Assessing the Level of Students' Exposure to English Language in ELT Department at Tishk International University-Erbil, Iraq

The paper studies students' exposure to the English language in the English language teaching department. The paper starts with an introduction that mentions the scope, the method, the significance, the results, the problems, and background information. The paper aims to assess the level of English Language exposure of only third- and fourth-year students. The study is essential because it helps teachers better find their students' weaknesses and strengths in the target language exposure to improve and regard them in their teaching goals. Being not involved in the second language environment is one of the significant problems in learning a foreign language. Therefore, one of the crucial purposes of this article is encouraging students to create an environment for learning a foreign language, whether inside the university or outside the university. The study depends on the questionnaire conducted to third and fourth-year students in English Language Teaching Department at Tishk International University-Erbil. Later, the paper discusses the results of the questionnaire. There is no doubt that if students have more exposure to the second language, they are more efficient in the target language. Therefore, according to the outcomes, students have much more exposure to English in the university environment; next comes the media with which the students have exposure. After that, students exposed to reading in English. Finally, it comes the family and friends' settings with which the students have little exposure. Lastly, the paper concludes that students generally have more exposure to the university environment than outside the university environment. In the end, the paper recommends that the teachers can exploit events and situations where students have good exposure to the target language for further studies

The Effect of Cooperative Learning Strategies in the Enhancement of EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills

This paper aims to investigate the effect of cooperative learning strategies based on multiple intelligence on enhancing EFL learner’s communication skills. 48 learners are used in this study, experimental and controlled groups. They were all freshmen students from foundation year in Faculty of Education at Tishk International University, Erbil, KRG-Iraq. 145 Both groups were under the experiment study for 15 academic weeks in the 2018-2019 academic year in the spring semester. The tool for collecting data was through pre and post�test speaking strategies for both experimental and controlled groups to see the progress of learners speaking skills during the academic semester. The participants recorded scores from pre-test and post-test of both groups were verified and analyzed. The results revealed that cooperative strategies based on multiple intelligence have an enormous significant effect on improving learners speaking skills. The study has also suggested some recommendations and submissions for additional research

The Students' Attitude on Using Social Network Site (SNS) in their Academic Life in University

In recent years, the usage of social network websites has become popular because of the extreme development of technology and massive use by users. Consequently, the public has transformed into an enormous user of social network websites. At present, the Internet, precisely Social Network Site (SNS), has a prodigious effect on the university academic life and education system. The crucial point behind implementing this research was to realize and explain the students' educational outcomes that engage in social networking sites for the majority of their time as well as to learn about students' perspectives regarding the usage of technology in their academic lives at the university level then students' opinions were examined. The quantitative research methods were managed in this study, and questionnaires were administered to accumulate quantitative data with students. The research participants comprised 105 students in the computer science department – university of Sulaimani in the north of Iraq. This research has exposed that most students positively think about social network sites that spend most of their time on it daily. They use it for academic purposes to share and generate new ideas related to their studies. On the other hand, they use it for having fun and entertainment with their friends

Integration of Literature in English Language Teaching: Learners’ Attitudes and Opinions

Speaking of the role and position of literature in language teaching platforms, generally, two opposite views are in action, namely essentialist and non-essentialist. However, numerous studies have stressed the influential role of literature. This study investigated the opinions and preferences of EFL university students on the integration of Literature in English language learning. To do so, a mixed-method research design was utilized in which data were collected quantitively through a 12 items questionnaire and qualitatively using five open-ended questions. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS, whereas descriptions were used to analyse the qualitative data. For the quantitative part, 30 EFL students and for the qualitative phase, 10 EFL students participated. The findings indicated that students consider literature as a significant tool for learning the English language and enhancing the four main language skills. It is also discovered that students find literary texts to develop and awareness of cultural knowledge, which is inseparable in learning a second language. In a nutshell, the findings discovered that students showed positive attitudes toward using literature in learning English as a foreign language

Investigating Kurdish EFL Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Authentic Materials in Learning English

A bulk of research and numerous experts in the field of language pedagogy endorse the idea of utilization of the authentic materials in second language teaching. Authentic resources offer several benefits to the learners, including motivation and interest in language learning, as well as the improvement of communicative competence. This study meant to explore the attitudes of Kurdish EFL university students about the use of authentic materials in learning English. To address its aim, the study used a quantitative research design in which data were collected using a questionnaire.150 learners (68 males & 82 females) comprised the study participants and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS. The results showed that the overwhelming majority of the respondents have a positive attitude towards authentic materials. The findings further uncovered that most of the participants are of the idea that authentic materials assist them to learn the language better and faster especially the communicative aspects of the language

Common Problems in Translation of Political Texts: The Case of English and Kurdish Languages

This study investigated and examined the problems pertaining to the translation of political texts. It intends to deal with the main translation difficulties and problems emerging in the process of translation of political texts. Concerning theoretical background, the study reviews the relevant literature to address certain issues such as the definitions of translation, approaches to translation, specialized translation, translation problems, features of political language, and translation and political language. This is followed by a brief presentation of the methodology of this research. The study concludes that there are no specific methods in translating political texts due to the fact that translation is not only a practical process that employs translation techniques, but also an issue of comprehending cultural, historical and political situations and overtones