Challenges in learning phrasal verbs facing the first year english students of foreign languages faculty at hanoi pedagogical university n0 2 and suggested solutions

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 .2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY DANG MINH HANH CHALLENGES IN LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS FACING THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY AT HANOI P

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

DANG MINH HANH

CHALLENGES IN LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS FACING THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 2 AND SOME

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI HA ANH, M.A

Hanoi, May 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks to many people who helped me

to complete this thesis

First of all, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Ha Anh, M.A., who gave me guidance, advice, and encouragement during my process of studying Without her help, I am not able

Last but not least, my special thank is for my family, my friends for their

comments and warm encouragement during my study

ABSTRACT

This research investigated challenges that first year English-major students

of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 are facing

in learning phrasal verbs A survey questionnaires and interviews were employed to investigate the subject ideas and opinions on the issue The primary focus of research is to find the first-year students’ attitudes towards learning phrasal verbs More importantly, the study figure out challenges that the first-year students often encounter in learning phrasal verbs From that, some possible solutions were suggested to help learners to overcome the obstacles while learning and using phrasal verbs

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title:

CHALLENGES IN LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS FACING THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 2 AND SOME SUGGESTED

SOLUTIONS

I certify that all materials in this study which are not my own work have been identified and acknowledged and the study is originally written by me under the guidance of my supervisor

Date submitted: May 2016

Student Supervisor

Dang Minh Hanh Nguyen Thi Ha Anh, M.A

ABBREVIATIONS

E.g: Example

Oin: Indirect object

Od: Direct object

p.: Page

FLF: Foreign Languages Faculty

HPU2: Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURE 1 The student's trend in using phrasal verbs 19

FIGURE 2 Sources in which students use to learn phrasal verbs 20

FIGURE 3 Students' judgment of the importance of phrasal verbs 22

FIGURE 4 The level of enjoyment in learning phrasal verbs 23

FIGURE 5 Challenges in learning phrasal verbs 24

FIGURE 6 Students’ reaction when encountering unknown phrasal verbs 27

FIGURE 7 Solutions for better learning phrasal verbs 28

TABLE 1 The number of students who have correct answers for question number 10 25

