ABSTRACT
The semantic differences between could and was/were able to as in I could type 50 wpm vs. I was able to get a job as a secretary are subtle, dependent on the linguistic context, and often unobvious to learners, leading to anomalies such as *Despite my inexperience, I could get a job. In this lesson, learners collaboratively deduce rules for using the could construction with durative events and the was/were able to construction with punctual events. They then analyze examples of both constructions from the corpus, formulate contrastive rules for using them, and further note that managed to can be substituted for one construction but not the other. With this multi-faceted analysis involving actual language in use, they engage with the difference at a deep cognitive level. More broadly, they can develop their noticing skills and attention techniques applicable to other semantic and pragmatic distinctions of English (e.g. the difference between must not and don’t have to).
