Loss of the Native Language Role of the Mother Tongue

Abstract

Loss of the Native Language Role of the Mother Tongue: The Threat of the Second Language (English) to Overtake the First Language (Kurdish) is the title of my thesis. The rationale behind this title is to account for the influence English has on Kurdish in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Today in most of the private schools of KRI, the language of instruction is English. Including nursery, kindergarten, primary and secondary stages, this has not only made English the formal instruction language, but also the main language of communication among the students studying at these schools. The explanation the school administrators provide to justify this shift is not convincing. The resent work consists of two chapters. The first chapter, titled Failure of Learning English Effectively in the public Schools, is dedicated to the methods of Second Language learning through school curriculums. We argue that these methods of have not been given the required importance in the public schools. The second chapter, Loss of the Native Language Role of the Mother Tongue, is a theoretical account of the threats English is losing on Kurdish in KRI through the curricula the private and exemplary schools are using.