Date of Graduation

Spring 2016

Degree

Master of Arts in English

Department

English

Committee Chair

Yili Shi

Abstract

English is the language of trade, finance, science, education, and politics, and several countries have an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy to improve their ability to compete. Accordingly, many countries have placed emphasis on EFL and have established an effective teaching methodology as part of that policy. Currently, the Ministry of Education in Iraq has changed their educational policy to start EFL in the first grade and has adopted new textbooks using the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. The purpose of this research is to study the Iraqi EFL education policy and practices after 2014 by assessing instructor perception of the new policy, quality of teacher training, and the effectiveness of the new textbook series, English for Iraq. The research questions for this study aim to: (1) find the positive and the negative aspects of the new education policy; (2) explore the quality of teacher training to develop teaching skills for English for Iraq; and (3) assess the effectiveness of English for Iraq. The study includes mixed research approaches where both qualitative and quantitative data have been collected by three different methods: survey, interview, and textbook evaluation. The participants in this study were 52 English for Iraq teachers. Findings indicate that facilities were substandard and could not support the new education policy, the textbooks were effective but lack supplementary materials, and more teacher training is required for effective CLT teaching. Recommendations include the establishment of a CLT training center in Iraq and language labs in schools to assist teachers to teach using CLT.

Keywords

language policy, English for Iraq, teacher training, CLT, EFL, young learners, language policy and planning in Iraq

Subject Categories

English Language and Literature

Copyright

© Ihab Razzaq Altufaili

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Open Access

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