Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs by Korean EFL Learners

This paper investigates the avoidance of phrasal verbs by Korean learners of English. Two groups of Korean EFL learners (advanced and intermediate) participated in two tests (multiple choice test and translation test) with two types of phrasal verbs (figurative and literal). Fifteen native speakers of English served as a control group. Korean EFL learners exhibited different phrasal verb avoidance behavior compared with Liao & Fukuya s (2004) Chinese ESL learners, which implies that L2 environment (ESL vs. EFL) may be a crucial factor for avoidance of phrasal verbs. There were effects caused by proficiency level, test type and phrasal verb type. Based on these effects, it is speculated that differences between first and second language, the inherent semantic difficulty of phrasal verbs, and developmental framework of interlanguage processes may be reasons for the learners phrasal-verb avoidance behavior in second language learning.