Lect.univ.dr. Cristina Arsene Onu CANDIDAT: Profesor : Belu Ana -Adriana Școala Gimnazială “Mihai Tican Rumano ” 2016 2 UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI… [626556]

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI
DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC
FACULTATEA DE LITERE

LUCRARE METODICO – ȘTIINȚIFICĂ
PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI
DIDACTIC I

COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
Lect.univ.dr. Cristina Arsene Onu

CANDIDAT: [anonimizat] : Belu Ana -Adriana
Școala Gimnazială “Mihai Tican Rumano ”

2016

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI
DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC
FACULTATEA DE LITERE

TEACHI NG VOCABULARY
(COLLOCATIONS AND PHRASAL VERBS)
IN CONTEXT TO SECONDARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS

COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
Lect.univ.dr. Cristina Arsene Onu

CANDIDAT: [anonimizat]: Belu Ana -Adriana
Școala G imnazială “Mihai Tican Rumano ”

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CONTENTS

ARGUMENT ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 5
I. A GENERAL VIEW ON COLLOCATIONS AND PHRASAL VERBS …………………… 8
1. COLLOCATIONS
1.1 The importance of teaching collocations in Second Language Learning ……………. ………..9
2. PHRASAL VERBS
2.1 The importance of teaching phrasal verbs in Second Language Learning ………… …………11
II. A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO COLLOCATIONS AND PHRASAL VERBS
1.COLLOCATIONS
1.1. Types of Collocatio ns…………………………………………………………………… .…13
1.2. Grammatical aspects of collocations ……………………………………………………… ..16
1.2.1. Intensifying adverbs……………………………………………………………… ….16
1.2.2. MAKE or DO? …………………………. ……………………………………………………………. …..17
1.2.3. The adverb "GET"………………………………………………………………… …18
1.2.4. HAVE and PAY……………………………………………………………………… 19
1.3. Special aspects of col location s……………………………………………………………. ..19
1.3.1. Synonyms and confusable words………………………………………………… …..19
1.3.2. Metaphor………………………………………………………………………… .…..21
1.4. Approaches to the study of collocations ……… …………………………………………. …23
1.4.1. The Lexical Composition Approach…………………………………………… …….23
1.4.2. The Semantic Approach………………………………………………………… .…..25
1.4.3. The Structur al Approach…………………………………………………………… ..26
2.PHRASAL VERBS
2.1. Classification of phrasal verbs ……………………………………………………………. .27
2.2. Phrasal verbs and idiomaticity ……………………………………………………………. .31
2.3. Distinction between phrasal v erbs and other types of group -verbs ……………… …… …32
2.4. Approaches to the study of phrasal verbs………………………………………… ……. ..37
2.4.1. The Syntactic Approach…………………………………………………… ..….….37
2.4.2. The Semantic Approach…………………………………………………… ….…….37

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2.4.3. The Cognitive Approach ……………………………………………………… …… .38
2.4.4. The Communicative Approach………………………………………………… …….39

III. WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT …………… ………… ……….41
1.PRESENTATION
2.TEACHING COLLOCATIONS IN CONTEXT
2.1 Classroom activities to help secondary school students with collocations……… ……. .48
3.TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS IN CONT EXT
3.1 Classroom activities to help secondary school students with phrasal verbs……… ……51
IV. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY …………. …………57
4.1 Main p roblems young learners have with collocations and how teachers can help
minimize collocation errors……………………………………… …………………… …………59
4.2 Why are phrasal verbs difficult aspects for young learners and how can teachers help
minimize phrasal verbs error s? ……………………………………………………… ……… .…63
V.TESTING AND ERROR CORRECTION …………………………………………………69
TEST PAPER 1……………………………………………………………… ……………. ……71
TEST PAPER 2 ……………………………………………………………………… ……….. 75
ANALYSIS OF TEST PAPERS ON COLLOCATION S……………………………………… 77
TEST PAPER 3 ………………………………………………………………………… …….. 85
TEST PAPER 4 ……………………………………………………………………… …….. ….89
ANALYSIS OF THE TEST PAPERS ON PHRASAL VERBS ……………………………….. 91
CONCLUSIONS ON THE TESTS
LESSON PLAN 1 …………………………………………………………………………… ….98
LESSON PLAN 2 ……………………………………………………………………………… 105
LESSON PLAN 3 …………………………………………………………………………….. 110
LESSON PLAN 4 …………………………………………………………………………….. 116
CONCLU SIONS ……………………………………………………………………………… 124
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………….. 126

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ARGUMENT

Because I totally agree with what David Wilkins said ”Without grammar little can
be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed ”, and because v ocabulary was for
long an overlooked aspect in learning a new language from a traditional perspective , grammar
being taught fi rst; thus having primacy over voc abulary, I intend to analyse collocations and
phrasal verbs which make up much of the written and spoken corpora.
For a long period of time v ocabulary items were just vehicles to explain grammatical
structures. One of the most important responsibilities of every ESL/EFL teacher is to help
students develop a strong vocabulary , this being a crucial comprehension skill. Helping students
acquire fluency must be t he goal of every ESL /EFL teacher. Vocabulary, including not just
words but also t heir meaning, orthography, pronunciation, context and conjugation, is the very
essence of the process of learning a new language.
Nowadays, preparing students for real life situations should be of utmost concern for
ESL/EFL teachers. Th erefore, teachers need to adopt effective teaching materials and techniques,
in order to help their students learn English better, as well as prepare them to communicate with
the outside world.
Words are the currency of communication. Knowing many w ords will
greatly increase students ’ reading and listening comprehension which is essential for making
sense of anythi ng produced by a native speaker . It will also enable students to communicate even
if they know only a little grammar and it will accelerat e their learning in genera l, because they
understand more of the language they are exposed to .
Furthermore, very little attention is paid to the syntagmatic aspect of lexis and the
ability of items to co -occur.
Second language learners often rely on their native language in trying to
communicate or translate. They assume that there always exists a one -to-one correspondence
between L1 and L2 lexical items. This strategy may be of some help to the learner at the

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beginning levels of language lear ning, but it is also a major cause of errors because even
equivalent lexical items do not always convey the same sense in two languages for various
reasons, including cultural differences which are reflected in the vocabulary of every language.
Collocations and phrasal verbs are word structures that can give students discourse
complexity and naturalness. They also grant the student the fluency , accuracy and native -like
competence needed in a communicational situation.
So, which is more important? Grammar or vocabulary? I think neither! Students
should be taught how to communicate by using and experiencing the language. Teaching
grammar and vocabulary is ineffective when it is not done in context. A simple dialog can teach
grammar th rough patterns, and also vocabulary, without having to actually “explain ” things
directly.
The present study attempts to demonstrate de above statements theoretically as well as
practically. The first chapter is going to present the impor tance of teaching collocations and
phrasal verbs because learning collocations is regarded as an important and crucial part in L2
acquisition . Among the benefits of learning collocations and phrasal verb, we can include
improving language performance , the development of L2 vocabulary; improving communicative
competence; and enhancing language fluency towards the level of a native speaker.
In the second chapter d ifferent perspectiv es on classifying collocations and phrasal
verbs will be pres ented, as well as grammatical and special aspects of the two structures. The
main approaches to the study of collocations (the lexical composition approach, the semantic
approa ch, and the structural approach) and phrasal verbs (t he semantic approach , the s yntactic
approach, the cognitive approach and the communicative approach) will be presented in order to
clarify different perspectives on studying these structures.
The third chapter deals with different ways of teaching vocabulary in context, one
of the most common beliefs about lexical acquisition being that using context clues to guess the
meaning of words is the best strategy. The problem of teaching collocations and phrasal verbs in
context will be especially discussed by presenting class room activities that could easily be
incorporated into lessons in order to raise students’ awareness of English word combinations,
provide practice and encourage learner autonomy.
The fourth chapter is going to identify the problems which occur wh en learning
collocations and phrasal verbs and some practical ways teachers can help learners to minimize
collo cation and phrasal verbs errors in ESL/EFL classrooms will be suggested.

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The fifth chapter attempts to demonstrate the theory presented in the above chapters
by assess ing and establishing the student s' performance in lexical collocation and phrasal verbs
knowl edge. This will be accomplished with the help of four tests which will measure the s s'
receptive and productive knowledge of lexica l collocation and phrasal verbs. The results of the
tests will be analysed and presented by means of numerical statistics and histograms.
Furthermore, four lesson plans will be presented in order to substantiate fun and simple ways of
introducing these wro ngly charged structures as being difficult to acquire.

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CHAPTER I

A GENERAL VIEW ON COLLOCATIONS AND PHRASAL VERBS

This chapter presents the importance of teaching collocations and phrasal because learni ng collocations
is regarded as an important and crucial part in L2 acquisition. Among the benefits of learning
collocations and phrasal verb, we can include improving language performance, the development of L2
vocabulary; improving communicative competenc e; and enhancing language fluency towards the level of
a native speaker.

Teaching collocations and phrasal verbs is important because learning collocations
and phrasal verbs is regarded as an important and crucial part in ESL /EFL acquisi tion. Among
the benefits of learning collocations and phrasal verb s, we can include improving language
performance, the development of ESL/EFL vocabulary, impr oving communicative competence
and enhancing language fluency towards the level of a native speak er.
Collocations are words that are generally used together. For example: make a
mistake ; break a record ; bunch of flowers ; fast food . It would sound strange if you said ”do
a mistake ”, “remote memory ”, and “knock a record ”, “pack of flo wers ” or “quick food ”.
These words don ’t collocate with each other ( don’t sound correct together).
Phrasal verbs are verb + preposition combinations, so they are usually two -word
expressions (sometimes more). For example, “look + after ”, “take + up ” or “put + up with”.
The meaning of a phrasal verb is often very different from the original verb:
e.g. Andy ’s looking after his grandmother. (He is taking care of his grandmother .)
She’s taken up tennis. (She ’s started play ing tennis .)
I can ’t put up with with your behaviour any longer. (I can ’t tolerate your behaviour any longer.)

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1. COLLOCATIONS
1.1. The importance of teaching collocations in Second Language Learning
Collocations have been often perceive d as means of differentiating native speakers
from second language learners. If a non -native speaker wants to help someone, she/he will say,
“Can I help you? ” whereas a native speaker will say, “Can I give you a hand? ” 1
For intermediat e ESL/EFL student s, vocabulary enrichment has always been an
impediment in their progress. At this stage, the traditional way of memorizing the meaning and
pronunciation of a new word is far from being an ideal learning strategy. By increasing the ir
vocabu lary students must know how to use the words in context properly and implicitly
collocation. However, ESL/EFL students are mostly preoccupied about increasing the number of
words they can remember. They give no consideration to or overlook the profundity o f their
comprehension of the word. The most effective method to extend the comprehension of the word
is an issue which must be taken into consideration . Collocation is one of the most important
aspects of knowing a word. In other word s, if they want to expand their understandin g of a word,
ESL/EFL students must know its collocation. Mastering the use of a certain word involves more
than knowing its definitional meaning because it does not cover all lexical properties which can
only be conveyed through their combinations with other words. For example, the words journey
and trip have similar dictionary definitions, but while business trip is acceptable, business
journey is not. The difference between journey and trip can be found in their collocations.
Brown , in her “Advanced vocabulary teaching: the problem of collocation ”, was
among the first linguists to propose the incorporation of collocations in the ESL/EFL classroom.
She underlined that by learning collocations ESL/EFL learners improve their oral fluency,
listening comprehension, and reading speed. Furthermore , Brown pointed out that learning
collocation empowers learners to acknowledge language chunks used by native speakers in
speech and writ ing and to get the feel of how words combine naturally.
Collocations can give students the most natural way of saying something : “smoking
is strictly forbidden is more natural than smoking is strongly forbidden “; they can also “ give
alternative ways of saying something, which may be more colourful/expressive or more precise:
instead of repeating It was very cold and very dark, we can say It was bitterly cold and pitch

1 Salkauskiene, D. – Review of the book Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lex ical Approach,
[Electronic version]. The Journal of Communication and Education : Language Magazine, 4 ,7, 2002

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dark”; they can improve the students ’ style in writing : “ instead of saying a big meal you can
say a substanti al meal ”.2
As stated by Cowie, English collocation is important in receptive as well as productive
language competence. A similar statement was made by Carter and McCarthy. In their opinion,
English collocations are useful not only for Eng lish comprehension but also for English
production . Also , “collocations teach students expectations about which sorts of language can
follow from what has preceded. Students will not have to go about reconstructing the language
each time they want to say s omething but instead can use these collocations as pre -packaged
building blocks ”3
Collocations are found almost everywhere in language . “Collocations are found in up
to 70% of everything we say, hear, read, or write ”4. Collocation is the language structure which
demonstrates that a word -by-word approach cannot make a text meaningful. Nation states that
“language knowledge is collocational knowledge because the stored sequences of words are the
bases of learning, knowledge and use ”.5
Collocation is that specific aspect which brings particularity to language. Thus, to
master English similar to a native , learners should understand the importance of collocation.
Wallace in Teaching Vocabulary stresses that to know a word in a target language “may mean
the ability to use it with the words it correctly goes with, i.e. in the correct collocation…. ”.6 The
aim of learning a new word is to put it in pract ical use and to make sentences. It is clearly stated
in the introduction of Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English that “for the
student, choosing the right collocation will make his speech and writing sound much more
natural, more native -speaker -like, even when basic intelligibility does not seem to be at issue ”7.
There is a considerable difference between writing and speaking in English and writing a nd
speaking in good English. This difference is to a great extent decided by the k nowledge of and
use of collocations.
In conclusion , to use good (idi omatic) English, ESL/EFL students must learn
collocation.

2 McCarthy, Michael & O'Dell , Felicity – English Collocations In Use , Cambridge University Press, 2005
3 Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. – Vocabular y and language teaching . New York, Longman, 1988
4 Hill, J. -. Revising priorities: From grammatical failure to collocational success . InM. Lewis (Ed.), Teaching
collocation: further developments in the lexical approach . London: Language Teaching Publicati ons, 2000
5 Nation, I.S.P. – Learning vocabulary in another language . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
6 Wallace, M. J. – Teaching Vocabulary . London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1982
7 Crowther, J. – Oxford Collocation Dictionary for Students of English . Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press, 2003

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2. PHRASAL VERBS
2.1. The importance of teaching phr asal verbs in Second Learning Language
“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 lies. From the angle of language learning for the sake of effective
communication phrasal verbs should by no means be avoided ”.8
Phrasal verbs seem to be a useful vocabulary achievement, but are they really that
necessary? A n English learner can easily manage without them they will pass up a great
opportunity for such a large number of advantages that the phrasal verbs can bring to t heir
discourse!
By including the following joke in his book, Candlin emphasized the importance of
English phrasal verbs and the fact that they are sometimes misinterpreted:
A visitor to England, who did not know English very well, was tr avelling with a friend by
train. He was leaning out of the window and his friend saw he might get hurt “Look out ” he
shouted
The visitor leaned further out of the train, and was nearly hit by a tree at the side of the rail
way line. He turned to his friend and said angrily: Why did you say “look out ” when you
mean “look in ”?
This joke is nothing but a plea to all those who are involved in the English language
to acquaint themselves with these important constructions as they deserve more at tention.
Spoken English is loaded with phrasal verbs and, as the goal of any ESL/EFL teacher
should be to teach efficient English communication, to give students fluency and naturalness in
speech. So while there ’s nothing wron g with usin g formal words like “anticipate ” and
“ascertain ”, using their phrasal verb versions “to look forward to ” and “to find out ” makes a
conversation more genuine !
ESL/EFL textbooks are written mainly in formal language, and this can surely be
one of the main reasons why ESL/EFL learners struggle with effective English communication.
English language we use to read and write does not always follow the same patterns as spoken
English . This does not mean that normal English grammar does not apply when speaking. In any
case, phrasal verbs unquestionably change the language and make it more easy -to-understand
and easy -flowing. Moreover, phrasal verbs can make English speech sound more like that of a

8 Chen, Junyu. On How to Solve the Problem of the Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs in the Chinese Context ,
International Education Journal, 8.2 , 2007

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native English speaker and s peaking in a native m anner definitely makes anyone ’s speech more
understandable .
So, if ESL/EFL teachers incorporate in their teaching materials at least the most
commonly used English phrasal verbs, they will definitely increase their students ’ overall
Engl ish fluency and understanding. If you can say a sentence like: “I came across this photo in
his desk. ” you are going to sound more native and easy -going than if you said: “I encountered
this photo in his desk. ”
Another great benefit of using and knowing English phrasal verbs is that students can
start speaking fluent English much sooner as they consist of simple verbs that they are already
familiar with . Most of English phrasal verbs are formed using basic verbs like ‘to get ’, ‘to take ’,
‘to make ’, ‘to look ’, ‘to bring ’, ‘to give ’ etc. So instead of learning and memorizing many new
formal English words teachers can help students use their existing basic English vocabulary.
Furthermore, most phrasal verbs are metaphorica l in meaning; and it is believed that
“metaphoric intelligence ”9 plays an important role in all areas of communicative competence and
can contribute to language learning success. Even though learners can vary in age, gender,
learning style, or motivation , intelligence is the one which predicts in a significant manner the
language learning success. Metaphorically intelligent language learners have the ability to
expand their fluency and their general communicative effectiveness. Also, they are able to use
their language resources in order to express a wider variety of concepts.
To conclude, i t is more than obvious that phrasal verbs deserve increased attention
and better treatment in language teaching and learning.

9 Littlemore, J. – “Metaphoric intell igence and foreign language learning”. Humanising Language Teaching, 2001

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CHAPTER II
A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO COLLOCATIONS AND PHRASAL
VERBS

1.COLLOCATIONS

1.1. Types of Collocations

As presented in the Cambridge English collocations in use , “there are many different
types of collocations:
Adjectives and nouns : Jean a lways wears red or yellow, or some other bright colour .
Nouns and verbs : The economy boomed in 1990s. [the economy was very strong]
Noun + noun : As Sam read the lies about him, he felt a surge of anger . [a sudden angry
feeling]
Verbs and expressions with p repositions : When she spilt juice on her new skirt the
little girl burst into tears . [suddenly started crying]
Verbs and adverbs : She smiled proudly as she looked at the photos of her new
grandson.
Adverbs and adjectives : They are happily married .”10
Considering the fact that the term “collocation ” has been discussed in many linguistic
areas such as semantics, phraseology, corpus linguistics and systematic linguistics, researchers
classified collocations from different perspectives. Cowie and Mackin classified idioms and
collocations into four categories based on idiomaticity from most to least fixed:
pure idioms such as blow the gaff ( meaning to make a secret known ),
figurative idioms such as blow your own trumpet/horn (meaning
to tell everyone proudly about your achievements ),
restricted collocations such as blow a fuse ( meaning to become very angry ) , and
open collocations which allow substitution of either of their elements without semantic
change in the other elements. For example, one can eat rice, pudding, cake or chocolate.

