Abstract:
This study aims to evaluate University students’ abilities in using
prepositions in their English writing, it focuses on recognizing the
underlying reasons of students’ place and time prepositional errors and
it also attempts to offer
recommendations to overcome students’
difficulties of misusing prepositions. However, in order to achieve the
research purpose, the tools of data collection were a test for students
and a questionnaire for lecturers. The population of this
study
were
lecturers
and
students
of
Sudan
University of Science and Technology. The sample
of the study consisted of forty two students from
the third level of Sudan University of Science and
Technology, specialized in English language, faculty
of Education, and twenty five lecturers also who
teach English as a foreign language. The researcher
adopted a descriptive method to analyze the data obtained. The
findings revealed that the students encounter some
difficulties in using place and time prepositions
while
writing,
distinguish
and
between
they
the
are
also
unable to
and the
preposition
prepositional adverb. The findings were discussed
in
the
light
literature.
difficulties
following:
of
As
the
the
hypotheses
solutions
to
researcher
and
relevant
overcome
recommends
these
the
1.
Teachers should raise students’ awareness of
the importance of prepositions in writing,
2.
Teachers should adopt effective and modern
techniques in teaching prepositions.
3.
Expand the space allocated for prepositions in
the syllabus.
