Investigating Iraqi EFL Learners' Ability to Recognize and Produce English Multi –Word Verbs

The study deals with English multi-word verbs. It aims at investigating the Iraqi EFL learner's ability to recognize and produce phrasal and prepositional verbs and so find out what types of multi-word verbs they find most difficult. To achieve this aim, a test has been conducted on fifty students from the fourth stage at the College of ArtsUniversity of Baghdad for the academic year 2013/2014, preceded by a pilot test two weeks before. It has been found that the level of difficulty of the test ranges between (0.30) and (0.80). The results showed that EFL learners demonstrated poor performance in using the suitable preposition or particle when they were asked to recognize or produce multi-word verbs. The students performed better on the whole recognition level (51.4%) than the production level (22.1%). Introduction Learning a foreign language basically depends on vocabulary knowledge. To confirm the centrality of “word” in language learning Burton and Humphries (1992:73) maintain that "Good readers and listeners usually become good writers and speakers but none can be possible without learning sufficient vocabulary”. Lexical items containing more than one word are more difficult to learn than single-word items. Burton and Humphries (ibid: 65) assert that the larger the vocabulary, the better the language performance, as a large lexical resource allows to express ideas “precisely, vividly and without repeating yourself in composition”. Among the areas of difficulty the learners of EFL encounter is learning the vocabulary of English. Learning multiword verb is very important for English learners. In this respect Crystal"(2003: 212) maintains that "The number of multi-word verbs in the language grew remarkably, especially in the 20 th century and they constitute one of the most distinctive features of English syntax". The combination of verbs and prepositions and/or particles to form single grammatical units is rather unique to Germanic languages including English. Multi-word verbs can be classified into three groups; phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. The present study discusses only the first two groups. AL-USTATH No 215 2015 AD, 1437 AH 14 Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs in English may cause problems for many learners because they have several meanings and different syntactic patterns. There is a close relationship between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs and this fact also increases the difficulty of mastering these two types of multi-word verbs. Phrasal verbs are a very important part of the language and specifically vocabulary learning. They are not only used in spoken and informal English, but they are also a common part of written and even formal English. Prepositional verbs are also very important, as they are a common verb form in the English language that consists of a verb followed by a preposition. This paper is an attempt to investigate this important part in EFL vocabulary learning. It is not easy for EFL learners to understand how to use English multi-word verbs, and this could be due to the difficulty they may encounter to recognize the relation between a verb and the preposition or particle that follows it. The present study tries to investigate the difficulty for Iraqi EFL learners to recognize and produce multi-word verbs. The study aims at investigating the uses of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by EFL university students. Therefore, it aims to raise EFL students’ awareness of the uses of these verbs. It tries to answer the following two questions: 1To what extent can Iraqi University EFL students recognize and produce correctly the phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs? 2What types of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs do University EFL students find the most difficult? It is hypothesized that many Iraqi University EFL learners are not aware of the uses of multi-word verbs, and that some types of multi-word verbs are difficult for Iraqi University EFL students to learn. Methodology of the Study: The descriptive analytical method will be adopted in this study. To collect enough data on the use of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by Iraqi university EFL students, the researchers designed a test that measures the ability of students to recognize and produce phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. The test was administered to fourth year EFL students of the Department of English at the College of ArtsUniversity of Baghdad. The study is confined to investigating the uses of English phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by Iraqi university EFL students. It only studies the errors in this area made by fourth year students of the Department of English at College of ArtsUniversity of Baghdad. This study is expected to be of value to both learners and teachers. The results of the study are expected to help EFL learners and increase their understanding of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. The results of AL-USTATH No 215 2015 AD, 1437 AH 15 this study can also be useful to EFL teachers as they identify the most difficult items of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, so they can make emphasis on them while teaching. Phrasal Verbs: The term is commonly applied to two or three distinct but related constructions in English: a verb (usually one of action or movement) and an adverbial particle and/or a preposition ( of a direction or location) cooccur forming a single semantic unit whose meaning is non-compositional and thus unpredictable. Modern theories of syntax tend to use the term phrasal verb to denote particle verbs only; they do not view prepositional verbs as phrasal verbs. A phrasal verb is periphrastic, as the verb and preposition or adverbial particle work together to perform the same functions as single-word verbs; act up (misbehave), leave out (omit). Many phrasal verbs have different meanings in different texts, for instance: Take off: a plane takes off, you can take off a coat, glasses or make up, a burglar may take off if he hears someone coming, and something is taken off a bill when a discount is allowed. The meaning of a phrasal verb is often very different from the meanings of the two words taken separately. One may have to refer to the dictionary, to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive phrasal verbs are usually separable, i.e., an object noun phrase may or may not come between the verb and the particle. However, if the direct object is a pronoun, then it must be placed between them. However, adverbs do not usually come between the verb and the particle though there are exceptions: The referee broke up the fight immediately. Or: The referee broke the fight up immediately. He broke it up immediately. In intransitive phrasal verbs, the particle may narrow the sense of the verb (as in sit down), or it may create an idiomatic meaning which differs from that of the root verb (as in show up): Several students showed up late. When the lecturer has taken his place, the audience sat quietly down. Prepositional Verbs: A prepositional verb is an idiomatic expression that combines a verb and a preposition to make a new verb with a distinct meaning. Such a verb takes a complementary prepositional phrase; all prepositional verbs have direct objects. e.g.: I believe in God. Did you talk about me? Brad is waiting for Julie. Prepositional verbs can’t be separated, e.g. we must say “look after the baby” but not “*look the baby after”. In such verbs, the meaning of the verb does not change, but the preposition adds the meaning to the verb. AL-USTATH No 215 2015 AD, 1437 AH 16 Prepositional verbs are called prepositional because their objects must be preceded by a preposition. A strictly transitive prepositional verb, such as “rely on” will always be used with its preposition. Ordinary transitive verbs, on the other hand, such as “listen to” will be used with their preposition when they have an object; otherwise, they will be used without a preposition. e.g.: “John told Linda he loved listening to jazz”. “John told Linda he loved jazz but she wasn’t listening”. However, prepositional verbs are syntactic multi-word items, not semantic ones. In other words, they are best understood as a unit, not because they have their own meaning but because they require a preposition when they take an object. Prepositional verbs can be divided into three types, concerning their structure: Semantic criteria for Phrasal/Prepositional Verbs: The semantic unity in phrasal and prepositional verbs can often be manifested by substitution with single-word verbs, for example: call on (visit), call up (summon), leave out (omit) and look at (see). Phrasal and prepositional verbs often have composite meanings which are not normally deducible from their parts, for example, make out (understand), take in (deceive), come by (obtain). The terms phrasal and prepositional verbs are not, however, restricted to such idiomatic combinations. We can distinguish three subclasses: (Quirk et al, 1985:1162ff) 1. The verb and the particle keep their individual lexical meanings, as in look over (inspect), set up (organize). The individuality of the components appears in possible contrastive substitutions: bring in/out, take in/out, turn on/off, switch on/off. 2. The verb alone keeps its basic lexical meaning and the particle has an intensifying function: find (out) something, sweep (up) the crumbs, spread (out) the rug. 3. The verb and the particle are fused into a new idiomatic combination, the meaning of which is not deducible from its parts, for example, bring up (educate), come by (obtain), put off (postpone), turn up (appear), come in for (receive). In such combinations there is no possibility of contrastive substitution: there are no pairs such as bring up/down, put off/on, give up/down, give in/out, etc for this subclass. The adverbial and the entire verb-particle combination have acquired a new meaning. The Dis


