The Difficulties of Phrasal Verbs’Meaning encountered by University EFL Learners

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.