Halliday’s Perspective of Modality in Iraqi EFL Learners’ Essays

Abstract

The present study attempts to investigate the function of modality in the Iraqi EFL learners’ essays at the college level based on discourse analysis theories It aims to identify the EFL University students' competence and knowledge of the types of modality and use them in writing to reach a high level of persuasion, hence, characterizing Iraqi learners’ peculiar communicative style. To achieve this aim, the study adopts Halliday’s (1985/1994) modal of SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar) to render a statistic of modality types, whereby thirty essays are chosen randomly as data of this study, Writing Essay Material, Third Year Class, English Department, College of Education for Humanities, University of Anbar, 2018-2019. The finding of the study reveals that since the subject under analysis is argumentative, students are free to use the types of modality, therefore, the types of modality are vital to help students express their opinions in persuasive way. This refers to the vital communicative value of modality types.