Introduction
Learning a foreign language basically depends on vocabulary knowledge. To confirm the centrality of "word" in language learning Burton and Humphries (1992:73) maintain that "Good readers and listeners usually become good writers and speakers but none can be possible without learning sufficient vocabulary". Lexical items containing more than one word are more difficult to learn than single-word items. Burton and Humphries (ibid: 65) assert that the larger the vocabulary, the better the language performance, as a large lexical resource allows to express ideas "precisely, vividly and without repeating yourself in composition".
Among the areas of difficulty the learners of EFL encounter is learning the vocabulary of English. Learning multi-word verb is very important for English learners. In this respect Crystal"(2003: 212) maintains that "The number of multi-word verbs in the language grew remarkably, especially in the 20 th century and they constitute one of the most distinctive features of English syntax".
The combination of verbs and prepositions and/or particles to form single grammatical units is rather unique to Germanic languages including English. Multi-word verbs can be classified into three groups; phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. The present study discusses only the first two groups.
Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs in English may cause problems for many learners because they have several meanings and different syntactic patterns. There is a close relationship between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs and this fact also increases the difficulty of mastering these two types of multi-word verbs. Phrasal verbs are a very important part of the language and specifically vocabulary learning. They are not only used in spoken and informal English, but they are also a common part of written and even formal English. Prepositional verbs are also very important, as they are a common verb form in the English language that consists of a verb followed by a preposition. This paper is an attempt to investigate this important part in EFL vocabulary learning.
It is not easy for EFL learners to understand how to use English multi-word verbs, and this could be due to the difficulty they may encounter to recognize the relation between a verb and the preposition or particle that follows it. The present study tries to investigate the difficulty for Iraqi EFL learners to recognize and produce multi-word verbs.
The study aims at investigating the uses of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by EFL university students. Therefore, it aims to raise EFL students' awareness of the uses of these verbs. It tries to answer the following two questions: 1-To what extent can Iraqi University EFL students recognize and produce correctly the phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs? 2-What types of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs do University EFL students find the most difficult?
It is hypothesized that many Iraqi University EFL learners are not aware of the uses of multi-word verbs, and that some types of multi-word verbs are difficult for Iraqi University EFL students to learn.

