Errors Made by Iraqi EFL Undergraduates in the Use of Prepositions

Abstract

Writing forms an essential part of any foreign language syllabus besides being one of the four basic skills in learning that language. When students write, they become necessarily very involved with the new language, but producing a successfully written text is a complex task that requires simultaneous mastery over a number of language systems. In fact, prepositions are functional words that basically have no content. They merely show the relationships between groups of words. Thus, it has been hypothesized that even advanced EFL learners find difficulty in using prepositions correctly in their writing tasks. The present study is an attempt to identify the errors made by advanced EFL learners in the Department of English Language/College of Arts, University of Kufa in the use of prepositions. Focus has been on the literary courses taught in the Department, particularly Novel and Drama. The current study falls into two parts, theoretical and practical. The theory introduces a general background to prepositions where they are classified according to form, function, and position. A representative sample of Iraqi EFL undergraduates' writings has been chosen for error analysis. Errors have been pinpointed and results have been analyzed and statistically treated. This study is expected to be valuable to both EFL learners and instructors on one hand and translators to and from English and Arabic on the other. It aims at finding out the common errors that EFL undergraduate learners commit in using prepositions. The reasons behind such errors, then, could provide key answers to questions on such errors.