The “Linguistic Imperialism” Aspect of English as a Foreign Language from Educated Iraqis’ Viewpoint

A language is said to be dominating and prevalent when the military and economic forces of a powerful country make it either control or endanger the language(s) of less power countries. As such, the heavily supported spread of English language by UK and USA and duly the importance granted to the language as a lingua franca have made English acquire the label of global linguistic imperialism (LI). This research attempts to shed light on the LI aspect of English as a foreign language in Iraq from educated Iraqis’ viewpoint. It further aims to answer the following prime question: Has English language acquired a “LI” aspect in Iraq after 2003; the date of American occupation, in the light of the evasive and dominant nature of its use in the different domains of Iraqis’ life? Accordingly, a questionnaire of 25 items was first presented to a panel of jurors to approve its face and content validity. It was then administered to a sample of 200 educated Iraqis chosen randomly from different academic and social sectors to test its reliability. The results show that educated Iraqis opined the existence of a LI aspect of English in Iraq after 2003. Furthermore, their views did not vary with regard to the wide use of English in the different domains of the Iraqi society.