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

Abstract

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.