Gender and Response Category in Iraqi EFL Learners' Associative Responses to AI-Generated Word Stimuli

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Language Education, Faculty of Humanities, Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, Kazerun, Iran.

2 University of Al-Ameed,Karbala,Iraq

3 MA at Data and Discourse Studies, History and Social Sciences, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

10.22034/elt.2026.71388.2847

Abstract

This study investigated the word associative behavior of Iraqi EFL leaners to expand the current understanding of different types and classifications of the responses to word association tests held with the help of AI. The participants’ response behavior was investigated based on the response forms , categories (syntagmatic, and quality regarding the possible role of gender. Besides, the differences in responses considering language proficiency were investigated. Eighty-one 19 to 26 year-old adults , with two levels of English proficiency (upper intermediate and advanced) were chosen randomly. After checking their proficiency, a word association test, inspired by Wolter’s (2002) and designed by AI, was administered. For both male and female learners, a consistent pattern was observed across response forms and categories . Besides, for both genders, the frequency of the abstract responses was more than the concrete ones. Finally, both advanced and upper-intermediate participants exhibited a stable pattern across response categories, with syntagmatic responses being the most frequent. The result revealed that both gender and proficiency may not play any major role in influencing the participants’ word associative behavior. The findings have implications for the sequence of teaching vocabulary items.

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Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 04 April 2026

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