In Iraq, where English is taught as a foreign language, students often have a great deal of trouble in using English articles for various reasons. One main reason is related to the fact that English has a relatively difficuit and complex system of articles (see Adams, 1962; kaluza, 1963; oller & Rredding, 1971; Joodi, 1978; Aziz, 1979; Kharma, 1981; Agnihotri et al, 1984; Ilyas, 1985, and Kharma & Hajjaj, 1989). Master (1988, p. 2) claims that "mastery of articles in English is no easy matter for most EFL students. Even those languages that have an article system differ from English in the application of the rules and this difficulty lies in the fact that the article implies a certain view of the noun to which it applies "(for the same view see also Kharma and Hajjaj, 1989: p. 151