Swotting up on phrasal verbs

As promised, today's post will look at some resources for working on the area of phrasal verbs.

On Caroline Brown's site, students first read definitions and example sentences containing different verbs.

After this, they are given three tasks to do - to join together the first and second halves of sentences, then, they have to complete these same sentences and finally, choose the correct particle to complete different sentences with the verbs.

to ask to back  to be to blow to break 1  to come to cut to do to fall 1  to fall 2  to get 1 to get 2 to give to go 1 to go 2 to go 3 to hold to keep to let to look 1

to look 2 to make to pull 1 to pull 2 to push to put 1 to put 2 to put 3 to put 4 to run 1 to run 2 to send to set 1 to set 2   to sit to stand 1 to stand 2 to stay to stick to stop

to take to take 2   to take 3  to take 4  to talk  to think to throw  to turn 1  to turn 2 to turn 3  to walk  to work  to write

http://www.carolinebrownenglishlessons.com/

The exercises are bit mechancial, maybe, but I think it would be good as a suggestion for students to work on at home, precisely because it does always follow the same format.


You can also find interactive exercises on phrasal verbs on the English Club website.


Without a doubt, the webpage that stands out from the rest is the Phrasal Verb Demon.  

Complete Guide to Phrasal Verbs

Focusing entirely on phrasal verbs, it has various sections.


Listening | Dictionary | Corpus | Particles | Quizzes | Games | Top 100 | Grammar | Verb List | Teachers


I particularly like the Corpus section.  Here, you can type in a phrasal verb and it will tell you which topics it is used with and which words it collocates it with.


With the Listening section, you can choose an audio clip and listen to it.  While you listen, you can either read the transcript or hide it.  The phrasal verbs are highlighted in the transcript and below it you can read a definition and another example sentence containing each of the featured verbs as well as the meaning contained in the particle of the verb.


Apart from the Phrasal Verb Demon website, I was surprised that although I found sites and blogs which look at phrasal verbs based around maybe two or three topics, I did not manage to find a site which examined and practised a range of subject categories for phrasal verbs.


I'll post links to a couple of the sites where some topics (but not many) are dealt with:


http://www.ihbristol.com/learn-online/exercise-general/advanced/vocabulary


Activities for ESL students


However, this really is an area that needs some attention.  


If I'm wrong, and there is a site that deals with phrasal verbs on a wider range of topics, please let us know!


For some great suggestions on how to teach phrasal verbs, check out the articles by Lindsay Clandfield on Onestopenglish.


On Youtube, lots of teachers have tried to tackle the area of phrasal verbs.  Some of them more successfully than others!
I thought that these might be worth a mention:
Phrasal verbs (introduction)

Englishwithjo  (on the themes of family, speaking, pets and animals, hobbies, food and eating, movies 
I would suggest that we could do with a few more of these videos, illustrating the meaning of phrasal verbs:
Parasaber.com youtube video




And last, but not least, check out the great resources and suggestions by Janet Bianchini here:
http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/04/04/my-favourite-sites-for-teaching-phrasal-verbs-by-janet-bianchini/

Phrasal verbs and the Cambridge: Advanced Use of English Paper

In my previous post, I discussed the presence of phrasal verbs in the wordlists at the different levels of the Common European Framework as defined in the English Vocabulary Profile.

I had said that I would share some useful links with you for working on the area of phrasal verbs in my next (i.e. this) post, but on reflection, I thought I'd go into WHERE phrasal verbs are tested on the Cambridge English: Advanced Use of English Paper.

Let's look at the December 2009 CAE Use of English Paper:

Phrasal verbs are tested twice in Part 1 of this CAE paper - within the context of a text about the Toronto Shoe Museum.

In question 3 of this part, candidates had to choose from phrasal verbs containing the verb 'look' in the following sentence:

The more I (3) .................... the subject, says Sonja, the more I find that footwear (4) ...... (reveals) more about the world of the wearer than any other item of clothing.

For question 3, candidates were given these four phrasal verbs:

look through, look into, look up, look over

Later on in this same text, candidates had to choose between:

pick up, take on, get over, make out

In this case, it was the precise meaning of different phrasal verbs connected with the idea of understanding or perceiving that was being tested.

