Teaching Phrasal Verbs to ESL Students

When students hear that they will be learning phrasal verbs in English, they may feel very intimidated. They know that the phrases often have nothing to do with what the words in the phrase mean individually. When there are prepositions such as "up" and "down" involved, it may be easier for students to figure out what the phrasal verb means. For instance, "sit down" is easier to figure out than "figure out."

Students who wish to expand their usage of English and be able to better understand and communicate with native speakers will find that they must become familiar with basic phrasal verbs. They are used all the time by native speakers in formal and in informal language. Particular industries have their own set of phrasal verbs that are useful as well, for example, in the business and technological fields.

Teachers must show students that phrasal verbs are not impossible to learn. There are a few ways to do this. Here are some ideas for presenting and teaching phrasal verbs so that students are not overwhelmed and intimidated by them.

1.) Avoid presenting massive lists of phrasal verbs to students. It is too difficult to draw any correlations between their individual meanings and the real world when there are 25 to learn in one lesson. Keep lists short and simple.

2.) Try to not teach phrasal verbs solely on the basis of the verb in them. For example, it would not be advisable to teach every phrasal verb that incorporates the word "get" in one lesson. The phrasal verbs taught this way have nothing else in common other than the verb in them, and it is very difficult to understand and retain the context of whole phrasal verbs in this way.

3.) Utilize John Asher's Total Physical Response method of teaching language by having students act out the phrasal verbs they are learning (if appropriate). Then students can use those phrasal verbs they acted out and instruct other students in the class to perform individual phrasal verbs as an exercise in using the phrasal verb in a practical situation.

See http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=58091&docid=147031 for a good lesson plan and worksheet showing how to teach phrasal verbs related to the classroom.

4.) Teach phrasal verbs that are related by context and subject. This will better reinforce the usage of the phrases. Students can remember a few phrasal verbs related to the topics of dating, for instance, such as going out, asking out, turning someone down, etc. more easily than they could if the phrasal verbs they learn were unrelated.

5.) If possible, try to teach context- and subject-related phrasal verbs that also incorporate the same verb or participle. For instance, in the classroom, you could teach "hand up" your papers, and "hand out" the worksheets. Students will then have double the memory-joggers to help them remember phrasal verbs.

See also: http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/blphrasalbuild.htm