Avoidance of Using Multi-Word Verbs: The Case of Turkish Learners of English

In English, formulaic language is one of the most difficult fields to learn and teach. Multi-word verbs are a type of formulaic language as a problematic area in lexical knowledge of second language teaching. The usage of these verbs are considerably common in the sense of native speakers of English and high-level of L2 speakers. From this perspective, these are the verbs which should be instructed to the learners from the beginning of ELT. Especially, in languages such as Turkish in which verb + particle combinations are hardly found, teaching these verbs should be considered as a master ability. For this reason, the main aim of this study is to identify multi-word verbs and the avoidance of using them. In this respect, common teaching ways of multi-word verbs may not be fruitful in lexical teaching environment. Finally, in this study, since multi-word verbs have a complex character, their cognitive perspective, different meanings inside, semantic knowledge and avoidance of using them are clarified in this study with regards to Turkish learners of English