Weighing up the Effect of Contextual Cues in Learning English Phrasal Verbs: Is Context the Answer to Avoidance?

Research on English phrasal verbs indicates that these lexical units are problematic and hence difficult to deal with by EFL learners. Thus, one common strategy learners use when encountering is avoidance: i.e. simply avoid decoding them in spoken or written content as well using their own speech writing. This study examines whether contextual cues, context surrounding verbs, could be of any help dealing such both receptive productive tasks. A total 60 majors at King Abdulaziz University sat two separate testing sessions which they were tested recognition recall 30 preselected unknown verbs. Using a between-groups design, the subjects randomly allocated three intact groups based amount verb cues exposed during first session: no (control group), sentential-level (treatment group 1), paragraph-level 2). multiple-choice test target was conducted session followed fill-in-the-blank cloze second session. The results one-way ANOVA indicate outperformed measure. However, none exhibited significant differences performance These findings emphasize role mode (i.e. listening reading tasks) but call for exploring alternative routes aiding learners’ writing tasks).