lt is surprsing to discover that first-year university students whese field of study is English have noi as yet nastered the basic siructures of the language and are generailly weak in fundamental language-work. This ieficiency is apparent in the students' oral and written expression of the anguage. When they speak or write English in their composition periods, they cannot use the hasic structures effectively, and they still make a con- siderable number of mistakes, especially in their written work. They do not even understand what a paragraph is and how to write a ccherent one is correct English .