The Iraqi EFL University Students' Use of Modals in Requests and Offers as Politeness Markers

Abstract

Iraqi EFL university students are expected to encounter a difficulty of appropriately using modal auxiliaries to express politeness. This is supported by Quirk, et al. (1985:220), who argue that "the use of modal verbs is one of the more problematic areas of English grammar." Although, traditionally most of these verbs are paired into past and "nopast" forms