Eugenia Papaioannou, Greece
Modals of likelihood can be best presented with pictures / flashcards / realia as follows:

• Choose pictures for speculation (such as pictures with no clear message/ abstract art pictures / places / realia (could be objects that they are not familiar with such as office gadgets)
• Do one of the pictures with the class yourself. Put a picture up on the board and discuss it with them. I.e. a picture of a person at work where there are some indications of what type of work s/he does but not very clear clues to give an assertive answer about the person's job.
  
  T: -Is he an architect?
  Ss: -We are not sure. Maybe.
  T: -So, s/he may be an architect because s/he...
  Ss: -S/He may be a civil engineer because he...
  T: -I see. S/He might be a civil engineer... Could s/he be an art professor?
  Ss: -Yes.
  T: -Well, s/he could be an art Professor. Can you explain why? etc.

• Demonstrate with the right intonation the degree of uncertainty. At this point draw a grid on the board and write only the sentences below (leave the other lines and columns blank):
  S/He may be an architect
  S/He might be a civil engineer
  S/He could be an art professor.

• Show another picture of another person at work with clear message of his/her work. Ask:
  T: -What do you think this person does?
  Ss: -S/he is a doctor because s/he is working at a hospital and is wearing.
  T: -That's right. S/he is a doctor.
  Continue with the same (second) picture:
  T: -Is this person a lawyer?
  Ss: -No, s/he isn't a lawyer. Lawyers don't work in hospitals.
  After these 2 assertive answers, fill in the 1st and 5th lines of the grid and also fill in the next 2 columns. Finally add a top line as follows:
  
  MODALS OF CERTAINTY DEGREE OF CERTAINTY
  She is a doctor. is + 100%
  He may be an architect. may be 80%
  He might be a civil engineer. might be 60%
  He could be an art professor. could be 40%
  She isn't a lawyer. is not - 100%

Follow-up activity
Give the students some pictures to work in pairs (6 minutes) and ask them to find out about these people / objects What they do / they are and ask them to draw grids in their notebooks like the example on the board where they can insert their sentences. Monitor the task by going around. Stop and talk with them. Reinforce where necessary.

Demonstration: The students come in front of the class, show their pictures to their classmates and talk about them according to what they have written (without consulting their grids this time) (the task can take 15-20 minutes for 5-6 pairs). Questions may follow for clarification.

Charanjit Singh, Iindia
I'd like to share my experience which has given good results with all levels of students (Of course the pitch needs a little modification!).

First, I list out all the structures with the modals, for example "I certainly will, I will, I probably will, I may, I might, I may not, I might not, I probably won't, I won't."

Next, I introduce a situation. You have been invited to a party but your parents have given you some work to finish before you go. What are your chances that you make it to the party? The work is a continent and you feel "I won't make it!" But then as you get along your chances keep improving till you feel "I'll probably make it". With each structure keep telling them what their chances of going to the party are (25% / 50% and so on). Such situations help the students to understand degrees of probability.

You also need to bring out the difference between general and specific possibilities. If it's a general case use 'can', otherwise use 'may / might / could'. Then you could introduce the structures with 'have'. ( He might have/should have/could have/should have). Relate them to a situation which you explain to the students. Before you use the structure they should understand the degrees of probability.

David Holden, Spain
Yes,as Nora says deducing crime can be very useful for teaching present / past modals of deduction. I'm a bit gruesome. I draw up a dead body with lots of swords / knives in it and elicit if students think it is a murder or suicide. I then elicit 'It must be murder'...'It can't be suicide' and mark them on a cline with must at the top 99 % probable and can't at the bottom 0%. Use concept checking questions like " Is it possible?", Are we certain ?" etc. I then feed in other "evidence" e.g. some pizza, a love letter to elicit It might / could be ...Drill the whole thing exhaustively. Puzzle stories / mysteries can be very useful as well. E.g."A man is going down a road, he sees a red building and he has to leave all his money there. Why ?" Students discuss, speculate, you guide and finally give the answer.(Of course, he's playing Monopoly!) Enjoy !

Nora Sapag, Argentina
It'd be important to know first what proficiency level your Sts have and what age bracket they are in. Anyway, a couple of ideas that might help: Prepare cutouts of common household objects which have been cropped so that only a bit can be seen. Ensure some degree of ambiguity. This could be useful to practise "It might be... It can't be...", etc. Alternatively, bring a detective story-like situation, give the Sts some facts about a crime, and get them to speculate as to what might have happened. It's likely to give them extensive practice in past modal forms. Hope it helps.

In my experience it is really hard because we never use that in Spanish and my students always forget it. The only way to make them realised the use of the s in third person is when you practice and practice and maybe later they will start using it. Usually I have found that mostly you talk about yourself and you never use activities where you talk about other people. Maybe you use it if you are gossiping.

Liliana Rodriguez Vega

"I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it... The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on."
S