This study investigates the phonotactics of English obstruent clusters in the word-final position from a markedness theory perspective among Iraqi EFL College Students whose native language, Arabic, prefers only two-member word-final obstruent cluster as a maximum. The markedness of clusters is measured depending on Iraqi EFL College Students’ utilization of the simplification strategies. This study tries to answer whether or not word-final obstruent clusters are marked or unmarked for Iraqi EFL College Students, and whether or not the markedness of the obstruent cluster increases as to its length. In order to answer these questions, a test has been distributed among 60 Iraqi EFL Fourth-Year College students, Department of English, College of Arts- University of Baghdad for the academic year 2017-2018 involving a list of words and sentences containing word-final obstruent clusters. The study concludes that word-final obstruent clusters are marked due to the fact that the obstruents are universally marked in the coda. The four- member obstruent clusters are more marked than the three-member obstruent clusters which are in turn more marked than the two-member obstruent clusters.
ABSTRACT
Learning vocabulary is a challenging task for female English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Thus, improving students’ knowledge of vocabulary is critical if they are to make progress in learning a new language. The current study aimed at exploring the vocabulary learning strategies used by EFL students at Northern Border University (NBU). It also aimed to identify the mechanisms applied by EFL students at NBU University to learn vocabulary. It also aimed at evaluating the approaches adopted by EFL female students at Northern Border University (NBU) to learn a language. The study adopted the descriptive-analytical method. Two research instruments were developed to collect data namely, a survey qu
... Show MoreImproving speaking skills of Iraqi EFL students was the main purpose of the current research. Thirty EFL students were selected as the research participants for achieving this aim. All students completed the pretest and then spent the next 25 weeks meeting for 90 minutes each to present their nine lectures, answer difficult questions, and get feedback on their use of language in context. Progressive-tests, posttests and delayed post-tests followed every three courses. The researcher utilized SPSS 22 to anal Analyze the data descriptively and inferentially after doing an ANOVA on repeated measurements. It has been shown that using the ideas of sociocultural theory in the classroom has an important and positive impact on students of
... Show MoreFR Almoswai, BN Rashid, PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 2017 - Cited by 22
MR Younus…, 2020 - Cited by 2
Learning a foreign language is a highly interactive process, and a belief that communicative activities foster a great amount of linguistic production provides language practice and opportunities for negotiation of meaning during communicative exchanges. Thus, this study examines what benefits learner-centered classroom setting offers compared with that of teacher–centered classroom, and how less proficient learners accomplish their tasks and activities with scaffolded help during interaction with the help of proficient classmates and under the guidance of a skilful person, i.e., the teacher. The subjects participating in this study are 30 Iraqi 4th year college students in the Department of English, College of Arts , Univer
... Show MoreThis work aims at finding out the impact of teaching types blended learning strategies on academic students` achievement. A review of related literature indicates that almost no study has ever attempted to focus specifically on the effect of the different kinds of blended learning strategies on EFL students` achievement in the educational research writing, and the present study attempts to fill this gap. The study focused on the students at the Master's degree in Educational Research Writing in the first semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The sample has selected from the college of Education Ibn-Rushd (18) students. Material has been designed for the Master candidates’ participants of the study was divided into two groups: one an e
... Show MoreEuphemisms are advantageous in people’s social life by turning sensitive into a more acceptable ones so that resentful feelings and embarrassment can be avoided. This study investigates the ability of Iraqi English learners in using euphemistic expressions, meanwhile, raising their awareness and the faculty members in English teaching faculties regarding the relevance of discussing the topics that demand euphemisation. This study comprised three stages: initial test, explicit instruction with activities, and a final test for the students’ development in this domain. A test has been distributed among 50 respondents, who are at the fourth year of their undergraduate study at the University of Babylon/ College of Basic Education. The lo
... Show MoreThe paper investigates the impact of role-playing as a classroom technique on Iraqi EFL students’ speaking skill on Iraqi EFL students at the college level. The students are 40 college language students in University of Baghdad, College of Education Ibn-Rushd randomly chosen. Then, they were divided into two groups, experimental and control groups. Thirty questions were applied to both groups as a pre-test of speaking and the students asked to answer them orally. The experimental group was taught speaking skill of the targeted role-play technique while the control group was taught in traditional method. After 20 lessons of the teaching, the post-test of speaking was conducted in which the students in both groups were asked to answ
... Show MoreIraqi EFL teachers face problems in teaching “English for Iraq Series” for primary public school pupils. In this paper, the researchers are going to identify the main problems faced by our teachers and try to find solutions to these problems. To achieve the aim of the study, list of questions asked and from teachers’ responses, the researchers have got an idea about the main problems which are related to textbook material, parents, learners, environment and technology. Therefore, the researchers adapted a questionnaire to achieve the purpose of the study with some changes and modifications. This questionnaire with five point scale (strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree). To achieve face validity, the
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