Lack of Knowledge of Phrasal Verbs

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2. Discussion

The researcher then highlights two major causes of the errors made by the students which show that the students have not really mastered the phrasal verbs. The errors mostly occurred as a result of their insufficient knowledge of phrasal verbs as well as concentration during the test.

a. Lack of Knowledge of Phrasal Verbs

Although it is also indisputable that if someone already knows certain grammatical rules, he or she does not always succeed in applying the rules. It goes without saying that competence comes before performance. In other words, the underlying theory has to be grasped before someone is able to consciously perform what she has already understood both written and spoken. If the students’ understanding about phrasal verbs is still low, they will not be able to perform well. It was proved by the results of interview conducted by the researcher. When the interviews were conducted, the researcher asked the students to define phrasal verbs in their opinion, give some examples of phrasal verbs, and also mention some types of the English phrasal verbs. As a result, they defined phrasal verbs as the combination of two words or the combination of word and preposition. Actually, the tests defined the second word of the phrasal verb as the particles instead of the preposition. However, their definitions showed that they were fairly familiar with phrasal verbs. Although they could define the phrasal verb pretty well and give some examples, they could not mention the types of phrasal verbs. It showed that their competence was not really good. 71 Moreover, the term separable and inseparable seemed new for them. They did realize that sometimes the particle was separated from the verb by the noun. However, all this time they did not really know that phrasal verbs have feature of separability. They just used their feeling when they were going to use it. They also used their feeling to determine whether the sentences which had phrasal verbs sounded good or not or whether they looked good or not. In addition, some students said that phrasal verbs were difficult since they did not know which particle could be used with which verbs. To make it worse, when a verb was combined with a new particle, it would bring a new meaning. It really made it difficult for them. Moreover, because there is no fix rule to determine which particle can come with which verb, they thought that they should memorize the list of phrasal verbs in order to be able to use it in spoken or written form. Most of them admitted that English phrasal verbs were difficult since they did not really understand about them. Even though they had learnt English in ELESP, they claimed that they were not given enough explanation about phrasal verbs. They even forgot in what semester they learnt that material. Hence, it was quite clear that the English phrasal verbs were not really drilled to the students. As a result, their knowledge of phrasal verbs was still inadequate. “Ya. Sebaiknya memberikan materinya tidak hanya in general tapi juga secara explicit.Tidak hanya menyuruh open your dictionary tapi lebih diperkenalkan lagi.” R5 72 Yes. The lecturers should not only explain the material generally, but also explain it explicitly. They should not only ask us to open dictionary but also introduce more to us what phrasal verb is. As stated before that mastering grammar is a very important aspect in learning languages as it becomes the basis of four skills. Thus, the EFL or ESL students should master the English phrasal verbs as a part of English grammar. Moreover, as an English teacher candidate, they should also be able to be a good model to their students as stated by the fifth respondent of the interview as follows. “Ya supaya tidak menjerumuskan siswanya kalo misalnya memberikan informasi.” R5 Yes of course, so we will not give the students the wrong information

b. Lack of Concentration