Avoidance of the English Phrasal Verbs as a Strategy in Learning Process: A Case Study of the English Department Students of Faculty of Letters Jember University 2011 and 2012 Academic Years

Abstract

This study endeavors to investigate the avoidance of phrasal verbs as a strategy in learning process. This study aims to find out the effect of semantic nature of different types of phrasal verb (literal and figurative) in the learners’ tendency to avoid phrasal verb, to describe how the impact(s) of the avoidance strategy to the learners in learning process and what are the reasons. The subject of this research is English Department students in Jember University that takes 36 students from 2011/2012 academic year and 52 students from 2012/2013 academic year. To accomplish this, the test and questionnaires are administrated. The result of the study shows that both 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 students tend to use phrasal verbs more than one-word verb. The avoidance of phrasal verbs of both academic years is weak compared to one-word verbs avoidance. Moreover, based on the test result showing the uses of phrasal verbs, the students tend to avoid figurative phrasal verbs dominantly more than literal phrasal verbs. Furthermore, the students dominantly choose one-word verbs because of their being uncertain about the meaning (lack of knowledge). The avoidance strategy itself appears to give negative impact for the learners in the learning process. Avoidance causes the vocabulary to be limited and undeveloped..