Kurdish EFL University Students’ Difficulties in Using English Determiners

Abstract


INTRODUCTION
Determiners are words that occur before a noun to express what the noun refers to and are used to identify things. They alter nouns or noun equivalents and are usually placed before descriptive adjectives to help clarify what a noun refers to. The present study attempts to investigate Kurdish EFL learners' difficulties while utilizing English determiners. To attain a correct perception of the nature of these difficulties and the level of Kurdish EFL learners' mastery of English determiners, the following questions are posed to be answered: 1. To what extent do Kurdish EFL learners' have the mastery of English determiners at both recognition and production levels?
Determiners are function words that indicate the type of reference a noun phrase possesses, like whether the determiner is definite or indefinite (the, a), possessive (my, her, etc.), demonstrative ("this, that, these, those" and so on. Determiners can display a quantity or a number (some, many, twenty, etc.). According to the place of determiners, there are two main types: predeterminers and post-determiners. The absence of a determiner to signal the following will sometimes produce ambiguity (Determining Determiners: The Clarifying Words, n.d.): For instance, it is hard to interpret the "increase "because a signal needs to be present. A will would tell you that it is a verb (union demands will increase), and a determiner tells you that it is a noun (union demands an increase)

Types of Determiners
Several determiner subtypes follow propositions (Carnie et al. (2011), p.45). In certain noun phrases, more than one determiner appears. For example, in all the books, in such circumstances, the determiners appear in a certain sequence. We differentiate between central determiners (the most common kind), predeterminers (which come before central determiners when both occur), and post determiners (which come after central determiners when both occur) (which follow central determiners). Generally, three subsections of determiners can be noticed: 1. Predetermines: Half, both, all, and double, once, twice. 2. Central determiners: Articles, demonstrative determiners, and possessive determiners. 3. Post determiners: Includes two subgroups: ordinal numerals and semi-determiners such as same, other, former, latter, last, and next; cardinal numbers and quantifying determiners.
The choice between these types of determiners is governed by their co-occurrence with the classes of nouns, as shown in the following table:

Quantifiers
Some determiners are referred to as quantifying determiners since they specify nouns in terms of quantity or amount (Biber et al., 1999). Consider the following examples: (learn English. British council. Org / Quantifiers, n.d.) 1. Most children start school at the age of five. 2. We ate some bread and butter. 3. We saw lots of birds.
In addition, Many, few, and several are two small groups of closed system quantifiers that only co-occur with plural count nouns, as in "The few words he spoke were well chosen." However, much and (a) little only occur with non-count nouns, as in "There hasn't been much good weather recently." Several are rarely (and almost never) preceded by a determiner, and there is a positive/negative contrast between few and little depending on whether or not the indefinite is used. Consider the following examples: 1. A few biscuits = several 2. Few biscuits = not many 3. He took a little butter = some 4. Little butter = not much. (Quantifiers, n.d.) Because the first example has a plural countable noun and the third one has a non-countable noun, neither co-occurs with the indefinite article. A belongs to the quantifier. In addition, there is a large open class of phrasal Quantifiers. Some can occur concurrently with non-count nouns and plural count nouns: These, particularly lots, are mostly used informally. However, plenty is stylistically neutral. In the sense of "enough ."Others can only be found with non-count nouns As these examples show, it is usual to find the "indefinite article and a quantifying adjective, the latter being obligatory in Standard English deal." (Quirk, 2016, p.67) When an illustrative comes time recently a thing, in some cases, it is called a definite descriptive word or an illustrative determiner, as in "Child, take this bat and hit that ball out of the stop."

Possessive Determiners
Possessive determiners are words that indicate ownership. You may also come across books that refer to them as possessive adjectives, but this is an incorrect definition because they are not adjectives (Stein, 2021).
Furthermore, ownership is the primary concept expressed by determiners, but it is not the only one. You can talk about your spouse, children, or even your boss, but none of these people are yours. Possessive determiners are simply words used to describe someone or something with whom you have a relationship, as in the following examples: 1. I love my dogs.

