ESL Learners' Use of Phrasal Verbs in Narrative Compositions: A corpus-based study

Phrasal verbs create a significant learning challenge. They are structures that are very difficult for most ESL/EFL students. In recent years they have received a considerable amount of attention and these verbs are included in ESL/EFL curriculum and taught in many classrooms. This corpus-based book investigates the use of phrasal verbs in two written tasks by Malaysian ESL learners. The data of the research was obtained from the EMAS Corpus. The book: (1) investigates the distribution of phrasal verbs used in the students’ writing, (2) identifies the types of phrasal verbs used, (3) presents the syntactic and semantic accuracy of the phrasal verbs, and (4) determines the avoidance behavior and simplification features employed in relation to the use of phrasal verbs. The findings of this study provide guidelines on the teaching of English phrasal verbs. Teachers and teacher trainers need to know how phrasal verbs are to be taught to the students. Also, curriculum planners and materials developers can benefit from this book in that they will be able to determine topics, structures and concepts in the language curriculum.