In His Name
This dissertation is dedicated to my beloved father, mother and brother.
Iranian Learner English: A Corpus- Based Study of Phrasal Verb Usage
Inaugural-Dissertation Zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philologischen Fakultät der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br.
Vorgelegt von
Hamzeh Mazaherylaghab aus Hamedan
SS 2013
Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian Mair Zweitgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Halford
Vorsitzender des Promotionsausschusses der Gemeinsamen Kommission der Philologischen, Philosophischen und Wirtschafts- und Verhaltenswissenschaftlichen Fakultät: Prof. Dr. Bernd Kortmann
Datum der Fachprüfung im Promotionsfach: 24.10.2013 Abbreviations List of tables and figures Acknowledgements
1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1. Language learners, phrasal verbs, and corpus study ...... 1 1.2. Aims and scope of the study ...... 7 1.3. Limitations of the study ...... 9 2. Review of relevant literature ...... 15 2.1. Phrasal verbs in descriptive and theoretically motivated studies ...... 15 2.2. Phrasal-verb avoidance by the learner ...... 15 2.3. Learner knowledge of the phrasal verbs ...... 20 3. English in Iran ...... 28 3.1. English language teaching (ELT) in Iran ...... 29 3.1.1. English in the school curriculum in Iran ...... 30 3.2. High school EFL text books in Iran ...... 34 3.2.1. English Book 1 ...... 37 3.2.1.1. Year one exam analysis ...... 39 3.2.2. English Book 2 ...... 42 3.2.2.1. Year two exam analysis ...... 47 3.2.3. English Book 3 ...... 50 3.2.3.1. Year three exam analysis ...... 61 3.2.4. A preparatory English course: Book one & two ...... 63 3.2.4.1. Book 1 ...... 63 3.2.4.2. Book 2 ...... 66 3.2.4.3. Pre-University exam analysis ...... 73 3.3. Overall results ...... 75 4. The grammar of the verb in Persian and English – a contrastive analysis...... 78 4.1. Verb in Persian ...... 78 4.1.1. Persian simple verbs ...... 79 4.1.2. Verbs with a particle ...... 80 4.1.3. Other verbal phrases ...... 81 4.1.4. Auxiliary verbs ...... 82 4.2. English phrasal verbs versus Persian ...... 82 4.2.1. English phrasal verbs and their Persian counterparts ...... 82 4.2.1.1. Persian light verb constructions ...... 83 4.2.1.2. Persian prepositional verbs (verbs with a particle) ...... 91 4.3. Expected interference ...... 95 4.3.1. Separable transitive English phrasal verbs and their Persian equivalents ...... 96 4.3.2. Intransitive English phrasal verbs and their Persian equivalents ...... 98 4.3.3. English phrasal verbs (verb-preposition sequences) and their Persian equivalents ...... 98 4.4. Summary ...... 99 5. Data and Methodology ...... 101 5.1. Introduction ...... 101 5.2. Tools ...... 105 5.2.1. Concordancing and retrieval software ...... 105 5.2.2. Reference works and materials...... 106 5.2.3. Corpora ...... 107 5.3. Data ...... 108 5.3.1. Subjects ...... 108 5.3.2. The essays ...... 109 5.4. Phrasal verbs ...... 112 5.5. Research questions ...... 116 5.6. Points to consider ...... 118 6. Phrasal verbs in Iranian learner English in comparison with native speaker usage ...... 119 6.1. Introduction ...... 119 6.2. The 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in LOCNESS ...... 121 6.3. Overall findings ...... 136 7. Phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners: an analytic study of errors ...... 139 7.1. Introduction ...... 139 7.2. Mother tongue influence ...... 142 7.3. Creative language use ...... 149 7.4. Iranian learner language ...... 162 7.5. Summary ...... 163 8. Conclusion ...... 167 8.1. Major findings ...... 167 8.2. Comparison of the major findings ...... 171 8.3. Practical implications ...... 174 8.4. Recommendations for future studies ...... 181 9. References ...... 182 10. Appendices ...... 190 Appendix 1: Prefaces of all high school EFL text books ………...……………190 Appendix 2: Review Exercises ………………………………………………..192 Appendix 3: Examination papers of high school EFL courses ………………..198 Appendix 4: Sample year two supplementary vocabulary material for English Book 2 ………………………………………………………………..241 Appendix 5: List of Iranian learner essays ……………………………………244 Appendix 6: Proposed ICLE essay titles ……………………………...………253 Appendix 7: ICLE learner profile template ……………………………….…….254 Appendix 8: List of all the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus and LOCNESS ………………………………………………………………...255 Appendix 9: Phrasal verbs found in COCA ……………………………..…….266 Appendix 10: Phrasal verbs in all high school EFL text books in Iran ……….280 Appendix 11: Essay samples from Iranian learner corpus ………………….…283 Appendix 12: Essay samples from LOCNESS ………………………………..287 11. Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache ...... 296
