Abstract:
This study aims at investigating the difficulties of guessing the meaning
of phrasal verbs by university EFL learners. Because it is a problematic
area for second /foreign language learners. Also, this study aims to find
out the reasons behind the difficulties of mastering and acquiring phrasal
verbs by EFL learners. The descriptive analytical method was adopted in
this study. To collect the data required, a test was administered to thirty
one undergraduate English language students at University of Holy
Quran and Islamic Sciences and Sudan University of science and
technology. The findings of the study revealed the students’ poor
knowledge of the skills of guessing the meaning of phrasal verbs from
sentences. The findings of the study also, showed that the nature of PVs
causes difficulties for EFL learners because most of students are not
familiar with phrasal verbs those contain three parts. The findings also,
revealed that the idiomatic phrasal verbs are difficult for EFL learners.
The study recommends that the teachers of English language at
Sudanese universities should take care of this important linguistic area
of phrasal verbs by providing more practice in this linguistic area, for
undergraduate students, through courses offered by English department
and the Sudanese school curriculum should also contain the introduction
of phrasal verbs before the students come to the university.
