A Theoretical Overview on Teaching Sunrise Program to Kurdish EFL Learners: Sunrise 1 and Sunrise 2 as Examples

This paper is an attempt to tackle some theoretical issues in Sunrise program which is the latest program used for teaching English language in Iraqi Kurdistan region. It plays a stunning repertoire in teaching and using English language because it changed the way of teaching English language from teaching about language to the practical use of English. This program has been being taught to Kurdish EFL learners approximately for two decades. Thus, many studies have been conducted concerning the application of Sunrise in the field of pedagogy; however, there exist few ones about the theoretical aspects of that program. The main issue of this paper is to shed light on some theoretical linguistic aspects of Sunrise program that have a negative impact upon learning. In Sunrise, priority has been given to the existence of communicative approach which is the most significant and dominant one at present. The use of this approach has made students not to be passive participants anymore, and has also made them get involved in the dynamics of teaching. This paper concludes that too much repetition of the subjects, irregular classification of alphabetical letters and some grammatical deficiencies have made the program not to be satisfied by all teachers and students.