the research | 第18-22页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review | 第22-37页 |
| ·Previous theoretical approaches to modal verbs | 第22-32页 |
| ·Modality | 第22-26页 |
| ·Definition | 第22-24页 |
| ·Classification | 第24-26页 |
| ·Types of modal verbs | 第26-28页 |
| ·Semantics of modal verbs | 第28-29页 |
| ·Semantics of the selected modal verb can | 第29-32页 |
| ·Previous empirical studies on modal verbs | 第32-36页 |
| ·Native speakers'use of modal verbs | 第32-34页 |
| ·EFL/ESL use of modal verbs | 第34-36页 |
| ·Limitations of previous studies | 第36-37页 |
| Chapter Three Research Question, Hypothesis, and Method | 第37-55页 |
| ·Research question | 第37-38页 |
| ·Hypothesis | 第38页 |
| ·Method | 第38-49页 |
| ·Subjects | 第38-39页 |
| ·Materials | 第39-46页 |
| ·Collins COBUILD Advanced Learners'English Dictionary | 第40-41页 |
| ·Contemporary Chinese Dictionary | 第41-42页 |
| ·Sub-corpus of British National Corpus | 第42-43页 |
| ·Self-designed corpus of teaching materials | 第43-44页 |
| ·Chinese corpus of Center for Chinese Linguistics, PKU | 第44页 |
| ·English proficiency test | 第44-45页 |
| ·Interview schedule on the use of teaching materials | 第45页 |
| ·Questionnaire on Chinese college English learners'semantic use of can | 第45-46页 |
| ·Questionnaire on Chinese semantic counterpart to modal can | 第46页 |
| ·Procedure | 第46-49页 |
| ·Methods for data collection and analysis | 第49-55页 |
| ·Data collection methods | 第49-53页 |
| ·Data analysis methods | 第53-55页 |
| Chapter Four Results and Discussion | 第55-67页 |
| ·Results | 第55-63页 |
| ·Frequencies of occurrence for various meanings | 第55-60页 |
| ·Frequencies of various meanings of can | 第55-59页 |
| ·Frequencies of various meanings of neng in Chinese | 第59-60页 |
| ·Comparisons | 第60-63页 |
| ·Native English speakers and Chinese college students | 第60-61页 |
| ·Chinese college students and teaching materials | 第61-62页 |
| ·Native English speakers and teaching materials | 第62页 |
| ·Chinese college students'use of can and the use of neng in CCL Corpus | 第62-63页 |
| ·Discussion | 第63-67页 |
| ·Results for Specific Question 1 | 第63-64页 |
| ·Results for Specific Question 2 | 第64-65页 |
| ·Results for Specific Question 3 | 第65-67页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusion | 第67-70页 |
| ·Findings | 第67-68页 |
| ·Implications | 第68-69页 |
| ·Limitations | 第69-70页 |
| References | 第70-75页 |
| Appendix A English Proficiency Test (CET-4 in June,2009) | 第75-89页 |
| Appendix B An Interview Schedule on the Use of Teaching Materials | 第89-90页 |
| Appendix C A Questionnaire on Chinese College English Learners'Semantic Use of Can | 第90-91页 |
| Appendix D A Questionnaire on Chinese Semantic Counterpart to the English Modal VerbCan | 第91-92页 |
| Appendix E Ambiguous Sentences in the Written English Corpus of Native EnglishSpeakers | 第92-93页 |
| Appendix F Data of Judging Meanings in the Ambiguous Sentences in Written EnglishCorpus of Native English Speakers | 第93-94页 |
| Appendix G Criteria for Scoring Compositions | 第94-95页 |
| Appendix H Raw Data from English Proficiency Test | 第95-96页 |
| Appendix I Subjects'Raw Scores by 3 Raters for English Composition | 第96页 |
