The Acquisition of the Verbs of Saying by Arab EFL Learners

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which university Arab learners of English as a FL have acquired the verbs of saying, i.e., say, speak, talk, and tell at the two levels of linguistic competence: recognition and production. A~ attempt was made to answer the following questions: (i) How well have Arab learners of English acquired the English verbs of saying at the levels of both recognition and production? (ii) Can they recognize the similarities and differences in use between these verbs? (iii) Can they recognize the differences in collocations and idiomatic uses between these verbs? (iv) What are the major difficulties that these students encounter in handling these verbs? (v) What implications for teaching EFL can such a study provide? The data were elicited through two specially designed questionnaires: one f or recognition and one for production. It was found that the percentage of acquisition in both recognition and production for all verbs was 61%. It was also evident that the learners encountered a number of problems in acquiring the target verbs..