Teaching phrasal verbs

Help, tips and advice in teaching English

Moderator: Joe

rmathura
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: 05 Nov 2010, 21:14
Status: Trainee Teacher

Teaching phrasal verbs

Unread post by rmathura »

HI WAS WONDERING CAN YOU SUGGEST SOME WAYS OF TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS AND TEACHING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE? SHOULD I MAKE IT TEACHER FOCUSED?

this is NOT an assignment- i was merely seeking advice on how to structure the teaching of a topic like this. i am a trainee in dire need of advice
User avatar
Lucy
Top Contributor
Posts: 658
Joined: 13 Jan 2004, 15:09
Status: Teacher Trainer

Re: Teaching phrasal verbs

Unread post by Lucy »

I suggest you work on phrasal verbs grouped by theme or topic. You can pick a topic, select phrasal verbs associated with that topic and create a text around that theme using your chosen verbs. I think this is a better approach than basing a lesson on all phrasal verbs using look, etc. The work book that accompanies English in Use has many such texts (or at least it used to and I don’t have a recent copy in front of me). Start by working on understanding of the text through the usual means: prediction, questions and discussion. Then follow this up with language work, e.g. asking students to guess the meaning of words from context. If you think this will be difficult, provide the students with three definitions of the phrasal verbs, of which only one is correct. These activities will make your lesson less teacher centred; generally speaking, the more a student is involved, the more he or she will remember.

After guessing the meanings of the phrasal verbs, do some sort of exercise to practise them; this could take the form of a gap fill. Again, there are many such exercises in English in Use. Alternative follow-up exercises are:

A find somebody who exercise where all the questions contain phrasal verbs.

A card game where some cards have verbs written on them and other cards have particles on them. Students turn over the cards and say whether the verb and particle together make a phrasal verb. If so, they then give the meaning and/or make a sentence using the phrasal verb.

I’m afraid I can only give you vague information about how to approach your lesson. Your question was not specific enough; it helps if you can mention something about your students (level, recent work, etc). Please see the guidelines for this forum.

Please also see the Forum Rules and Guidelines and note especially the comments on meaningful titles and use of capitals.
Post Reply