1897-1059 Factors determining the development of modality in advanced l2 speech – a longitudinal study Jaroszek Marcin author Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie, Polska, ul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków Correspondence to: Marcin Jaroszek marcin.jaroszek@uj.edu.pl 10 12 2011 Volume 128, Issue 1 2011 23 52 Copyright © 2011 2011 <p>The article discusses the results of a longitudinal study of how modality, as an aspect of spoken discourse competence of selected thirteen advanced students of English, developed throughout their three-year English as a Foreign Language tertiary education. The study investigated possible factors determining the development of three aspects of modality: (1) epistemic modality, (2) specific modality, that is those modality expressions that are both characteristic of natural English discourse or are underrepresented in L2 discourse, and (3) modality diversity. The analysis was carried out in relation to a number of variables, including two reference levels, one represented in English native discourse and the other observed in teacher talk in actual Practical English classes, language type exposure, as registered by the subjects of the study on a weekly basis.</p> 1 Adolphs S. 2007. Definitely maybe: Modality clusters and politeness in spoken discourse. – Skandera P. (ed.) Phraseology and culture in English. Berlin: 257–272.  2 Brazil D. 1995. A grammar of speech. Oxford.  3 Chrzanowska-Kluczewska E. 2009. Possible worlds – text worlds – discourse worlds in a dialogic context. – Chrzanowska-Kluczewska E., Gołda-Derejczyk A. (eds.) The contextuality of language and culture. Bielsko-Biała: 157–171. 4 Ellis R. 1992. Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford.  5 Fairclough N. 2003. Analysing discourse: textual analysis for social research. London.  6 Fowler R. 1998. Language in the news: Discourse and ideology in the press. London.  7 Givón T. 1993. English grammar: A function-based introduction. [vol. I]. Amsterdam, Philadelphia.  8 Halliday M.A.K. and Matthiessen C. 2004. An introduction to functional grammar. London.  9 Hoekstra T. 2004. Arguments and structure: Studies on the architecture of the sentence. New York.  10 Kasper G. 1979. Communication strategies: Modality reduction. – Interlanguage Studies Bulletin 2: 99–111.  11 Lee P. 2007. Formulaic language in cultural perspective. – Skandera P. (ed.) Phraseology and culture in English. Berlin: 471–496. 12  McCarthy M. 1991. Discourse analysis for language teachers. Cambridge.  13 Palmer F.R. 1986. Mood and modality. Cambridge.