Abbreviations
Corpora and Dictionaries BNC British National Corpus COCA Corpus of Contemporary American English G-ICLE German component of the International Corpus of Learner English ICLE International Corpus of Learner English I-ICLE Italian component of the International Corpus of Learner English LGSWE Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English LOCNESS Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays
Others CA Contrastive Analysis CIA Contrastive Iterlanguage Analysis CLC Computer learner corpora EA Error Analysis EFL English as a foreign language ELT English language teaching ESL English as a second language IL Interlanguage L1 A learner’s first language L2 A learner’s second language LVC Light verb construction NL Native language SLA Second language acquisition TL Target language TOEFL Test of English as a foreign language
List of tables and figures
Table 1: Phrasal verbs by semantic domain across registers 12 Table 2: Frequency of phrasal verbs found across different registers 13 Table 3: Age-related percentages of elite claiming to have good knowledge of English or French as foreign languages 28 Table 4: Phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 1 38 Table 5: Phrasal verbs extracted from exam material of year one high school EFL courses 40 Table 6: Phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 2 43 Table 7: Phrasal verbs extracted from exam material of year two high school EFL courses 48 Table 8: Phrasal verbs extracted from supplementary material of year two high school EFL classroom 49 Table 9: Phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 3 50 Table 10: Phrasal verbs extracted from exam material of year three high school EFL courses 61 Table 11: Phrasal verbs extracted from book 1 of Pre-University EFL textbook 64 Table 12: Phrasal verbs extracted from book 2 of Pre-University EFL textbook 66 Table 13: Phrasal verbs extracted from exam material of Pre-University EFL courses 74 Table 14: Transitive phrasal verbs distinguished from prepositional verbs 113 Table 15: Phrasal verb structures included in the present study 114 Table 16: The 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in LOCNESS contrasted with their frequency in the Iranian learner corpus 121 Table 17: Go on, carry on, and keep on vs. continue 123 Table 18: Bring about vs. cause 124 Table 19: Carry out vs. point out 125 Table 20: Carry out vs. perform 126 Table 21: Point out vs. mention 127 Table 22: Bring up vs. grow 129 Table 23: Grow up vs. mature 130 Table 24: Take on vs. adopt 130 Table 25: Find out vs. discover 132 Table 26: Go back vs. return, return back, and get back 133 Table 27: Break down vs. break 134 Table 28: Cut off vs. cut 134 Table 29: Fit in vs. match 135 Table 30: Get out vs. exit, and go out 135 Table 31: Total number of phrasal verb tokens per million words in LOCNESS and Iranian learner corpus 162
Figure 1: Example drawing for the phrasal verb “reach out” 25 Figure 2: “To the teacher” section of Birjandi et al. (2002: 50) 60
Acknowledgements
I would like to use this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Christian Mair for his support and invaluable advice throughout the project. I am most grateful to my father, mother and brother for always being there for me along the way. Special thanks also go to my colleagues and friends who made this dissertation possible, especially Nicolas Winkler and Christoph Panzer who helped with the German summary of the dissertation. 1
1. Introduction 1.1. Language learners, phrasal verbs, and corpus study
The English language has spread from countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to countries where it is learned as a foreign language. As a result of this spread, besides new varieties of English having developed with their own standards in various countries in addition to those countries where English is the native language, some countries feel the need to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
Language is a tool used by humans to communicate views, personal experiences and mental states. The various uses of language call for the need to consider several of its aspects when learning a new one. In language studies the study of the lexicon is of great importance in foreign language learning and teaching. Language learners often experience great difficulties with vocabulary in addition to grammatical structures of language. The correct choice of appropriate words or expressions makes the language of the learners sound natural and native like. As Chafe (1980: 170) states, speakers are interested in the adequate verbalisation of their thoughts and all speakers want to make themselves understood. Therefore, the lexicon has an important role in this regard.