Can I borrow your pencil? Kurdish EFL University Students'…
Journal of Linguistics and Social Sciences| 5 3. He finds her behavior bizarre. 4. We don't like their attitude. 5. My husband treats me well. (Stein, 2021) The determiner "whose" can be used with the pronoun "whose." Whose is a pronoun, but when used in a question to ask who owns something, it becomes a determiner, as in "Whose car is this?" Possessive determiners make it easier to refer to things. They are useful when you want to refer to someone or something specific, such as "my cat," "your pencil," or "their house. Possessive determiners are used to show ownership of a noun. As an example, consider the following sentences: 1. I love your CAR. 2. I think our roof requires FIXING. (Stein, 2021)

Articles
"An article is a word that indicates that a noun is a noun but does not describe it. In the sentence Nick bought a dog, for example, the article a indicates that the word dog is a noun. Articles can also be used to modify anything that functions as a noun, such as a pronoun or a noun phrase". (Thesaurus, 2021) A sentence frequently requires an article before a noun to make grammatical sense. For example, Common nouns include the words book, girl, gold, and information. Proper nouns include names such as Sarah, Oslo, and Microsoft. (Azar, 2002, p.65). Article the, an. and a show definite and indefinite meanings. When there is no determiner before the noun, it is useful to say that there is a zero article. Articles are much less common in conversation than in writing. Typically to a great extent because conversation uses numerous pronouns, which for the most part, do not require articles. To differentiate, the written registers use more nouns, resulting in many more articles. (Azar, 2002, p.67.) There are three types of articles; definite, indefinite, and zero. The following sections present a clear account of each type.

Definite Article
When referring to a specific set member, you employ a definite determiner with a common noun (Fay, 1990). A definite article serves several functions: 1. A definite article refers to distinct things or groups of things. A definite article can indicate that something is one-of-a-kind and there is only one of it, as in: 2. She gazed at the moon. (The Earth only has one moon) 3. We sailed on the Pacific Ocean. (There is only one body of water named the Pacific Ocean.) 4. It is used to refer to specific items that are known to both the speaker and the listener, as in: 5. Harold went to school. (Thesaurus, 2021)

Indefinite Article
There are two indefinite articles in English: a and an. "Indefinite articles are used before a singular noun to indicate it is not a particular one." (Clarke, 2008)Before consonants or consonant sounds, use before vowels or vowel sounds. Indefinite articles are the inverse of definite articles and serve a variety of functions: 1. Indefinite articles refer to non-unique things "Raquel is a doctor." (Raquel is just one of the many doctors in the world.) Zero article phrases usually denote non-specific or generic references. However, there are also some special uses of the zero article with singular countable nouns, where otherwise we expect the or a/an to occur. Consider the following: (Azar, 2002, p.68) 1. Meals as institutions (Are they going out for dinner or something?) 2. Places as an institution (The ceremony took place in the church).

Predictions with unique references:
When a predicative noun phrase names a unique role or job, a zero article or 'the' is used: "Lukman was re-elected OPEC president in November."Means of transport and communication "The zero article most of the times can be found after the preposition by days, months, and seasons (Tomorrow at dawn we will begin our journey).
4. Parallel structure: The zero article sometimes happens in parallel structures like X and Y or from X to Y, where X and Y are identical or contrasting nouns (He traveled from country to country).

Demonstrative Determiner
A demonstrative is a determiner or pronoun that refers to a specific noun or the noun it replaces. In English, there are four demonstratives: The "near '' demonstrates this and those, and the "far" demonstratives that and those. This and that are singular; these and those are plural".( (Demonstrative in grammar, n.d.)A demonstrative pronoun distinguishes its antecedent from similar things. For example, "let me pick out the books '. I want these, not those. When a demonstrative comes before a noun, it's sometimes called a demonstrative adjective or a demonstrative determiner, as in Son, take this bat and hit that ball out of the park (Demonstrative in grammar, n.d.; Taylor, 2022).

Distributive Determiner
Distributive Determiners are words in a clause or sentence that provide information about the noun. They may refer to a group or every member of the group. Each, every, all, both, half, either, and 'Each' refers to each individual in a group, whereas 'every' refers to the group as a collection of members. Only countable nouns can be used with 'each' and 'every.' Consider the following example: 1. Each child was laughing. 2. Every child was laughing. 'All' refers to the entire group as a whole. All could be uncountable nouns or plural countable nouns. Consider the following sentences as an example. 1. All the milk was spoiled. 2. All men need money. 3. All cats love milk.
Both, either, and neither is used to describe a pair of people, places, or things. 'Both' refers to the entire pair, 'either' refers to any one of the pair's members, and neither negates the pair. Examine the following sentences: 1. Both my cars are black. 2. Either of the books was worth keeping. 3. Neither car is working.
Either and neither can be used with plural nouns when prefixed with 'of'-1. Either of the men was dancing. 2. Neither of the cows gives milk.

Numerical Cardinal Determiner
When numbers appear before a noun, numerical, they are determiners. Cardinal numerals express quantity in this position, as in one book, two books, and twenty books. In the same position, ordinal numerals express sequence, as in first impressions, second chance, and third prize. A set of words that are not directly related to numbers are included in the ordinals subclass (as first is related to one, second is related to two, etc.). Last, latter, next, previous, and subsequent are examples of general ordinals. These words can also be used as determiners (next week, previous engagement, subsequent developments). (Numerals and Determiners, n.d.). Moreover, nouns preceded by numbers make compound nouns such as the mentioned examples (Mustafa, 2010).