10 McCarthy, Michael & O'Dell , Felicity – English Phrasal Verbs In Use , Cambridge University Press, 2004

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The range of possible direct objects for the verb to eat is practically infinite. Similarly,
eat can be replaced by a series of synonyms such as devour, munch, gobble and lots of
others.
Wood ( as cited in Nattinger & DeCarrico, ), on the other hand, grouped collocations
into idioms, colligations and free combinations on the basis of a semantic criterion and a
syntactic criterion in a continuum. Wood stated that a true idiom should be “a full y non –
compositional, non -productive collocations and a truly frozen piece of language. He regarded
phrases such as hell for leather and by and large as true idioms without compositional sense. A
collocation, such as kick the bucket , is with its meaning in a restricted sense and is less frozen
than an idiom. A colligation, such as off with his head is compositional and permits only limited
lexical variation and is more restricted in the combinations. A free combination, such as see the
river , is a fully comp ositional and productive collocation and a combined meaning of the
individual units ”.11
In The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations , Benson et al. , separated
lexical combinations into five groups according to their degree of cohesiv eness:
1. Compounds – completely frozen; no variations at all are possible: aptitude test
2. Idioms – relatively frozen expressions whose meanings do not reflect the meanings of their
component parts: to have one ’s back to the wall
3. Transitional combinat ions – more frozen and less variable than collocations; their meanings
are close to those suggested by their component parts: to be in the tight spot
4. Collocations – loosely fixed, arbitrary recurrent word combinations; the meaning of the whole
does refl ect the meaning of the parts: pure chance
5. Free combinations – the least cohesive of all combination; their components are the freest in
regard to combining with other lexical items: to analyze/report/investigate a murder.
Lewis in his work, “Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theory into practice ”
categorize s collocations into strong, weak, frequent, and infrequent. The distinction between
strong collocations and weak collocations is based on their fixedness and restriction, whe reas the
distinction between frequent ones and infrequent ones is based on their frequency of co –
occurrence in a corpus. Strong collocations such as drink beer and drug addict are recognized as
tightly linked phrases which function like single words, while weak ones, like a nice day and a
good chance are combined with two common words, and each of which may occur with other

11 Nattinger, J. R., & DeCarrico, J. S. – Lexical phrases and language teach ing Oxford University Press, 1992

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words. Collocations, furthermore, can be any combination of strong and frequent, strong and
infrequent, weak and frequent, and infreque nt.
In addition, Benson and Il son divide collocations into two major categories:
grammatical and lexical collocations. Grammatical collocations consist of content words: a noun,
an adjective or a verb plus a preposition or infinitive , whi le lexical collocations can be made up
of nouns, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs, like warmest regards , strictly accurate , etc.
There were seven types of lexical collocations, labelled from L1 to L7, whose
structures and examples are given in the following table:

The grammatical collocations are categorized into eight small groups, marked as G1
to G8, among which, G8 collocations contain nineteen English verb patterns as listed in the
following table:

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1.2. Grammatical aspects of collocations
1.2.1. Intensifying adverbs
By using intensifying adverbs, as presented in the Cambridge English Collocations in
Use we can provide stronger connotations. For example, there are many ways of saying very or
very much such as highly, utterly, bitterly or deeply. These alternative adverbs collocate strongly
with specific words as follows:
 HIGHLY collocates with words that denote probability such as: (un)likely, unusual,
successf ul, competitive, profitable, effective, controversial, recommended.
e.g.: It is highly unlikely that I ’ll finish my work in time.

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 UTTERLY collocates with adjectives with very extreme meanings such as: ridiculous,
stupid, impossible, wrong, alone, appalled , convinced, devastated, and miserable .
e.g.: The whole area was utterly devastated after the earthquake.
 BITTERLY collocates with words which carry a feeling of deep sadness such as:
disappointing, regret, complain, cry, and weep .
e.g.: I was bitterly di sappointed when I failed the exam .
 DEEPLY collocates with words associated with feelings such as: ashamed, concerned,
committed, shocked, moved, hurt, unhappy, regret.
e.g.: Professor McDellvit was always deeply committed to her students.
1.2.2. MAKE or D O ?
Students frequently have problems with collo cations for a number of reasons, the
most common being direct translations from their native tongue. An example ESL/EFL teachers
come across regularly is problems with do/make collocations d ue to the fact that, in Romanian,
the verb „a face ” is used for both.
The basic difference between DO and MAKE is that we use DO for actions,
obligations, and repetitive tasks; and we use MAKE for creating or producing something, and
for actions we choose to do.
DO generally refers to the action itself, and MAKE usually refers to the result. For
example, if you “make breakfast, ” the result is an omelette! If you “make a suggestion, ” you
have created a recommendation.
The Cambridge “English Collocations in Use ” provides the following tables with the
most common collocations for these verbs:

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1.2.3. The verb “GET ”
The verb “get” is a very common verb in English but it is not always the be st choice,
especially when talking about changes.
Thus we should use “go” instead of “get” when we want to express changes in
people ’s personality, appearance or physical abilities. For example, people go mad/bald or blind .
“Go” is also used for sudden, usually negative, changes: He was very embarrassed and his face
went red.

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Also, the verb “turn” should be used instead of “get” when colours are involved: The
sky turned gold as the sun set.
The verb “become ” is more likely to be used with the following: extinct, (un)popular,
homeless, famous.
Example: He became famous after he appeared in reality TV show.
1.2.4. HAVE and PAY
The Cambridge “English Collocations in Use ” provides the following tables with the
most common collocations for the verb s “have ” and “to pay ”:

1.3. Special aspects of collocation s
1.3.1. Synonyms and confusable words

In English we can come across pair of words which have the same meaning but
collocate with di fferent words.

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Collocations for TO START and TO BEGIN
The verbs “to start ” and “to begin ” have the same meaning: coming into being, a first
step, a first action; but in the following collocations only one verb is possible: we usually use
“start” to refer to an activity and it implies that something goes from inaction to action. It is also
a little more informal . “Begin” is often used for more official proceedings.
Examples:
“Let us begin this meeting with a presentation by the director of finance ” – in this
example, we could also use “start” but because it is a more formal environment, “begin ” works a
little better.
“Oh no! My car won ’t start again …” – when we are talkin g about machines and
making them work, we always use “start”. You cannot “begin ” your washing machine, your car,
the lawnmower, etc.
Collocations for TO CLOSE and TO SHUT
As a verb, to shut can usually be replaced by to close. You can shut a door / window /
suitcase , or you can close a door / window /suitcase .
But if you ’re “shut out ”, it means you cannot get in.
If you use ‘close ’ when you conclude something, y ou cannot replace it with ‘shut’:
We shall close the meeting at 4pm.
In bad weather we don ’t shut airports or roads, we close them.
You should close your mouth when you ’re eating, but if someone tells you to shut
your mouth, you had better stop talking.
Collocatio ns for BIG and LARGE
The general meaning of both ”large ” and ”big” is: “of more than average
size/amount weight/height ” etc.
The word big is often used in collocations with a happening or event, for example : a
big acco mplishment / a big decision / a big disappointment / a big failure / a big improvement / a
big mistake / a big surprise .
The word large is often used in collocations inv olving numbers and measurements: a
large amount / a large collection / a large number (of) / a large population / a large proportion /
a large quantity / a large scale .
Collocations for TO END and TO FINISH
We use the verbs end and finish in similar ways, to me an “come to a stop ”:
What time does the film finish?

21
We use finish to say that we complete something that we are doing. It emphasises
that the process stops within a specific period of time. End would not normally be used in a
sentence like this : He finished his meal in just three minu tes.
We use end to say that stopping something is significant, and has a clear conclusion
or shape. Finish wouldn ’t normally be used in such a sentence : The sun sets at the end of the
day.
Collocations for TO WIN / TO EARN / TO GAIN
The verbs win, earn and gain have broadly similar meanings related to getting or
achieving something. Where these verbs clearly differ, however, is in the nouns or noun phrases
they collocate with.
You can win a sporting event ( a match , a race , a game ) or a competition (e.g. the
lottery ), and for this achievement you might win a cup , a medal or a prize .
Apart from earning money or earning a salary , you might also need to earn your
keep (by working for the people you live with) and, in order to pay for everything you need, you
will need to earn a living .
You can gain weight or speed . You can also gain an advantage , as in “During the
race he gained an advantage by using a shortcut ”. Gain also goe s with nouns such
as access , admission and entry , as in ‘He gained access to the locked door by using a fake pass ’.
Other nouns frequently used with gain include experience , acceptance , ground
and time.
However, at least one noun collocates with all three verbs. You can earn respect , gain
respect or win respect , all of which involving getting respect as a result of your efforts or your
behaviour.

1.3.2. Metaphor
In “1000 English Collocations in 10 Minutes a Day “ Oliveira states that there are
words in English which are used metaphorically – with a meaning that i s not exactly the same as
their literal meaning. Usually they apply a quality of one word to another word.
For example, when we say that something is lightning fast, we are using the quality of
lightning (which is almost instantaneous) to describe something that is extremely fast.
Another example is the root of the problem – the literal meaning of the word “root” is
the part of a plant or tree that is under the soil. The roots are what support and sustain the entire

22
tree. Therefore, “the root of the problem ” is the deepest, most basic or fundamental reason for
the problem.
Many metaphors are related to elements in the natural world, such as light an d dark,
water, fire, and plants. Here are some collocations for each category:
LIGHT AND DARK
If someone ’s face or eyes light up, it means that they suddenly get very happy or
excited.
To lighten the mood means to make a depressing atmosphere/situation more relaxed
and happy.
On the other hand, if someone ’s face/eyes/expression darkens , it means that they
suddenly appear sad or angry.
Dark days or dark times refer to periods of time that are bad or unpleasant, full of
problems
WATER
You can say that ideas are flowing or conversation is flowing to describe when it is
proceeding easily and naturally.
Water metaphors are often used to describe the movement of groups of people – you
can say that people poured/streamed into the stadium (to describe continuous movement of large
groups of people) or that people trickled into the church (when only a few people come,
occasionally).
The expressions waves of disappointment or waves of sadness refer to strong f eelings.
FIRE
A heated discussion or heated debate is one that is very intense, often with negative
emotions like anger.
If someone has a fiery temper , it means that when they get angry, they get very angry,
and could poss ibly explode.

PLANTS
It is difficult for a plant to grow in soil that has a lot of rocks. So if something gets off
to a rocky start, it means that it encountered many problems in the beginning.
Thorns are the small, sharp growths that appear on some plants (such as roses). The
expression a thorny issue describes a matter that is difficult, complicated, and possibly
dangerous.

23
The word “blossom ” is used to describe when a flower appears an d opens, revealing
all its beauty. So if a romance/friendship is blossoming , then it is developing in a beautiful way.

1.4. Approaches to the study of collocations
There are three main approaches to the study of collocations: the lexical composition
approach, the semantic approach, and the structural approach.

1.4.1. The Lexical Composition Approach
The lexical composition approach considers lexical analysis independent from
grammar and lexis an autonomous entity, choo sing its own collocates which can be enumerated
and classified in lexical sets .
It is also based on the assumption that words receive their meaning from the words
they co -occur with. Among those who perceived collocations as a lexical phe nomenon
independent of grammar is Firth, who is also believed to be the ‘father ’ of the term
“collocation ”. Collocation according to Firth “is a mode of meaning . Just as the light of mixed
wave -lengths disperses into a spectrum, “the lexical meaning of any given word is achieved by
multiple statements of meaning at different levels , e.g. the orthographic level, phonological level,
grammatical level, and coll ocational level ”.12 For ex ample, the meaning of the word “peer” is
described by Firth in the following way: at the orthographic level the gro up of letters “peer” is
distinguished from the group of “pier”. Next the pronunciation is stated, then at the gram matical
level we state whether “peer” is a noun or a verb, and by making such statements at the
grammat ical level we make explicit a further component of meaning. Also, formal and
etymological meaning may be added, together w ith social indications of usage. Finally, at the
collocational level, o ne of the meanings of the word “peer” is its collocation with “school ”, as
in “school peers ”.
The so -called Neo -Firthians, Halliday and Sinclair took Firth ’s theory of meaning
one step forward and stressed the impo rtance of lexical collocations in an integrated lexical
theory. Sinclair saw Gramma r and Lexis as “two interpenetrating ways of looking at language

12 Firth, J.R. – Linguistics and Translation. In Selected Papers of J.R. Firth , Longmans Linguistics Library,
(1957/68a).

24
form ”13and Halliday argued that “lexical theory is complementary to, but not part of,
grammatical theory ”14.
If words are specified by t heir collocational environment the similarities of their
collocational restrictions give linguists the possibility to group lex ical items into “lexical sets ”
that is sets of words with similar collocational restrictions. For example, “the words bright, shine
and light are members of the sam e lexical set because they are frequent collocate of the w ord
moon . Along the same lines, the lexical items bright, hot, shine, light, lie and come out are all
members of the same lexical set because they all collocate with the item sun.”15
Sinclair was the one who claimed that t he main problem with lexical analysis was
“the circularity of the definition of the basic unit of description, the lexical item ”16. That is, every
item is described in terms of its environment which in its turn is defined in terms of the item. For
example, “one of the meanings of the word night is its collacability with dark, and of dark, its
collocation with night ”17. The above realisation makes lexical statements look weaker and less
precise than grammatical ones, which are based on a well -defined and explicit framework.
The Neo -Firthians argue that grammar alone cannot describe what the lexical item is,
therefore the lexical item “must be identified within Lexi s, on the basis of collocation ”.18
Sinclair and Halliday do not underestimate the importance of grammatical analysis;
they rather highlight the significance of being able to make valid statements about lexis that do
not disregard but complement grammar. However, they admit it is essential to examine
collocational patterns in their grammatical environments. In other words, they sustain that
collocational patterns are best described and analysed throug h lexical analysis, but they admit
that help from grammar is still needed.

13 Sinclair, J. – Beginning the study of lexis. In C. Bazell, J. Catford, M. Halliday & R. Robins ( eds.), In memory of
J.R. Firth , London: Longman,1966
14 Halliday, M.A.K. – Lexis as a linguistic level. In C. E. Bazell et al (eds), In Memory of J.R. Firth . London:
Longman, 1966
15 Ibidem
16 Sinclair, J. – Beginning the study of lexis. In C. Bazell, J. Cat ford, M. Halliday & R. Robins (eds.), In memory of
J.R. Firth , London: Longman,1966
17 Firth, J.R. – Linguistics and Translation. In Selected Papers of J.R. Firth , Longmans Linguistics Library,
(1957/68a).
18 Halliday, M. A. K., McIntosh, A., & Strevens, P. (1964). The linguistics sciences and language teaching . London:
Longman.

25
1.4.2 The Semantic Approach
According to the semantic approach, the meaning of a lexical item is perceived as a
combination of the semantic properties of that item , which determine its collocates. The semantic
approach tries to find semantic features based on the meaning of lexical units that would enable
the prediction of their collocates.
Robins was one of the linguists who stated that collocation as a linguistic
phenomenon associated with lexical semantics was des cribed as early as 2,300 years ago,
because the Greek Stoic philosophers rejected the equation of “one word, one meaning ” and
pointed an important aspect of the semantic structure of language: “word meanings do not exist
in isolation, and they may differ a ccording to the collocation in which they are used ”.19
In the semantic approach linguists attempted to investigate collocations on the basis
of a semantic framework, also separate from grammar.
Chomsky was among the firs t to suggest the treatment of collocations by semantics.
Even though Chomsky did not examine collocations, he distinguished between “strict
subcategorisation rules such as rules that analyze a symbol in terms of its categorical context ,
and selectional rul es which analyze a symbol in terms of syntactic features of the frames in
which it appears . These rules assist the generation of grammatical strings. The breaking of strict
subcategorisation rules will result in strings such as John found sad and John beca me Bill to
leave , while failure to observe the selectional rules will give examples like Colorless green ideas
sleep furiously ”20.
The Neo -Firthians ’ approach to the study of collocations was found inadequate by
semanticists because it so rts lexical items into sets according to their collocations, but it does not
explain why there are lexical items that collocate only with certain other lexical items.
In their work, Katz and Fodor describe a semantic theory that would org anise,
systematise, and generalise facts about meaning. They suggest that a semantic theory of a
language would “take over the explanation of the speaker ’s ability to produce and understand
new sentences at the point where grammar leaves off ”21.
Even though semanticists claimed that syntagmatic lexical relations should be studied
under the scope of semantics, they did not proceed any further with the study of collocation and
they did not make the phenomenon of “collocation ” any more explici t.

19 Robins, R. (1964). General Linguistics : An Introductory Servey , Longman.
20 Chomsky, N. – Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1965
21 Kats, J., & Foder , J. A. – The Structure of a Semantic Theory , Language , 39, 1963

26
1.4.3 The Structural Approach
The structural approach suggests that collocation is influenced by structure, and
collocations occur in patterns. As such, the structural approach recommends that the study of
collocations should includ e grammar and tries to establish patterns of collocations that include
grammatical and lexical words alike.
For the study of collocations, Mitchell proposes that “collocations [which are ‘of
roots ’ rather than ‘of words ’] are to be stud ied within grammatical matrices ”22 . In a group of
word forms like drinks , drinker and drinking Mitchell abstracts the common elements of eac h
word form and labels that as “root”, e.g. /drink, and the associations of different root s, e.g.
/drink – and /heav -, as “collocations ”, e.g. “heavy drinke r”, “drink heavily ”23.
The influence of grammar on collocation was also discus sed by Greenbaum who
proposes that the collacability of words should be “tied” to syntax, and realises that there are
certain lexical items that can occur only in certa in syntactic relationships, as for example “His
sincerity frightens us ” but not “We frighten his sincerity ”24.
Without reference to syntax, the notion of col lacability becomes senseless be cause
any two items can co -occur at a given arbitrary distance.
Pawley and Syder suggest that if a learner is going to achieve a native -like control of
a language, then along with the rules of a generative grammar, she/he needs to “learn a means for
knowing which of the well -formed sentences are native -like – a way of distinguishing those
sentences that are normal or unmarked from those that are unnatural or highly marked ”25.
Kjellmer also suggests the study of collocati ons in a grammatical framework.
Kjellmer defines collocations as “lexically determined and grammatically restricted sequences of
words ”26. According to this definition, only recurring sequences that are grammatically well –
formed can be considered as colloca tions.

22 Mitchell, T. F. – Linguistic “Going –on”: Collocations and Other Lexical Matters Arising on the Syntagamatic
Record. In J. R. Firth, Principles of Firthian Linguistics . London: Longman, 197 5
23 Ibidem
24 Greenbaum, S. – Some verb -intensifier collocations in American and British English . American Speech, 49 (1,2),
1974
25 Pawley, A., & Syder, F.H. – Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Nativelike selection and nativelike fluency. In J.C.
Richards, & R.W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication , New York: Longman, 1983
26 Kjellmer, G. – Some thoughts on collocational distinctiveness . In J. Aarts, & W. Meijs (Eds.), Corpus linguistics:
Recent developments in the use of computer corpora in English l anguage research . Amsterdam: Rodopi.Lehrer,
1984

27
On the other hand, Renouf and Sinclair demonstrated that the collocations of
grammatical words offer an appropriate basis for studying collocations, since “co-occurrences in
the language most commonly occur among grammatical word s”27.
Benson, Benson and Ilso n compiled the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English , a
dictionary of English collocations which includes more lexical items and a less detailed
grammatical and lexical treatment.
To conclude, the semantic and the lexical composition approaches are restricted to the
study of a small n umber of collocations (usually “verb noun ” and “adjective noun ” collocations).
Because they exclude d grammatical words from their scope, they event ually achieved only
limited results.
The structural approach, on the other hand, examines more patterns of collocations,
includes grammatical words in the study of collocations, and provides a framework for the study
of collocations that is feasible and systematic.

