Identifying the Phonological, Semantic, and Syntactic Proficiencies of EFL Students at Al-Imam Al-Kadhim University

This study identifies the level of linguistic proficiency among second-year EFL students at the University of Imam AlKadhim in three main areas: phonology, semantics, and syntax. The study adopted a quantitative descriptive design. A linguistic proficiency test was developed by the researcher and administered to a sample of 55 students. The test measured students’ performance in phonological discrimination and production, semantic knowledge and relations, and syntactic accuracy and structure. The results revealed that students’ phonological proficiency was significantly below the expected level, indicating weaknesses in sound discrimination and pronunciation. In contrast, students demonstrated a moderate level of semantic proficiency, showing relatively better performance in vocabulary knowledge and meaning relations. Syntactic proficiency was also found to be below the expected level, reflecting difficulties in sentence structure and grammatical accuracy. The findings indicate that EFL learners exhibit uneven linguistic proficiency, with relative strength in semantics and noticeable weaknesses in phonology and syntax.