The difficulties encountered by Iraqi EFL University learners in using English interjections

Abstract EN

Interjections are words which indicate emotional states or attitudes such as delight, surprise, pain, disgust, etc.

They are independent elements as they lack a syntactical relation to any part of the sentence.

They have different forms since they may come as nonsense words or as real words whose function is purely emotive, for example, Ugh, Oops, Hmm, Hush, At last, Hello, etc.

The use of interjections is one of the problematic areas in the field of learning English as a foreign language.

It is hypothesized that Iraqi EFL university learners find difficulty in using the topic under investigation.

A diagnostic test has been applied to a random sample of (70) students taken from the third stage in the department of English / College of Education for Human Sciences to investigate their performance in using interjections in English.

According to the findings of the test, the number and percentage of the incorrect responses in the whole test (813, 58.08 %) are more than those of correct responses (587, 41.92 %).

This indicates that the learners encounter difficulty in using interjections and in turn, verifies the hypothesis of the study.

The present study encompasses a comprehensive theoretical study about English interjections and error analysis of the students performance in using the topic under investigation to point out the errors and the sources of errors behind students performance and some pedagogical suggestions to overcome the difficulty students encounter in using English interjections.