2.PHRASAL VERBS
2.1. Classification of phrasal verbs
Quirk et al. classify multi -word verbs into “semi idiomatic ” and “highly idiomatic ”
constructions. Phrasal verbs like bring up (‘rear/raise of children ’), come by (‘acquire ’), turn up
(‘make a n appearance ’) are considered “highly idiomatic ” phrasal verbs as “there is no
possibility of contrastive substitution: bring up/down; come by/past/ through; turn up/down ;
etc.”28. Phrasal verbs such as find out (‘discover ’), cut up (‘cut into pieces ’), slacken off (‘reduce
pace/energy ’) are “semi -idiomatic ”, that is “constructions which are variable but in a more
limited way ”29 because the verb meaning is retained, but the particle meaning is less easy to
isolate. Other “non-idiomatic ” constructions like bring in/out, take in/out , walk up/down, run
up/down are not classified as multi -word verbs as “the individual meanings of the components
are apparent f rom their constancy in p ossible substitutions ”30, suggesting they are free
combinations rather than phrasal verbs.

27 Renouf, A., & Sinclair, J. McH. – Collocational frameworks in English . In K.Aijmer, & B. Altenberg (Eds.),
English corpus linguistics studies: Studies in honour of Jan Svartvik , London: Longman, 1991

28 Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J. – A comprehensive grammar of the English language , New
York: Longman, 1985
29 Ibidem
30 Ibidem

28
Celce -Murcia and Larsen -Freeman categorize phrasal verbs into three semantic
categories: literal, idiomatic and aspectual.
Literal phrasal verbs have a transparent meaning and their elements appear to maintain
much of their meaning. For example the meanings of sit and down in sit down can be
easily retrieved by combining the meaning of each of the elements ( sit + down ).
Idiom atic phrasal verbs , such as figure out (‘solve ’), are difficult to deduce, because the
regular meanings of figure and out are lost and the meaning of the phrasal verb does not
have any connection with the individual meanings of the verb root and the partic le.
Aspectual phrasal verbs contain particles, which contribute consistent aspectual
meaning to the verbs, and these aspectual phrasal verbs are further subdivided into
“semantic classes depending on the semantic contribution of the part icle”31. Th eir
subdi visions of aspectual phrasal verbs include inceptive, continuative, iterativ e and
completive phrasal verbs.
Inceptive aspectual phrasal verbs signal the beginning state of an action, such as set
up, start out , and take off, set out, star t up. Continuative phrasal verbs can be divided into four
groups, depending on the particle that is attached to the verb: the particles on and along are used
with activity as in hurry along, carry on, and play along ; the particle away is used with activity
verbs as in sleep away and dance away ; the use of the particle around to indicate the activity that
has no purpose as in goof around and play around ; and the particle through is used with an
active verb to indicate an activity from beginning to end such a s read through and think through.
Iterative phrasal verbs use the particle over to indicate a repetition in an activity as in do over
and write over . The completive phrasal verbs include the particles up, out , off and down to show
that the action is comple te: these particles can change activity verbs (e.g. drink, burn, turn) into
accomplishment verbs (e.g. drink up, burn down , turn off ). Apart from that, these particles can
also be used to emphasize a goal -oriented activity, such as wind up, fade out , and cut off.
Particles such as out, over and up are used to indicate a longer time duration in achieving
something, as in find out, check over, and catch up.
Cobuild Collins in the Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs classifies all phrasal verbs into fo ur
main types, the meanings of which range from highly unpredictable to reasonably predictable
ones.

31 Celce -Murcia, M., and Larsen -Freeman, D., – The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course . Boston: Heinle
& Heinle, 1999

29
1. The combinations the meaning of which cannot be understood from the meaning of their
components, e.g.: go off (explode), put off (postpone), turn down (reject ).
2. The combinations in which the verb is always used with the particular preposition or adverb,
and is not normally found without it, e.g.: refer to, rely on.
3. The combinations where the particle does not change the meaning of the verb, but is u sed to
suggest that the action described by the word is performed thoroughly, completely, or
continuously. For example, in spread out, the verb spread has its basic meaning, and the
adverb out adds the idea of direction and thoroughness. In link up, the pa rticle up adds an idea of
completeness to the idea of connection. So, in such combinations the particles intensify the
meaning of the verbs.
4. The combinations where the verb and particle both have meanings which can be easily
understood, as in come out ( leave the place), go up (move to a higher position). However, come
out has 18 other meanings , and go up also has 12 other meanings, which cannot be easily
understood from the meanings of the verbs come, go and particles out, up .
Regarding the origin of the particle that follows the main verb, Rosemary Courtney in
Longman Dictionary of Phrasal verbs distinguishes three types of phrasal verbs:
1). Verb+ adverb as in: The old lady was taken in (‘deceived ’) by the salesman.
2). Verb+ prepositi on as in: She set about (‘started ’) making a new dress.
3). Verb+ adverb+ preposition as in: I cannot put up with (‘bear’) him because he is always
complaining.
On the other hand, in point of transitivity, The Oxford English Grammar
distinguishes seven types of phrasal verbs in English: intransitive phrasal verbs ( give in) ;
transitive phrasal verbs (find out) ; monotransitive prepositional verbs (look after) ; doubly
transitive prepositional verbs (blame something or someone) ; copular prepo sitional verbs ( serve
as); monotransitive phrasal – prepositional verbs (look up “to respect ”); doubly transitive phrasal
prepositional verbs (put something down to someone “attribute to ”).
So far, this classification is the most comprehe nsive because other grammarians
divide phrasal verbs into transitive and intransitive.
In traditional grammars, an intransitive verb is an action verb that takes no object.
One common type of multi -word verb is the intra nsitive phrasal verb consisting of a
verb plus a particle such as: sit down (“The teacher asked the students to sit down ”), take off
(The plane took off at 7 p.m. ”), turn up (“He didn ’t turn up for class today ”) etc.

30
A transitive verb is a verb that takes both a subject and an object. Therefore, phrasal
verbs are transitive when they take a direct object: bring over (“She is bringing over all her
friends! ”), call off (“They called off the wedding ”) etc.
Some combination s such as drink up, give in can be either transitive or intransitive,
with or without a difference in meaning. With most transitive phrasal verbs, the particle can
either precede or follow the direct object: Mum turned on the light / Mum turned the light o n. But
it cannot precede personal pronouns: She turned it on and not *She turned on it.
According to Heaton , phrasal verbs offer convenient means of making intransitive
use of transitive verbs by the addition of a particle. “A verb may be transitive by itself and yet
produces with a particle an intransitive phrasal verb. Give is normally transitive but give up is
intransitive in the following sentence: Unsuccessful attempt to scale the north face of the
mountain, the climbers gave up and w ent home. ”32
Alexander, in Towards a Definition of “Phrasal Verb ” properly distinguishes four
types of phrasal verbs with different characteristics as follows:
Verb + preposition (transitive) : The preposition cannot be separated from the v erb, and not all
phrasal verbs in this type allow passive construction. For example:
A-Non-idiomatic examples: believe in , approve of .
B-Idiomatic examples: get over (recover), run into (meet by accident).
Verb + particle (transitive) : The particle here ca n be separated from the verb, as all transitive
verbs allow passive construction. For example:
A-Non-idiomatic examples: drive away , cut down and call out . (Alexander stresses that the
particle here and strengthen the verb ’s effect.).
B-Idiomatic examples: bring up the children and bring off a deal .
Verb + particle (intransitive) : This type of phrasal verbs does not allow passive construction
and thus cannot be followed by an object. For example:
A-Non-idiomatic examples: hurry up and move out .
B-Idiomatic examples: break down (collapse) and die away (become quiet).
Verb + particle + preposition (transitive) : The passive construction is not possible here and
this must be followed by an object. For example:
A-Non-idiomatic examples: come down from and stay aw ay from .
B-Idiomatic examples: look up to (respect) and run out of (use up).

32 Heaton, J. B. – Prepositions and Adverbial Particles , Hong Kong: Peninsula Press, 1985, p.110

31

2.2. Phrasal verbs and idiomaticity
Phrasal verbs are considered one of the most difficult structures for ESL/EFL
students to acquire. . The reason is that some phrasal verbs have an idiomatic meaning, which is
usually defined as the fact that “the meaning of the complex unit does not result from the simple
combination of those of its constituents ”33
This analogy of phrasal verbs as “idiomatic ” that is as being “idioms ” can be
misleading, especially from the point of view of ESL/EFL acquisition. First of all, if the words
“idiom ” and “idiomatic ” are used inadequately and without careful definition, the impression can
be created that phrasal verbs ar e not part of the core of standard English and that they are
therefore dispensable from the point of view of ESL/EFL learners in the same way as slang
words and various colloquial “expressions ” are. Furthermore there is the danger that labelling
phrasal ve rbs as idiomatic will encourage students to regard these items with reluctance and find
them difficult to manage. Such a perspective is unfortunate and unnecessary: the syntax of
phrasal verbs can easily be explained to anyone who understands basic grammat ical
terminology; and any semantic mystery suggested by the “idiomatic ” label can quickly be
eliminated by pointing out that to say a phrasal verb is idiomatic is just another way of saying
that the words that make it up have lost their own meaning and, to gether, created a new one.
Phrasal verbs vary in the strength of their idiomaticity. For example, the phrasal verb
take off , meaning “humorously imitate ” is strongly idiomatic that is, it would be impossible to
guess its meaning from a kn owledge of the meaning of its components. By contrast, put off
meaning “delay ” is moderately idiomatic; and speed up , meaning “suddenly accelerate ” only
slightly so. (Its meaning could be quite easily guessed by knowing the meaning of its
components, but i t still has a unique meaning.)
Even though they are idiomatic, many phrasal verbs do make a certain amount of
sense, depending on the understanding of the particle. A single particle can have a multitude of
meanings, and the meaning of a phrasal verb like blow up depends a lot on which meaning of up
is chosen. For example, up can refer to increase ( “freshen up ” = incre asing freshness); to
movement ( “boil up ” = move about in a chaotic way ); or not to be in bed asleep ( “stay up ” =
remain awa ke and out of bed). In the case of blow up, “up” can be understood as relating either

33 Arnaud, P., & Savignon, S. J. – Rare words, complex lexical units and the advanced learner , in J. Coady & T.
Huckin (Eds.) Second language vo cabulary acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997

32
to increase (as a fireball increases), or to movement (for chaotic movement of air). “Up” in blow
up, on the other hand has nothing whatever to do with staying awake and out of bed.34
It is the particle that changes the meaning of a phrasal verb. For example, the word
break usually means a sudden stopping, bursting, or loss of function. But the phrasal verb break
up means to end a personal relationship (up-completion), while break up means to happen
suddenly (out= appearance). 35
Referring to metaphors only, in order to describe non -physical, not special events and
relationships (time, emotions) all languages use metaphors taken from the p hysical world. And
this is particular ly the case of phrasal verbs which often have both a physical and a metaphorical
meaning, sometimes even several metaphorical meanings, depending on the context in which
they are used. (E.g. She made up a story; She mad e up her face.)
In almost all cases, having the capacity to ev oke the physical image will help in the
discovering the metaphorical meaning.
Phrasal verbs have a figurative meaning. An underlying metaphor will usually he lp
the comprehension of their meaning. If we take into consideration the verb blow up for example ,
the metaphor compares the movement of air created by a bomb to the movement of boiling water
in a kettle. In addition, blow up is frequently used in a figura tive sense, as in the following
sentence: ‘The issue of the councilman ’s overspending blew up once the newspapers ran the
story. ’ “Here the sudden public revelation and subsequent discussion of the councilman ’s
overspending is compared to an explosion ”36.

2.3. Distinction between phrasal verbs and other types of group -verbs
In English there is a very large amount of verbs made up of a verb and a particle,
generally, although they can have other combinations too. We can divide them in the following
groups:
1. phrasal verbs , such as bring about, call up, make up, catch on, draw up, set out, stand
out, step down , etc.
2. prepositional verbs , such as account for, allow for, listen to, wait for, look for, look
after, feel like, think of, concentrate on, etc.
3. phrasal -prepositional verbs , such as catch up with, ,fell up to, get o n with, look up to,
go in for, put down to , etc

34 Denison, David – English Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions , London and New York: Longman, 1986
35 Ibidem
36 Denison, David – English Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions , London and New York: Longman, 1986

33
The vital thing to recall is that a multiword verb is still a verb. “Look ” is a verb.
“Look up ”, is also a ver b – a different verb. “Look ” and “look up ” are two different verbs. They
do not have the same meaning, and they behave differently from a grammatical point of view.
Here is an example of three types of multiword verb formed from a singl e-word verb:
verb definition example
single -word verb look direct your eyes in a
certain direction You must look before
you leap.

multi –
word
verbs phrasal look up search for and find
information in a
reference book You can look up the
word in a dictionary.
prepositional look after take care of Who is looking after
the baby?
phrasal –
prepositional look
forward
to anticipate with
pleasure I look forward to
meeting you.

Phrasal verbs are a combination of a verb and a member of a closed set of adverbs.
The most common verbs forming phrasal verbs are put, take, look, get, bring, go, come, wake,
give … The most common adverbs are down, up, in on, out, off, back, forth, over , etc… The
structure of a phrasal verb is:
verb + adverb

34

Prepositi onal verbs are the combination of a verb and a closed set of prepositions.
In these verbs, it is necessary to make a clear distinction between a “prepositional verb ” and a
“verb with a prepositional complement ”. For example, the following sentences appear very
similar in their structure:
They went into the house (verb + prepositional complement)
They went into the problem (prepositional verb)
The structure of a prepositional verb is:
verb + preposition

The following a re some examples of prepositional verbs:
prepositional verb meaning example sentence
direct object
believe in have faith in the existence of I believe in God.
look after take care of He is looking after the baby.

Preposi tional verbs cannot be separated , that is we cannot put the direct object
between the two parts. For example, we must say “look after the baby ”. We cannot say “look the
baby after ”.

35
Because the forms of the particle and the preposition ar e identical it is easy to confuse
phrasal verbs with prepositional verbs, so a distinction between preposition and adverbial
particles is needed .
Quirk Randolph illustrates five major differences between prepositions and adverb
particles :
1. A preposition cannot be placed after the object, while the adverbial particles of phrasal verbs
can generally precede or follow the object.
Example: He disagreed with his interlocutor and not He disagreed his interlocutors with.
She turned off the stove or She turned the stove off.
2. A pronoun always precedes the adverbial particle of a phrasal verb and always follows a
preposition.
Example: She turned it off and not She turned off it.
He disagreed with her and not He disagreed her with.
3. An adverb can be placed between a verb and its following preposition, but It is not the verb of
the phrasal verb construction and its adverbial particle
Example: He broke completely with his girlfriend and not He broke completely up the party
4. A W.H. – interrogative or relative can sometimes be preceded by the preposition of a
prepositional verb, never by the particle of a phrasal verb.
Example: With whom did he disagree? – The person with whom he disagreed.
In whom did he take? – The person in whom he take
5. The particle of a phrasal verb is stressed and receives the nuclear stress when it is in final
position. The preposition of a prepositional verb is typically unstressed and receives the tail of a
nuclear stress in final position:
Example: Who (m) did he disagree with?
Who (m) did he take in?
Some verb + particle combinations can function as both phrasal and prepositional
verbs, although the meanings are different in the two cas es.
Example: His former friends turned on him. (prepositional verb).
They turned on the right (phrasal verb).
I came across these letters by chance, (prepositional verb).
Her voice comes across very well, (ph rasal verb).37

37 Greenbaum, Sidney, Quirk Randolph – A University Grammar of English. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman House,
1973.

36
Also s emantically, phrasal verbs can have more than one meaning. For example, the
phrasal verb make up can have the following meanings: end a quarrel ; invent a story, an excuse ;
use cosmetics or put together, compose
The phrasal -prepositional verbs are a combination of a verb, an adverb and a
preposition (or a phrasal verb + preposition). They are usually non -transitive verbs. The structure
of a phrasal -prepositional verb is:
verb + adverb + preposition
The following are some examples of prepositional verbs:
phrasal -prepositional
verb meaning example sentence
direct object
put up with tolerate I won ’t put up
with your attitude any
more!
look forward to anticipate with
pleasure I look forward to seeing you again.
run out of use up, exhaust We have run out
of milk.

37
Because phrasal -prepositional verbs end with a preposition, there is always a direct
object . And, like prepositional verbs, phrasal -prepositional verbs cannot be separated .
2.4. Approaches to the study of phrasal verbs
One of the most debated issues in the area of English vocabulary is the mastering of
phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are and will always be a difficult subject to be taught, lear ned and
studied causing confusion and frustration. There are different approaches to studying phrasal
verbs as follows:

2.4.1. The Syntactic Approach
Among those who study English phrasal verbs from the perspective of syntactic
nature, Quirk ’s Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language is the most representative
one. Phrasal verbs are called as “multi -word verb ”, composed of “verb + adverb ”, “verb +
preposition ”, and “verb + preposition + adverb ”, representing an indivisible whole co ncept.
Based on whether verbs are intransitive or transitive, and whether verbs and particles can be
separated or not, the particles in the phrasal verbs are divided into three categories by Quirk et al.
The syntactic approach focuses on the structure of phrasal verbs and makes it easier
for ESL/EFL students to comprehend the structure and encouraging them to realize the
importance of phrasal verbs.
The syntactic approach , on one hand, overemphasize the significance of the learning
of structures but on the other hand, pays little attention to the acquisition of the meanings which
is also an essential part for ESL/EFL students .
Obviously , there were little effective learning strategies to master phra sal verbs at
this period because of the lack of attention on semantic features of phrasal verbs.

2.4.2. The Semantic Approach

Traditional semantic approaches to the meanings of phrasal verbs generally consider
them to be arbitrary and idiosyncr atic. Fräser claimed that particles do not contribute to the
meaning of phrasal verbs: “we are assuming here that there is no need to associate any semantic
feature with the particle, only phonological and syntactic features ”38. Furthermore , he ass umes

38 Fräser, B. – The verb -particle combination in English . In Taishukan studies in modern linguistics , New York:
Academ ic Press, 1976

38
that there is no obvious way of predicting the effect that the addition of the particle has no
meaning in a verb particle construction, which in his view is an idiom, and components of
idioms have no meaning.
In “The Phrasal Verb in English ” Bolinger identifies two features that the particle in
the core meaning of the phrasal verb must contain : position movement and result landmark .
Bolinger shows a lot of interest on the semantic features of particles in especially their ability t o
convey, depending on the situation, either a directional or resultant meaning.
By means of the semantic research and by investigating the sem antic meaning of
phrasal verbs, linguists discovered that , in some situation s, particle car ries more semantic w eight
than that of a verb in several phrasal verb s.. But, they did not initiate a further research on how
the particles work in common phrasal verbs and did not give a complete understanding of the
connections between particles and the whole meaning of phrasal verbs.

