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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 14. Number 4 December 2023
Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil – KRI, Iraq
The twenty-first century has witnessed an unprecedented pace of environmental issues with catastrophic consequences. Accordingly, an increasing number of initiatives have been seized to solve ecological problems in cooperation. In this regard, integrating eco-friendly practices into EFL classes has received considerable attention globally. However, the effects of ecology-oriented writing instruction have not been explored thoroughly in the Iraq context. Thus, this study was carried out to fill this gap in the literature with 30 EFL learners who studied at a language preparatory school of a private university in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 Academic Year in Erbil. Participants, whose ages were between 18 and 24, were chosen through the convenience sampling method. The study lasted eight weeks when data were gathered via writing exams and interviews in this explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design study. Control group students were exposed to traditional instruction, while experimental group students’ lessons were enriched by ecology-oriented writing topics. The in-depth analysis was performed through SPSS 27 and NVivo. The former revealed that experimental group students increased their writing competence more substantially than the control group students. Likewise, interview findings unearthed that students’ awareness about ecological problems increased dramatically in the experimental group, while the difference was not significant in the control group. The findings of this study may drive authorized bodies to integrate eco-friendly approaches into academic writing lessons on a global scale.
Keywords: Academic writing, eco-friendly approaches, EFL learners, environmental issues, raising awareness
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Saban Kara (MA) is an instructor at TISHK International University in Erbil, Iraq. He currently works as the vice director of TIU Language Preparatory School. He is a prolific writer on various topics, such as extensive reading, web 2.0 tools, types of written corrective feedback, CALL, MALL, and mentor-mentee relationships. He aims to contribute more to the scientific community with high-impact publications during his lifespan. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7501-7961