Exploring Iraqi EFL Learners' Command of basic Grammatical Structures at the Tertiary level

Language learning has been equated with learning it's grammar. The view was that mere words without grammar of some kind do not constitute a language. This view has been challenged by the communication-based approaches which relegated grammar to a secondary status. The new English course for Iraq which was the prescribed course for teaching English as a foreign language from 1972 to 2004 which was structurally- based has been deserted and since then there has been a shift to communication based courses in which grammar is assumed to be a by-product which develops automatically while emphasis is placed on communication. The present study aims at testing this assumption to see whether students have mastered the basic grammatical notions and structures after 12 years of studying English using communication-based syllabuses. The research questions addressed were: to what extent have Iraqi students mastered the grammatical notions and structures? Which notions and structures had not been adequately mastered? The results indicate that the basic grammatical structures and notions have not been adequately mastered after a long period of studying English at the tertiary level and the students still find difficulty in most grammatical structures, including comparative constructions, concord, passivization, and perfective aspects. The reasons were identified and suggestions for overcoming the difficulties in these areas were made.