scholarly journals A Cognitive Approach to the Instruction of Phrasal Verbs: Rudzka-Ostyn’s Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-25
Author(s):  
Ghuzayyil Mohammed Al-Otaibi

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners find some phrasal verbs problematic because of their idiomatic and polysemous nature. They are frequently used in spoken English and textbooks suggest an arbitrary way in teaching them. Cognitive linguists proposed that the particle plays a major role in determining the meaning of such phrasal verbs. This study investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive approach (i.e., Rudzka-Ostyn’s Model) in teaching taught and new phrasal verbs including metaphorical ones. Using a list of frequent phrasal verbs, a quasi-experimental design was used in which an experimental group was required to create mind maps of the common meanings of each particle with example phrasal verbs. The control group, on the other hand, was asked to memorize the frequent senses of the most frequent phrasal verbs along with their translations. The experimental group did not outperform the control group on the post-test. This was attributed to a number of problems such as the fact that some senses given by some particles are not outlined in Rudzka-Ostyn’s Model. Further, the analytical procedure followed by students to cognitively understand phrasal verbs should be made explicit and address the interaction between the verb and the particle. Additionally, following a cognitive approach, instructors should focus more on the particles up and out since they have many senses and contribute a lot to phrasal-verb formation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Mercedes Chamba ◽  
Martha Reinoso ◽  
Elena Rengifo

Since it is a productive skill, writing is considered one of the most crucial abilities in communication; nonetheless, EFL learners have difficulty composing texts which are both communicatively and linguistically competent. This study intends to explore the benefits of using authentic materials in EFL learners, with an emphasis on writing skills. To pursue this objective, fifty-two participants were chosen randomly from a B1 level (following the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). The participants were distributed into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. The students were majoring in various degrees at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE). In this case study, in which the application of authentic materials covered fifty percent of daily two-hour classes, data was collected through a structured pre-test, post-test, and an opinion survey. All data was analyzed using a rubric designed for this purpose. This research, which is based on the Communicative Language Teaching Approach, also deals with various concepts regarding authentic materials and researchers’ perceptions. The findings elicited positive results for students’ writing with the use of authentic materials skills and shed lights on participants’ opinions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
KHATEREH BEHZADIAN

ABSTRACT Phrasal verbs are commonly used in spoken English but they are difficult for learners to acquire. This is mainly because such verbs, in their combinations with various prepositional/adverbial particles, often exhibit figurative senses not readily clear to the learner. Due to the problems experienced by Iranian EFL learners in acquiring phrasal verbs, this study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of reading with input enhancement and concordance-based materials on 60 Iranian EFL learners' acquisition and retention of phrasal verbs. To this end, three intact classes were assigned to: 1) reading with input enhancement group, 2) concordance-based group, and 3) a control group. These classes had equal numbers of participants and prior to the treatment, participants were asked to complete a pre-test to ascertain their unfamiliarity with the target phrasal verbs. After a ten- session treatment period, the production and retention of the target phrasal verbs were tested through a post-test and a delayed posttest. The results of the ANOVA revealed the superiority of the reading with input enhancement group over concordance-based group in both acquisition and retention of phrasal verbs. In addition, through Pearson Correlation it was found that the knowledge of phrasal verbs has a positive relationship with learners' cloze reading comprehension. The study concluded with some pedagogical implications.


Author(s):  
Masoumeh Razavi ◽  
Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani

This study investigated the effect of teaching cultural content on Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ reading comprehension. To this end, 60 intermediate EFL learners from Shokouh Institute in Motelqu, Mazandaran, Iran were selected randomly and assigned to two groups, namely the control group and experimental group; 30 participants in each group were chosen based on their performance using the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). This study used a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest control group research design. After the OPT, the reading comprehension pre-test was given to the participants to check their initial reading comprehension. During a six-week treatment period, both control and experimental groups received the same routine lesson plan of the institute but only the experimental group enjoyed the culture instruction in order to test its effect on learners’ reading comprehension improvement. At the final stage, the post-test was given to check their reading comprehension after the six-week treatment period. The data were analyzed using an Independent Samples T-test and a series of paired Samples T-tests. The results of this study showed that receiving cultural content instruction improved learners’ reading comprehension. In general, the results of experimental group supported the effect of teaching cultural content on Iranian learners’ reading comprehension.