Methodology of the Study:
The descriptive analytical method will be adopted in this study. To collect enough data on the use of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by Iraqi university EFL students, the researchers designed a test that measures the ability of students to recognize and produce phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs.
The test was administered to fourth year EFL students of the Department of English at the College of Arts-University of Baghdad.
The study is confined to investigating the uses of English phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs by Iraqi university EFL students. It only studies the errors in this area made by fourth year students of the Department of English at College of Arts-University of Baghdad.
This study is expected to be of value to both learners and teachers. The results of the study are expected to help EFL learners and increase their understanding of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. The results of this study can also be useful to EFL teachers as they identify the most difficult items of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, so they can make emphasis on them while teaching.

Phrasal Verbs:
The term is commonly applied to two or three distinct but related constructions in English: a verb (usually one of action or movement) and an adverbial particle and/or a preposition ( of a direction or location) cooccur forming a single semantic unit whose meaning is non-compositional and thus unpredictable. Modern theories of syntax tend to use the term phrasal verb to denote particle verbs only; they do not view prepositional verbs as phrasal verbs. A phrasal verb is periphrastic, as the verb and preposition or adverbial particle work together to perform the same functions as single-word verbs; act up (misbehave), leave out (omit). Many phrasal verbs have different meanings in different texts, for instance: Take off: a plane takes off, you can take off a coat, glasses or make up, a burglar may take off if he hears someone coming, and something is taken off a bill when a discount is allowed. The meaning of a phrasal verb is often very different from the meanings of the two words taken separately. One may have to refer to the dictionary, to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive phrasal verbs are usually separable, i.e., an object noun phrase may or may not come between the verb and the particle. However, if the direct object is a pronoun, then it must be placed between them. However, adverbs do not usually come between the verb and the particle -though there are exceptions: The referee broke up the fight immediately. Or: The referee broke the fight up immediately. He broke it up immediately.
In intransitive phrasal verbs, the particle may narrow the sense of the verb (as in sit down), or it may create an idiomatic meaning which differs from that of the root verb (as in show up): Several students showed up late. When the lecturer has taken his place, the audience sat quietly down.

Prepositional Verbs:
A prepositional verb is an idiomatic expression that combines a verb and a preposition to make a new verb with a distinct meaning. Such a verb takes a complementary prepositional phrase; all prepositional verbs have direct objects. e.g.: I believe in God. Did you talk about me? Brad is waiting for Julie.
Prepositional verbs can't be separated, e.g. we must say "look after the baby" but not "*look the baby after". In such verbs, the meaning of the verb does not change, but the preposition adds the meaning to the verb.
Prepositional verbs are called prepositional because their objects must be preceded by a preposition. A strictly transitive prepositional verb, such as "rely on" will always be used with its preposition. Ordinary transitive verbs, on the other hand, such as "listen to" will be used with their preposition when they have an object; otherwise, they will be used without a preposition. e.g.: "John told Linda he loved listening to jazz". "John told Linda he loved jazz but she wasn't listening".
However, prepositional verbs are syntactic multi-word items, not semantic ones. In other words, they are best understood as a unit, not because they have their own meaning but because they require a preposition when they take an object. Prepositional verbs can be divided into three types, concerning their structure: Semantic criteria for Phrasal/Prepositional Verbs: The semantic unity in phrasal and prepositional verbs can often be manifested by substitution with single-word verbs, for example: call on (visit), call up (summon), leave out (omit) and look at (see). Phrasal and prepositional verbs often have composite meanings which are not normally deducible from their parts, for example, make out (understand), take in (deceive), come by (obtain). The terms phrasal and prepositional verbs are not, however, restricted to such idiomatic combinations. We can distinguish three subclasses: (Quirk et al, 1985 1. The verb and the particle keep their individual lexical meanings, as in look over (inspect), set up (organize). The individuality of the components appears in possible contrastive substitutions: bring in/out, take in/out, turn on/off, switch on/off. 2. The verb alone keeps its basic lexical meaning and the particle has an intensifying function: find (out) something, sweep (up) the crumbs, spread (out) the rug. 3. The verb and the particle are fused into a new idiomatic combination, the meaning of which is not deducible from its parts, for example, bring up (educate), come by (obtain), put off (postpone), turn up (appear), come in for (receive). In such combinations there is no possibility of contrastive substitution: there are no pairs such as bring up/down, put off/on, give up/down, give in/out, etc for this subclass. The adverbial and the entire verb-particle combination have acquired a new meaning.

