Iraqi Teachers' Perspectives of English as an International Language:
[Thesis]
Al Lami, Maitham
a Mixed-Methods Study
Ban, Ruth
Barry University
2020
196
Ph.D.
Barry University
2020
The scholarly discourse around English as an international language (EIL) is reflected in educational policies and is a determining factor in proposals for ELT curriculum design and pedagogical practices (Matsuda, 2017). The purpose of this study is to examine Iraqi pre-service teachers' attitudes toward EIL and explore the perceived role and status of EIL from the viewpoint of ELT teacher educators. The researcher used a convergent mixed-methods design to compare and validate the results from the two forms of data and to bring greater insight into the central phenomenon. The participants of the study consisted of 300 pre-service teachers and six teacher educators. An online survey was distributed to the pre-service teachers to measure their attitudes toward EIL and the six teacher educators were interviewed via Skype to explore their perspectives on EIL. Factorial ANOVA was conducted to investigate the mean differences of the attitude scores in age, gender, and type of settlement, and qualitative data analysis was used to identify common themes in teacher educators' accounts regarding EIL. The findings indicated a lack of the perspective of EIL in the context of Iraq and dominance of the nativespeakerist ideology which perpetuates the traditional perspective of English as a foreign language. On this basis, the design of ELT curriculum materials and pedagogical practices should consider the expanding role of English in education and the evolving status of English as an international language.