THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS

Prvulović, Milica

In this paper we explore how cognitive linguistics (CL) can facilitate the teaching and learning of phrasal verbs with UP and DOWN in English as a foreign language. We conducted a small-scale research with students whose mother tongue is Serbian and who study English as a foreign language at the Faculty of Philology, Belgrade University. Our goal was to explore the didactical potential of cognitive linguistics which we think is considerable. We wanted to see if making our students aware of the conceptual metaphors that motivate the meaning of phrasal verbs with UP and DOWN would enable them to learn these phrasal verbs more easily. Furthermore, we hoped that students would employ these strategies later on, when they encounter new phrasal verbs whose meaning they do not know. In this paper we will first talk briefly about the position of metaphor in foreign language learning and teaching. Next, we will focus on the theoretical background that supports the concept of CL inspired teaching and mention some relevant research that has been carried out in this field. Finally, we will present our own research and discuss the results. Keywords: phrasal verbs, UP and DOWN, metaphorical motivation, cognitive linguistics, vocabulary acquisition

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2014

3509