Teaching phrasal verbs is a
difficult area. Many a study has proved that contextualization has an important
positive effect on the ability of the students to decipher the correct meaning
of a phrasal verb. In this article you will read some useful approaches to the
presentation of phrasal verbs through context to improve the students’ level of
understanding. This article also suggests some other useful tips for teaching
phrasal verbs.
A Phrasal Verb is a phrase
which consists of a verb in combination with a preposition or adverb or both,
the meaning of which is different from the meaning of its separate parts: ‘look
after’, ‘work out’ and ‘make up for’ are all phrasal verbs (1). According to
Trask a phrasal verb is lexical verb “which consists of a simple verb combined
with one or more particles” and whose meaning is typically unpredictable (2).
And Phrasal verbs are two-or three-word idiomatic expressions, consisting of a
verb and a particle or a combination of a particle and a preposition (3).
Speaking in a general way,
English is by no means an easy language to learn for many reasons including
phrasal verbs. Some beginners are sometimes in a state of euphoria on that
score. Then, in the course of studying students have to cross the bridge
between basic knowledge and mastery, which takes a lot of time, energy and
effort. The quality of teaching and studying the English language is determined
by the degree to which students are acquainted with phrasal verbs. Many people
who have been studying English for years and reached fluency in speech
experience difficulty in listening comprehension. There are some strong grounds
for supposition that incomprehension or misunderstanding takes place because of
phrasal verbs, which are mainly used in spoken English. As a result, some
students delude themselves into believing that just the phrasal verbs, when
taken in isolation; make an insoluble problem of more or less successful
studying English. Phrasal verbs are widely used by native speakers of English
but they have been found to be difficult for second language learners to master
(4).
The subject of how best to teach phrasal verbs is still quite
controversial. Although teaching of phrasal verbs has been daunting and
difficult for teachers, and therefore tedious for learners, it is necessary to
develop our students’ skills in understanding and using them. Since phrasal
verbs are frequently used by native speakers both in written and spoken
English, students need to be encouraged to learn them. “There is no specified
way or a programmed manner in which a student can learn all the phrasal verbs,
nouns, adjectives, and idioms. The authors observe that the only way to acquire
such knowledge is by extensive reading and listening”. Avoid teaching phrasal
verbs in alphabetical lists. “One big advantage of this method is that it is
thorough and comprehensive. But, the problem with a long list is that it is one
thing to memorize a phrasal verb and its meaning, but quite another to bring
the phrasal verb into your active, everyday speaking and listening” (5). And
also avoid teaching phrasal verbs solely on the basis of the verb in them. For
example, it would not be advisable to teach every phrasal verb that
incorporates the word "get" in one lesson. The phrasal verbs taught
this way have nothing else in common other than the verb in them, and it is
very difficult to understand and retain the context of whole phrasal verbs in
this way (6). How then are we supposed to teach phrasal verbs?
Andrzej Cirocki, a proponent
of the ‘text/ context method’, has a useful approach to teach phrasal verbs. He
states that if we aim at teaching a few Phrasal Verbs to our students, we
should present them in many different real contexts so as to enable them to
deduce their exact meaning and to see whether they are transitive or
intransitive, separable or inseparable. All these items can be noticed by the
students if Phrasal Verbs are presented in authentic contexts (7). In his
article ‘Teaching Phrasal Verbs my Means of Constructing Texts’ Cirocki
explains his approach in the following way; asking students to read a text
entitled 'Hotel Blaze Escape Drama' in which a few Phrasal Verbs can be
spotted.
HOTEL BLAZE ESCAPE DRAMA
At present it is not known how the fire started. It
seems the fire, broke out in the early hours of the morning. The fire alarm
went off at around 2.00 a.m. It is thought it was set off by smoke coming from
one of the bedrooms on the first floor. The fire spread quickly from the first
floor to the second floor. The fire brigades were called in immediately and
fire fighters were on the scene within 15 minutes, but by this time the hotel was
already in flames. They fought the blaze and managed to get it under control,
though it took them to hours to put the fire out.
Through this method students are able to acquire phrasal verbs better
because it is more productive and easier to learn phrasal verbs from a context.
“Students are able to pick up the meaning of a phrasal verb from its context
even though they have never seen it before” (8).
The traditional approached to
teaching phrasal verbs; Thornbury suggests that “phrasal verbs are best learned
on item-by-item basis, and preferably in short contexts that demonstrate their
syntactic behaviour” (9). According to Thornbury, phrasal verbs should be
acquired like the rest of the lexis by providing meaningful context, exposure,
and recycling. And Thornbury encourages teachers to provide texts that have
high frequency of phrasal verbs in them. Kailani stresses that it is only
through genuine practice that accuracy and effectiveness could be increased,
regardless of the method or technique being adapted (10).
According to R. Wyss, if
phrasal verbs are presented to students in lists that are void of real or
relevant context, students will not be stimulated enough to learn them. He
observes that learners need a meaningful contextual background in order to
reinforce memory and sustain interest. He suggests that a practical solution
for learners would be to deduce the meanings of phrasal verbs as they appear in
reading passages (11).