TABLE 2 The number of students who have correct answers for question 11 26

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES v

PART ONE INTRODUCTION I RATIONALES 1

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION 2

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2

IV RESEARCH SCOPE 3

V RESEARCH TASKS 3

VI RESEARCH METHODS 3

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 3

VIII DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK 4

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF 5

I.2 OVERVIEW OF PHRASAL VERBS 6

I.2.1 Definition of phrasal verbs 6

I.2.2 Structures of phrasal verbs 7

I.2.2.1 Definition of particles 7

I.2.2.2 Meaning of the particles in phrasal verbs 7

I.2.2.3 Positions of particles in phrasal verbs 8

I.2.3 Features of phrasal verbs 8

I.2.3.1 Phonological feature 8

I.2.3.2 Semantic features 9

I.2.3.3 Syntactic features 10

I.2.4 Types of phrasal verbs 11

I.2.4.1 Verbs with two particles 11

I.2.4.2 Verbs with one particle: transitive and inseparable 12

I.2.4.3 Verbs with one particle: transitive and separable 12

I.2.4.4 Verbs with one particle: intransitive 13

I.2.5 Comparison between phrasal verbs and preposition verbs 13

I.2.5.1 Similarities 13

I.2.5.2 Differences 14

CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY II.1 Participants 16

II.2 Survey questionnaire (Appendix A) 16

II.2.1 Reasons of using survey questionnaire 16

II.2.2 Construction of survey questionnaire 17

II.3 Interview (APPENDIX B) 17

II.3.1 Reasons of using interview 17

II.3.2 Construction of interview 18

II.4 Data collection procedures 18

II.5 Data analysis procedures 18

CHAPTER THREE THE RESULTS

III.1 The first-year students’ attitude towards learning phrasal verbs 19

III.1.1 The current situation of the students in learning phrasal verbs 19

III.1.1.1 Students’ trend in using phrasal verbs 19

III.1.1.2 Sources students use to learn phrasal verbs 20

III.1.2 The first-year students’ judgment of the importance of phrasal verbs 21

III.1.3 The level of enjoyment in learning phrasal verbs 23

III.2 Challenges the students facing in learning phrasal 24

III.3 Some suggested solutions for better learning phrasal verbs 27

III.3.1 Students’ reaction when meeting unknown phrasal verbs 27

III.3.2 Some suggested solutions for better learning phrasal verbs 28

PART THREE CONCLUSION I Conclusion 31

II Limitations 32

III Recommendations 32

REFERENCES 33

APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 34

SUGGESTED ANSWERS FOR EXERCISE QUESTIONS 37

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW 38

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALES

Nowadays, it cannot be denied that English is the language of globalization It is spoken as the first language by around 400 million people around the world More than one billion people decide to study English as a second language Moreover, English plays an important role in the development

of nearly all aspects of life, such as education, politics, business, commerce, etc

Because of its importance, having a good English competency is very necessary

For Vietnam, a developing country, English becomes a bridge among our country with others; brings many opportunities to develop business, politics, culture and so on Therefore, English is being taught in Vietnam at every education levels to help students communicate with people all over the world In order to get a good communication, student can use not only single words but also combine words like noun phrase, phrasal verbs, etc to express their opinions

As we know that, a phrasal verb is a combination of a standard verb with

one or more particles For examples: get on, drive off, come back, turn round,

look out, break down, etc (according to Murphy, 2004, p.274) In some cases

the particle is an adverb as out, down, off, ect.; in others it is a preposition as

over, on, in, Phrasal verbs are very important because phrasal verbs are

especially essential to comprehend and communicative with native speakers since they are commonly used in spoken and informal written language In addition, learning phrasal verbs is the good way for students to talk and communicate closer, more friendly and natural However, using phrasal verbs sometimes makes us land in an embarrassing situation and cannot understand what the native speakers mean when talking with them Because phrasal verbs have different, multiform and numerous meanings, instead of using these kinds

of verbs, the learners often use single verbs or synonyms Learning phrasal verbs

have become big problem with students

With the main purposes are finding possible challenges and helping learners to overcome when learning phrasal verbs, I would like to make this study which focuses on challenges in learning phrasal verbs facing the first-year students of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in the academic year of 2015-2016

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION

Learning phrasal verbs is a good chance to improve the four English skills for learners, especially for the first year students Through the research, some questions below are mentioned:

1 What is attitude of the first-year students of Foreign Languages Faculty

at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in learning phrasal verbs?

2 What are the common challenges that the first-year students of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 face when learning phrasal verbs in the academic year of 2015-2016?

3 What are some suggested solutions to help the first-year students of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 learn phrasal verbs more effectively in the academic year of 2015-2016?

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research may provide more necessary information about how to use some common phrasal verbs The study focuses on these main purposes:

1 To know how the first-year students’ attitudes towards learning phrasal verbs at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2

2 To find out challenges that the first-year students of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in the academic year of 2015-

2016 often encounter when learning phrasal verbs

3 To find out effective ways to help first year students of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in the academic year

of 2015-2016 overcome the possible problems

IV RESEARCH SCOPE

Because of the limitation of time, the research is limited about learning phrasal verbs and only investigate in a small number of participants

The population involves in the study is 100 students (50 students of K41A Bachelor Pedagogy in English, 50 students of K41B Bachelor Pedagogy in English) of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in the academic year of 2015-2016

V RESEARCH TASKS

The study involves the main tasks listed below:

1 To give an overview of phrasal verbs such as the definition, types and features, etc

2 To conduct a survey to find out the attitude of students and challenges in learning phrasal verbs

3 To research into the solutions for better learning phrasal verbs

VI RESEARCH METHODS

To reach the goals of this study, the following methods have been applied:

1 Collecting documents from books listed in the references

2 Conferring the supervisor, teachers and friends

3 Surveying by using questionnaire

4 Interviewing the first year students

5 Analyzing the results

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

It is hoped that the results of this research will be helpful for both students and teachers of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 The students can see the importance of learning phrasal verbs, understand

them clearly; hence, the learners can surmount the challenges Moreover, the teachers can choose the most suitable method for their students

Besides, this research is also useful for everyone who is interested in phrasal verbs

VIII DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK

There are three main parts in this research work, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion as follows:

- Part one, the Introduction, shows the reasons for choosing the title, the research presupposition, the objectives and scope of research, research tasks, the methods to study, the significance of the research