2.4.3. The Cognitive Approach
Cognitive linguistics is founded on the theory of language use and it has a
representative impact in the field of applied research such as language acquisition, foreign
langua ge learning as well as foreign language education.
Among the best representatives of this approach is Lindner, who in her doctoral thesis
A Lexico -Semantic Analysis of Verb -Particle Constructions with Up and Out analyzes the corpus
inclu ding more than 1,800 phrasal verbs with “up” and “out” and suggests that phrasal verbs,
such as pass out or turn up , can be semantically analyzed. She also demonstrates the systematic
connections of each item in a phrasal verb, arguing that all the items o f phrasal verbs sharing the
same particles, literal or metaphoric, are correlated with one image schema, influencing the
whole meaning of phrasal verbs.
The cognitive studies on phrasal verbs focus on the semantic meaning of particles
from cognitive perspective. These studies indicate the fact that the particles of phrasal verbs may
carry more meanings than the verbs. Such an indication plays an important role in analyzing the
overall meanings of phrasal verbs especially the sense expansio n from the cognitive linguistics
and provides a better comprehension of English phrasal verbs, especially the English polysemous
phrasal verbs, which were considered arbitrary and unanalyzable.
From the ESL/EFL teaching and le arning phrasal verbs point of view, the cognitive
approach helps to improve the teaching methods and reduce the pressure of language learning.

39

2.4.4. The Communicative Approach
In “Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching ”, Richards a nd Rogers advance
the idea that the origins of Communicative Approach can be found in the language teaching
system of England, which dates from the 1960s. The Communicative Approach was an attempt
to eliminate such threatening factors in ESL/EFL classro oms as the threat of the all -knowing
teacher and of competing against peers which can cause a feeling alienation and inadequacy.
Brown says that the teacher allowed the learner to determine the type of conversation and to
analyze the foreign language induc tively. In the situations in which explanation or translation
was almost impossible, it was the learner who became a counsellor to aid the motivation and
capitalize on essential motivation.
By using the communicative approach in language teaching, learners are exposed to
phrasal verbs from a very early stage in their learning and they try to make the others understand
them by communicating in the target language though they are not competent in the target
language. During their first ESL/E FL lessons students describe their daily routine and are
exposed to phrasal verbs such as wake up , get up as lexical items. Much of classroom l anguage
includes phrasal verbs such as listen out (for teacher ’s indications) , take out (a pencil or paper ),
turn to (a page in the book) etc. In these early stages phrasal verbs do not cause many problems
because they are relatively clear as their meaning is literal or the context in which they are used
is very clearly understood . As learning continues ESL/EFL stude nts come across more complex
forms such as catch up with …, look forward to …, come up with … and even though they
understand them and can use such phrasal verbs in controlled situations, they tend to avoid them
in freer situations and conversations .
There cannot be provided a logical pattern or formula for learning phrasal verbs
because their meanings are idiomatic, and even more , many phrasal verbs have more than one
idiomatic meaning as f or example the phrasal verb get away , which has the following meanings:
a – To go away from a place. ”I cannot wait to get away from the city ”
b- To avoid being caught ; to escape: “The thieves managed to get away in a stolen car ”
c- To not be criticised or punished for (something): “Ann is such a liar; I can ’t understand
how she gets away with it ”
The “what to teach ” aspect of the communicative approach stressed the significance
of language function rather than focusing solely on grammar and vocabulary. A guiding
principle was to tr ain students to use these language forms appropriately in variety of context and

40
for a variety of purposes. “The ‘how to teach aspect ’ of communicative approach is closely
related to the idea that language learning will take care of its self and that plent iful exposure to
language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it are vitally important for students ’
development and skill ”.39

39 Harmer, Jeremy – How to Teach English (3rd Edition) , Longman, 2007

41

CHAPTER III

WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY IN CONTEX

1. PRESE NTATION

The first predominant method of teaching ESL/EFL was the Grammar -Translation
Method deriving from the procedures used for teaching Latin and developed from the need to
systematize foreign language teaching for school children. Its main aims were to enable students
to read classical literature and pass standardized exams. Students were not expected to be able to
speak the languages they were studying; they were only expected to profit intellectually from the
learning. Students we re given extensive grammatical explanations in their own language and
bilingual vocabulary lists which they had to memorize in order to be able translate classical texts.
In this method vocabulary was introduced mainly as a way of illustrating a grammar po int and
when vocabulary difficulties arose, they were usually addressed by means of etymology.
According to Steinberg & Sciarini, the gra mmar translation method “ has enjoyed and continues
to enjoy acceptance in many countries around the world ”40, principall y in countries where
language teachers are non -fluent and the classes are very large. Despite its advantages and the
fact that it was widely used in Europe and America well into the twentieth century, the method
was severely criticised , because it disregar ded “realistic, oral language ”41 and it focus ed on
language analysis instead of the usage of language.
As a consequence, by the end of the nineteenth century a use -based method
emphasizing listening was introduced: the Direct Method . According to Zimmerman , explicit
grammar teaching and translation were set aside, while students were expected to learn English
through the sa me process as native speakers . They would listen first, and then speak, and only in
later stages would they learn to read and write. Vocabulary was considered to be acquired

40 Steinberg, Danny D.; Sciarini Natalia V. – An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (Paperback) , Taylor Francis Ltd,
United Kingdom , 2006
41 Zimmerman, C. B. – Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruct ion. Second Language Vocabulary
Acquisition, Ed. J. COADY & T. HUCKIN.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997

42
through interactions in the classroom by asking and answering questions. Specific words were
taught using pictures, mimic, and realia (real objects) while associations of ideas were used to
teach abstract vo cabulary . But this method also had its flaws : teachers were not always proficient
in the target language and failed giving students the input needed. Moreover, unlike L1
acquisition, in L2 acquisition students only have a few hours of exposure t o the target language
per week. which was not nearly enough.
During the Second World War, it became clear that the approaches above did not
manage to form competen t users of the target language because t he American military realised
they lacked people who were fluent in foreign languages and needed a teaching program that
could train the soldiers rapidly in oral skills. Structuralist linguist Charles Fries developed a
method based on behaviourist principles (forming language habits) and on the Direct Method
(emphasizing listening and speaking) which was first called the Army Method and later known as
Audiolingualism. In this method Zimmerman explains that new words were only introduced in
drills, and vocabulary was thought to be acquired na turally through good language habits. It was
also suggested that beginners should not learn too much vocabulary to prevent a false sense of
security .
The behaviourist ideas of habit formation were severely attacked in the 1950s by
Choms ky, who claimed that language was partly innate and governed by abstract rules .
As Zimmerman presents in “Historical trends in second language vocabulary
instruction. Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition ” as a reaction to Chomsky ’s notion of an
autonomous ling uistic competence, Hymes advanced the concept of communicative competence ,
emphasizing the relevance of social interaction to langu age learning, from which a new
approac h was developed: The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Even though it is a
meaning -based approach, vocabulary is again given a secondary status. In the communicative
approaches students are encouraged to guess from context, use monolingual dictionaries, and
avoid translation.
Krashen & Terre ll in The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom
developed The Natural Approach which was intended to help beginners in achieving the ability
to communicat e orally in the classroom. Its “ methodology emphasizes comprehensible and
meaningful input rather than grammatically correct production‟42. Vocabulary, as relevant

42 Zimmerman, C. B. – Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction. Second Language Vocabulary
Acquisition, Ed. J. COADY & T. HUCKIN.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997

43
language input, is considered essential to the acquisition process. As for more a dvanced students,
Krashen suggests reading a s the best way to develop extended vocabulary knowle dge.
Although treated separately in most teaching methods, grammar and vocabulary are
fundamentally linked. Lexical patterning is proven to exist on a much larger scale than ever
imagined, making it difficult to separate grammar from lex is. Some authors give lexis an even
greater role, and are the advocates of a lexical approach. According to Richar ds & Rodgers, this
approach is “ derived from the belief that the building blocks of language learning and
communication are not grammar, funct ions, notions, or some other unit of planning and teaching
but lexis, that is, words and word combinations ”43.
The most common approach to vocabulary learning at the moment focuses on
memorizing individual words and studying their definit ional meanings. Teachers explain and
analyse the meanings of words in class. Tests on vocabulary use multiple choice exercises, in
which students are asked to identify the word from a given set that is closest in meaning to the
word tested. Some students m emorize lists of words from dictionaries, or memorize words listed
together. For most of the time, both teachers and students tend to neglect common words and
their combinations considering that by knowing their basic meaning is enough.
“For one thing, we have come to understand that it is easier to learn and remember
vocabulary when it is presented within a context, rather than in a list or in a set of flash cards.
Context means the other words in a text which surround the unknown words, and also the non –
linguistic situation in which the words are used. The familiar aspects of the linguistic and non –
linguistic context contribute their own meanings and set up associative links. This makes it
possible at least to guess at the meaning of unkn own words and later to recall their meanings by
mentally associating them with the context in which they were first seen. ”44
Learning vocabulary words outside of the context in which they are used prevents
students from understanding how that words function within the framework of the language. If
teachers want their students to understand a word, encouraging them to know its context , or
circumstances, is essential.
One of the keys to teaching new vocabulary words is repetition . Students have to use
the word many times before they fully grasp its meaning. Another key is context . Seeing the
word used in writing and using the word itself helps students learn the meaning. Motivation is

43 Richards, J.; Rodgers, T. – Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching , Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2001
44 TEFL/TESL: Teaching English as a foreign or second language , Peace Corps, INFORMAT ION COLLECTION
& EXCHANGE, Manual M0041, 1989

44
also important because students should enjoy rather than dread vocabulary work. Inserting fun
activities into vocabulary teaching increases student motivation.
It is also essential to teach students strategies for inferring the meaning of unknown
vocabulary from the context i n which it occurs. Encouraging students to memorize long lists of
words or look up unknown words in a dictionary proved to make the reading process slow and
tedious and does not contribute to the actual learning of vocabulary. There are plenty of
exercises which can improve students ’ skills in inferring meaning from context such as cloze or
gap exercise in which words are deleted from a text, words -in-context exercises and context
enrichment exercises.
Monsell, in his work Repetition and the lexicon, suggests that there are the following
benefits of teaching vocabulary in context: first of all, by determining the meaning of a word in
context, students develop strategies like anticipating and inferring. Secondly, by regularly
encountering new vocabulary items in context, students realise the fact that the words are
actually used in discourse for communicative purposes. Lastly, all the factors mentioned before
contribute to the students ’ autonomy in mastering ESL/EFL and facilitate the trans fer of
knowledge that accompanies it.
Among the numerous vocabulary learning strategies, guessing from context is held to
be the most useful one. Texts and contexts can have a powerful influence on the students ’
vocabulary growth. Howeve r, some studies indicate that learners seldom guess the correct
meanings but learning words through such technique is a long -term process in which meanings
are slowly but steadily accumulated . Teachers guide students to use this strategy effectively and
give them opportunities to practis e the skill in class. Also teachers reduce “decontextualized ”
vocabulary learning activities in class (e.g. word lists, flashcards) and realise more “partially
contextualized ” (e.g. word association, visual and aural imager y, semantic mapping) or “fully
contextualized ” activities (e.g. reading, listening, speaking, and writing in authentic
communication activities).
Nation maintains that “incidental learning via guessing from context is the most
important of all sources of vocabulary learning ”45. Also, when guessing, knowledge of the
subject being read, or knowledge of the conceptual structure of the topic play an important role.
Clarke and Nation present an inductive five -step approach to guess, including:
“Step 1. Find the part of speech of the unknown word.

45 Nation, I.S.P. – Learning vocabulary in another language . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001

45
Step 2. Look at the immediate context of the unknown word and simplify this context if
necessary.
Step 3. Look at the wider context of the unknown word. This means looking at the relationship
between t he clause containing the unknown word and surrounding clauses and sentences.
Step 4. Guess.
Step 5. Check the guess. ”46
There are several ways to check the guess:
“1. Check that the part of speech of the guess is the same as the part of speech of the unknown
word.
2. Break the unknown word into parts and see if the meaning of the parts relate to the guess.
3. Substitute the guess for the unknown word. Does it make sense in context?
4. Look in a dictionary. ” 47
All le arners come across words they don ’t know, and because It is impossible to carry
a dictionary all the time or to look up every unknown word, a well trained student knows how to
make a good guess about the meaning of an unknown word by considering the word i n context.
When coming across an unknown word, phrase or reference in a selec tion, context clues can help
in figuring out the meaning.
In relation to the following two subchapters Kruse suggests five strategies for teaching
written vocabu lary in context:
“Word elements such as prefixes, suffixes and roots : Recognizing component parts of words,
words families is of great value because it is one of the most significant vocabulary skills the
students may need. It also decreases the number of new words they will encounter and increases
their control of the English lexicon.
Pictures, diagrams, charts : Students may relate the illustration with the item that is difficult to
understand.
Clues of definition : Students must be taught to notice many ty pes of useful definition clues like
parenthesis or footnotes, synonyms and antonyms.
Inference clues from discourse : Students can benefit from example clues, summary clues and
experience clues to infer the meaning from the context.
General aids : This inclu des the function of the word such as noun, adjective, etc.

46 Clarke, D. F. and Nation, I. S. P., – Guessing the meanings of words from context: Strategy and techniq ues,
System , 8(3), (pp. 211 -220), 1980.
47 Nation, P. and Coady, J. – Vocabulary and reading . In R. CARTER AND M. McCARTHY, eds. Vocabulary and
Language Teaching , London: Longman, 1988

46
Being another suggested way, teaching vocabulary by definition simply requires providing
students with the explanation provided by monolingual dictionaries. ”48

2. TEACHING COLLOCATIONS IN CONTEXT

Students having to memorise endless lists of single words in isolation, is still a common
practice in many ESL/EFL classrooms. This kind of practice leads to a superficial, surface -level
knowledge and it sta nds in the way of meaningful vocabulary learning, which is the key to
progress. As a result of rote learning, learners may transfer incorrect forms from their native
language (negative transfer). Hill maintains that teachers should raise their students ’ awareness
of collocations and encourage learner autonomy because acquiring competence in collocations is
a long process. Students should be sensitive to noticing collocations in language. Noticing is a
key term in the lexical approach as it plays the role of transforming input into intake, which
according to Michael Lewis is “perhaps the most important of all methodological questions ”49.
He insists that “exercises and activities which help the learner observe or notice L2 more
accurately ensure quicker and mor e carefully -formulated hypothesis about L2, and so aid
acquisition, which is based on a constantly repeated Observe – Hypothesise – Experiment cycle ”
50. It is worth mentioning tha t all four skills can be practis ed in this way: reading and listening
help lear ners notice collocations while writing and speaking activitie s provide opportunity to
practis e.
Every time students learn new English vocabulary along with context they will
automatically remember what other words collocate with the word s they learn. For example, if
they came across a new way of using the verb ”to bear ” probably they heard this word used in
context, in the phrase “please bear in mind ” – meaning ”please remember ”. So if they learn this
new English word ’s ”to bear ” meaning as part of a collocation “bear in mind ” they will be able
to use it naturally because It is easier to learn new vocabulary as part of collocations than on
their own.

48 Kruse, A. – Vocabulary in Context ., ELT Journal , 33 (3), 1979
49 Hill, Jimmie; Morgan Lewis and Michael Lewis – Classroom strategies, activities and exercises , In Teaching
Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach , ed. Michael Lewis, Hove: Language Teaching
Publications, 2000.
50 Ibidem

47
One of the biggest mistakes ESL/EFL learners make is that they learn new vocabulary
words separately by memorizing them. This technique proved to be ineffectual because most of
the words learn this way cannot be used for communicative purposes. The lack of contextual
associations inhibits the students ’ ability to use English wo rds in daily, usual conversations due
to the fact that they did not acquire them as part of naturally occurring collocations.
If for example students learn all meanings of “to bear ” translated into their mother
tongue , every time they speak they will have to translate the particular sentence from their own
language and they would have to pick the corresponding English words in the process. It is going
to take a whole lot more time compared to using a ready -to-go phrase like “bear in mind ”.
Improving their English contextually by learning collocations, students acquire fluency, which
enables them to speak using word combinations rather than sticking separate words together.

48
2.1. Classroom activities to help secondary school students with collocations

Hill states that in order to acquire collocations efficiently, language learners shoul d be
presented with authentic texts. “One of the best examples is a newspaper article, which is
extremely rich in collocations. Seeing how language is really used is a great motivating factor for
learners ”51.
The following text can be incorporated in an activity during an ESL/EFL class as a
way of teaching collocation with natural material:

Travelling in London: staying safe (London Transport, 1998)
General advic e
Smoking is not permitted on the Underground or on buses. Please keep personal be longings with
you at all times to avoid delays caused by security alerts. (Abandoned luggage may be
destroyed.) Be aware that pickpockets operate in busy areas. Please take note of all safety notices
and in the unlikely event of an emergency follow the ins tructions of our trained staff. Travelling
is easier and more comfortable outside of the busy “rush hour ”: 0800 -0930 and 1700 -1800
Mondays to Fridays.
Lifts and escalators
Keep loose clothing and luggage clear of lift doors. On escalators take extra care with children.
Pushchairs and buggies should be folded. Be careful when stepping on or off an escalator,
especially when carrying luggage.
Platforms
Do not stand near the edge. NEVER try to pick up any belongings that have fallen onto the track,
as it i s electrified. Staff will assist you.
Trains and buses
NEVER obstruct doors or try to get on or off as the doors are closing. Mind the gap between the
train and platform edge when entering or leaving a train. Only get on or off when it is stationary
at a bus stop.

51Hill, J. – Revising p riorities: From grammatical failure to collocational success. InM. Lewis (Ed.), Teaching
collocation: further developments in the lexical approach . London: Language Teaching Publications, 2000

49
The authentic text used here is an extract from a travel information pamphlet issued
by London Transport in 1998, which informs passengers of advice to stay safe while travelling in
the London area.
Teachers can help students learn collocation using this material in various ways. First,
before showing the text, teachers can ask students to find suitable verbs to complete sentences,
such as “take” in “( ) note of all safety notions ” and “( ) care with children ” and als o “get” in “( )
on and off trains ”. After this activity, students can read the text and check the answers. Then
teachers can combine this task with a grid exercise, and help students to look further into the
verb “take”, and introduce other collocates of “take”, including “an exam ”, “a photo ”, “a
shower ” and “a bus/train/plane/taxi ”. In addition, teachers can encourage students to keep a
record of common collocations.
Likewise it is essential how students record collocations. This must be made in a n
organised way. As Lewis says: “If you want to forget something, put it in a list ”52. He suggests
that the best organising principle is using topics and semantic fields. Later these collocation
journals will be much more useful for learners than t extbooks.
Jimmie Hill, Michael Lewis and Morgan Lewis present general and specific
classroom activities, which centre on collocation. These could easily be incorporated into lessons
to raise students ’ awareness of English word combinatio ns, provide practice and encourage
learner autonomy:
 “Students read or listen to a text, and they have to find some collocations which centre on
a topic.
 Students are given a list of words and they have to find what collocates with them in the
text.
 Studen ts have to do a gap -filling collocation exercise based on the text.
 Students have to do a matching exercise based on the collocations which occurred in the
text.
 Students have to find the odd one out in a list of words, which can be combined with
another w ord.
 Students are given a word, and they have to brainstorm as many collocates as they can.

52 Hill, Jimmie; Morgan Lewis and Michael Lewis – Classroom str ategies, activities and exercises . In Teaching
Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach , ed. Michael Lewis, ), Hove: Language Teaching
Publications, 2000.