In order to make our students
write fully authentic texts, the role of the teacher is confined to proposing
an interesting topic. Nevertheless, teachers may also ask their students to
make use of as many Phrasal Verbs as possible in their compositions. The main
asset of such exercises is the fact that students write about things they are fond
of and are really interested in. This enables students to apply long term
memory, due to which they will be able to remember certain things for ever and
make use of them in various speeches or essays (7).
As Nuttall points out “we
learnt most of our vocabulary by using it: meeting the spoken words frequently
and in situations that we understand, we gradually assimilated their meaning”
(12).
Shelley Vernon suggests that
phrasal verbs need to be learned in the same way as any other type of verb.
Students need to learn the phrasal verb as a vocabulary item and also how to
use it in sentences. It can help to learn meanings in one lesson and work on
integrating the language in a different session. This anyway is helpful with
lower levels so students are not overwhelmed. A fun game to use to teach the
vocabulary side of phrasal verbs is Call My Bluff Definitions. Here you give
each student a phrasal verb to look up in the dictionary and ask everyone to
write down the true meaning plus make up two false meanings. It is good to set
this for homework so as not to use precious class time. If you want to simplify
have students write only two definitions, one true and one false. At the next
lesson, Shelley maintains that, each student reads out the phrasal verb
followed by the three definitions. The class stands up and listen all three
definitions once. Then on the second reading students sit down if they think a definition
is false and stay standing if they think it is true. Let's say the first
definition is false and half the students sit down. All those sitting down are
still in the game so those standing put their hands on the heads and sit down. They
are out for this round. Those still in stand up again and the student reads out
definition two. Those who have it wrong are out again and sit down with their
hands on their heads. Those that are in continue until all three definitions
have been read out. You then let those students award themselves a point. Now
everyone is back in again for the next phrasal verb. If playing with adults you
can leave out putting hands on heads. That is just a mechanism to prevent
cheating, which children are possibly more likely to do than adults! (13).
Subrahmanian Upendran in his
article ‘Teaching Phrasal Verbs Using Songs’ states that like teaching phrasal
verbs many songs can be successfully employed to provide meaningful contexts
for learning phrasal verbs. This will be illustrated through the use of the
first four lines of the song "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins.
Procedure of this approach:
Students were provided with incomplete lyrics. The students were given
incomplete lyrics of the song "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins
and were instructed to familiarize themselves with it by going through it
silently. Each line contained a blank, which they would be required to fill in
as they listened to the song. Students were asked to fill in the blanks. After
they had familiarized themselves with the lyrics, the next step involved was to
expose the students to the song in small chunks of four lines each. Every
segment was replayed several times, till most students were confident that they
had written in the appropriate words. It was only when the students completed
filling in all the blanks contained in the first stanza that any attempt was
made to determine how correct or incorrect their answers were. Students were
asked to volunteer information. Each of the blanks was taken up one by one and
every student in the group was asked what word he/she had used in a particular
blank. (Since my focus here is on the teaching of phrasal verbs, I'll confine
myself to the first blank in the song, which completes the phrasal verb
"calls out".) The different answers provided by the students were put
up on the blackboard. No attempt was made to weed out the incorrect answers at
this stage. As all answers were being accepted, students enthusiastically
revealed what they had put down. Some of the answers given for the first blank
were (calls) "out", "on", "off", and
"up".
Students were asked
the meaning of phrasal verbs.
When all the students had volunteered information about the word they
had inserted in the first blank, they were asked the meaning of each phrasal
verb.
What is the meaning of "call out"?
What does "call on" mean?
The meaning of each phrasal verb was discussed individually and when a
student provided a definition, which everyone agreed on, it was put up on the
blackboard. The participants were asked to use the phrasal verb in a sentence.
Examples provided by the students were put up alongside the meaning.
Students were provided with contextual clues. When the students were
unable to define a phrasal verb, there was no attempt to provide them with one.
Instead, the phrasal verb was used in a context and all students were expected
to guess the meaning. For example, when the students were unable to define
"call off", the following context was provided.
"The class is over. You're ready to begin looking through your
notes in the short break before the next class. You have a test on that class.
Suddenly a student runs into the classroom and shouts that the test is called
off as the teacher has left to deal with a family emergency. You are overjoyed,
and you throw your books back into your bag and rush to the playground to join
the cricket game."
The students were asked to determine the meaning from the context
provided. Once the meaning had been arrived at, further examples of how the
phrasal verb was used were provided.
John's appointment with the doctor was called off.
The teacher called off the meeting. Students were asked to study the
lyrics again.
When the meanings of all the phrasal verbs had been figured out, the
students were then asked to study the lyrics again and determine which phrasal
verb was demanded by the context. If, for example, all students agreed on
"calls out", they were asked to provide cogent arguments why it
couldn't be any of the other phrasal verbs that they had initially come up
with. Some of the arguments put forward by the students were: people don't
visit someone on the street; they can meet them accidentally, but not 'visit'.
The grammar does not permit 'call on'. One can 'call on' someone, but not 'call
on to' someone. Getting/providing such answers from/to students ensured that
they not only remembered the meaning of the phrasal verb but also where and how
it should be used (14).
Phrasal verbs, one of the most
important parts of communication, are frequently avoided by learners of
English. One language skill is trying to infer the meaning of a new phrasal
verb from the context. “It is safe to say that phrasal verbs, especially those
commonly used ones, are very important components in effectively spoken
communication, no matter in what kind of language community text it lays.