The Use of English Prepositions: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This study examined the writing skill of the students at the undergraduate level, with a special focus on the use of prepositions of place, time and direction in English. The subjects of the study comprised of 100 randomly selected students of English literature from two Arts and Science colleges located in Coimbatore city. The data elicitation instrument was a guided cloze test in which the subjects were asked to fill the gaps using appropriate prepositions of place, time and direction. To analyze the collected data, socio-linguistic and descriptive methods were used. The results indicated that the students found more difficulties in the use of prepositions of place and direction than the prepositions of time because of their mother tongue interference. The findings imply that teachers should pay more attention while teaching the prepositions of place, time and direction and provide sufficient explanations about them to the students in the classroom. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12089 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 158-168