The birth of phraseology and phraseological research is the direct consequence of this great interest in the lexicon of the language. Phraseology is one of the most interesting disciplines in the study of the lexicon. According to Cowie (1994: 3168), phraseology is the study of the meaning, structure and the use of word combinations in a language and combinations represent the interface of lexicon and grammar. In other words, phraseology is the bridge between lexicon and grammar and phrasal verbs are the best example of phraseological units. Since lexical items can be composed of more than one orthographic word and words can have relations with other words, different studies have been conducted using various definitions for phraseological units.
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Phrasal verbs are not always regarded as a kind of phraseological unit by linguists. Bolinger (1971: XIV) stated that phrasal verbs are easily neglected in the area of phraseology. Lipka (1972: 74), Sroka (1972) and Palmer (1974: 212) believe that phrasal verbs are "collocations" which result from the combination of a simple verb and a particle. Allerton (2004) is doubtful whether phrasal verbs should be categorised under idioms or collocations. Grant and Bauer (2004: 39) and Alexander (1978: 180) put them under idioms. Mitchell (1958: 103) lists them under "grammatical collocations". Researchers like Moon (1998), Gläser (1986) and Kjellmer (1991, 1994) believe that phrasal verbs are categorised under phraseological units. Jackendoff (2002: 73) stresses that since the meanings of phrasal verbs are idiomatic we must categorise them as lexical units. Waibel (2007: 12) states that:
As with other idioms, phrasal verbs have to be stored and learnt as a whole precisely because an idiom’s meaning cannot be deduced from the individual items it consists of. Idiomatic and semi transparent phrasal verbs thus clearly belong to the area of phraseology since other defining criteria for phraseological units are also met, such as multi word character, lexicalisation, reproducibility, and institutionalisation. However, even if the criterion of idiomaticity does not apply, phrasal verbs can be considered phraseological units, by analogy with (transparent) collocations. In transparent verb particle combinations, the two elements co occur just like in other types of collocations. A further dimension to the phraseological status of phrasal verbs is the fact that transitive phrasal verbs co occur with specific context words or collocates, e.g. carry out work/tasks/duties/studies/research but not carry out revenge/a race . Their phraseological status is, however, only one aspect of the learning load that learners face in the context of phrasal verbs.
There are certain difficulties posed by the idiomaticity and the polysemy of the phrasal verbs which make them an interesting area of research considering learner language.
There are many definitions proposed for the phrasal verbs. Based on Waibel (2007: 15 16) “most phrasal verb dictionaries, e.g. Sinclair and Moon (1989), Cowie and Mackin (1993), Cullen and Sargeant (1996), and Cambridge International 3
Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1997), include not only phrasal verbs ‘proper’ 1, but also prepositional verbs, i.e. verbs with a specified preposition such as rely on , and phrasal prepositional verbs (such as put up with ). Others (Cowie & Mackin 1975, and Courtney 1983) go so far as to incorporate verb adjective ( lie low ), verb pronoun (kid oneself ), or other combinations. Most non dictionary oriented linguists however draw the line more rigidly and include only verb adverb combinations (e.g. Biber et al. 1999, Greenbaum 1996, Lipka 1972, McArthur 1989, Palmer 1974), but not all of them call them ‘phrasal verbs’ (Lipka 1972 for example uses the term ‘verb particle constructions’).”
Many linguists believe that the particle of a phrasal verb has the nature of an adverb (Biber et al. 1999, Bolinger 1971, Cowie 1993, Greenbaum 1996, Lipka 1972, McArthur 1989, Palmer 1974, Quirk et al. 1985). Some, on the other hand, have a different definition and claim that this element is an intransitive preposition (Huddleston and Pullum 2002).
