Abstract:

The research inspected EFL Syrian students’ perceptions at the English department at Free Aleppo University about mastering collective nouns, the probable challenges, and the recommended techniques and tactics to overcome such challenges and master collectives. Research data were collected from 68 EFL Syrian students via a survey and analyzed by SPSS. The findings demonstrated that EFL Syrian students have robust encouraging and positive perceptions about mastering collective nouns. The research discloses that EFL Syrian students are conscious of the challenges and complications of collective nouns that mainly stem from the dearth of cultural knowledge and context, and being syntactically singular and semantically plural when it comes to agreement patterns with verbs or anaphors. In addition, there are no strict rules that constrain their agreement behaviour as there is variation among Englishes. EFL Syrian students suggested and recommended several tactics to overcome collective nouns’ complications conceptually and syntactically by using typical strategies such as memorization, guessing, flashcards, doing online vocabulary and grammar exercises, translating in L1 (Arabic), and using them in context. The research endorses EFL tutors to include collective nouns in their class exercises to help learners enhance their competency by using collective nouns in their speech and writing.

Keywords: collective, noun, student, perception, challenge, strategy, agreement