The ways of teaching phrasal verbs
Reading texts and underline all the phrasal verbs, then re-write the article replacing each phrasal verb with a single-word verb. Small groups write a short skit containing six phrasal verbs to act out in front of the whole class. Maybe its just the funkiness of the language itself; wolf down, potter around, chill out, sex up. Whatever it is, and no matter how geeky it might sound, I have to say that phrasal verbs - I love you! To do it - not! Are definite 'do's and don'ts' for teaching phrasal verbs. Strangely, the most widely accepted 'don't' is the most common way most textbooks actually present and practice them. Grouping phrasal verbs according to the verb in the phrase is the big 'no'. Get on, get up, get over, get through, get round, get out, get by, get at, get in with, get out. Take on, take up, take through, take over, take down, take out, take in, take back, and take off. Break in, break out, break up, break off, and break through. Just looking at these lists makes my eyes sore; you probably didn't even bother to read all the phrasal verbs listed. For our students, presenting phrasal verbs grouped in this way is a learning nightmare. There's nothing for them to mentally latch onto. All the verbs are the same so the only difference between them is a small particle, which learners from many language backgrounds find difficult anyway. Meanings are easily mixed up and the learning experience quickly becomes negative.
Phrasal verbs can be introduced at the same time as other lexical items, which are all connected to a particular theme or topic. Indeed, at beginner's level there's often no choice but to do it in this way. For example:
·Daily routines - wake up, get up, wash, eat breakfast, go to work
·Airport vocabulary - take off, land, check in, flight attendant, pilot, immigration
·Other vocabulary groupings such as synonyms - get over = recover, curious = inquisitive, stubborn = obstinate, break up = separate this way phrasal verbs are presented and practiced without drawing attention to them as a separate language feature. Work specifically on phrasal verbs as a distinct language area is possible with students at pre-intermediate level and above. This can be done either with sets of phrasal verbs, which are unrelated in terms of meaning and topic and which do not share the same verb, or with sets of phrasal verbs, which are connected in terms of topic. For example
·Crime - break in, get away, get away with, catch up with, and bail out
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·Relationships - split up, make up, make up for, get on with, and ask out
·Health - come down with, come round, knock out, stitch up, pull through phrasal verbs in this way helps our students to learn and memorize the language and allows us as teachers to fit work on phrasal verbs easily into a wider scheme of study and course syllabus. So, over and above this most of the usual rules of presenting language apply.
• Do - present the phrasal verbs in context, providing examples of the target language in reading or listening texts or example sentences.
• Don't - overload your students with too many phrasal verbs at one time. The general rule of thumb is to present a set of ten lexical items at any one time.
• Do - focus on the meaning and phonemic features of the vocabulary in the presentation stage.
• Don't - overload your students with information about the 'grammar' of the phrasal verbs - are they separable or inseparable, transitive or intransitive, prepositional verbs or phrasal verbs using an adverb. Going into explanations regarding these features is time-consuming and confusing. Better to allow your students to engage with the language and work things out for themselves and when or if they make mistakes be ready with error-correction exercises and feedback.
• Do - provide lots of practice of the target language. Error-correction exercises are great to focus on the 'grammar' of the phrasal verbs. Transformation exercises are great to focus on synonyms and help to reinforce meaning. Gap completion exercises are great to focus on dependent propositions and collocating nouns. The more practice your students do the more familiar they'll become with the vocabulary, how it is used and how it works.
• Don't - reinforce the mistaken idea that there is something mystical or impossible about phrasal verbs. They're just verbs like all others and there main function is to convey meaning. By telling our students that phrasal verbs are difficult or 'tricky' we establish a mental block in our learners.
• Do - encourage your students to learn and extend their knowledge of phrasal verbs. Encourage them to keep a vocabulary book and to read authentic texts and extract the phrasal verbs. [20, p. 569]
Phrasal verbs are a very common feature of English, they are expressive and rich. By encouraging our students to learn and use them we will help our students to become expressive and linguistically rich - and that is the essence of what teaching is all about.
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