| In general, the Kurdish people, an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Iraq, have a positive attitude towards the English language, and English is more highly appreciated than Arabic. Since achieving autonomy in 1991, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has taken some dramatic steps toward educational development and reform, including opening a number of new universities and schools, designing new curricula, and passing new educational legislation. However, KRI's Educational system, particularly their English program, encounters some constraints. The Sunrise English program, based on Communicative Language Teaching, is presented to promote Kurdish EFL learners. Yet, this program fails to meet the students' needs for various reasons: sociocultural factors of collecdualism (a term that I introduce to combine the two extremes of collectivism and individualism), the dearth of English specialized teachers, insufficient English teacher training, deficient infrastructure, and inadequate communicative activities. Students need to attain a good command of English in order to pass a grade and be accepted in engineering, sciences, and medical colleges. Lack of academic and professional publications in the Kurdish language increase the demand for English to Kurdish people. In addition to learning the English language as a vehicle for success in academia, the job market, and personal use, for many Kurdish learners, English is seen through a national and patriotic lens to develop and present the Kurdish national case to the world. Throughout this paper, I offer a brief description of the Kurds and critically analyze the educational system in KRI focusing on factors in English, English language teaching, and the use and status of the English language in that context. Through the implementation of the recommendations in this paper, Kurdish English language learners can attain access to higher quality English language programs in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. |