- Part two, the Development is divided into three chapters

+ Chapter one is Theoretical Background It consists of two sections Section one is literature review in brief Section two mentions an overview of phrasal verbs

+ Chapter two is The Methodology It presents all the methods that were used in the research and the steps to use these methods

+ Chapter three is The Results It has two sections Section one describes the results of the study and analysis them Section two shows the solution for the difficulties when learning phrasal verbs

- Part three, the Conclusion, summarizes the main points of the research and show the litmitations and recommendations of the research

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF

Phrasal verb is a very important part of English language In fact, phrasal verbs have been the topic of many researchers and books presented by Heaton (1985), Workman (1993), Vince (2010), McCarthy & O’Dell (2004), Flower (1993) and so on Each of them has particular opinions to talk about phrasal verbs They have their own ways to present about definition, features or types of these kinds of verbs

Heaton (1985) in the book Prepositions and adverbial particles mentions

that prepositions and particles cause many difficulties to many students than any other aspect of the English language and an important aspect of the subject is illustrated by the phrasal verb He also presents definition and types of phrasal verbs This book is really helpful for learners but it does not show the differences between prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs Another researcher,

Workman (1993) in the book Phrasal verbs and Idioms, introduces how

multi-word verbs work, contains over 200 multi-multi-word verbs and mentions meaning of phrasal verbs However, he does not indicate other aspects like structure of phrasal verbs This thing is supplemented by McCarthy & O’Dell (2004) in the

book Phrasal verbs in use They also mention the functions and the positions of particles in phrasal verbs and give many examples The book Phrasal verbs in

use is necessary for students to find out important information about phrasal

verbs Moreover, Vince (2010) describes clearly types of phrasal verb in the

book Intermediate Language Practice From the book, learners can distinguish

the types of phrasal verbs through the detailed examples Besides, Flower (1993)

in the book Phrasal Verb Organiser states how phrasal verbs organised This

book gives much useful information in structure of phrasal verbs

Besides, there is a lot of research about phrasal verbs Such as, in the

research A Comparative Study on Phrasal Verbs and Prepositional Verbs in

English, Duong (1999) mentions the comparison between phrasal verbs and

prepositional verbs, and the comparison between two-word verbs and Vietnamese verbs plus directional words Another researcher is Vu (2012), she presents the encountered difficulties in learning phrasal verbs and some effective and appropriate techniques to minimize boredom and be more enthusiastic with

phrasal verbs in A Study on Techniques to Improve Learning Phrasal Verbs for

the First Year English Major Student of HPU

To sum up, many researchers point out definition, features, types, ect of phrasal verbs but a few of them mention challenges in learning phrasal verbs while learners often face many challenges in the process of studying Therefore,

it is essential to have a research to find out the challenges in learning phrasal verbs

I.2 OVERVIEW OF PHRASAL VERBS

I.2.1 Definition of phrasal verbs

Phrasal verb can be defined separately According to Longman dictionary

“phrasal verbs are idiomatic combination of a verb and an adverb, or a verb and preposition (or verb with both adverb and preposition)” Similarly, Wyatt (2006) describes a phrasal verb includes two or three parts: a verb and an adverb or a preposition The adverb and preposition which are used in phrasal verbs are called “particles” Another researcher defines that “phrasal verbs are compound verbs that result from combining a verb with an adverb or a preposition, the resulting compound verb being idiomatic” (Heaton, 1985, p.155) On the other hand, the expressions of phrasal verbs sometimes are easy to guess, for example,

look for or stand up But in most cases, their meanings are apparently not the

simple sum of their parts, for example, turn up means appear

In short, despite different ways in defining phrasal verbs, all of them refer

to a similar content, that is phrasal verbs are the combination of a verb and

particle(s) And the meanings of them can be that of the main verb or a new one

I.2.2 Structures of phrasal verbs

McCarthy & O’Dell (2004) states that verbs which consist of a verb and a particle are called phrasal verb In addition, Flower (1993) has a similar opinion that is “A phrasal verb is a verb plus one or two particles.” According to them, a

conclusion is given that: phrasal verb = verb + particle(s)

I.2.2.1 Definition of particles

Particles are adverbs or prepositions that can combine with verbs and

modify the verbs they accompany For example: In sentence “He turn off the

lights.”, “off” is used to modify the verb “turn”

