The Use of Language Functions among Sudanese EFL Learners

Abstract

The study probes into the Sudanese EFL university learners’ discourse to appraise their ability to use different language functions. To achieve this goal, seventy of Sudanese students studying English as their major at Ash-sharq Ahlia College and El Imam Alhadi College were chosen to be the subjects of this study. The students were asked to respond to a questionnaire, a written test and an interview specially prepared for this purpose. The students were asked to write different types of letters in which they had to express different language functions. The questionnaire, the written test and the interview were thoroughly investigated and statistically analyzed. Results showed that students were not able to make an active use of language to express different language functions. They did not succeed to form the discourse that enable them to give or receive information. So this inability to express language functions properly made the discourse the students produced incoherent and less consistent. The way they began and ended a discourse event was not proper. They did not use appropriate expressions when addressing their audience. The students could choose a function but the problem resides in how to employ proper forms in order to express this function. The content of the message they intended to convey was affected by the inaccuracy of the forms they chose. For this reason, the students failed to express their thoughts and feelings appropriately. In order to understand the message, these students wish to convey you need to exert much effort and pay more attention.