Investigating Students' Ability in Identifying English Modals

Abstract

Modal verbs are also called auxiliary verbs, helping verbs and modal auxiliaries. They are special auxiliary verbs that express the degree /of certainty of the action in the sentence, attitude or opinion of the writer concerning the action. These auxiliary verbs are can, could ,may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would and had better. Modality is one of the most difficult aspects of learning English, because the form of modals does not follow the conventional rules of grammar, and there are so many meanings of modals that students often get confused about which modal to use. Also, many EFL learners face difficulty in choosing the proper modal verb that fit certain situations because each modal verb has many functions. The present study is conducted to investigate fourth-year-college students’ ability in signifying English modals appropriately and using them correctly. To fulfill the basic requirement of this study, the researchers organized a test, which consists of two questions; the first one is recognition, the second is production. The results show that the students have a real problem in recognizing and using modals.