METHODOLOGY Participants
Thirty-one students were recruited randomly from the second, third, and fourth-year English department students at the University of Halabja to undertake the study. Participants are EFL students with sufficient knowledge and expertise using determiners. Figure 1 shows that 41.9 percent of participants are males and 58.1 percent are females. Figure 2 depicts that 35.5 percent of members are between 18 and 20, 61.3 percent are between 20 to 23, and 3.1 percent are older than 23. Figure 3 shows that 38.7 percent, 29 percent, and 32.3 percent are from the second, third, and fourth years, respectively. Making mistakes using English determiners at any of the levels by the research population would cause problems because they will be EFL teachers, especially the fourth years who are going to teach during their teaching practicum in the same year that they do this test (Hamasaid & Saheb, 2020; Hama Karim, 2020).

Research Instrument
The current study's instrument is a test. Certain criteria for designing the test are considered to be more authentic and truly measure the ability or the aspect intended to be measured (Hamamorar, 2017). The researchers built the test using several strategies such as multiple choice, emphasized words, fill in the gaps, and sentence composition. The researchers created the exam to collect data on investigating Kurdish EFL university students' difficulties in using English determiners. (Ghafor, Ahmad, and Mustafa, 2022) researched the same students' difficulties in language learning, and using English determiners is one of the students' grammatical difficulties.
The test assesses students' abilities to employ determiners at various language levels. The test consists of 30 items divided into two portions, each with 15 items. The first section assesses the level of recognition. The second section is dedicated to determining the degree of production. The test items are adapted from; (General English Questions and Answers, n.d.), (Determiners Quiz, n.d.), (Countable and Uncountable Nouns Quiz, n.d.), (Possessive Determiners, 2018).

The Administration of the Test
The test was administered on March 25, 2022. Thirty-one students took part in the test, both male and female, 41.9% male and 58.1%female. The test was administered through google forms.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The test results are examined by tallying the correct and incorrect responses and their percentages. The exam items are divided into two categories: recognition and production. First, the researchers created two tables: one for the student's responses to the test items on the recognition level and the other for their responses to the test items on the production level. Each table contains the test item number, the type of determiner it represents, the frequency of correct and erroneous responses, and their percentages.

Subjects Performance at the Recognition level
This level concerns itself with the recognition of the appropriate determiner. This part of the test is subdivided into two parts. In each part, students are given items about determiners and must answer questions about what types of determiners they could recognize. The answers are presented in percentages and then in regular numbers to show the contrast between the correct and incorrect ones. The analysis of the subject's performance in the recognition task has indicated the results in table 3 below. The table presents the frequency and percentage of the subject's performance in each item in the test at the recognition level. It consists of fifteen items categorized from right to left, including the type of determiners and the frequency and percentage of correct and incorrect answers. The above table reveals that items (3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12,14,15) are answered easily since they show a high frequency of correct answers with percentages of (58.1%, 71%, 51.6%, 67.6%, 54.8%, 61.3%, 64.5%, 58.1%, 74.2%, and 54.8%) respectively. These items belong to (Quantifiers, Demonstratives, Possessives, and articles). On the other hand, the most difficult items are (1, 2, 11, and 13). In these items, the frequency of incorrect items is high, and their percentages are (74.4%, 80.6%, 51.6%, 64.5%, and 87.1%). They belong to (Articles, Distributives, and Quantifiers).
Accordingly, this table shows that the frequency and percentages of correct answers are higher than that of incorrect ones. The total number of incorrect answers is 230, with a percentage of 49.5%, and the total number of correct answers is 235, with a percentage of 50.5%.

Subjects' Performance at the Production Level
This level concerns itself with the production of the appropriate determiner. This part of the test is subdivided into two parts. In each part, students are given items about determiners and must answer questions about what types of determiners they could recognize and write. The following table presents the frequency and percentage of the subject performance in each item in the test at the production level. The production part of the test is subdivided into two parts. In each part, students were given items about determiners, and later on, they were asked to answer questions about what determiners they could use. The answers are presented in percentages rather than regular numbers to show the contrast between correct and incorrect answers. The table below is categorized, from right to left, consisting of fifteen items concerning the type of determiners they represent. The frequency and percentages of correct and incorrect answers are also included. The above table reveals that item number 4 is answered easily since it shows a high frequency of correct answers, with a percentage of (74%). This item belongs to (Distributives). On the other hand, the most difficult items are (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15). In these items, the frequency of the incorrect items is high, and their percentages are (80. 6%, 93.5%, 77.4%, 77.4%, 100%, 93.5%, 93.5%, 96.8%, 90.3%, 64.5%, 87.1%, 71%, 77%, 90.3%) respectively. They belong to (Articles, Distributives, Possessives, Demonstratives, and Quantifiers).
Accordingly, the table shows that the frequency and percentages of incorrect answers are higher than that of correct ones. The total number of incorrect answers is 378, with a percentage of 81.3%, and the total number of correct answers is 87, with a percentage of 18.7%.

