Avoidance of English Phrasal Verbs: Investigating the Effect of Proficiency, Learning Context, Task Type, and Verb Type

Previous L2 studies (Liao & Fukuya, 2004; Laufer & Eliasson, 1993; Hulstijn & Marchena, 1989; Dagut & Laufer, 1985) have failed to consider the learning context and/or task type as possible explanations for avoidance of English phrasal verbs. This study overcomes these shortcomings in its investigation of phrasal verb usage by L2 learners of English and explores other potential causes for avoidance. A total of 52 L1 Chinese speakers of English participated in the study. Participants carried out three tasks over a one-hour period, which included multiple-choice, translation, and story-retell tasks. Each task targeted 10 literal and 10 figurative phrasal verbs that were selected from a corpus of spoken English based on comparable frequency. The findings suggest that factors such as learning context, task type, and phrasal verb type influence the extent to which learners avoid English phrasal verbs.