50
 Students get a list of words which collocate with one word; they have to guess the
headword.
 Students read a text and then they have to summarise it orally using co llocations.
 Students have to translate sentences / short texts containing collocations.
 Students have to spot the errors in a text. ”53

3. TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS IN CONTEXT
Considering that the introduction of the phrasal verbs should ta ke place during
advanced classes is such a big mistake ESL/EFL teachers commonly make. If we come to think
about it thoroughly ESL/EFL students come across phrasal verbs contextually since the
beginning of their classes: “Good morning, class! Please sit do wn!”- this is how all teachers start
their lessons; “Thank you, you may go back to your seat! ” – this is what all teachers ask their
students to do after they have completed a task at the blackboard; “Open your books, turn to
page… , pick up your pens and write down the questions, please! ” – are basic instructions
teachers use in their classes. So, teachers start teaching phrasal verbs even though this is not their
specific intention and the context offered by everyday ESL/EFL classrooms gives students the
opportunity to acquire such an important part of language!
First of all, teachers should start avoiding teaching phrasal verbs in alphabetical lists,
because even though one big advantage of this method is that it is thorough and compreh ensive,
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 ”54.
By using this method many students know the phrasal v erb from a list, but then fail to use it or
recognize it in their conversations with native speakers. Lists can be useful, but “it may be
difficult to transfer this knowledge from the written page to your active knowledge ”55.
A useful app roach to teaching phrasal verbs is presented by Andrzej Cirocki: the
“text/ context method ”. He claims 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 th eir exact
meaning and to see whether they are transitive or intransitive, separable or inseparable. In this
way, the context contained in the passage becomes a kind of a background formed to serve as a
context through which new phrasal verbs are presented and explained. Employing such a

53 Ibidem
54 Dainty , Peter – Timesaver Phrasal Verbs and Idioms: Pre -intermediate – Advanced , College, 2002
55 Ibidem

51
technique, the meanings of various phrasal verbs should become clearer and easier to
comprehend. Students acquire phrasal verbs more efficiently 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 ”56
Thornbury suggests that phrasal verbs “are best learned on item -by-item basis, and
preferably in short contexts that demonstrate their syntactic behaviour ”57. According to
Thornbury, phrasal verbs should be acquired like the rest of the lexis by providing meaningful
context, exposure, and recycling. He also encourages teachers to provide texts that have high
frequen cy of phrasal verbs in them.
R. Wyss, sates that phrasal verbs which are presented to students in lists that are void
of real or relevant context, will not stimulate students to learn them. In his opinion students
“need a meaningful con textual background with which they can associate target lexical items ”58.
Even though teaching phrasal verbs in context is increasingly recommended, teachers
should make sure that students understand the meaning of the new phrasal verbs, by means such
types of exercises like fill -in-the-blanks exercises that could enable students to memorise them
much better and also present them in new contexts.

3.1. Classroom activities to help secondary school students with phrasal verbs
Cirocki, in his article “Teaching Phrasal Verbs my Means of Constructing Texts ”
proposes a classroom activity which he considers to be very efficient, in which teachers may ask
their students to read a text, he gives as example a text entitled “Hotel Blaze Escape Drama ”, in
which a few phrasal verbs can be spotted. While reading the text students get to know new
phrasal verbs whose meaning and function are explained in the context. Thus, they can be learnt
in a natural way. The text constitutes a kind of a background for the new phrasal verbs and
serves as a context, through which new phrasal verbs can be presented and explained. However,
teacher should make sure that the meaning of these phrasal verbs is clear. If it is not, teachers
should provide st udents with other contexts so that they could guess the meaning, which makes
students remember new phrasal verbs much better.

56 Dainty , Peter – Timesaver Phrasal Verbs and Idioms: Pre -intermediate – Advanced , College, 2002
57 Thornbury, Scott – How to Teach Vocabulary, Harlow: Longman, 2002.
58 Wyss, R. – Teaching English Multi -Word Verbs Is Not a Los t Cause After all , ELT Newsletter, 2002 5 January
2011 http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/March2002/art902002.html

52
Another activity worth trying is based on providing students with a particular topic
and associating it with ph rasal verbs. For instance, teachers may ask their students to write a
letter to a friend talking about their problems with a certain topic, such as studying for example.
While writing such a letter students “have a possibility to make use of phrasal verbs of the
following type: get down to, keep on with, take down, fall behind, put off, get through, catch up
with and many others “59.
Or teachers can present a text with sentences containing new phrasal verbs
highlighted to promote noticing , and encourage students to recognise the form and deduce the
meaning. Meaning can be checked with a definition matching exercise and form can be checked
with questions that refer directly to the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs.
Contr olled practice involves completing sentences or gap fills using sentences from the original
text. This can be followed by a freer practice, where learners are encouraged to respond to
questions containing the phrasal verbs.
In order to ma ke students write fully authentic texts, the teacher ’s task is to propose
an interesting topic. Also, teachers should 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 t hat 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 ”60.
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 les son and work on integrating the
language in another lesson. This strategy 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 teachers “give each s tudent 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. At the next lesson, Shelley maintains that,
each student reads out the phrasal verb followed by the three definitions. The class stand up and
listen to 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

59 Cirocki, A. – Teaching Phrasal Verbs my Means of Constructing Texts. ELT Newsletter, 2003 2 February 2011
http://www.eltnewsletter.com/column/shtml .
60 Ibidem

53
their hands on the heads and sit down. They are out for this round. Those still in stand up again
and the student rea ds 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! ”
61
Subrahmanian Upendran in his article “Teaching Phrasal Verbs Using Songs ’ states
that when teaching phrasal verbs many songs can provide meaningful contexts for learning
phrasal verbs. This idea is depicted through the use of the first four lines of the song “Another
Day in Paradise ” by Phil Collins: “first of all, students were provided with 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 determ ine 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 t he teaching of
phrasal verbs, I will 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 a nswers 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 was (calls) “out”, “on”, “off”, and “up”. Students were asked the meaning of
phrasal verbs. W hen 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?

61 Vernon, Shelley – How to Teach Phrasal Verbs t o ESL Students, November 2007 12 Jan. 2011,
http://teachingenglishgames.blogspot.com/2007/11/how -to-teach -phrasal -verbs -to-esl.html .

54
The meaning of each phras al 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 alongsi de 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 are ready to begin looking through your notes in the short
break before the next class. You have a test on that class. Su ddenly 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 you get to the meaning, 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 meetin g.
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 t he
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: peo ple 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 o nly remembered the meaning of the phrasal verb but also where
and how it should be used ”62
Another activity which can be utilized by ESL/EFL teachers when introducing
phrasal verbs can begin from a story in which several phrasal verbs ar e incorporated, just like the
following one:

62 Upendran, Subra hmanian – Teaching Phrasal Verbs Using Songs , The Internet TESL Journal, 7.7 (2001). 15
January 2011 , http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Upendran -PhrasalVerbs.html .

55
House hunting

I really admire my cousin Tim. I ’ve always looked up to him as someone I can
go to for advice. He is currently looking for a new house and asked me to help him. He spent all
of the weekend looking through the newspapers. Monday morning we looked at some
possibilities just outside the town. He was looking for a bargain but I told him to look out for
hoses which needed a lot of repairing. . All the houses we saw were quite pricey so we looked
into the possibility of getting a mortgage from the bank. In the end we managed to find the
perfect house and my cousin is really looking forward to moving in . It was pricey but I think my
cousin will look after it well.
pricey : exp ensive ; a bargain: something at a really good price ; a mortgage: a loan to buy a
house
Teachers can write each of the phrasal verbs from the story on a piece of card, large
enough for all the students to read. The verbs should be writt en in their infinitive form. The
activity can unfold as follows:
1. Teacher reads out the story to the class slowly using gestures and miming to help meaning.
Teacher places a phrasal verb on the board every time one is encountered.
2. After each paragraph teacher invites students, to repeat the story alongside the teacher.
3. Once the entire story has been presented teacher groups students in pairs and, using the cards
on the board as prompts, invites students to tell each other the story. Teacher monitors and after
they have all tried to say the story invites them to tell you it themselves without you receiving
any help from the teacher.
4. Keeping the students in pairs teacher hands out the cards so that each pair gets about 5 or 6
each. Working together the students have to make up a very short story using the verbs. The
same verbs from the story should be used. They can write the story down if they want.
5. When they have finished students have a few minutes to remember their story so that they can
tell it to somebody without looking.
6. When the students have finished swap partners and take it in turns to tell their story. The
students should not be looking at their stories just remembering them. The listener can listen out
for which phrasal verbs are b eing used.
7. For consolidation/revision teacher can make a matching verb and definition exercise with
some verbs:

56

to look up to someone to wait with anticipation
to look forward to to value someone ’s opinions
(especially someone older)
to look for to try to find

57

CHAPTER IV
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

As an English teacher I have come to realise that the development of an adequate
ESL/EFL vocabulary, written or spoken, requi res more than a dictionary. During the last school
year I focused my teaching materials on vocabulary acquisition and I have discovered that
students often struggle with vocabulary acquisition mainly because of the following obstacles
they have to overcome :
First of all, my students have often become frustrated with the large number of words
they needed to learn and considered the size of the task to be overwhelming;
Secondly, students were confused because of the dif ferences between spoken and
written English. My goal was to teach vocabulary which would help students acquire fluency and
conversational skills, but I have come to realise that the vocabulary of written English that
students encounter in textbooks and oth er school materials, is very different from that of spoken,
especially conversational, English, somewhat due to the fact that speakers have a variety of
communicative tools at their disposal (gestures, tone of voice, facial expression) that are not
availab le to writers ;
Thirdly students have three main sources of information about words: dictionaries,
word parts, and context, which are all very useful, but also have proven to be problematic.
In spite of the fact tha t using the dictionary is a practice I, as a teacher, try to
accustom my students with since early Primary School, the last school year revealed to me an
alarming fact: many of my students did not know how to use a dictionary effectively. Traditional
instruction in dictionary use focuses on having students look up words and use information from
the definitions they find to write sentences. This kind of instruction appears to produce only a
superficial understanding and rapid forgetting of a word. Young stud ents often had difficulties in
interpreting the information in definitions, especially when it came to how the word is used in a
sentence. After thoroughly examining the errors made by students who wrote sentences based on
dictionary definitions of new wor ds, I came to the conclusion that as others stated this activity is
“pedagogically useless. ” Furthermore, students had difficulties in choosing the appropriate
meanings from a dictionary entry for an unknown word.

58
After studying vocabula ry teaching techniques I have tried to base my teaching
materials on students ’ ability to use word parts (prefixes, suffixes, and roots) to interpret new
words, an ability which can contribute greatly to vocabulary growth. Nevertheless, word parts
are not a completely reliable source of information about word meanings. For example, pairs of
words such as casual/casualty, emerge/emergency, sign/resign, sign/design, awe/awful , share
recognizable parts, but they are not clearly related in meaning.
By teaching vocabulary in context, which is also the purpose of this paper, students
acquired a great deal of vocabulary knowledge as they picked up the meanings of words from
context as they read widely in appropriately challenging texts, but, the chance of learning the
meaning of any particular word from one encounter with that word in context proved to be rather
slim and the need to encounter a new word numerous times in order to be accumulated emerged.
Lastly, I have come to realise the complexity of word knowledge. Even though oral
and written repetition proved to be an effective technique when acquiring basic vocabulary,
simple memorization is not enough. Conventionally, when we talk about knowing a word, we
mean knowing its definition. But knowing a word ’s definition is not the same thing as being able
to use that word in speech and writing or to understand a text in which the word appears. In the
conventional form of a definition, the definition first identifies the cate gory to which a word
belongs, and then describes how the word differs from other members of that category. The
problem with conventional definitions is that they do not always help students to learn word
meanings and can even cause confusion and misuse. Indeed, the shortcomings of using such
definitions to learn words can be seen in the sentences students write after they have read them.
To know a word, students need to encounter it in context and see how its meaning relates to the
words around it, and h ow it relates to the other words that might have been used in its place.
Students cannot possibly learn this information from a dictionary definition alone.
Instead, they need to see the word in many different contexts, to see how the wor d’s meaning
changes and shifts.
Most ESL/EFL students have a deficit in second language vocabulary and teachers
have a limited time for direct instruction. In this regard, it is important for teachers to develop
creative methods to expose their students to vocabulary in many ways that develop and reinforce
word meaning throughout the class as well as in and out -of school settings. This can be done by
using technology, additional reading texts and games for students that provide incentives for
students to listen for new words or previously taught words outside the vocabulary lesson; one
can also use word walls to display the target vocabulary.

59
Secondly, some ESL/EFL teachers have a difficulty in choosing whether to
concent rate on developing vocabulary or promoting extensive reading. Students need sufficient
vocabulary to read effectively, while at the same time extensive reading is a necessary
component for acquiring a sufficient vocabulary. One should support and complemen t the other
rather than contrast each other.
Thirdly, there is a lack of formative assessment in many of the ESL/EFL classes. It is
important that lexicon is a part of the evaluation component of the English for academic
purposes classro om. Standard assessment tools such as quizzes, tests, vocabulary finders and
crosswords should be included in the formative and summative assessment process. When
students see comparable, but not identical materials included in the evaluation instruments, their
significance as a learning tool is sustained.
Finally, it is important for English language learners to have an extensive knowledge
of the breadth and depth of words. When students will have an understanding and a foundation
of bot h, they will be able to use various registers, as circumstances require. This will also
immensely increase their lexical competence. For ESL/EFL teachers, it is important to use
multiple modes for creating comprehensible input and output. ESL/EFL teachers should
constantly remember that their students have not yet developed their English language
proficiency to a level where they can understand all the oral and written information they
encounter in English for academic purposes classroom, hence the importan ce of effective
vocabulary teaching strategies.

4.1 Main problems young learners have with collocations, and how teachers can
help minimize collocation errors
Learning collocations seems to be an uphill task for second language learners , even at
an advanced level. Collocational appropriacy is an innate skill for native speakers and it can be
problematic for learners in cases where collocability is language specific and does not seem
solely determined by universal semantic constraints. Ac cording to Benson et al. many
“collocations are arbitrary and non -predictable ”63 and non -native speakers of English find them
very difficult to deal with unless they have “a guide ”. Even a native speaker sometimes has to
refer to some reference point before deciding which word collocates with a word he/she wants to
use.

63 Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. – The BBI combinatory dictionary of English: A guide to word combinations .
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1986

60
Lombard explains that “collocations are difficult constructions for non -native speakers
because collocations follow some constraints that are completely unmarked for non -native
speakers unless they are aware ”64. In other words, collocations cause difficulty or confusion
because there are no clear -cut guidelines for non -native learners to help them decide which
combinations are acceptable and which ones are simply unacceptable
There have been several attempts to categorize ESL/EFL students ’ problems with
acquiring collocational competence and it has been established that the factors contributing to
this problem are the negative transfer (taking into consideration the fact that some human
situations are similar and different languages have parallel fixed expressions that are
syntactically and semantically similar, because of the particularity of each culture , fixed
components which are inserted in these expression s differ across languages. Thus distinct
expressions may cause a negative transfer from students ’ mother tongue, especially when they
perform translation tasks. Not having enough knowledge in collocations, they rely heavily on
their mother tongue as the on ly resource. For example, Biskup collected interference errors made
by Polish and German learners of English (Polish interference errors: to state a record instead of
to set a record and German interference errors: to lead a bookshop instead of ’ to run a
bookshop) , overgeneralization (when the item does not carry any obvious contrast to students
and they make use of a deviant structure in place of two regular structures on the basis of their
experience of the target language. For example, using the collocat ion I am worry about instead
of I am worried about when students probably know both idiomatic expressions I am worried
and I worry about but are unable to distinguish the two clearly) , ignorance of rule restrictions
(which are the result of analogy and in ability to observe the limitations of the existing structures.
For example, ask you a favour is a false analogy of the construction of verb+ object+ object), and
the misapplication of synonyms (using of a synonym for a lexical item in a collocation is a
common error among students who assume that related words are complete synonyms and can
be used interchangeably as for example look for a work instead of look for a job ).
Another probable reason for the difficulty with collocation s, as Shok ouhi argues,
could be that ESL/EFL students tend to learn words individually or in isolation, without paying
any attention to the relations that words have with one other. F or instance, as Shokouhi
mentions, “although many EFL learners appear to know the m eanings of big, heavy and smoker,

64 Lombard, R. J. – Non-native speaker collocations: A corpus -driven characterization from the writing of native
speakers of Mandarin. Unpublished doctoral dissertation , University of Texas, Arlington, Texas, 1997

61
they produced strings like big smoker instead of heavy smoker ”65 . Such problems occur because
of the arbitrary and unpredictable nature of collocations, because collocation demands that one
word is used rather than another in particular contexts, and this idiomaticity often defies any
logic. For example, one can say: commit or perpetrate a crime , commit or perpetrate a fraud .
However, one can only say commit suicide and not perpetrate suicide ; commit a sin , and not
perpetra te a sin ; similarly, hold a funeral , but not hold a burial .
In this regard, Flowerdew concludes after an examination of the KWIC (key words in
context), that even though students have a proper knowledge about the key lexis their
acquainta nce with the naturally occurring environment in which the word usually occurs is
limited. As a result, “learners produce many wrong utterances such as:
• This butter is sour . (rancid)
• My tea is very powerful (strong)
• Flocks of cows (sheep)
• The enemy used a fatal weapon (lethal)
• Herd of sheep (cows) ”66
As I have stated before, during the last school year as a research material for the
present paper I focused my vocabulary teaching materials on presenting and using collocations
and ph rasal verbs. As far as collocations are concerned I have discovered the following
difficulties experienced by my students when acquiring and using such structures:
1- Many students experience intralingual problems : for example, instead of doing homework ,
they might incorrectly use making homework .
2- Many students did not understand the collocational concept. They only understood the basic
meaning of a word and did not know which words it would go with. Thus, they were not able to
produce any collocation.
2- Students make negative transfer from their mother tongue: for instance, the tendency to say
close the light instead of turn off the light .
3- Some students overgeneralized rules of collocations, for example, the use of prepositions in
phrasal verbs, co nsidering that put off your coat is the opposite of put on your coat .

