Exploring EFL Learners’ Mastery of Parts of Speech: Syntax Module as a Case Study

Abstract

Understanding parts of speech is one of the indispensable components of foreign language acquisition. To communicate proficiently and precisely, EFL learners must develop a thorough understanding of parts of speech and its correct application throughout their learning experiences. There are limited researches about the learners ‘competency in identifying parts of speech in the syntax module, particularly among student at the university level. Thus, this study aims to investigate the competence of English foreign language learners in parts of speech in syntax course as a case study. Furthermore, it intends which part of speech students are best and worst at identifying in a sentence. This study follows a descriptive quantitative research design using statistical data. Twenty-eight students at the university level in the Kurdistan region participated in a tree diagram test in the syntax course. Then, all the participants’ grades were put in SPSS and a descriptive analysis was run to find the percentage of correct answers for each part of speech. According to the results, Students’ overall accuracy could be labelled as fair with a score of 52.5% and also the results demonstrated that students are best in identifying verbs at 82% percentage and worst in identifying adverbs at 28% percentage. Finally, based on the results, this study provided some recommendations to students and employing tailored instructional strategies for teachers to enhance students' overall syntactic understanding and competence, and students' mastery of less familiar parts of speech.