Iraqi post-graduate students’ tendency towards learning English

Abstract

In Iraq, students learn English as a foreign language, in school, students learn English for an hour every week, and at university, undergraduate and post-graduate students learn English for two hours per week (for fifteen weeks), that means they are exposed to the language for 30 hours (two semesters). The aim of this study was to investigate postgraduate students’ tendency to learn English as a foreign language. The participants were 106 students from six colleges under the University of Anbar, who were enrolled in master’s programs during the academic year 2021–2022. A questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. As a statistical means, a percentage ratio was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that postgraduate students did not have a positive tendency or willingness to learn English and did not put in any effort to learn the language. Even in a compulsory English course, they faced many difficulties due to the teaching methods of professors, and the English textbook, ‘Headway Academic Skills,’ was found to be highly generic.