HOW ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-93
Author(s):  
Addisu Sewbihon-Getie

This study investigated the effects of teaching vocabulary through the lexical instructional approach in EFL intermediate level students. Ninety-five (95) students participated in a non-equivalent pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design study. The participants were given vocabulary competence pre-test in order to check their homogeneity in terms of their vocabulary knowledge. Then, following the similitude of the results they scored, the participants were randomly assigned as experimental group and the control group. For sixteen (16) weeks, the experimental group was taught by providing students with chunks and/or collocates of words through using collocation dictionaries, concordance programs, chunk-for-chunk translation activities, and corpus-based activities etc. Whereas, the control group was taught the new words in isolation with conventional teaching techniques; for example, translation at single word level, synonyms, antonyms, and definitions. After the instructional intervention, both groups participated in a vocabulary competence post-test. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 22 was employed to analyse the results. In this regard, an independent Samples T-test was run and the findings of the study showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the post-test which implies that teaching vocabulary with a lexically-based instruction can improve EFL learners’ vocabulary competence or knowledge. Furthermore, the study results suggest that the lexical instructional approach should be the focus of future experimental research.


Author(s):  
Sepideh Shiri ◽  
Hassan Abdilah

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings where English is not the spoken language, Topic Management has been recognised as one of the factors that influence the speaking ability of learners (Du-Babcock, 1999). In Iran, many intermediate EFL learners find it very difficult to manage the speech aspect of the English language. The present study examines the influence of Topic Management on the speaking ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. It provides useful insights on teaching speaking skills through Topic Management to improve the speaking ability of learners. In this study, quasi-experimental design was used. 40 intermediate learners were selected and divided into two groups, the Control Group and the Experimental Group. Three tests were administered to obtain data from the participants. These were a proficiency test to check the English proficiency level of the participants, a speaking pre-test to check their speaking ability before the treatment, and a speaking post-test to check their speaking ability after the treatment. The results indicate that Topic Management has an influence on the speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners. That is, the more the student is confident in managing the topic the more he/she is able to sustain the conversation. The study concludes that Topic Management can be a facilitative approach to improving Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ speaking ability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 335
Author(s):  
Eva Veronica ◽  
Mursalim Mursalim

The objective of this study is to find out the effect of using mobile access (Audio Visual Easy Learn English) on students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 11 Kendari. Mobile  Access  (Audio  visual  easy  learn  English)  as  a media in learning teaching process. This research used quasi experimental design, the population is all seventh- grade students, and the sample is class VII1 as the experimental group and VII2as control group. The experimental group consisted of 30 students and control group consisted of 21 students. The research instrument consisted of 44 questions of vocabulary test. To collect the data, the researcher gave pre-test, taught by using Mobile Access  (Audio  Visual  Easy  Learn  English),  and  giving post-test. Mean score of post-tests (79.63) in experimental class is higher than pre-test score (59.66). While, in control class also has improvement but not too significant. It can be seen on post-test score (64.80) is higher than pre-test score (55.19). Based on the calculation of T-test, it shows that tcount = 3.775, while t-table =2.010 at level of = 0.05 with DF = 49. It means that tcount is higher than table, Therefore H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted. This can be concluded that  there  was a  significant  effect  of  using a significant effect using Mobile Access (Audio Visual Easy Learn English) on students’ vocabulary achievement at the seventh-grade students of SMPN 11 Kendari. Keywords: MA, Mobile Access, Audio Visual Easy Learn English, vocabulary achievement


