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

Abstract

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 Arts- University 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%).