65 Shokouhi, H., & Mirsalari, GH. – Collocational Knowledge versus General Linguistic Knowledge among Iranian
EFL Learners. Teaching English as a Second or foreign language. [Online] Available: http://tesl –
ej.org/pdf7ej52/a7.pdf(September 16,2010) The Electronic Journalfor English as a Second Language. Volume (13),
4, 2010
66 Flowerdew, L – A corpus based -analysis of referential and pragmatic errors in students' writing, Hong Ko ng
University of Science and Technology, 1999

62
4- The words that were learnt through definitions could not be used by students in proper
contexts, because they could not remember their appropriate collocations.
5- Students failed i n making sense of many idioms, especially because they did not have a
similar Romanian equivalent. For example piece of cake (=very easy), to rain cats and dogs (=to
rain heavily) or an arm and a leg (=very expensive) do not make sense because if students try to
translate them as such, their meaning is severely altered.
6- Many students read texts and do not recognize collocations as meaningful phrases, thus their
understanding of the text is significantly damaged.
ESL/EFL students make collocational errors because of the interference of their
mother tongue, lack of the collocational concept, the interlingual or intralingual transfer,
paraphrase and their shortage of their collocational knowledge. These can be the possible reasons
for exp laining why ESL/EFL students frequently make unacceptable collocations in their
writing.
Thus, the teaching and learning of collocations for production reasons is essential for
ESL/EFL students and teachers should promote the teaching of collocations from the initial
stages of English language learning.
To conclude, in order to help students use collocations effectively and appropriately
and in order to minimize their collocation errors, teachers must raise students ’ awar eness of
collocations as early as possible. Teachers should explain the potential benefits of collocations in
learning English, which would arouse the students ’ interest and motivation to learn collocations.
It is believed that with more capability in usin g collocations, the anxiety of using the language
would probably be reduced.
They can also present new words in the company of their most typical collocations in
the form of example sentences.
To reduce negative transf er, teachers can provide collocation instruction with
bilingual focus.
Teachers must also challenge their students with practical activities in order to help
them notice collocation patterns in language and so become more autonomous lear ners.
Teachers should also be very patient because acquiring collocational knowledge can
take a considerable time and teacher s as well as students will not see instan t results. However, in
the long term, constant practice cannot only increase students ’ vocabulary and the degree of
accuracy with which they use it, but it can also develop their abilities to notice collocation
patterns in language and so become more auton omous learners. According to Schmidt , “what

63
language learners become conscious of … what they pay attention to, what they notice …
influences and in some ways determines the outcome of their learning ”67.

4.2. Why are phrasal verbs difficult as pects for young learners and how can
teachers help minimize phrasal verbs errors ?
Not only the nature of phrasal verbs themselves but also the teaching approaches used
by ESL/EFL teachers to present them to their students are believed to be the major causes of
learners ’ difficulty in dealing with phrasal verbs.
In Helping students sort out phrasal verbs , Blau, Gonzales, and Green divide
student s’ problems with phrasal verbs into semantic or vocabulary problems and syntact ic or
word order problems. As far as the semantic problem is concerned , they observe that students
often do not consider the two – or three -word verb as a lexical unit with a special meaning and
furthermore, when phrasal verbs do not occur in their mother t ongue. Students also overlook the
importance of the particle of the phrasal verbs, especially when a single word in their first
language can convey the meaning. As a result , “it is common use to skip the particle or the final
component and come up sentence s like: Turn the stove or Pick the laundry , instead of Turn on
the stove and Pick up the laundry ”68. The syntactic problem is caused by the placement of
objects in relation to the particle which causes confusion on whether certain phrasal verbs are
separabl e or non -separable. Celce -Murcia and Larsen -Freeman outline this aspect by bringing
into discussion “the condition of optional and obligatory separation of the transitive phrasal verb
turn out :
a. Turn out the lights.
b. Turn the lights out.
As the direct object is expressed as a noun, as illustrated in a. and b above, placing
the noun object after or before the particle is syntactically possible. In other words, when the
direct object is a noun, the separation is optional. On the other h and, as shown in c. and d. below,
when the direct object is a pronoun, the separation is obligatory and it must necessarily be placed
between the verb and particle.
c. Turn them out.

67 Schmitt, Norbert – Vocabulary in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press , 2000
68 Blau, E. K., Gonzales, J. B., & Green J. M. – Helping students sort out phrasal verbs . In H. F. John (Ed.),
Selected art icles from the TESOL newsletter, 1986 -1983, Washington, DC: Teachers of English to Speakers of
Other Languages, 1983

64
d. Turn out them. ”69
Celce -Murcia and Larsen -Freeman al so claim that phrasal verbs are odd and
troublesome for ESL/EFL learners especially because of the lack of phrasal verbs in non –
Germanic languages. Therefore, overusing single -word verbs where a phrasal verb is more
appropriate, is a common practice. For e xample, they say, “I arose early this morning instead of
I got up early this morning ”70. Both sentences make sense to a native speaker, but, the second
one is more appropriate in spoken discourse.
Because the meaning of many ph rasal verbs is not transparent, sometimes it is
impossible to interpret them by combi ning the meaning of each part. F or example, chew out,
tune out, catch up, and put off are considered to be idiomatic. Cornell claims that phrasal tend to
be problematic because of t he phenomenon of polysemy. He describes that “a combination of a
particular verb and particle may be polysemic in having both an idiomatic and a non -idiomatic
use as well as having more than one idiomatic use. An idiomatic phrasal verb such as put up can
be used with different meanings:
He put us up for the night.
Who put you up to this?
He put up a good fight .”71
Sinclair in his paper “Corpus Concordance Collocation ” noticed that the co –
occurrence of two quite common words can unexpecte dly create a genuinely new meaning that
does not seem to be systematically related to either or both of the original words. In many cases,
even though students may be familiar with both the verb in the phrasal verb and with the particle,
they may not under stand the meaning of the combination, since it can differ greatly from the
meanings of the two words used independently, hence the conception that phrasal verbs are a
difficult aspect of language. For example, make and up are very common words encountered by
students from their first weeks of learning English, and yet the combination make up is not
transparent and its meaning is difficult to guess.
Besides, the fact that multi -word verbs are often polysemous, also adds to their
complexity. Consider make up, a relatively common phrasal verb. The Macmillan Phrasal Verbs
Plus dictionary gives 9 meanings of it:
“1. invent an explanation for something

69 Celce -Murcia, M., and Larsen -Freeman, D. – The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course . Boston: Heinle
& Heinle, 1999
70 Ibidem
71 Corn ell, A. – Realistic goals in teaching and learning phrasal verbs . IRAL, 23 (4), 1985

65
He made up some excuse about the dog eating his homework.
2. invent a story or poem
That was a good story. Did you make it up?
3. combine together to form a whole
Women make up 40% of the workforce.
4. prepare or arrange something
I’ll get the pharmacist to make this prescription up for you.
5. make an amount or a number complete
I’m paying £500 and Dave is making up the difference.
6. become friendly with someone again after having had an argument
They argue a lot, but they always kiss and make up.
7. do work you did not do before
Sorry, I ’m late. I ’ll make up the time tonight.
8. produce something from cloth
She bought some fabric to make up a jacket.
9. decorate your face
She takes a long time to make up her face in the morning.
In addition, we can find three phrases with make up as well:
make up a bed ~ put sheets and covers on a bed so that it is ready for someone to sleep
I’ve still got the beds to make up.
make up the numbers ~ be at an event so that there are enough people there
They invited the girl next door to dinner, just to make up the numbers,
make up your mind ~ make a decision
I haven ’t made up my mind which bus to take.
What is more, make up can function as a noun in three different meanings: substances
that people put on their faces (Some women wear no make -up at all.); the people or things that
combi ne to form something (Does this group reflect the make -up of society as a whole?) and the
way that words and pictures are arranged on a page before a newspaper, magazine or book is
printed (You cannot add a single word without changing the page make -up). Besides, in its past
participle form, it is often used attributively as an adjective, having the meaning imaginary or
false, e.g. a made -up story or wearing make -up on your face, e.g. her lightly made -up face”72.

72 Rundell, Michael – Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus , Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2005

66
On the other hand, Cornell states that students can deduce the meaning of non –
idiomatic phrasal verbs if the verb element is known. For instance, “if the learner knows the verb
to rush or to steam , s/he can easily understand the meaning of to rush away or to steam off ”. 73
Phrasal verbs also tend to be difficult because while native speakers have an
unconscious knowledge of phrasal verbs which allows them to coin new phrasal verbs and
understand phrasal verbs they have never encountered before, such understanding cann ot be
expected from ESL/EFL learners who can be confused when they come across new phrasal
verbs. Side clearly exemplifies this theory in the following example: “If I tell somebody to bog
off, that person is well aware that what I am saying has nothing to do with bogs and everything to
do with beating a retreat ”74, however, an ESL/EFL student can be confused when being told to
bog off.
From my own classroom experience with phrasal verbs I have realized that my
students, are often not only af raid to use phrasal verbs, limiting their vocabulary consequently
and substantially, but they do not recognise them in context as they have a tendency to process
words individually. Because they are not singular in part, can take different forms and have
levels of idiomaticity, phrasal verbs cause significant comprehension difficulties.
Most of the time students fail to notice phrasal verbs, rather assuming that the
meaning of each part is literal, leading to a mistranslation of phrasal ve rbs that have a level of
idiomaticity.
One-syllable verbs like make , get, take, go, put and prepositions or adverbs such as
in, on, up, down , for, out, over are structures which students encounter since their first lessons .
These word s are very easy to understand when used in isolation and sentences such as My father
takes me to the Zoo every summer or The cat climbed up the tree cause no difficulties at all. The
big challenge is when they are used as phrasal verbs and especially when their meaning cannot
be guessed from the component parts. When most of the Vth grade students hear the
sentence Please take off your hat from your head they have little difficulty understanding what it
means; but they have problems in understanding the se ntence The plane takes off at 6 p.m. (The
plane rose into the air) and they are unlikely to have any idea of the meaning of He took off his
teacher (He imitated his teacher) . Similarly, she will no doubt understand He put a picture up ,
but how can she begi n to make sense of He put me up (He gave me a bed for the night) ?

73 Cornell, A. – Realistic goals in teaching and learning phrasal verbs . IRAL, 2 3(4), 1985
74 Side, R. – Phrasal verbs: Sorting them out . ELT Journal, 44 (2), 1990

67
Another difficulty my students faced was that they found it difficult to identify a
phrasal verb if the particle was far away from the verb in a sentence. For example the p hrasal
verb in a sentence like “It’s so old cold outside! Please put your coat on before you go out ” is
easier to recognise than “Can I use your car? I need to pick a friend of mine from summer
camp up at the airport. ”
First, of all teac hers should help their students in establishing if a verb is phrasal or
not. A verb is phrasal if the particle changes the meaning of the action. For example, in the
sentence “I dropped the glass off the tab le” the verb drop off is not phrasal because the verb (to
drop) is not altered by the preposition (off); rather, the preposition (off) describes the location of
the glass. But in the sentence “I will drop off the package at 7 o ’clock ”, it is phrasal because the
preposition (off) does not describe the lo cation of the package; rather, the preposition (off) alters
the verb (to drop). The speaker did not drop the package (to cause it to fall); rather, it is brought
to a location.
As stated before, it is important to introduce the idea of lexis appearing as ‘chunks ’
rather than individual items. Michael Lewis sustains that “The reason learners find unseen
reading so difficult is because they don ’t recognise the chunks – they read every word as if it
were separate from every other word… ”75 In my opinion this problem is aggravated by the fact
that students ’ books do not introduce phrasal verbs early enough and students are unfamiliar with
them and cannot recognise them in texts, where they may be semi or completely idiomatic.
Students need to a chieve a lexical competence and this can only be derived from a frequent
exposure, opportunities to memorise and consciousness -raising, students being introduced to the
principles of recognising and recording lexis in chunks from an elementary level.
Students should also be made aware of the fact that phrasal verbs, as polywords, are all
idiomatic, regardless of whether they could be literally translated or not. Students often have
problems when they encounter a familiar phrasal verb, but wi th a different meaning. For
example the phrasal verb put down in “He put the pen down ” is very different from the one in
“He put the dog down ”. So, students need to clearly understand that phrasal verbs, besides from
having more than one part, can have mor e than one meaning. Teachers could introduce this
theory with the help of a text in which the same phrasal verb appears several times with diffe rent
meanings, and ask students to match definitions or replace the phrasal verbs with synonyms.

75 Lewis, M. – Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach . Hampshire: Heinle Cengage
Learning, 2000

68
The “language from a text ” method proved to be extremely efficient in most of the
activities in which I have intended to introduce phrasal verbs, because language is presented
authentically and within a sentence, allowing for effective chunking. It is a lso an inductive
method which allows students to “notice ” new lexis and its form.
Students also need to be made aware that some phrasal verbs can be separated, while
others cannot. Separability can be effectively shown through sentence j umble and remodelling
exercises. Students are presented with sentences that have been cut up in to individual words and
are asked to either order them or remodel an existing sentence. Alternatively, learners could be
asked to complete an exercise where eac h new lexical item is placed in to three or four sentences
and they have to decide whether the sentences are correct or incorrect.
While doing the research for this paper, I have come to realise that phrasal verbs
should not be avoided o r omitted by ESL/EFL teachers under any circumstances. They should be
taught as they occur alongside singular words as part of lexis, which in its turn should be taught
and recorded in lexical chunks. My future teaching of this area of the language will su rely reflect
this, as well as the principle of drawing learners ’ attention to the fact that phrasal verbs, as well
as collocations carry a certain level of idiomaticity, meaning that they should be looked at
contextually rather than as individual words.

69

CHAPTER V
TESTING AND ERROR CORRECTION

Regarding collocations and phrasal verbs, after reviewing the literature on
collocation studies w hich were introduced and practis ed throughout the whole school year to my
Secondary School studen ts, I designed four data collection instruments in order to investigate the
participants ’ lexical collocations and phrasal verbs knowledge. The following four tests served as
the measurement instruments.
* Two 15 -item multiple -choice lexical collocation t est and phrasal verbs test (TEST 1 and TEST
3) which served as receptive tests
* Two 15 – item blank -filling tests (TEST 2 and TEST 4) which served as productive tests.
By means of these four tests I attempted to explore students ’ lexica l collocation and
phrasal verbs knowledge and the relationship between their collocation or phrasal verbs
knowledge and the amount of their exposure to English.
The multiple -choice tests were used to assess the participants ’ performance in lexical
collocation or phrasal verbs knowledge and, in particular, had the aim of measuring the
participants ’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocation or phrasal verbs. The sentences were
carefully screened before being chosen as the test items. This test included 15 targeted
collocations or phrasal verbs where one of the constituents of the collocation or phrasal verbs in
question was left out. Three choices were provided to the students, one being the correct
response and the other two serving as di stracters. Multiple -choice tests are one of the most
widely used methods of vocabulary assessment , one of the reasons being that they are easy to
score and, if the choices are not closely related to each other, learners can draw on partial
knowledge . The advantage of this type of task is that it is possible to investigate whether the
students ’ mother tongue influences the chosen alternatives by looking at each of the incorrect
answers. In most of the questions the distracters for each item include both co ngruent and
incongruent translation equivalents.
The scoring of accuracy was carried out: 1) by counting the correct answers; 2) by
extracting the number of wrong answers from the number of correct answers.

70
The blank -filling tests were used to measure cued production of collocations or
phrasal verbs . The sentences in English contained collocations or phrasal verbs in context. Each
sentence contained one collocation or phrasal verb . In each sentence, one part of the collo cation
or phrasal verbs was replaced by a blank and students were asked to read the sentence and
provide one suitable word for each blank from a given list.
The scoring of accuracy was carried out: 1) by counting the correct answers; 2) by
extracting the number of wrong answers from the number of correct answers.

71

TEST PAPER 1

Teacher: Belu Ana
Date:
School: Scoala cu clasele I – VIII „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade: Vth- VIIIth
Aims: – to assess the participants ’ performance in lex ical collocation knowledge
– to establish the relationship between ss ’ collocation knowledge and the amount of
their exposure to English.
– to measure the ss ’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocation
– to establish ss ’ particular existing strengths and weakne sses
– to establish students ’ lexical collocation knowledge
– to provide a general assessment of all prior learning and acquisition
Skills: reading
writing
Time: 20 ’
Classroom management: student – centred
Types of interaction: teach er – student
Materials: blackboard
handouts
Format: Multiple -Choice Items

Types of activities: individual work
Evaluation: written

72

NAME : ___________________________________ ______
CLASS : ___________

TEST PAPER

Circle the best answer from the choices (a, b, or c) to complete each of the following
sentences (0,6 points each):

1. Tom always ………………… the t ruth.
a. says
b. tells
c. pronounces

2. It was a cold morning and I could not ………….. my car.
a. start
b. begin
c. commence

3. If somebody changes his mind about a matter, he is said to have second………
a. thoughts
b. notions
c. ideas

4. Her kids used to ………. a bath every day.
a. make
b. have
c. do

5. She likes to drink a lot of……….. tea when she gets cold.

73
a. hard
b. strong
c. heavy

6. She …………………. ma ny mistakes in the test.
a. made
b. did
c. performed

7. The dress is the right size but its colour does not ………… me.
a. match
b. fit
c .suit

8. Please………….. attention to what I am telling you and start workin g harder.
a. have
b. take
c. pay

9. George drinks a lot, therefore, he is a………….. drinker.
a. heavy
b. bitter
c. strong

10. I am well aware of the generation ………… between us.
a. different
b. gap
c. distance

11. Grandma ……………… these tablets three times a day.
a. eats
b. takes
c. has

74

12. I have been………….. this business for over ten years. Do not tell me what to do!
a. running
b. making
c. conducting

13. When we go on vacation we ……. a lot of photos.
a. make
b. take
c. put

14. Don ’t eat so much ice -cream or you ’ll…….. a cold!
a. meet
b. suffer
c. catch

15. Can you …… me a favour and open the window a li ttle ?
a. make
b. do
c. show

1 point granted

75

TEST PAPER 2

Teacher: Belu Ana
Date:
School: Scoala cu clasele I – VIII „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade: Vth – VIIIth
Aims: – to measure cued production of collocations
– to assess the participants ’ performance in lexical collocation knowledge
– to establish the relationship between ss ’ collocation knowledge and the amount of
their exposure to English.
– to measure the ss ’ productive knowledge of lexical c ollocation
– to establish ss ’ particular existing strengths and weaknesses
– to establish students ’ lexical collocation knowledge
– to provide a general assessment of all prior learning and acquisition

Skills: readi ng
writing
Time: 30 ’
Classroom management: student – centred
Types of interaction: teacher – student
Materials: blackboard
handouts
Format: Blank -filling Items
Types of activities: individual work
Evaluation: written

76

NAME : _________________________________________
CLASS : ___________

TEST PAPER
Complete the sentences with a collocation from the ones listed below. Use each word/phrase
once only. (Be careful with the tense!) (0,6 points each):

1. I know you don ’t like her, but please ________________________ to be polite.
2. She a lways ________________________________ right after she arrives from school.
3. She is quite a shy person and finds it hard __________________________________.
4. I’m sure he will _______________________ one day because he is always in the centre
of attention.
5. She promised to _________________________________to get higher grades.
6. After the singer ’s performance, the presenter invited the audience to give her
__________________________________.
7. When we go for a picnic, the first thing my father does is to
________ _________________.
8. It’s easy ______________________________ of your car when the roads are slippery.
9. We usually _________________________________at our local supermarket.
10. My mother ______________________________every morning after I get up.
11. She _________ _______ a lot of _________________ on unnecessary things !
12. Taking a plane ’s more expensive, but it always _______________________________.
13. John gave his son a ___________________ to see if he was OK.
14. All the food in the menu looks delicious; I can ’t ______ __________________ .
15. It’s important to arrive at school _________________________ because your teacher
won’t allow you to enter the classroom if you’re late!
1 point granted do her best on time to lose control make an effort become successful
make a choice to make friends do the homework spend money
quick look
do the shopping light a fire
save time a round of applause make the bed

77

ANALYSIS OF THE TESTS ON COLLOCATIONS

Tests 1 and 2 – Analysis
Grade 5th – 8th – pre- intermediate to intermediate
Time – 50 minutes
Classroom management: student -centred
Skills covered: reading
Audio -visual: worksheets
Method: communicative
Type of activity: individual work
Strategies: fill in, blank -filling.