Besides, the combination of particles and verbs can create new meaning

For examples: (1) She got on the restaurant

(2) He doesn’t get on

In example (1) “got on” has a concrete meaning It means “entered” But in example (2) the meaning of “get on” is abstract, it means “he” don’t like each other and is not friendly to others

Most common particles in phrasal verbs are showed in the book Oxford

Phrasal verbs Dictionary as back, out, out of, about, in, over, up, around, into,

of, with, down, off, at, for, on, to, away

I.2.2.2 Meaning of the particles in phrasal verbs

In the book English Phrasal Verbs in Use, McCarthy & O’Dell points out

that the meaning of particles in phrasal verbs as follows:

a In some phrasal verbs the particle has a clear meaning

For example, different particles are used with the verb “invite”

He invited me out Let’s go out together

She invited me in Please come in

She invited me over Come to her place

He invited me round Come to his house for dinner or a

drink

I invited her up Come upstairs to my flat

She invited me along Come with her

He invited me back Come back home with him

On the right, we can see what the original speaker suitably said

b Most particles convey a number of different senses

For example, over can have various meanings, including:

e.g fall over: fall to the ground

move over: change the place where you are sitting or standing to

make room for someone else

e.g read over: read thoroughly

talk over: discuss something thoroughly before making a decision

I.2.2.3 Positions of particles in phrasal verbs

Flower (1993) states that “very often the particle comes immediately after the verb, but this is not always true” And he points out three instances below:

e.g He is looking for his car ( not: He is looking his car for)

b Particle after the object

e.g The bad weather is getting many people down ( not: The bad weather is getting down many people)

c Particle before or after the object

e.g: My mother woke up my brother

or My mother woke my brother up

If the object is a pronoun (e.g me, him, us), the particle must come after it

e.g: My mother woke him up ( not: My mother woke up him)

I.2.3 Features of phrasal verbs

I.2.3.1 Phonological feature

In phrasal verb, the particle has an important function in creating or pointing out the meaning of the combination Therefore, the stress of phrasal

verb is often put on the particle

E.g: They turned ‘off the lights

She told me not to give ‘up

I.2.3.2 Semantic features

According to Workman (1993), the meaning of phrasal verbs can be divided into three types: literal meaning, non-literal meaning, semi-literal meaning

the verb and the particle keep their separate meaning It is easy to get if we know the meaning of each word

For example: He looked up and saw a plane

Here the meaning of the verb and the particle have not change

He look up= He look + up (in the direction of the sky)

which cannot be built up from the meaning of the individual items of the phrasal verb Sometimes the addition of the particle(s) creates a combination that has a new meaning

For example: In the sentence “He looks up all the new words in the dictionary”, “look up” = to find information in a reference book

Sometimes, a phrasal verb can have more than one meaning

E.g: I cannot make out what she wants (understand / interpret)

I could just make out a figure in the darkness (read)

She is not as beautiful as people make out (assert / claim)

In many cases, the meaning of phrasal verb may be different depend on the position of the particles

E.g: I think you made this story up (invent)

The couple quarrelled but then made up (become friend again)

which the basic meaning of the verb remains the same, but the particle adds its own particular meaning

For example:

We decided to drive on

= We decided to continue driving

In this example, the particle “on” gives the idea of continuing with something

I.2.3.3 Syntactic features

Other features of phrasal verbs are syntactic features Thomson & Martinet (1986) mentions that the combination can be transitive or intransitive In detail, transitive phrasal verbs take object and intransitive phrasal verbs take no object For example:

The plane flew in (intransitive)

She woke up her baby (transitive)

He cheered his friends up (transitive)

I broke down when I knew the truth (intransitive)

In addition, word-order in phrasal verbs is also important point Some phrasal verbs with objects are inseparable and some are separable

With inseparable phrasal verbs, the particle cannot be separated from the verb For example:

What are you getting at?

Let’s look round the town today!

