The Use of English Adjectival Affixes by Iraqi EFL Learners: An Error Analysis

Abstract

This study is mainly concerned with English adjectival affixes as one of the common and essential processes in the English derivation on the one hand, and as a problematic area for English foreign language learners on the other hand . This study hypothesizes that:

(1) Iraqi EFL university learners do not often have a full mastery of adjectival affixes and their different types. (2) Such learners encounter difficulties in using these affixes due to various factors. (3) The learners’ performance at the recognition level is expected to be better than their performance at the production one.

These hypotheses have been verified through adopting a diagnostic test of four questions. The test has been applied to a sample of 150 Iraqi EFL university learners at their fourth year from Departments of English, Colleges of Education, Universities of Babylon, Baghdad, and Al-Qadissiya during the academic year 2014 – 2015. Then the subjects’ responses have been collected and analyzed to draw the findings of this study.