Making Sense of Out Phrasal Verbs: the Instruction of Out Senses

Abstract

The issue of phrasal verb learning has caused much discussion and attracted vigorous investigation. Inspired by the theory of conceptual metaphor, a pedagogical experiment was conducted to investigate whether an approach focussing on sense extension of particle out in terms of conceptual metaphors can enhance the learning of phrasal verbs containing out. One control group was instructed with general reading materials embedded with various phrasal verbs, and two experimental groups with self-constructed lessons, in which six sense types of out were identified and corresponding phrasal verbs were selected, and in addition, an L1 lexical item was employed to illustrate the mechanism of metaphorical extension for one experimental group. The result showed that learners receiving a cognitive inspired approach to instruction achieved significantly better learning outcomes than those receiving the traditional approach, not only on taught items but also on untaught items. However, the use of L1 lexical items to illustrate sense extension was not as effective as expected in boosting the learning of out-phrasal verbs . It was concluded by discussing the benefit of the proposed approach to phrasal verb instruction and, more importantly, the need of teaching materials providing more profound understanding of phrasal verbs so as to facilitate phrasal verb learning.