General Performance of the Students
After analysis of the test results, it has been recognized that students' performance in recognition and production levels could be better. At the recognition level, the number of incorrect answers reaches up to 235, with a percentage of 49.5%. On the other hand, the correct answers reached 235 with a percentage of 50.5%. However, the results show that students' performance is even poorer in the production part and have less success than in the recognition part. The number of incorrect answers is incomparable with correct answers; 378 incorrect answers with a percentage of 81.3%, and the number of correct answers is 87 with a percentage of 18.7%.

Comparison between the Students' Performance at the Recognition and Production Levels
To test the hypothesis, which reads as "Kurdish EFL university students face more difficulties in producing English determiners than in recognizing them'' a comparison between their performance at both levels, recognition, and production is made in this section. Table 2 shows the student's overall performance at both levels. It reveals that the frequency of the correct answers is 235, with a percentage of 50.5%, and the frequency of the incorrect answers in the recognition part is 230, with a percentage of 49.5%. On the other hand, in the production part, the frequency of the correct answers is 87, with a percentage of 18.7%. And the frequency of total incorrect answers is 378, with a percentage of 81.3%. These results indicate that the performance of the students is under expectation and they performed better at the recognition part. Due to the given results regarding the students' performances at both levels, we accept the above hypothesis.

Discussion of results
The results suggest that most students need help with English determiners, yet more than half can recognize them. According to the test results, students need help with determiners in general, not just one type of determiner. For example, in table number 2, there are only seven correct answers for item number one, which relates to English articles. However, there are 17 correct answers for item number 15, representing the same type of determiner. The same pattern may also be seen in the other types, as shown in the table. However, the same thing happened in table 3 with all types of determiners, indicating that most students have a problem with demonstratives. This is a gateway to spotlight the research questions in the introduction. This provides an answer to the first question, which states, "Can Kurdish EFL university students master the Recognition and production levels of English Determiners?" Accordingly, the first hypothesis, which reads as "Kurdish EFL University Students often do not aster the recognition and the production levels of English determiners," is accepted. This is due to the context of learning that students have been provided. Secondly, "Do Kurdish EFL university students face more difficulties at the production levels?" The findings indicate that most students need help with the production level of determiners. This supports the second hypothesis: "Kurdish EFL university students face more difficulties producing English determiners than recognizing them because of their limited background knowledge about English determiners due to the need for more learning context. This answers the third research question, "what is the source of the difficulties that the students face in recognizing and producing English determiners?" Likewise, the third hypothesis, "The difficulties faced by the students can be attributed to the English determiners and the context of learning," is accepted.

CONCLUSION
This study has dealt with the difficulties faced by Kurdish EFL university students when they use English determiners and has tried to measure these difficulties at recognition and production levels. Indeed, this work aims to demonstrate that English determiners constitute a problematic language subject that students must grasp to master and utilize language in an appropriate and advanced manner. This is due to their low performance in both the recognition and production sections, with 230 incorrect answers out of 465. There were 378 wrong answers in the recognition section out of 465 total. The findings of the present study lead to certain conclusions: First, students could perform well in some specific areas of determiners such as articles, definite and indefinite, numbers, and ordinals because they had been exposed to nearly all forms of determiners in their prior levels of study, notably the second and third stages, and since they had classrooms where these items are researched. This suggests that the more time students spend studying specific determiners, the better they perform.
Second, some determiners, such as distributives and quantifiers, tend to be more unfamiliar to Halabja University EFL students. This is also because they were given little or no attention during their education, possibly due to time restrictions or simply neglect.
Third, Kurdish EFL students at Halabja University need help dealing with language determiners at the production level. Their ability to employ the different types of English determiners in meaningful grammatical sentences could be stronger, and their writing could be of better quality.
Professors must construct the numerous types of determiners so that students learn as much as possible about them and their varied types. This way, they will be fruitful and promising throughout their entire stages in the English department.
Students should also have inquisitive minds and curious minds. They should always research and investigate what is unknown about determiners to be fully prepared for different types of determiners.
Based on the above conclusions, and to build a better comprehension of English determiners, the researchers have recommended two basic points: