Teaching phrasal verbs

4.4 Teaching phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are another instance of the fuzziness at the boundary between words and grammar. They are particularly problematic for learners both because of their lexical meanings (which are often idiomatic) and their grammatical form. Here is how phrasal verbs are often grouped, according to their grammar:

2 There are four types of phrasal verb.

Type 1: intransitive e.g. come to (recover consciousness) These don't take an object.

Type 2: transitive inseparable e.g. look into (investigate) These must take an object which always comes after the verb.

Type 3: transitive separable e.g. put off (postpone) The object can either come between the verb and the particle or after the verb. If we use a pronoun then it must go between.

Type 4: three-part, e.g. put up with (endure) These are always transitive inseparable.

from Naunton J, Think Ahead to First Certificate, Longman

Traditional approaches to the teaching of phrasal verbs have tended to focus on these rules. Hence, when phrasal verbs are presented they are categorised according to whether they are Type 1, Type 2, etc. They are also often grouped according to their lexical verb (that is, the word that carries the major share of the meaning): get up, get back, get off, get over, etc, and exercises are designed to test the learner's knowledge of the difference. For example:

Use phrasal verbs with get to complete these sentences:

1  1 I can't ________ how much Julia has changed: it's amazing!

2  Excuse me, I want to ________ at the next stop.

3  The concert was cancelled so I'm going to see if I can ___________ my money ___________.

Typical exercise types used in the teaching of phrasal verbs include:

-  sentence gap-fills (as the example above)

-  re-phrasing: e.g. changing the verb in the sentence (e.g. depart) to a phrasal verb that has a similar meaning (e.g. set off)

-  matching: e.g. matching the phrasal verb with its synonym

More recently, exercise types have focused on the meanings of the particles – a particle being the adverb or preposition component of the phrasal verb (in, back, off, around, etc). A focus on particles aims to sensitise learners to the shared meanings of a group such as carry on, drive on, hang on, go on and come on. Here, for example, is an exercise sequence that deals with the particle down:

4.5 Teaching idioms

We've seen that many phrasal verbs are idiomatic – in that their meanings are not easily unpacked from their component parts. Knowing the meaning of put and up allows us to interpret the sentence I put up a shelf in the kitchen. But this knowledge is not much help in unpacking either I put Luke up for the weekend or I put up with Luke for the weekend. Both these last examples are idiomatic. Idiomaticity exists at both the single word and multi-word level. Individual words can be used figuratively, as in This plan doesn't grab me; The kitchen is a pigsty; I can't unpack the meaning of this idiom. More typically, idioms are formed from collocations, and vary from being both very fixed and very idiomatic (smell a rat; the coast is clear) to being both less fixed and less idiomatic (explode a myth/theory, etc; run a business/theatre, etc).

Idioms present problems in both understanding and in production. They are difficult to understand because they are not easily unpacked, and they are difficult to produce because they often allow no variation. Few errors sound more comical than an even slightly muddled idiom (e.g. I don't want to blow my own horn, instead of I don't want to blow my own trumpet). Moreover, many idioms have a very narrow register range, being used only in certain contexts and for certain effects. They therefore need to be approached with a great deal of caution, and most teaching guides recommend teaching them for recognition only.

Traditional teaching approaches tend to group idioms together according to some category, and present them in sets. But, as with phrasal verbs, teaching a set of idioms that are notionally related – such as idioms associated with parts of the body (down at heel, put your feet up, foot the bill, toe the line, etc.) – would seem to be a sure recipe for confusion. It's not difficult to imagine what could go wrong: put your heels up, toe the bill, etc. More typically, idioms are grouped by theme. For example, the expressions under the weather, off colour, run down and out of sorts are all synonymous with ill. But again, if these are being taught for production, the potential for confusion is high.

As with phrasal verbs, a more effective and less perilous approach might be simply to teach them as they arise, and in their contexts of use. That is, to treat them as individual lexical items in their own right, without making a song and dance about them. Since idioms tend to cluster together, certain text types are often very rich in them. In this extract (from Sugar) idioms (including idiomatic phrasal verbs) are underlined.

Eastenders

Martin gets a big wake-up call this month when Mark is taken seriously ill. How will he cope knowing his big bro's days could be numbered and will Nicky stick by him through thick and thin?

Home and Away

Tom offers to pay for Justine's courses in the city with the money 1 earned from acting in the commercial. What a sweetie, eh? However, Justine isn't that impressed, and feels that Tom's cramping her style. Ho can she let him down gently?

Coronation Street

The Mike, Mark and Linda triangle's still going strong, and sparks are beginning to fly between Linda and Mark's new girlie, Claire. Eeek! Things aren't too good over at the Platt's either.

Emmerdale

Mark is annoyed when neither of his parents make it to the parent evening ... how embarrassing! Richie lends Sarah a shoulder to cry on after yet another bust-up with Jack. Will those two ever get on?

To use a text like this in class, learners could be set the task of working 01 the underlined idioms from either their form or their context. For example, going strong is easily unpacked from its components. Sparks are beginning to fly is less obvious, but its negative connotation can be deduced from what follows (Eeek! Things aren't too good...). Showing learners how to work on idiomatic meaning from these kinds of clues can not only contribute t passive vocabulary knowledge but can improve reading skills as well.

Conclusions

There is more to words than simply 'words'. In this chapter we have seen:

-  how parts of words combine in systematic ways to form whole words

-  how whole words combine in systematic ways to form chunks

But, the fact that these combinations are systematic does not mean that the teaching of word formation or of word combination should necessarily be rule-based. The systems may be too complicated or too irregular to be of much use to learners, either for receptive or productive purposes.

Instead, an approach that combines frequent and contextualised exposure with consciousness-raising may work best. This is recommended for the teaching of:

-  composite words

-  collocations

-  phrasal verbs

-  idioms

Conclusions

In this term paper we have looked the implications of findings for the teaching of vocabulary:

-  Learners need tasks and strategies to help them organize their mental lexicon by building networks of associations – the more the better;

-  Teachers need to accept that the learning of new words involves a period of “initial fuzziness”;

-  Learners need to wean themselves off a reliance on direct translation from their mother tongue;

-  Words need to be presented in their typical contexts so that learners can get a feel for their meaning, their register, their collocations and their syntactic environment;

-  Teaching should direct attention to the sound of new words, particularly the way they are stressed.

In this work we have looked the ways the teacher can make the presentation of vocabulary maximally effective, both in terms of word form and word meaning. Some of the conclusions reached include the following:

-  establishing the meaning of a new word first and when presenting its form is a standard approach;

-  translation is an economical way of presenting meaning but may not be the most memorable;

-  illustrating meaning is effective but is limited to certain kinds of words;

-  explaining meaning verbally is time-consuming but can be effective if explanations are kept clear and simple;

-  the spoken form can be highlighted through the giving of clear models, the use of phonemic script, and repetition;

-  the written form should not be withheld too long;

-  learners should be actively involved in the presentation.

Bibliography

1.  A.S.Hornby. Oxford Student's dictionary of current English. Oxford. oxford University press, 1984. – 770 p.

2.  Методика викладання іноземних мов в середніх навчальних закладах. Підручник для студентів вищих закладів освіти. – К. Лен світ, 2002. – 328 с.

3.  Scott Thornbury. How to teach vocabulary. – Longman. 2002. – 185 p.