Infinitive and gerundial constructions : a problematic area for Iraqi university students

الملخص EN

This study aims at investigating the students' level of performance and some syntactic problems of the use of infinitival and gerundial constructions.

Five hypotheses have been formulated in this study.

In order to verify these hypotheses and achieve the aims, a diagnostic test has been constructed and administered to the selected sample of sixty two EFL 3rd year students in the college of Arts at Al-Iraqia University during the academic year 2018-2019.

The outcomes demonstrate that the students' general performance is poor to a certain extent in using infinitive constructions and very weak in using gerundial constructions in spoken and written forms of English at the recognition and production levels.

This means that they have syntactic problems related to applying infinitive and gerundial constructions to express themselves.