A LINGUISTIC STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF WATCHING YOUTUBE EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS ON THE IRAQI EFL LEARNERS' PERFORMANCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners still have difficulty mastering the language even after getting a lot of teaching. The conventional teaching methods are often ineffective in developing basic language skills, which has, in turn, led to unsatisfactory results in academic performance. This study examines how watching instructional videos on YouTube affects the English language proficiency of Iraqi EFL learners in order to solve this issue. This research specifically investigates how watching videos with varying frequencies, types of content, and different levels of engagement with educational content affects English language performance. Students from two distinct Basra schools Ira Al-Khansa Secondary School for Girls & Al-Markazia Secondary School for Boys participated in a structured questionnaire survey as part of an empirical inquiry. The survey data were analyzed and the correlations between the variables examined using structural equation modeling. The result of the research clearly illustrates that watching with varying frequencies, types of content, and engagement with educational content significantly and positively influences English language performance for EFL learners. In addition, it underscores the importance of overall digital literacy, which is a requirement essential for positive learning from educational videos on YouTube. The study's findings clearly show that using educational YouTube videos may help Iraqi EFL students become more fluent in English.