The definition of multi word verbs in this study is based on Quirk et al. (1985) who divides them into "phrasal verbs", "prepositional verbs", and "phrasal prepositional verbs". This definition also follows Mitchell (1958). In these definitions the multi word verbs are composed of one verbal element and one or two other components which are known as particles. It is mainly believed that in phrasal verbs this particle is adverbial, in prepositional verbs it is prepositional, and in phrasal prepositional verbs one particle is adverbial and the other is prepositional. In order to overcome such difficulties due to the diverse series of definitions given for the English phrasal verbs, a clear definition of the phrasal verbs which is to be used in the present study will be provided (see 5.4).
Many linguists only recognise those combinations of verb and adverbial particle with idiomatic nature as real phrasal verbs, where the meaning of the phrasal verb structure cannot be guessed from its components. Phrasal verb structures with a literal interpretation, whose meaning is compositional (i.e. the over all meaning
1 According to the definition provided by Quirk et al. (1985). 4
corresponds to the sum of the meanings of the constituent elements) are known as free combinations by Quirk et al. (1985). Some linguists like Cowie and Mackin (1993) exclude non idiomatic phrasal verbs from their dictionary, whereas others such as Courtney (1983), Cullen and Sargeant (1996), McArthur and Atkins (1974), and Sinclair and Moon (1989) include both idiomatic and transparent phrasal verbs in their dictionaries. Although the literal and idiomatic phrasal verbs have very different semantic analyses, they are both going to be considered in the present study. The reason is that the distinction between figurative and literal phrasal verbs can be difficult at times and also because of the polysemy of individual phrasal verbs, which may be used both in the literal and and a variety of figurative senses (cf., e.g., run down the street , run down a business , run down an opponent, run down a passer by ). It has to be assumed that in the mental representation of such items in the learner grammar, these various uses are connected at some level. In addition, a differentiation between literal and figurative phrasal verb uses is not really feasible in large scale corpus studies such as the present one for merely practical reasons, since the amount of data to be analysed is too largeAs the figurative senses of run down illustrated above have shown (“close / wind down a business” a shop, “criticize” an opponent, “hit” a passer by in a road accident), figurativeness is also very much a matter of degree, lying somewhere in between the two extremes of the scale.
Biber et al. (1999) and Quirk et al. (1985) argue that verb adverb combinations like come back are "free combinations" because the components are grammatically and semantically separate. Biber et al. (2002: 126) mention that come back can also be an idiom since it can be replaced by a one word verb return . In fact Biber et al. (1999: 403) believe that “[in] practice, it is hard to make an absolute distinction between free combinations and fixed multi word verbs; one should rather think of a cline on which some verbs, or uses of verbs, are relatively free and others relatively fixed.”
Modern approaches in the study of the lexicon call for quicker and more reliable ways of text processing in language studies. With the arrival of the computer learner corpora (CLC) in the early 1990s language research entered a new phase in corpus 5
studies. As stated by Granger (2002: 4), computer learner corpora use the principles, tools and methods of corpus linguistics in order to provide improved descriptions of learner language that can be used for various purposes in second or foreign language acquisition research and to improve foreign language teaching.
The study of learner language calls for the study of learners’ interlanguage. The term interlanguage (IL), which was initially mentioned by Larry Selinker (1972) to refer to the linguistic system adopted when a second language leaner tends to convey meaning in the target language (TL), is believed to be a linguistic system which is different from the native language (NL) of the learner and the TL, but is, in a way, related to both NL and TL (Tarone 2006: 747). Later evidence proved that it is not only adults who adopt IL but also children who may adopt such a linguistic system when attempting to learn a second or foreign language (ibid.: 750). IL may also vary in different social contexts or discourse domains (ibid.: 751). This means that a given learner may possess higher level of fluency and prove more grammatical competence in a certain social context in comparison with other social contexts.
Before the idea behind the term IL was introduced, contrastive analysts had stated that learner language was only the result of transfer from the learners’ native language. Based on this, predictions were attemped by carrying out contrastive analyses of the NL and TL of the learners. But as Tarone (2006: 747) puts it “these claims were not supported by reference to data obtained from the systematic study of learner language itself, but usually only to utterances that analysts happened to have noticed and remembered.”