The government is looking into the problem

If the object is a noun, there is subject-verb inversion

E.g: The bell rang and run out the children

In came his friends

With separable phrasal verb, if the object is a pronoun, it usually goes between the verb and the particle

For example:

Let me show you around my house

He was offered the job but he turn it down

However, if a sentence has an emphasis on the pronoun, the particle will

precede it

E.g: They set up it

She took in them

A noun object can be placed either between the verb and the particle or after the particle

E.g: I think you made this story up

I think you made up this story

We turn the lights off

We turn off the lights

But when the object is long, it usually goes after the particle

E.g: We turn off the lights that have just been repaired

I.2.4 Types of phrasal verbs

Vince (2010) in the book Intermediate Language Practice gives different

types of phrasal verbs They depend on whether there is one particle or two, whether the verb and particle can be separated And he divides phrasal verb into four types:

 Verbs with two particles

 Verbs with one particle: transitive and inseparable

 Verbs with one particle: transitive and separable

 Verbs with one particle: intransitive

I.2.4.1 Verbs with two particles

Many verbs need an object, and the object can only come at the end so the verbs are inseparable Here are some examples, words in the brackets are the meanings of phrasal verbs in each sentence

E.g I’m looking forward to my holidays (think I will enjoy)

I’m afraid we’ve come up against a problem we can’t solve (meet,

find)

Oh dear, we’ve run out of petrol (have no more of)

Stop talking and get on with your work! (continue with)

I really look up to my teacher (respect)

But, in some case the verbs do not need objects If there is no object, the final particle will be not used

E.g

 Catch up with (reach someone by going faster)

You can rest now and catch up with us later (with object)

You are going too fast! I can’t catch up! (without object)

 Cut down on (reduce the amount of)

I have decided to cut down on smoking

You are eating too much candy You should cut down

 Get along/on with (have a friendly relationship with)

She doesn’t get on with her classmates

We work at the same office, but we don’t get on

I.2.4.2 Verbs with one particle: transitive and inseparable

These phrasal verbs take an object We call this type of verb “transitive” The object has to come after the particle, not between the verb and the particle

We call this type of phrasal verb “inseparable”

E.g:

We’ll call for you about 8 p.m so please be quick (come to your house

and collect)

Not: We’ll call you for about 8 p.m so please be quick

 She takes after her mother They are very similar (be similar in

appearance or character)

Not: She takes her mother after They are very similar

I.2.4.3 Verbs with one particle: transitive and separable

These phrasal verbs take an object We call this type of verb “transitive” This object can come after the particle or between the verb and the particle We call this type of phrasal verb “separable”

E.g:

 Bring up (look after a child until adult)

After her parents died, they brought up her

After her parents died, they brought her up

In general, object phrases usually go after the particles Pronoun (such as

me, you, it, him, her, us, them ) always go between the verb and the particle

E.g: You have to clear up the living room after the party (make clean

and tidy)

Ann said she would help, but she let me down (disappoint, fail to

keep promise)

I.2.4.4 Verbs with one particle: intransitive

These phrasal verbs have no object And in a phrasal verb, a verb combine only one particle

E.g: I invited ten people, but only five turned up (arrive, often

unexpectedly)

One of the burglars was caught, but the other got away (escape)

She grew up in a small village (change from a child to an adult)

I.2.5 Comparison between phrasal verbs and preposition verbs

In English, there is another kind of multi-word verbs which is call prepositional verbs This kinds of verbs are the combination of a verb with a

preposition For example: come across, look after, run into, come in, etc In fact

is that in many cases, phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs look similar or even identical So, a lot of confusions have been occurred Therefore, it is important

to distinguish phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs

According a research of Duong (1993), we have the results below:

I.2.5.1 Similarities

 Both phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs consist of two parts: a verb and

a adverb or a verb and a preposition Some phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs are similar in their forms

For example:

He fell down the stairs (prepositional verb)

He fell down (phrasal verb)

Please come in the house (prepositional verb)

Please come in (phrasal verb)

 Both phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs can be transitive verbs, they both take one object

For example:

She turned off all the lights which had been left on (phrasal verb)

This cake consists of a few common ingredients (prepositional verb)

Sometimes they can be ditransitive Yet for phrasal verbs, this case is often rare

The plane took off an hour late (leave the ground and begin to fly)

The new dictionary has really taken off (increase very quickly)

+ Prepositional verbs:

Will we get the book out by the end of the year? (produce/ publish)

She managed to get out a few words of thanks (say something with

The accident held ‘up traffic for an hour (phrasal verb)

We had to ‘send for the doctor