LEARNING VERBS WITH ARGUMENTS: THE ESL/EFL CHALLENGE

Maher Bahloul

DOI Number
10.22190/JTESAP1603477B
First page
477
Last page
489

Abstract


This study investigates the use of the verb ‘recommend’ within a written corpus of more than three hundred graduating EFL/ESL college students at a Middle Eastern American university, with a total number of more twenty five thousand words. The corpus analysis shows that about one forth of the graduates are still experiencing difficulties as they try to use the verb ‘recommend’ in their writings. The paper shows the inherent features of such verbs. It then describes its various uses in graduating students’ writings. Finally, it discusses the findings, argues against incidental learning, and makes a number of pedagogical recommendations.

Keywords

ESL/EFL learning, vocabulary, writing, English verbs

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Web sites

British National Corpus. http://bnc.bl.uk/saraWeb.php?qy=recommend&mysubmit=Go, retrieved Friday, February 14, 2016.

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http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=66059&dict=CALD

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