The Distinction between Phrasal and Prepositional Verbs:
First of all, if the verb in question is intransitive, then it would be phrasal. Then we need to distinguish transitive phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. Quirk et al (ibid: 1166-7) draws the following criteria. a-The particle of a phrasal verb can stand either before or after the noun phrase following the verb, but that of the prepositional verb must (unless deferred) precede the noun phrase: They called on the dean. They called up the dean. * They called the dean on.
They called the dean up. b-When the object following the verb is a pronoun, it precedes the particle in the case of phrasal verbs, but follows the particle with prepositional verbs: They called on him. They called him up. * They called him on.
*They called up him. c-An adverb can often be inserted between verb and particle in prepositional verbs but not in phrasal verbs: They called angrily on the dean. *They called angrily up the dean. d-The particle of the phrasal verb cannot precede a relative pronoun at the beginning of a relative clause: the man on whom they called *the man up whom they called e-Similarly, the particle of the phrasal verb cannot precede the interrogative word at the beginning of a Wh-question: On which man did they call? *Up which man did they call? f-The particle of a phrasal verb is normally stressed, and in final position normally bears the nuclear tone, whereas the particle of a prepositional verb is normally unstressed and has the 'tail' of the nuclear tone which falls on the lexical verb: Which man did they C'ALL on? Which man did they call 'Up?

Data Collection and Analysis:
The purpose of this section is to discuss the steps taken in designing the main research instrument, i.e., the test. The topics presented here include the selection of the sample, the population of the study, the construction of the test, validity and reliability of the test, test application and scoring methods, and the statistical procedures used for the treatment of the research data.

The Population and Sample:
The population of the study includes all Iraqi four year's EFL learners at the Departments of English-Colleges of Arts. The sample is composed of one main group. This group, which comprises (50) university students male and female for the academic year (2013-2014), represents the fourth year students studying English as a foreign language.
Test Construction: Crystal (1987:38) states that tests can provide useful information about a learner's general level. It was necessary to develop a test for the purpose of this study, since a ready-made test could not be found for this new investigation.

Test Items:
This instrument consists of two parts; each one is subdivided into two divisions. The first part examines testees' recognition, whereas the second one examines their production. Each part includes twenty items, the first ten of which are about prepositional verbs, the other ten items in each part are about phrasal verbs. In the first part the testees were asked to choose one preposition/particle from among four choices for each item. In the second part the testees were asked to infer a preposition/particle for each item.

Test Validity:
Validity of a test is the most important test attribute. It refers to the extent to which the test measures what is supposed to measure and nothing else (Heaton, 1975: 153). Lado (1961: 30) argues that "validity can be achieved and verified by correlating the scores of a test with those of another test or criterion which is valid." Two types of validity are considered: content validity and face validity. Below is a brief explanation of the major features of both.

Content Validity:
Anastasi (1976: 134 ff) argues that "Content validity involves essentially the systematic examination of the test content to determine whether it covers a representative sample of the behavior domain to be measured. Such a validation procedure is commonly used in evaluating achievement test." Mehrans and Lehmann (1973: 290) state that content is particularly important for achievement tests. The content validity is dealt with either by percentage or K 2 equation; therefore, percentage has been adopted for being available.

