THE USE OF MODAL VERBS IN L2 WRITING OF IRAQI UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

The current study describes the use of modal verbs in essays written by Iraqi B.A. students at Tikrit University (in Tikrit province, Iraq). The main aim of the present study is to discover how participants use modal verbs in essay writing to provide a detailed analysis that will assist them in improving their writing. 84 Iraqi B.A. students at Tikrit University participated in this study. The participants wrote Eighty-four essays; each participant wrote one essay on a different topic that was chosen. Adopting Palmer’s (1990) classification, the modal auxiliary verbs used by the participants were classified into three categories; a) Epistemic modality; b) Deontic modality; c) Dynamic modality. The results of the current study show that the participants used ‘can’ (f=261) followed by ‘will’ (f=105), ‘must’ (f=86), ‘may’ (f=37), ‘should’ (f=34), and ‘would’ (f=28). It was concluded that the students had overused some modal verbs. In addition, it was also determined that they had misused some modal verbs in their writings. The present study also concluded that students’ ability in using modal verbs must be developed to reach the proper academic level in their writing.