I just couldn't .......... (11) why it was like that.  

In Part 2 of the same CAE Use of English Paper, in an article about the Census of Marine Life,

the phrasal verb 'cut off' is tested.  Here, candidates have to supply the particle in the gap fill text:

(The project) is expected to discover thousands of new species of marine animals, many of ..........  (which) have been completely cut ........ (off) from the rest of the world for thousands of years.

In Parts 3 and 4 (Worldbuilding and Gapped Sentences), no phrasal verbs are tested.  With the wordbuilding task, this is to be expected, but with Part 4, phrasal verbs ARE tested on some versions of this exam.

For example:

At the start of his career, James was ..... between taking a job in television and becoming an accountant.

The main suspect in the case told the police that his jacket had been ........ when he fell off his bicycle.
                                                                                                                                                 
In some urban areas, tower blocks are being ......... down to be replaced by rows of houses.               

CAE Handbook

(In all three sentences, the missing word is 'torn' and in the last sentence, it is part of a phrasal verb - tear down)

Finally, in this paper, phrasal verbs may also be tested in Part 5 - the Key Word Transformations.

In December 2009, candidates had to transform the first sentence:

They told Nick not to go to the city centre on New Year's Eve.

using the key word 'warned'

to complete this second sentence:

Nick  ..................................   from the city centre on New Year's Eve.

Here, two phrasal verbs could form part of the answer:  to stay away or to keep away.

Nick was/has been warned to stay/keep away from the city centre on New Year's Eve.

As you can see, knowledge of phrasal verbs is tested considerably in the CAE Use of English Paper (and at other levels of the Cambridge ESOL exams too)

So, in my next post, I will share some great resources with you for working on phrasal verbs.


So, I'll sign (1) ......... now but will be. back with you again soon!


1  a)  up   b)  off   c)  in   d)  on

Zooming in on phrasal verbs (part 1)

The last two weeks have been very busy for me (and the rest of the Spanish seminar team).  I've been giving seminars focusing on various exams and different papers.

In the past ten days, I've been discussing the Cambridge English: Advanced Use of English paper with two different groups of teachers.  Thinking about how we can help our students do well in this Paper as well as how to widen their language resources generally, one area where they definitely need to devote themselves to and to dwell on is phrasal verbs.

The Use of English paper requires the candidate to display knowledge of the formulaic structures of language (e.g. collocations, idiom, etc.) which aid the development of naturalistic speed and fluency of language production. Candidates must also show an understanding of, and sensitivity to, precision in choice of words, grammatical accuracy.....

(Cambridge English: Advanced Use of English Paper Overview) 

http://cambridge-english-advanced.cambridgeesol.org/files/CAE_Use_of_English_paper_overview.pdf

I've mentioned English Profile to your before.  And I've also mentioned the English Vocabulary Profile. 

If you use the search tool to find the phrasal verbs which have been allocated to a particular level, the number of verbs assigned to the lower levels is considerably smaller than the higher levels.

At A1, there are four phrasal verbs listed:  come from, get up, go out, wake up.  All very much related to daily routines and personal information, as you would expect at this level.

At A2, 27 phrasal verbs are listed.  Go up to the next level, B1, and you find 135.

This number doubles when you search for phrasal verbs at B2:  277 new phrasal verbs appear.  Well, not all of these phrasal verbs are new, but a new meaning is added.  'get up' appears on the B2 list with the meaning 'stand up', as in the example:

The whole audience got up and started clapping.

Unfortunately, there is no general public access to the English Vocabulary Profile for the C levels, so I made this word cloud from the phrasal verbs listed under the preview version (for letters d, j and k only)

This revisiting words and phrasal verbs and expressions is a very important part of learning English.  It's an essential part of 'understanding of' and 'sensitivity to' 'precision in choice of words...'

In my next post, I will share some great resources for working on the area of phrasal verbs. 

So, I hope your week kicks off well and that nothing keeps you from deriving pleasure and enjoyment from your classes and life!!!