Students' perceptions of English as a foreign language play an important role in achieving the goals

stated in the curriculum. This study aims to investigate how preparatory students perceive the concept

of "English as a foreign language" and whether their perceptions vary according to gender, English

proficiency levels, majors, types of high schools attended, types of schools (private-state), whether

they received English preparatory education at high school and their international exposure. This will

be done through an independent word association test. The research employed the qualitative

research method of phenomenology. The study group consists of 472 preparatory students who

received English language education at Yildiz Technical University School of Foreign Languages

during the academic year 2022-2023. 155 students from A1 level, 169 students from A2 level, and

148 students from B1 level participated in the study. Demographic information scale and word

association test were used as data collection tools in the research. The data were analyzed using the

content analysis method. Codes and categories were obtained from the responses given to the key

concept, and these codes and categories were presented using frequency and percentage tables. 14

categories were determined for students' perceptions of English as a foreign language: education,

tourism, positive expressions, communication, social media, negative expressions, English lesson,

business life, common language, social life, materiality, culture and arts, famous people and

profession. The diversity of these categories formed from the responses to the key concept also

demonstrates the diversity of the perception of English.