TEST 1 : Subsidiary aim: to measure the ss ’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocation
Score: 15 x 0,6 = 9 points
Answers: 1b, 2a, 3a, 4b, 5b, 6a, 7c, 8c, 9b, 10b, 11b, 12a, 13b, 14c, 15b
1 point gr anted
Descriptive statistics:
a) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 5th
Marks Number of students –
30
10 4
9 3
8 5
7 3
6 6
5 6
Below 5 3

78

b) Histogram
024
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 30

Class average: 6,86
c) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 6th
Marks Number of stud ents-
25
10 4
9 3
8 4
7 5
6 4
5 3
Below 5 2

d) Histogram
024
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 25

e) Class average: 7,22

79
f) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 7th
Marks Number of students –
18
10 1
9 3
8 1
7 2
6 4
5 5
Below 5 2

g) Histogram
024
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 18

h) Class average: 6,80
i) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 8th
Marks Number of students –
20
10 2
9 2
8 1
7 2
6 4
5 7
Below 5 2

80

j) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5below 5Number of students: 20

k) Class average: 6,35

TEST 2 : Subsidiary aim: to measure the ss ’ productive knowled ge of lexical collocation
Score: 15 x 0,6 = 9 points
Answers: 1.make an effort, 2.does her homework, 3.to make friends, 4.become
successful, 5.do her best, 6.a round of applause, 7.light a fire, 8.to lose control, 9.do the
shopping, 10.makes the bed, 11.spends___money, 12.saves time, 13.quick look, 14.make a
choice, 15.on time.
1 point granted
Descriptive statistics:
a) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 5th
Marks Number of students –
30
10 2
9 4
8 5
7 3
6 5
5 6
Below 5 5

81

b) Histogram
024
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 30

Class average: 6,56
c) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 6th
Marks Number of students –
25
10 2
9 3
8 3
7 2
6 6
5 7
Below 5 2

d) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5below 5Number of students: 25

e) Class average: 6,56
f) Numerical statistics:

82
CLASS 7th
Mark s Number of students –
18
10 1
9 2
8 1
7 3
6 3
5 5
Below 5 3

g) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below
5Number of students: 18

h) Class average: 6,22
i) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 8th
Marks Number of students –
20
10 2
9 1
8 2
7 1
6 5
5 6
Below 5 3

83
j) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5below 5Number of students: 20

k) Class average: 6,20

l) Frequent mistakes / Observations and measures
The purpose of these tests were to study the effectiveness of teaching collocations
towards the increase of vocabulary knowledge of Secondary School s tudents, to study the
effectiveness of teaching collocations towards the vocabulary retention rate and to compare the
effectiveness of teaching collocation towards the increase of each type of collocations.
Both tests were given within t he timeframe of a normal English class. Students were
not previously informed about the tests as they were not informed during the school year that the
collocations they had been introduced to were going to be tested at the end of the year.
The results of the tests showed that, overall, students, performed poorly on both tasks.
On average, students achieved 55% of the correct answers, a result that was independent of the
amount of time they had been studying the language. In other wor ds, there was no relationship
between learners ’ length of time of learning English and their collocational competence, since
some of students who had studied English for shorter periods of time performed better on the
English tests than those who has studi ed English for longer time, which proves that proficiency
in second language learning is determined by a number of various factors. Additionally, some
students got higher scores on the multiple -choice tasks but lower scores on the completion tasks,
which i ndicated a lack of consistency in their production of collocations, which is apparently
lower than their receptive skills.
Furthermore, the results have proven that students ’ capacity for acquiring and
understanding collocations does not expand in parallel with their knowledge of general
vocabulary, especially because collocations are not taught explicitly in the classroom and,
therefore, learners do not pay any attention to learning them.
In the multiple -choice test, f or example for the first collocation “tell the truth ” 42%
of the students chose the correct verb “tell” , 35% chose the verb “say” mainly because L1

84
interference and the other 23% chose “pronounce ” probably because they used their inaccurate
knowledge of c ollocations. This was also the case of “have a bath ”, “strong tea ”, “made
mistakes ”, “run a business ”, “take photos ” and “do a favour ”.
The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences between
the congruent and non -congruent collocations in favour of the congruent collocations and this
proved that there was a significant role to the mother tongue in reception and production of
collocations. The results also indicated that there were statistically significant differences
between verb -noun collocations and adjective -noun collocations in favour of verb -noun
collocations. In addition to that there were statistically significant differences between the
receptive and productive knowledge of collocations in favour of the receptive knowledge.
Based on these findings we can assert that ESL/EFL teachers should pay more
attention to collocations when teaching English.

85

TEST PAPER 3

Teacher: Belu Ana
Date:
School: Scoala cu clasele I – VIII „Mihai Tica n Rumano ”
Grade: Vth- VIIIth
Aims: – to assess the participants ’ performance in phrasal verbs knowledge
– to establish the relationship between ss ’ phrasal verbs knowledge and the amount of
their exposure to English.
– to measure the ss ’ receptive know ledge of phrasal verbs
– to establish ss ’ particular existing strengths and weaknesses
– to establish students ’ phrasal verbs knowledge
– to provide a general assessment of all prior learning and acquisition
Skills: reading
writing
Time: 20 ’
Classroom management: student – centred
Types of interaction: teacher – student
Materials: blackboard
handouts
Format: Multiple -choice Items

Types of activities: individual work
Evaluation: written

86

NAME : _________________________________________
CLASS : ___________

TEST PAPER

Circle the best answer from the choices (a, b, or c) to complete each of the fo llowing
sentences (0,6 points each):

1. I ……. at six o ’clock in the morning every day.
a) leave my bed
b) awake
c) wake up

2. I’ve been so busy with new clients that I hired new staff just to……..
a) keep up
b) upkeep
c) persist

3. I’m broke. I h ave to ……. an idea for making money.
a) put up with
b) come up with
c) get on with

4. John was ……. of school for bad behaviour .
a) kicked in
b) kicked over
c) kicked out

5. He was delighted that she hadn ’t ……. him down when he proposed to her .
a) turned

87
b) switched
c) placed

6. When the teacher asked Max for his homework, Max _______ ____ a story about his dog
eating his homework. The teacher didn ’t believe him.
a) dragged on
b) think of
c) made up

7. Before you make a big decision, you shou ld _______ it ____.
a) fill up
b) think over
c) wipe off

8. To complete the form, just _______ ____ the blanks.
a) think of
b) fill in
c) clean up

9. Please _______ ____ your own mess. We do not have maid service here.
a) clean up
b) hand out
c) look up

10. Max _______ ____ the new word in the dictionary.
a) broke down
b) looked up
c) dozed off

11. I had to call a taxi because my car _______ ____.
a) fill in
b) broke down
c) hand out

88

12. If you lend me a few dollars, I will gladly _______ you ____ next week.
a) clean up
b) pay back
c) look up

13. Please _______ me ____. I need some support on this.
a) fill up
b) back up
c) wipe off

14. The classroom was silent when the teacher _______ ____ the test papers.
a) dragged on
b) handed out
c) made up

15. W hen Bill yelled “fire,” everybody suddenly got up and __________ of the theater.
a) passed out
b) rushed out
c) kicked out

1 point granted

89
TEST PAPER 4

Teacher: Belu Ana
Date:
School: Scoala cu clasele I – VIII „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade: Vth – VIIIth
Aims: – to measure cued production of phrasal verbs
– to assess the participants ’ performance in phrasal verbs knowledge
– to establish the relationship between ss ’ phrasal verbs knowledge and the amount of
their exposure to English.
– to measure the ss ’ productive knowledge of phrasal verbs
– to establish ss ’ particular existing strengths and weaknesses
– to establish students ’ phrasal verbs knowledge
– to provide a general assessment of all prior learning and acquisition

Skills: reading
writing
Time: 30 ’
Classroom management: student – centred
Types of interaction: teacher – student
Materials: blackboard
handouts
Format: Blank -filling Items
Types of activities: ind ividual work
Evaluation: written

90
NAME : _________________________________________
CLASS : ___________

TEST PAPER

Fill in the blank spaces using separa ble or inseparable verbs from the box. Make adjustments to
the verbs when necessary. You may not repeat the verbs. There are some extra verbs. (15 pts.)

talk about call on bring up
help out work out find out
run into get up remind about
dream about wake up grow up
come back remind of get together with
bring in look for talk to
look at look after run to

1. Many women around the world are ____________________ their children on their own. They
are trying to ______ ______ things _____________ and support their families.
2. Last week I ________________________ some of my old high school classmates. We
decided to ________________________ more friends next weekend and do something fun.
3. The professor _________________ ___ the plans for this term. He ______________ us
________ the importance of practis ing English outside the classroom.
4. I asked my sister to _________________________ my kids while I was out. I promised I ’d
___________________________ as soon as I could.
5. My aunt was _____________________ some old photographs and said to me: “Jim, you
really ___________________ me ________ your grandfather. ” You are both very handsome.
6. When we were _______________________, our grandparents usually ___________ my mom
___________. My grandma cooked for us, and my grandpa played with us.
7. The loud sound of an ambulance _______________ me _________ this morning. Thank God
that happened! I was ___________________________ a monster that was chasing me.
8. When we have our Christmas dinner, everyone _____________ at the table and Daddy says a
prayer before eating.
Given: 1 point

91
ANALYSIS OF THE TESTS ON PHRASAL VERBS

Tests 3 and 4 – Analysis
Grade 5th – 8th – pre- intermediate to intermediate
Time – 50 minutes
Classro om management: student -centred
Skills covered: reading
Audio -visual: worksheets
Method: communicative
Type of activity: individual work
Strategies: fill in, blank -filling.

TEST 3 : Subsidiary aim: to measure the ss ’ receptive knowledge of phrasal verbs Score:
15 x 0,6 = 9 points
Answers: 1c, 2a, 3b, 4c, 5a, 6c, 7b, 8b, 9a, 10b, 11b, 12b, 13b, 14b, 15b
1 point granted
Descriptive statistics:
a) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 5th
Marks Number of students –
30
10 5
9 2
8 4
7 4
6 3
5 8
Below 5 4

92
b) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 30

Class average: 6,73
c) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 6th
Marks Number of students –
25
10 1
9 2
8 2
7 4
6 6
5 7
Below 5 3

d) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below
5Number of students: 25

e) Class average: 6,20
f) Numerical st atistics:

93
CLASS 7th
Marks Number of students –
18
10 1
9 1
8 2
7 1
6 4
5 6
Below 5 3

g) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below
5Number of students: 18

h) Class average: 6,00
i) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 8th
Marks Number of students –
20
10 1
9 2
8 1
7 4
6 5
5 4
Below 5 3

94
j) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below
5Number of students: 20

k) Class average: 6,30

TEST 4 : Subsidiary aim: to measure the ss ’ productive knowledge of phrasal verbs
Score: 15 x 0,6 = 9 points
Answers: 1.bringing up/work out, 2.ran into/look for , 3.talked about/reminded of, 4.look
after/come back, 5.looking at/remind___about, 6.growing up/helped___out,
7.woke___up/dreaming about, 8.gets up.
1 point granted
Descriptive statistics:
a) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 5th
Marks Number of students –
30
10
9
8 2
7 1
6 6
5 10
Below 5 11

95
b) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below
5Number of students: 30

Class average: 5,10
c) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 6th
Marks Number of students –
25
10
9 1
8 2
7 2
6 4
5 10
Below 5 6

d) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5 below 5Number of students: 25

e) Class average: 5,48
f) Numerical statistics:

96
CLASS 7th
Marks Number of students –
18
10 1
9
8 2
7 1
6 3
5 8
Below 5 3

g) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5below 5Number of students: 18

h) Class average: 5,72
i) Numerical statistics:
CLASS 8th
Marks Number of students –
20
10 1
9 1
8
7 3
6 3
5 6
Below 5 6

97
j) Histogram
05
10 9 8 7 6 5below 5Number of students: 20

k) Class average: 5,60

l) Frequent mistakes / Observations and measures
The purposes of these tests were to study the effectiveness of teaching phrasal verbs
towards the increase of vocabulary knowledge of Secondary School students, to study the
effectiveness of teaching phrasal verbs towards the vocabulary retention rate and to compare the
effectiveness of teaching phrasal verbs towards the increase of each type of ph rasal verbs.
Both tests were given within the timeframe of a normal English class. Students were
not previously informed about the tests as they were not informed during the school year that the
phrasal verbs they had been introduced to are going to be tested at the end of the year.
The results of the tests showed that most students were able to understand the main
points of causativity and the implications of the different phrasal verbs presented. Only a few
studen ts were above the average
Students were able to understand and choose the combination of most verb –
prepositions such as “up” “down ” “into” or “through ” especially : come back , go back , come in ,
sit down wake up , find out .
The bad results obtained by some other students were due to their lack of level and in
this particular case, to the fact that they did not attend the classes in the days of the introductory
activities of the phrasal verbs and because of the fact that during communicative activities in
classroom many students preferred using one-word equivalents instead of phrasal verbs. It is
however debatable if the one -word equivalents truly reflect the meaning of the phrasal verbs.
Dress up and disguise are approxi mate synonyms, where disguise suggests an intention to
deceive while dress up does not; but t he phrasal verb sail through something for example means
‘to succeed ’ and is roughly the equivalent of ‘to pass ’ when referring to an exam.

98

LESSON PLAN 1

Teacher : Belu Ana
Date :
School : Scoala Gimnaziala „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade : 5th A
Lesson : Introducing collocations
Aims : – to introduce the use of some collocational usages of the words ‘make ’, ‘do’ and
‘have ’
– to give ss practice in the use of collocations
– to enable students to use these collocations in context by writing a reply letter
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop students ’ ability to communic ate freely and spontaneously
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Skills : speaking
reading
writing
listening
Time : 50 ’
Classroom management : student – centred
Types of interaction : teacher – student
student – student
Materials : board / projector
 a reading text in the form of a letter
 game
 hand -out for recording collocations.
Methods : communica tion
Strategies : conversation
exercises
games

99
Types of activities : whole class
individual work
pair-work
group -work
Evaluation : oral

Activity 1 : Warm Up Timing : 5 ’
– T. greets ss.
– T. informs ss that they are going to play a game called “ WORD CHAIN “ : the
teacher writes a starter on the board and children take turns to add a word to either end. E.g.
KISSTOPLAYELLOW ( for this game the T will start with tha game TRIP )
Activity 2 : Presentation
– T. informs ss that they are going to talk about some structures called “collocations ” (‘to make
friends ’, ‘to make money ’, ‘to do homework ’ etc.) , which they have encountered before during
English lessons but not on a theoretical level.

Activity 3 : P ractice Timing : 40 ’

3 (a) Aims : – to introduce the use of some collocational usages of the words ‘make ’, ‘do’
and ‘have ’
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Interaction : T – ss
ss – ss
Time : 10’

– T writes the following sentence on the board: I am ………………… a coffee.
– T elicits what verbs could be put in the blank space.
– ss answer ( Expected answers: drinking, make, making, having, buying)
– T underlines the collocations
– T tries to reach a consensus that these phrases have different meanings, and we need to learn
them as phrases

100
– T ask s ss to translate the phrases into their L1 in order to realise that direct translation from L1
would not help them:
a) to make a coffee: a face o cafea.
(they might say that “a face o cafea ” is a direct translation. Therefore, T asks them if we can say
do a coffee . “Do” and “make ” have the same direct translation in Romanian: “a face ”)
b) to have a coffee: a bea o cafea. T points out that we can say to drink coffee in English, but to
have a coffee is more natural.
– T reminds ss of the letter that they had read in the previous lesson (Appendix 1).
– T tells ss that this letter contains some phrases with make, do and have.
– T asks ss to read the letter again and underline phrases in which the words make, do and have
are used.
– T displays the instruction s on the projector and does do one example with the class
– when ss finish, T asks them in what lines they have found the phrases and checks if they have
the meanings correct (ss predict the meanings by using the context of the text)
– T writes MAKE and D O on the board
– T tells them to write their answers under the correct heading on the board.
– T tells the class to check the board.
– while the meaning of each phrase is discussed, T asks them to note the forms of the phrases in
their notebooks

3 (b): Aims : – to give ss practice in the use of collocations
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 10’

– T gives ss a handout (Appendix 2) where they have to fill in the blanks with a collocation either
with ‘make ‘or ‘do’ and match the phrases to make a meaningful sentence.
– T ask ss to compare their answers with their pairs when the y finish.
– T checks ss ’ answers

3(c) Aims: – to give ss feedback
– to enable students to use these collocations in context by writing a reply letter

101
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 20’
– T tells ss to get into four small groups.
– T tells ss to write a short reply to their teacher using at least three or four new collocations they
have learnt.
– A s from at least one group reads their reply aloud. Ot her ss listen and note which collocations
they have used. They use the chart T has given (Appendix 3).

Activity 4 : Homework Timing : 1 ’

– T asks ss to write five sentences about themselves or their family members using phrasal
verbs.

102
APPENDIX 1

Dear class,
It is obvious that you are making progress with your English, and I feel really happy. Do you
remember that we talked about the factors that lead to success? It was self -discipline and self –
motivation. I ’m happy to see that you are all responsible students because you do your
homework on time and you do the exercises in your workbook. You also make an effort to
improve your English. As another good habit, you keep vocabulary journals and make a
contribution to your improvement. When you make a mistake , you don ’t give up; instead, you
try harder. So you do the right thing . I love your energy. I love the positive attitude you have
towards learning and the fact th at you always help each other, realising that there are things you
cannot do without your colleagues
Thank you for being good students. And I know that you will be very successful in the future.

Lots of Love,
Your Teacher

103
APPENDIX 2

A. Com plete the sentences with a collocation using make or do. Use each word/phrase
once only. (Be careful with the tense!)

her best an effort a contribution a choice progress without

1. I know you don ’t like her, but please _______________ to be polite.
2. She promised to _______________ to get higher grades.
3. Here ’s your coffee but I don ’t have any sugar so you ’ll have to ______________.
4. All her teachers are pleased with my little niece because she is ______________ with all
her schoolwork.
5. She ________________ to the discussion with her interesting ideas.
6. All the food in the menu looks delicious; I can ’t _______________ .

B. Match the sentences in column A with a meaningful ending in column B.
A B
1. Thank you for your h onesty. You did… a. my homework at the last minute.

2. My father got very angry when he noticed
that the waiter made… b. exercise to stay healthy.
3. Old people should do… c. a cake?

