An Investigation of Phrasal Verbs Avoidance by Kurdish EFL Learners

Using phrasal verbs (PVs) is a challenging task for EFL students and Kurdish EFL students may struggle with PVs. This study investigates whether Kurdish EFL students avoid PVs and whether their performance is affected by the semantic nature of PVs. The study also examines why Kurdish EFL students avoid or employ PVs. 120 Kurdish students from the third year of the College of Basic Education at Duhok University participated. Participants were given a questioner consisting of three tests to contribute to the data collection for this study (i.e. A multiple-choice, translation and verb-memorizing tests). The tests had 15 items, 11 metaphorical and 4 literal PVs. Using interviews, the researcher investigated why Kurdish EFL students either utilize or avoid using PVs. Based on the results, it concluded that Kurdish EFL students tend to avoid the PVs. Avoidance can be attributed to phrasal verbs' semantic complexity and the disparities between the learner's L1 (Kurdish) and English as a foreign language. In interviews, students who chose PVs over normal verbs provided many reasons. Students try to mimic the way native speakers talk. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that avoidance may be adopted as a tactic in the learning process to prevent making mistakes.