Evaluating Teaching English Pronunciation at EFL Iraqi Secondary Schools from Secondary Schools Teachers' Point of View تقييم تدريس نطق اللغة الإنجليزية في مدارس العراق الثانوية كلغة أجنبية من وجهة نظر معلمي المدارس الثانوية

Learning pronunciation in the process of acquiring English as a foreign language refers to build up new pronunciation habits and leave the effect of the mother-tongue language. It is considered as a good key for comprehending effective oral communication productively and receptively. Studying pronunciation offers learners great confidence in conducting this kind of communication. Practically, it is not easy for English language learners to get good control on pronunciation. However, it is not impossible for them to present impressive performance. In fact, teaching pronunciation at EFL Iraqi secondary schools faces many challenges. Secondary school teachers have a number of difficulties and obstacles in teaching pronunciation. The present study evaluates teaching pronunciation in EFL Iraqi secondary schools through presenting a questionnaire, which contains 14 indicators, for 150 teachers of English (males and females) at Iraqi public secondary schools in the city of Karbala. According to secondary school teachers' point of view, the results have shown that teaching pronunciation is important in teaching English and communication. However, there are a number of difficulties and obstacles in teaching pronunciation. The poor classroom environment in teaching pronunciation and inefficient pronunciation material in the textbooks are examples of these obstacles. Based on the result of this study, a number of conclusions and pedagogical recommendations.