AN INVESTIGATION OF THE USE OF PHRASAL VERBS BY ALGERIAN EFL LEARNERS:

Abstract

This study aims at investigating Algerian EFL learners’ awareness of the importance of the use of phrasal verbs and identifying the syntactic and semantic properties of phrasal verbs seem to be the most difficult for them. The research is carried out in the Department of letters and English language at the University of Guelma. Participants are third year students of English inscribed in the License/Master/Doctorate system (LMD) of the academic year 2015/2016. The descriptive analytical method is followed to conduct this research. A test and a questionnaire are designed to collect data. The findings reveal that most of Algerian EFL learners are not aware of the importance of using English phrasal verbs. They are not able to use phrasal verbs frequently because of their idiomatic meaning as well as learners’ limited vocabulary. In addition, the results indicate that phrasal verbs that require an object to come after the verb or after the particle; and phrasal verbs with two objects, one after the verb and the other after the particle, are considered as the most difficult types of phrasal verbs for the participants of this study. Consequently, it is recommended for teachers to put more emphasis on using phrasal verbs in classroom to increase learners’ awareness of the importance of the use of phrasal verbs. Further, including syntactic types of phrasal verbs in grammar courses and teaching the semantic properties of these aspects through oral as well as written expression courses would help learners to overcome these difficulties.