Arabic grammar simplification efforts and Iraqi students' and lecturers' attitudes

The purpose of this study is to examine the past and current efforts to simplify the Arabic grammar and identify the attitudes of Iraqi university students and lecturers as regards these efforts.In this study that features a descriptive and analytical method, the students and lecturers at the Arabic Language Department of the Faculty of Education at the Kirkuk University in Iraq were given questionnaires to find out their views about the efforts to simplify the Arabic grammar.The first chapter comprises the background, targets and problems of the study and is followed by three chapters. The second chapter discusses the past efforts to simplify the Arabic grammar. The views Ibn Mada? (1196-1120) expressed in his book ?Al-Radd 'ala al-Nuh?t? represented a turning point in these efforts. The third chapter deals with the contemporary approaches to the task of making the Arabic grammar easier to learn and study. It discusses the views and proposals of scholars like Ibrahim Mustafa (1904-1968) and Shawqi Dayf (1910-2005) as well as such institutions and conferences as the Egyptian Ministry of Education (1938), Cairo Arabic Language Academy (1945), the 1st Cultural Conference of the Arab League (1947), and Damascus Arabic Language Academy and Baghdad Arabic Language Academy. The fourth chapter provides the questionnaire given to the students and lecturers at the Kirkuk University to identify their views about the subject-matter of the study. The findings of this field study indicate that the university students and lecturers agree that the Arabic grammar should be simplified and reformed.viiBoth the literature on this matter and the findings of this study suggest that the bid to simplify the Arabic grammar should be a top priority matter for the education systems of Arab countries