With regard to the contrastive analysis of learner data, Granger (1998a: 3) mentions that contrastive interlanguage analysis (CIA), the quantitative study and comparison of the language produced by the learners and the native speakers in order to find patterns of overuse or underuse, lies at the centre of learner corpus research even though one can also conduct contrastive studies. Unlike previous learner language studies such as contrastive analysis (CA) and error analysis (EA), this new approach to learner language study treats learner language as a structured system in its own 6
right (Guo 2006: 1). Guo (2006: 2) states that "this new approach allows us to see the similarity and the disparity between learner English and native speaker English when the learner English data and the native speaker English data are compared. On the whole, similarity points to though it does not necessarily lead to, a degree of mastery by the learners, while disparity points to, but does not necessarily lead to a kind of non mastery by them. The features which are used by the native speakers but not by the learners would be necessary for the learners if they wish to achieve the naturalness and the nativeness of the native speaker English.”
The effort to sound natural and native like is gaining more and more attention and interest among language teachers and learners, which is why "over the past two decades, the ultimate objective of language teaching was to increase the communication abilities of learners in order to enable them to communicate genuinely, spontaneously and meaningfully in the second language. For this purpose, knowing vocabulary, especially the words or combinations such as collocations or phrasal verbs that are used in everyday communications, is one of the prerequisites for producing fluent and socially appropriate language" (Khatib & Ghannadi 2011: 538).
The aim of the present study is to find out how the Iranian language learners use English phrasal verbs in their language production and to what extent they face problems using them. They will also be monitored to see how they would compensate for their lack of knowledge and to what degree the native language of the Iranian language learners affects their use of the English phrasal verbs. Side (1990: 144) mentions that learners do not like phrasal verbs due to the difficulties they pose. In recent years great attention has been paid to the English phrasal verbs. In fact, it may also be argued that they are considered as one of the most important components of English as a foreign language. The structure of the English phrasal verbs is a phenomenon of the Germanic languages family (Dagut & Laufer 1985: 78, Darwin & Gary 1999: 65) and phrasal verbs are more frequently used in spoken language than in written language (Cornell 1985: 269, Dixon 1982). Cornell (1985: 269) states that "there are many important exceptions to this rule of thumb and the 7
situation is by no means static, a phrasal verb hitherto felt to be colloquial or informal may sometimes become accepted in more formal contexts." According to Cornell (1985: 270) there are at least 700 phrasal verbs used in ordinary, everyday English. There are at least around 3,000 established phrasal verbs in English.
Phrasal verbs are considered an interesting area in this study due to the fact that they do not have immediate structural equivalents in Persian and that they are polysemic in that their idiomatic and non idiomatic forms may have more than one meaning, which also poses another problematic area for the learners of English as a foreign language. It was observed by Cornell (1985) that English phrasal verbs are mostly non idiomatic, that is, their meanings can be deduced from their components.
Bywater (1969, quoted in Cornell 1985: 270) states “the plain fact is that what distinguishes the writing and, above all, the speech of a good foreign student from those of an Englishman is that what an Englishman writes or says is full of these expressions, whereas most foreigners are frightened of them, carefully avoid them, and sound stilted in consequence. Foreign students who enjoy being flattered on their English can best achieve this by correctly using masses of these compound verbs.”
Learners usually avoid using multi word verbs which are absent in their mother tongue, and use their one word verb equivalents instead (Ziahosseini 1999, Schmitt & Siyanova 2007). The present study is going to focus on this aspect of learner language when going through the essays produced by Iranian learners of English.
1.2. Aims and scope of the study
The present study is the first large scale investigation on Iranian learners regarding English phrasal verb use in comparison with native speakers of English, it benefits from Louvain Corpus of ative English Essays (LOCNESS), which will be used as the control corpus.
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The present study is going to focus on the phrasal verbs in English, an area in which learners of English supposedly have problems learning and producing. Iranian students’ native language (Persian) is thought to have a great influence on their English language production. As mentioned earlier, the uniqueness of the Persian verb system in that the majority of the verbs are multi words and that their number is increasing may lead to the learners’ tendency in producing more phrasal verbs than native speakers of English would do. Iranian learners are likely to have problems producing the English phrasal verbs due to typological differences that exist between English and Persian. There are also instances of phrasal verb avoidance by the learners which are discussed in the following chapters. Regardless of all the theoretical background information mentioned here, it would be interesting to find out how the Iranian learners compensate for their lack of knowledge regarding the English phrasal verbs. This and many other questions are answered later in this study.
