Abstract :
It was conducted in order to answer the following questions: (a) Are the eight Grade Students of SMP Katolik St. Theresia Kupang able to use English modals? (b) What is the level of their ability? (c) What are the areas of difficulties encountered by the students? The objectives of this study are: (a) to find out whether the students of the eight grade students of SMP Katolik St. Theresia Kupang in the school year 2016/2017 are able to use the English modals in sentences or not. (b) to find out students? levels of ability in using the English modal in sentences. (c) to find out the areas of difficulties faced in the students in using the English modal in sentences. The research method used in this study was normartive survey method. There were six classes. Each class consisted of 24 students, the writer chose eight class A as the subject of the study. In collecting the data the writer used a test in form of multiple choice consisting of 60 items. The result of the data analysis showed that students of the researched school are able to use English modals, and their level of ability is classified as fairly good (74.2%) or (7.4%). The study also shows that many students were still confused in using several modals such as may, might, should, would, and must, shall not. The suggestion given to the English teachers and the students at the researched school are as follows:(a) the students are suggested to learn and keep improving their knowlegde and grammar in general and using the English Modals in particular. (b) the students are expected not only to know the modals but also the rules and how to use them in certain context. (c) the English teachers should emphasize their teaching on the following modals: may, might, should, would, must, shall not as the data showed that many students committed these errors on the said modals.