Face Validity:
Face validity refers, not to what the test actually measures, but to what it appears to be superficially measuring. Face validity pertains to whether the test "looks valid" to the examinee who takes it, the administrative personale who decide on its use, and other technically untrained observers (cf. Harries, 1969: 21;Anastasi, 1976: 139) For the purpose of this study, face validity is achieved by exposing the test to a jury of experts in the field of linguistics and TEFL. Each member has been requested to point out his/her remarks and opinions about the suitability of the test to the level of sample and to decide whether the test is designed to measure what it is supposed to measure. All of the jury members have verified the validity of the test items with few suggestions incorporated in the final version of the test; therefore, the items of the test have been exposed to a group of five experts in English language and linguistics.

Reliability of the Test:
"Reliability of the test is the stability of the test scores. It is achieved by using statistical techniques for estimating the consistency of the examination scores." (Heaton, 1975: 155). The test that measures what it is intended to measure, can measure with a high and greater degree of accuracy. Such a test is undoubtedly reliable, since reliability is ensured by its consistency.
To estimate the reliability of the test, the test-retest method is adopted. In application, this method requires that the same test be administered twice to the same group of subjects within a responsible period of time. Concerning the length of the time interval, Mehrans and Lehmann (1973: 272) point out that: With this type of reliability estimate we can generalize from the score a person receives at one time to what he would receive if the same test had been given at a different time.

Pilot test:
Educational methodology stipulates that a research instrument should go through the process of a pilot test administration first. It must be initially administered to a relatively small number of students who represent the sample of the pilot test before it is applied to the main study sample. According to Klein (1974: 129), the procedure is used to: (1) obtain information regarding the length of the test so that sufficient time can be allotted to the final application, (2) identify which item is competent and which one is weak in order to be revised or discarded completely, (3) find out the discriminatory power of the test items, (4) find out the level of difficulty of each item, (5) find out the reliability of the test.
According to this method, the test was administered twice to a sample of ten students, chosen randomly from college of Arts -University of Baghdad, representing 4 th year stage. The time used was (40) minutes. After two weeks, the test was re-given to the same sample (cf. Adams, 1964: 85). The reliability coefficient is obtained by comparing the scores of the first administration to those gained by the second one. Using Pearson's correlation coefficient the result obtained is (0.80) which is considered a very high correlation (cf. Carroll and Hall, 1985: 118). Thus the reliability of the test is established. The findings of the pilot test are utilized in full administration of the test.

Final Administration of the Test:
Depending on the finding of the pilot test, the final version of the test includes the same items as indicated in the pilot test. To ensure a full understanding of what is required from the testees for both questions, clear instructions are given to them. These instructions are given mainly in English language. The items are listed in a sheet paper distributed to them before giving their answers. The students are asked to read the questions well then the items carefully. All sentences are printed clearly and distributed completely.
At the recognition level, there are twenty questions, including ten phrasal verbs and ten prepositional verbs. At the production level, there are, also, twenty sentences, ten sentences with phrasal verbs, the other ten with prepositional verbs. The prepositions/particles in all sentences are replaced by blank spaces and the students are asked to fill in the blanks with the appropriate prepositions/particles, by choosing from four alternatives for each sentence in the first level, and deducing the appropriate preposition/particle in the second level.

Estimating Item Difficulty:
An estimation of the difficulty of a test is indicated by the percentage of students who answer the items correctly (Gronlund, 1976: 211). The formula below is used to establish the level of difficulty of each item in the test.
Where: DL = Difficulty Level HC = High Correct LC = Low Correct (cf. Madsen, 1983: 181) Madsen (ibid.) points out that the acceptable range of the level of item difficulty ranges between (0.30) and (0.90). Applying the formula to our test, it is found that the level of difficulty of the test ranges between (0.30) and (0.80) which is quite acceptable.

Estimating the Items Discriminating Power:
The discriminating power of an item in a test of achievement refers to the degree to which it discriminates between students of high and low achievement. According to Al-Zobaie and Al-Hamadani (1982: 14) "a discriminating power is a measure of the extent to which an item distinguishes the good performer from the poor performer." An estimate of item discriminating power can be obtained by subtracting the number of students in the lower group who get the right item (RL) from the number of students in the upper group who get the right item (RU). The outcome is divided by one half of the number of students included in the sample. In brief, the discriminating power is calculated according to the following formula: Where: DP = Discriminating power RU= the number of students in the upper group who get the item right RL= the number of students in the lower group who get the item right T= the total number of the students of the sample. (cf. Heaton, 1975) The discriminating power of items of the present test is computed by applying the formula above. A value of (0.30) to (0.80) was obtained which is satisfactory.

