Difficulties Facing English Foreign Language University Students in Using English Prepositions

Abstract

Prepositions are one of the most used parts of speech in English. Thisstudy is concerned with the difficulties are facing Libyan highereducation students on the use of English prepositions. More specifically,this study is an attempt to discover these problems and the misuse of theseprepositions. This study is a quantitative. Seventy-six EFL students wererandomly selected from Libyan English department in Faculty ofEducation. The objective test was the main instrument for data collection.The results showed that Libyan students committed varied kinds of theerrors in the use of prepositions. Analysis of the responses revealed thaterrors made were mainly based on the function and replacement of theprepositions. The difficulties encountered in the use of prepositions arelinked to the nature of English prepositions: polysemy, idiomatic usageand substitution with first language prepositions. Another strategy toteaching English prepositions is required to improve students’performance.