The Lexical Knowledge and Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs: The Case of Egyptian Learners of English

Abstract

Recent studies in different parts of the world have highlighted that phrasal verbs constitute a learning difficulty for English language learners despite their confirmed significance and high productivity in English. Proposed explanations include cross-linguistic differences, the complex nature of phrasal verbs, low language proficiency and psychological factors. The present study examines this difficulty among an Arabic-speaking population of Egyptian undergraduates in a foreign language context. To this end, a total of 407 Egyptian undergraduates in a private English-medium university completed a paraphrase task, two gap-filling tasks and a survey. The results confirm the difficulty highlighted in earlier studies, particularly at the production level. The results also show that the under-representation of phrasal verbs in the participants' production can be interpreted in terms of cross-linguistic differences, passive learning for comprehension and limited language exposure. The study thus supports a multi-faceted model for the explanation of the limited use of phrasal verbs by English language learners, and calls for a revision of the English language teaching programs in Egypt.

Metaphorical Insights: Phrasal Verb Knowledge Gains in the Light of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

“…A highly common criticism about PV instruction in the literature (Darwin & Gray, 1999;Gardner & Davies, 2007;Tyler & Evans, 2004) has been the traditional application that is the way of presenting the target structures in lists with their L1 equivalents or in reading texts/listening scripts and urging learners to remember, in other words memorize, these verbs themselves since they appeared to be completely random and complex (Cornell, 1985). With the difficulties PVs pose for non-native learners because of their unpredictable, random, and complex nature (Lee, 2012;White, 2012), it has become evident that learners avoid using these structures in production (Liao & Fukuya, 2004;Kayael, 2007;Barekat & Baniasady, 2014;Güleryüz Adamhasan, 2014;Saltık, 2014;El-Dakhs, 2016). Due to this problem of avoidance, the question of how to teach PVs effectively has become a matter of debate in the field of language teaching.…”

“…In the present study, the implicit knowledge gains have been investigated based on Obermeier's (2015) criteria, as his criteria involve not only formal but also semantic representations, in addition to formulaic sequencing of determined word combinations. The word combinations emphasized in this study have been specified as "Phrasal Verbs" since they are the multiword sequences that have always posed difficulty for non-native speakers of English to acquire due to the unpredictability of their meanings (Lee, 2012;White, 2012), which leads those learners, especially low proficiency ones, to avoid using phrasal verbs within a context (Kayael, 2007;Barekat & Baniasady, 2014;Güleryüz Adamhasan, 2014;Saltık, 2014;El-Dakhs, 2016).…”

“…These combinations have an important role in gaining fluency, as Gardner and Davies (2007, p. 340) state they "tend to be very common and highly productive in the English language as a whole" and also conceivably settle "the multiword middle ground between syntax and lexis" which results in vital ramifications for second language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 2008). At the same time, PVs pose great difficulty for non-native learners because of the unpredictability of their meanings (Lee, 2012;White, 2012), which leads to the situation that non-native speakers of English, especially at lower levels of language proficiency, are prone to avoid resorting to PVs in production due to the difficulty they get into while dealing with such words (Laufer & Eliasson, 1993;Kayael, 2007;Güleryüz Adamhasan, 2014;El-Dakhs, 2016). As a matter of fact, these combinations are constructions that are mostly encountered in spoken language (Biber et al, 1999), and they are generally not in the lists of most frequent words (Saltık, 2014;p.…”