These papers represent a cross-section of the research work conducted in the Department of English of the College of Education at the University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq. It is anticipated that their publication will encourage future studies by placing work in English Studies from the University of Basrah in an international perspective for the first time in decades. During the last couple of years, research work at the University of Basrah has been increasing and developing. The rehabilitation and reactivation of local journals has facilitated publication which for a long time had been halted. The present volume comprises research embodying different strands of the work of the Department of English, and showing recent trends in the study of linguistics and literature at the University of Basrah. Papers contributed represent work in various fields of study including phonetics and phonology, linguistics, ELT, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and literary stylistics.