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Arita Destianingsih ◽  
Ari Satria

The aim of this study was to know the effectiveness of the use of alphabet cards game as interesting tool to explain vocabularies and it make it easier to remember their meanings. This study belongs to the quasi experimental research and presents pre-test, post test and to investigate the effect of using alphabet cards game on vocabulary mastery of commercial business administration students. The participants were the students from commercial business administration students at the third semester (N=54) of State Polytechnic Bengkalis and divided into two groups. Both groups were taught vocabulary, however, the experimental group students who are exposed to alphabet cards game and the controlled group students who received conventional method. Pre-test and post-test were given to both experimental group students and controlled group students. The score of the vocabulary tests were compared through independent sample t-test. The mean value of pre-test of experimental class was 61.35, while the control class was 52.23. After learning using alphabet card games in experimental class the mean value obtained in post-test was 78.85, while in control class was 59.04.  The improved of learning outcomes can be seen from the level of significance was 0.000 and it was lower than t test 0.000<0.05.  It means that the hypothesis null is not accepted. Therefore, it can be concluded that the score of the students in learning vocabulary between the experimental group and control group was significantly different. The experimental group students who learned vocabulary using alphabet cards game had increased their vocabulary mastery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Maryam AminAfshar ◽  
Ahmad Mojavezi

EFL learners at all ages and proficiency levels are usually confronted with various problems in vocabulary learning and retention. This study sought to introduce strategies for improvement of vocabulary learning and retention. Therefore, the effects of using aural/visual storytelling on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention were investigated. To do so, 50 intermediate female EFL learners were randomly assigned to two groups. After the administration of teacher made English Vocabulary Test as the pre-test, aural storytelling method was used for the control group, and visual storytelling method was used for the experimental group. After three months of instruction, the aforementioned teacher made English Vocabulary Test, as the post-test, was given to the students of both groups to assess their improvements. Two weeks after post-test, they were given a delayed post-test to measure their retention of English vocabulary knowledge. The reliability of the English Vocabulary Test using Cronbach's Alpha was estimated equal to 0.80. Finally, Using ANCOVA, the results revealed that, the experimental group’s participants outperformed those of control group in both learning and retention of English vocabulary. So, it can be noted that the training program according to visual could have impressive impact on the learning and retention of vocabulary knowledge.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Mohammad Davoudi ◽  
Mojtaba Rezaei

<p>The present study aims at investigating the influence of podcasts (POD) on language comprehension of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. An Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to 60 male and female university students. The participants were considered as pre-intermediate learners and were divided into two groups (one experimental group and one control group). During the fifteen sessions of the treatment, thirty podcasts were presented to the two groups. The experimental group received just the audio file of the POD, and the control group received a different treatment which was the transcript file of the same audio podcast file of the experimental group. The results of the t-tests revealed that there was no significant difference in language comprehension scores across the posttest between two groups. Based on the interview results after the post-test, all of the participants (100%) agreed that both audio and the transcripts (written texts) were useful for them and claimed that it is a good method of improving language comprehension.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Islam Namazian Doost ◽  
Soheila Tahmasbi

This study aims to investigate the possible effects of peripheral learning on elementary EFL learners’ grammar improvement: the case of prepositions of time and place. Two elementary classes were selected as experimental and control groups. Before beginning the treatment, a grammar test was administered to both the groups as a pre-test. Then, as treatment, the experimental group was exposed to realia, pictures, posters and texts, while the control group was not. After term-long treatment of 10 weeks, the two groups received the same grammar test as post-test. The results of t-test showed that the experimental group improved their grammar ability, i.e., knowledge of prepositions of time and place more than their friends in the control group. The finding of the study may open an optional path for teachers to include some peripheral materials in their teaching environment to further invest on unconscious learning abilities of the students.   Keywords: Peripheral learning, reposition of time, prepositions of place, grammar.


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