Scoring Scheme:
The scoring of each student's responses is done individually. It is done item by item on the basis of correct or incorrect answers. Two and a half marks are given for the correct answer and zero for the incorrect one for each sentence in both levels. In order to decide whether a certain subject has mastered the syntactic aspect under investigation, a criterion for mastery needs to be assigned. Since the learners are actually EFL ones, it is felt unfair that the level of 100% correct responses is to be the yardstick.
Consequently, owing to the nature of the subject being investigated and the type of learners involved it is felt that a criterion of 80% correct responses is an adequate target for mastery. See (Hamilton, 1994), (Gass, 1984) for rationale of such criterion. This means that any subject who gets 8o% plus is said to have mastered the recognition of the English multi-word verbs; phrasal and prepositional.

Statistical Means:
The following statistical means are used in the present study: 1. T-test two samples to check the difficulty and the discrimination of the test items.
2. T-test one sample to recognize the level of Finiteness for English verb.
3. Formula of difficulty. 4. Formula of discrimination. 5. Pearson correlation coefficient formula has been used to estimate the reliability of the test.
6. Spearman Brown formula to correct Pearson formula. 7. Percentages of errors have been used in order to find out the distribution of errors and trying to figure out factors behind most common types of errors.

Discussion of Results:
This section concerns itself with the discussion of the results of the data analysis. The data analysis shows that EFL learners demonstrated poor performance in using the suitable preposition or particle when they were asked to recognize or produce multi-word verbs. Learning single word verbs is not sufficient for mastering English, as multi-word verbs constitute an important part of English vocabulary. Knowing phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs is essential for learners of English as a foreign language.
The data analysis shows that the difficulty of twelve test items exceeded .50 for the recognition level with only three items showing the outcome of .31. For the production items, only two items were found to exceed the .50 level, with half of the items show .31.
As for the discrimination power, the analysis shows that only four items exceeded the .2 level for the recognition items, whereas twelve items in the case of production items.
It is also found that the percentage of the correct responses at the whole level test was (36.75%). The testees performed better on the whole recognition level (51.4%) than on the production level (22.1%). Interestingly, there is no statistic difference in the performance of the testees concerning both phrasal verbs (36.7%) and prepositional verbs (36.8%). For each preposition/particle contrast, the testees performed correctly for a percentage of 80% when they responded to (over), in contrast with 2% for (upon). As for the Verb/preposition or particle, the analysis shows 92% of correct responses for (give up), 88% for (insist on) and 84% for (gather up), whereas the testees performed poorly2% for combinations such as (call upon), (come into), (object to), (smash into) and (look into). Given their performance, it seems that students hardly ever or in some cases, never passed by multi-word verbs, such as (call upon), which we usually find in news and live shows on TV.

Causes of Errors:
According to James (1998James ( :1970 there is a general agreement over the main diagnosis-based categories of errors. The following are four major categories: Interlingual, Intralingual, Communicative-Strategy and Induced. 1-Mother-Tongue Influence: Interlingual Errors: The crux of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis is that elements that are "similar" in the first language (L1) and the foreign language (FL) will be easier to learn than those that are different: in the first case, the learners will benefit from positive transfer, in the second they are encumbered by negative transfer or interference, for example: He is getting from the situation. Or: He is getting on the situation.

2-Target-Language Causes: Intralingual Errors
Learners, in ignorance of a Target language (TL) form on any level and of any class can do either of two things: they can set about learning the needed item, engaging their learning strategies or they try to fill the gap by resorting to communicative strategies. Both strategies can be a source of errors, for example: We can now laugh at the accident.

3-Communication Strategy-Based Errors
Lacking the required form, it must be all right to use another equivalent Second Language (L2) item which they have learnt. The most general term for this is approximation, for example: I now call on the President to address the Assembly.

4-Induced Errors
Stenson (1983) cited in Al-Taee (2005: 75ff) uses this term to refer to learners' errors that result from the classroom situation. These errors are the result of being misled by the ways in which the teachers give definitions, examples, explanations and arrange practice opportunities (ibid), an example of this error is: His father just died so he will come on a lot of money.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, which shows that none of the testees mastered the English phrasal and prepositional verbs, textbooks writers have to include more multi-word verbs in the texts, particularly those which are heavily used nowadays by native speakers, and teachers have to do the same in their lectures in order to enhance EFL learners' competence.

Do as required:
A-Circle the appropriate preposition/particle for each sentence!