4. I hate doing… d. a mistake in our bill.

5. It tastes a bit strange. When was the last
time you made… e. the right thing by telling me the
truth.

104
APPENDIX 3

Collocations recording chart

Collocations used by each group

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

105
LESSON PLAN 2

Teacher : Belu Ana
Date :
School : Scoala Gimnaziala „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade : 8th
Lesson : Collocational fun
Aims : – to revise common collocations
– to give ss practice in the use of revised collocations
– to promote cooperative learning
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Skills : speaking
reading
writing
listening
Time : 50 ’
Classroom management : student – centred
Types of interaction : teacher – student
student – student
Materials : board
projector
notebooks
PPT game
Methods : communication
Strategies : conversation
exercises
games
Types of acti vities : whole class
individual work

106
pair-work
group -work
Evaluation : oral

Activity 1 : Warm Up Timing : 5 ’
– T. greets ss.
– T. informs ss that they are going to play a game called “Stop the bus ” as follows:
– T puts the students into teams of three or four.
– T draws on the blackboard a table like the one below and gets each team to copy it onto a piece
of paper.
– Ss simply have to think of one item to go in each category beginning with the set letter.
The first team to finish shouts “Stop the Bus! ” .
– T checks their answers and asks one ss to write them up on the b lackboard and if they are all
okay that team wins a point.
Animals Parts of the
body Fruit/Vegetables Clothes
B Bear Brain Banana Blouse

Activity 2 : Presentation
– T. informs ss that they are going to revise some common English collocations they have been
studying

Activity 3 : Practice Timing : 40 ’

3 (a) Aims : – to revise common collocations
– to give ss practice in the use of revised collocations
Interaction : T – ss
ss – ss
Time : 10’

– T writes several collocations on board: break the law, save money, hard work, flying saucer, a
business plan, chocolate mousse

107
– T informs ss that these are all examples of common English collocations and asks them to try to
explain the m eaning of the word collocation.
– T asks Ss to think of some sentences for the given collocations. SS write some of them on the
board.
– T elicits a few examples of other verbs that collocate with the words
– Ss take turns in giving examples

3 (b): Aims : – to give ss practice in the use of collocations
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’

– T projects the PPT game onto the screen.
– T divides ss in two teams (blue team and red team) and gives them the instructions.
Game rules : The game of associations consists of four hidden columns and the final solution .
By clickin g on a cell of the column, the player opens it and has a chance to guess one of the
solutions.
The player is trying to reveal the solution to the column or the final solution.
If the player finds the solu tion to a column, he has the right to guess other
columns or the final solution. If the player ’s solution to a column or the final solution is
incorrect , the other player has the opportunity to open the cells if there are unopened cells or
guess the soluti on to a column or the final solution. The winner is the player who reveals the
final solution.
– T informs ss that the solution to each column is a word that collocates with all the words in the
column. The final solution is a word that collocates with th e words that are solutions to the
columns.
– T lets the ss open fields (the blue team starts). When they choose a field, T clicks on it and
reveals the clue. The tea m that finds the final solution wins.
– T asks ss to think of some sentences for given co llocations.
– Ss write some of the sentences on the board.
– T elicits a few examples of other verbs that collocate with the word representing the final
solution.

108
3(c) Aims: – to give ss feedback
– to enable students to use the se collocations in context
– to promote cooperative learning

Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’

– T puts Ss into four groups.
– T assigns one verb (so lutions to the columns) to each group.
– T tells ss they should think of as many words that collocate with it as they can and come up
with sentences which illustrate the use.
– T asks ss to write their examples on board
– T asks ss to create word clouds out of the collocations they have thought of. (They have worked
hard, it ’s time to have fun !) ( Appendix 1)
– Ss finish their word clouds which will be displayed in the classroom.

Activity 4 : Homework Timing : 1 ’

– T asks ss to write write a story using as much collocations as they can.

109
APPENDIX 1

110
LESSON PLAN 3

Teacher : Belu Ana
Date :
School : Scoala Gimnaziala „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade : VII th
Lesson : Phrasal verbs with “GET ”
Aims : – to introduce the meaning of ten phrasal verbs with “GET ”
– to give ss practice in the use of the introduced phrasal verbs
– to promote cooperative learning
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freel y and spontaneously
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Skills : speaking
reading
writing
listening
Time : 50 ’
Classroom management : stud ent – centred
Types of interaction : teacher – student
student – student
Materials : board
flashcards
notebooks
worksheets
Methods : communication
Strategies : co nversation
exercises
games
Types of activities : whole class
individual work
pair-work

111
group-work
Evaluation : oral

Activity 1 : Warm Up Timing : 5 ’
– T. greets ss.
– T. informs ss that they are going to play a game called “Word Association ” as
follows:
– The teacher starts the game by saying a word, such as “Hotel ”.
– For example:
– Teacher: Hotel
Student A: Bed
Student B: Room
Student C: Service
Student D: Food
Student E: Restaurant
Student F: Chinese
– As you can see, any association is ok.
Activity 2 : Presentation
– T. informs ss that they are going to learn the meaning of some phrasal verbs with “GET ”

Activity 3 : Practic e Timing : 40 ’

3 (a) Aims : – to introduce the meaning of ten phrasal verbs with “GET ”
– to give ss practice in the use of the introdu ced phrasal verbs
Interaction : T – ss
ss – ss
Time : 10’
– T puts 3 dashes on the board _ _ _.
– T helps ss my m eans of gesture and mime to guess the verb (get).
– T elicits an example of a ‘get’ phrasal verb that they know e.g. get on with .
– Ss then brainstorm phrasal verbs they already know with get.
– T write the phrasal verbs on the board.

112
– Tell students that native English speakers tend to use the phrasal verb rather than the Latin
based equi valent (e.g. give out /distribute, put up with/ tolerate etc) and so they are high
frequency. Understanding phrasal verbs therefore is very important but often difficult to grasp
the meaning of a phrasal verb from their individual components e.g. put up w ith.

3 (b): Aims : – to give ss practice in the use of phrasal verbs
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’
– T tells ss they are going to read a conversation be tween two people.
– T holds up flashcards of two people and asks ss to guess their job.
– Ss guess that they are actors.
– T elicits names for the actor and actress (e.g. Peter and Susan).
– T tells ss the two actors are now working on a film together a nd are having a chat about
working on their latest film.
– T writes the following question on the board :
Are Peter and Susan enjoying working on their latest film?
– T hands out a worksheet ( Appendix 1 )and asks ss to read the dialogue and answer the ab ove
question.
– T elicits from ss that Peter and Susan are not enjoying working on their latest film.
– T asks the ss to read the dialogue again and underline all the phrasal verbs with “get”.
– after completion ss compare with their partners to check th ey have underlined the same verbs.
– T handouts another worksheet to the ss ( Appendix 2).
– T gives ss 5 minutes to complete the exercise.
– T feedbacks answers together with the ss. ( Answers: A – 7, B –8, C – 4, D – 1, E – 9, F – 10, G
– 2, H – 5, I – 6, J – 3)

3(c) Aims: – to give ss feedback
– to enable students to use these collocations in context
– to promote cooperative learning

113
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate fr eely and spontaneously
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’

– T groups ss in pairs students need one piece of and asks them to create a written conversation
similar to the dialo gue from their worksheet.
– T asks ss to write down;
1) the names of two people (students in the class, or famous people).
2) the place where these people are having the conversation
3) the topic they are talking about
– T can demonstrate the activity in f ront of the whole class with a student. T elicits where they
are having the conversation (e.g. in a zoo) and what they are talking about (e.g. wild animals).
T starts the conversation by writing down the first sentence/question, for example: “Do you lik e
animals? ”.
T passes the paper to the s who continues the conversation e.g. ”No, I can ’t actually believe you
got through to me and convinced me to come here ! How about you? ”
• Person B passes the paper to the student A. Now ask students the
following instructions checking questions about the activity:
– T asks ss to write a conversation between their two people as demonstrated. T tells ss they have
to include 6 phrasal verbs with “get” in the conversation.
– T gives ss around 15 minutes to write the co nversations.
– T monitors this task carefully paying particular attention to the ss ’ use of the phrasal verbs.
– T asks students to perform their conversations in front of the class.
– Ss perform the conversations in front of the class.

Activity 4 : Hom ework Timing : 1 ’

– T asks ss to answer the following question: How well do you get on with everyone in your
family?

114
APPENDIX 1

Read the dialogue. Are Peter and Susan enjoying working on their latest film?

Who: Peter Susan

Where: On the set of their latest film.
Talking about: working on their latest film

S: What are you getting up to at the weekend?

P: I am going out with Tom and Catherine even though I don ’t get on with t hem that well.
How about you?
S: Not much I guess. I ’m still getting over the flu. Do you think I can get away with taking
Monday off?
P: You can ask the director…. But probably not. He ’s the worst director I ’ve ever worked with.
He’s really getting at us, isn’t he?
S: Yes, I wish we could get rid of him.
P: Yes, you ’re right. I ’m glad we got out of doing that last scene today because of the bad
weather. We got off lightly for once.
S: Yes, I ’ve tried to get through to him that we are working too hard.
P: I know, but we shouldn ’t get too wound up about it. After all we are earning 17 million
each for this film.

Read the dialogue again. Underline all the phrasal verbs with get:

E.g. He ’s really getting at us, isn ’t he?

115
APPENDIX 2

Match the phrasal v erbs from the dialogue to the meaning.
E.g. A. get up to matches with 7) do

Phrasal Verb Answer Meaning
A. get up to 7) 1) be successful in something

B. get on with (so) 2) avoid something you don ’t want to do

C. get over (sth,so) 3) get angry about something

D. get away with (sth) 4) recover from

E. get at (so) 5) to experience less suffering than
expected

F. get rid of (sth,so) 6) successfully explain something

G. get out of (doing sth) 7) do

H. get off lightly 8) have a good relationship

I. get through to (so) 9) criticise someone repeatedly

J. get wound up (about 10) remove/throw away something
sth) unwanted

sth = something so = someone

116
LESSON PLAN 4

Teach er : Belu Ana
Date :
School : Scoala Gimnaziala „Mihai Tican Rumano ”
Grade : VIII th
Lesson : Teaching Phrasal verbs
Aims : – to introduce and revise the meaning of several phrasal verbs
– to give ss practice in the use of th e introduced phrasal verbs
– to promote cooperative learning
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
– to develop the sk ill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Skills : speaking
reading
writing
listening
Time : 50 ’
Classroom management : student – centred
Types of interaction : teacher – student
student – student
Materials : board
verb cards
notebooks
worksheets
Methods : communication
Strategies : conversation
exercises
games
Types of activities : whole class
individual work
group -work
Evaluation : oral

117

Activity 1 : Warm Up Timing : 5 ’
– T. greets ss.
– T. informs ss that they are going to play a game called “Last Letter ” as follows:
– The last letter of the word must be the first letter of the next word.
– T. makes a ball from a screwed up piece of paper.
– T. throws the ball t o one student and says a word, such as “dog”.
– The student must reply with a word starting with “G,” such as “girl”.
– When answered, the ball is thrown back to the teacher and it is then thrown to the next
student, who continues.
– The sequence may then be (for example):
– girl, look, king, go, octopus, student … and so on.
– You can have the students throwing to each other.
– i.e., student A = “Cat,” throw to student B = “Today, ” throw to student C = “Yes,” etc.
– SS play the game.

Activity 2 : Presentation
– T. informs ss that they are going to teach each other the meanings of several phrasal
verbs. (T previously printed out the phrasal verb cards and one copy of the worksheet for each
student. T cut out the cards so that the phrasal verb is on one side and the definition and
example sentences are on the other. The cards can be laminated them or just glued together.
Students will work in groups of 3 and teach 2 phrasal verbs each to their groups so 1 set of cards
will be needed for each group of 3 ).

Activity 3 : Practice Timing : 40 ’

3 (a) Aims : – to introduce the meaning of several phrasal verbs ”
– to promote cooperative learning
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneo usly
Interaction : T – ss
ss – ss
Time : 10’

118
– T put ss into groups of three and gives each member of each group 2 phrasal verb cards
(Appendix 1).
– T gives ss 2 minutes to familiarise themselves wit h the phrasal verbs and the example
sentences.
– Ss then take it in turns to teach their phrasal verbs to their group mates, who can ask additional
questions to clarify the use and meaning.
– T encourages the “teachers ” to think of their own example sente nces aside from the examples
on the cards so that they can personalise it.
– Also, T tells them to give their groups an opportunity to guess the meaning before they explain
it.

3 (b): Aims : – to give ss practice in the use of phrasal verbs
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously
– to introduce new vocabulary
– to develop the skill of reading / listening for general and specific information
Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’

– T invites students to come to the board and write a phrasal verb they have learnt and a
definition.
– T explains they must write one of the phrasal verbs they have just learnt, NOT one of the ones
they taught to their group.
– When all 6 phrasal verbs are written on the board, T gives ss the handout ( Appendix 1) and
asks ss analyse them in their groups using the criteria on the work sheet:
Is the meaning easy to understand from the words?
Put them in order, which one is the most useful?
Which one is the easiest to use?
Which one do you think is easiest to remember?
Which ones could you use at home/work/school/in the street/in emails/l etters?
– Ss process the items at a deeper cognitive level, thus the chances of retention are greater
3(c) Aims: – to give ss feedback

119
– to enable students to use these collocations in context
– to promote cooperative learning
– to develop students ’ ability to communicate freely and spontaneously

Interaction : T – ss
Ss – ss
Time : 15’

– T asks ss to complete t he gap -fill exercise on the handout in their groups
– T checks ss ’ answers
– T asks ss to answer the questions.
– Ss take turns in answering the questions

Activity 4 : Homework Timi ng : 1 ’

– T asks ss to support with arguments one of their answers to the questions from the handout.

120
APPENDIX 1

Do without

Definition: Manage despite a lack of
Examples: There’s no more milk , so I guess we’ll just have to do withou t.
Now that they have a regular income , they should be able to do without any help from us.
You’ll be gone for six days ? I think we can do without you for that long.

Catch on

Definition: Become popular
Examples: The Sony Walkman caught on in the 80s but it fell out of fashion in the early 90s.
Taking selfies has really caught on in a big way with teenagers.

121

Lay into

Definition: To attack physically or with words
Examples: My parents really laid into me when they found tobacco under my
bed.
The boss really laid into Sarah when the deal failed.

Butt /Cut in

Definition: To interrupt in a conversation
Examples: I hate people who butt in when I’m try ing to tell a joke.
Will you stop butting in ? You’ll have your chance to speak in a minute.

122

Lay off

Definition: dismiss employees because of financial problems
Examples: McDonald ’s has had to lay off 2000 low -paid workers in the last 6
months.
I got laid off from my job after 10 years working there.

Act up

Definition: to behave badly or inappropriately
Examples: I ’ve had a nightmare day, the kids were acting up all day.
My parents were very strict, if I ever acted up , I got grounded for a week.

123

APPENDIX 2

Look at the phrasal verb and decide:
1. Is the meaning easy to understand from the words?
2. Put them in order, which one is the most useful?
3. Which one is the easiest to use?
4. Which one do you think is easiest to remember?
5. Which ones could you us e at home/work/school/in the street/in emails/letters?

Put the phrasal verbs in the questions:
a. What do you do when people _________ when you ’re talking? Do people in your
country tend to _________ more than other nationalities?
b. What fashion trend _______ ______ when you were younger? Are they still in fashion
today?
c. What did your parents use to do when you ___________? Were they strict or lenient?
d. How long do you think you could ________________ the internet/TV/music/your
favourite food/meat?
e. Have you ever been _____________? What happened to the company? If a company is
in trouble, who normally gets _________ first?
f. What would you do it you saw two people ____________each other in the street? Would
you step in? Why? Why not?

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CONCLUSION S

This paper presents the importance of teaching collocations and phrasal especially in
context, because learning collocations is regarded as an important and crucial part in L2
acquisition. Among the benefits of learning collocations and phrasal ve rbs, we can include
improving language performance, the development of L2 vocabulary, improving communicative
competence, and enhancing language fluency towards the level of a native speaker. Moreover, it
is widely acknowledged in the English Language Teac hing literature that students need to be
introduced and encouraged to become aware of collocation and phrasal verbs in the early stages
of learning
Recent research has indicated that the main sources of collocational errors are
analogy, o vergeneralization, paraphrase, interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, shortage or
lack of collocational knowledge and ignorance of rule restrictions
A major problem for ESL/EFL students is the failure to produce collocations and
phrasal verbs in the proper order. These structures do not follow prescribed patterns or rules,
and while native speakers learn them throughout the normal acquisition process, ESL/EFL
students have to train themselves in order to produce them in the proper context. Fluency in the
foreign language is determined by automation of collocation and phrasal verbs. The more the
student is capable of producing the correct collocations and phrasal verbs, the less hesitation
pauses he makes in long sequences of words a nd consequently the more competent in the
language he becomes.
When teachers focus solely on words ’ definitions, students are less likely to be able to
use vocabulary for expression, and they miss countless opportunities to recycle words they
know.
Collocations and phrasal verbs are important, however, in terms of use, acquisition
and ultimate success in language learning and translation purposes.
In this paper, it has been stressed that the lexical c omponent of language is as
important as the grammatical aspect; it has been also emphasized the significance of collocations
and phrasal verbs in language learning.
There have been also traced collocation and phrasal verbs errors to th e neglect of
conscious teaching of collocations in ESL/EFL classrooms and suggested some ways teachers of

125
ESL/EFL can help learners to minimize collocational errors and overcome their difficulties with
phrasal verbs.
The teachers ’ role here is to realize that the process of learning a foreign language
should be not as the acquisition of new knowledge and experience, but as an additional
utilization of what the learner already knows. Secondary and figurative meanings are language
and culture -specific and this makes the role of the teacher a crucial one.
In addition, based on this research, various approaches and materials need to be taken
into account to teach collocations and to help to minimize the learners ’ errors of colloc ations and
phrasal verbs such as using grids, corpus and concordances, dictionaries,
authentic texts and also enhancing input and output tasks. Besides, the use of lexical approach to
teach collocation in ESL/EFL classrooms proved to be very efficient.
I have to admit that even though I was acquainted with it and its philosophy before I
started to do this research into collocations and phrasal verbs, the Lexical Approach had never
been my first choice in my own teaching. However, the resear ch I have conducted for this paper
made me reconsider both my own experiences of learning and teaching English: as a learner,
even though, I could communicate meaning, the language I produced was different from what a
native speaker would produce. The reas on for this was that I lacked the necessary “chunks ”,
which would make my language sound more natural. Realising this, I revised my own priorities
in teaching and made some changes taking into consideration the suggestions of the Lexical
Approach.
In conclusion, a greater emphasis on collocations and phrasal verbs in language
teaching is needed if English teachers expect their students to “find their feet ” in the language.

126
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Declarație de autenticitate

Subsemnatul/a ……………………………………………………………………………….,
cadru didactic la școala……………………….……..……………………..din
localitatea. ………………….., județul ……………………………, în scris/ă la
examenul de acordare a gradului didactic I, seria 2015 / 2017 , cunoscând
dispozițiile articolului 292 Cod penal cu privire la falsul în declarații, declar pe
propria răspundere următoarele:
a) lucrarea a fost elaborată personal și îmi aparține î n întregime;
b) nu am folosit alte surse decât cele menționate în bibliografie;
c) nu am preluat texte, date sau elemente de grafică din alte lucrări sau din alte
sursefără a fi citate și fără a fi precizată sursa preluării, inclusiv în cazul în care
sursa o reprezintă alte lucrări ale subsemnatului
……………………………………;
d) lucrarea nu a mai fost folosită în alte contexte de examen sau de concurs.
Dau prezenta declarație fiindu -mi necesară la predarea lucrării metodico –
științifice în vederea avizării de către con ducătorul științific, domnul/doamna….
………………………………………………………………………… …………..
Declarant ,
(nume, prenume )……………………………………………………
( semnătura)…………………………………

Data……………

133