Analyzing the problems of English central modal verbs experienced by foreign language learners of English at tertiary level

الملخص EN

The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems of central modal verbs experienced by Sudanese 4th years learners of English at tertiary level..

Special emphasis is placed on Central Modal Auxiliary Verb.

The underling assumption is that the instructors of English do not give due attention to the teaching of Modal Auxiliary Verbs.

Moreover, the teaching materials used at tertiary level do not cover the area of auxiliary verbs sufficiently.

So, the present study attempts to identify the frequently occurring errors in the performance of the students and offer remedial solutions to them.

This is accomplished through several steps: (1) selecting 100 final students in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, at Alneelain University as subjects (2) Two instruments for data collection were used: (a) students’ test, (b) students’ composition.

The data were computed and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

The results of the investigation have revealed the following: 1.

The majority of EFL students face grave problems when using English modal auxiliary verbs, particularly the central modals.

They do not know how to use them to express possibility, intention, or necessity and they seldom use modal verbs in their compositions.