This study contributes to the available research in learner language studies and corpus studies. It will try to illustrate the potential of comparative corpus based studies between learner language and native speaker language data.
According to Waibel (2007: 58) “there are some advantages to a corpus based study for language. Real and contextualised language replaces constructed and decontextualised language. A great amount of available data and a variety of authors or speakers provide a more representative panorama of authentic language than any text constructed according to the linguist’s needs could do. The corpus based investigation of the writing of foreign language learners offers the opportunity to gain useful and important insights into the difficulties various groups of learners encounter at different stages of the learning process. Learner corpus linguistics can therefore contribute not only to a better understanding of learner language, but also to the improvement of teaching materials.”
For the purpose of the present study the researcher used the antconc 3.2.1 software to extract the phrasal verbs from the corpora. This package of software consists of tools 9
which are designed for lexical analyses. Two of the tools which were used in this study were Wordlist and Concordance. While the former provides us with the required text statistics of the corpus by separating the lexical items from the texts and, therefore, benefit the quantitative part of the study, the latter displays the selected lexical items in their original texts, providing the researcher with the opportunity to study and analyse the use of the lexical items and, therefore, provide the ground for a qualitative study of the corpus.
One of the main issues concerning this study is the collection of the appropriate data. In order to achieve this the researcher must bear in mind different features such as age, proficiency level, mother tongues of the learners, the type of essays to be produced, the length of essays, and other relevant features which are important in compiling a homogeneous and appropriate corpus. The data were compiled along with a learner profile which helped the researcher gain some insight about the learners’ background and helped the researcher draw conclusions based on information such as mother tongue or exposure to other languages which could in turn affect their language production. The Learner profiles are especially useful for studies in the field of language education.
This study is going to analyse the Iranian linguistic data from two different perspectives. The students’ products will be first quantitatively and then qualitatively approached. But before going further, some problematic areas need to be discussed.
1.3. Limitations of the study
Since the compared corpora are composed of different sizes, in order to make the comparison of raw frequencies across corpora possible, normalised frequencies (n/million words) will be calculated. This will be done in order to facilitate the comparability of the data, which is a usual method in this type of research.
Another issue regarding the quantitative study of the phrasal verbs is the fact that phrasal verbs are in fact polysemous (Waibel 2007: 74). In order to overcome this 10
problem in the quantitative part of this study, the phrasal verbs will be considered regardless of their semantic differences. The terms “overuse” and “underuse” will be used in this study to indicate whether the Iranian language learners have used more phrasal verbs than the native speakers of English or less. These terms do not indicate whether the learners have used inappropriate or wrong phrasal verbs or whether they have used wrong or inappropriate phrasal verbs more or less frequent than the native speakers of English. Erroneous uses will be discussed qualitatively in their contexts.
Following a quantitative analysis, the findings are also going to be analysed qualitatively in order to be combined with the quantitative approach, giving us a better understanding of the findings. In the qualitative analysis, the negative and positive mother tongue influences will be pointed out and discussed. In this respect the Persian LVCs or complex predicates and Persian prepositional verbs are expected to interfere with the English phrasal verbs used by Iranian language learners. These groups of Persian verbs cover many of the same functional domains as the English phrasal verbs.
Another area is judging learner output based on what the native speakers of English have produced. This cannot act as the only solution for finding out the unacceptable phrasal verbs used by language learners since their opinions of acceptable phrasal verbs are diverse and also because “there is not necessarily a one to one relation between what native speakers find acceptable or unacceptable (…) and what they themselves produce frequently” (Nesselhauf 2005: 53, quoted in Waibel 2007: 119). So, in addition to the native speaker corpus, phrasal verb dictionaries and grammar books will be used in order to check for the acceptability or the unacceptability of the phrasal verbs used by Iranian language learners.
Another problematic area is to be able to distinguish between mother tongue interference and the creative use of phrasal verbs. "Not everything that looks transferable is transferable" (Kellerman 1983: 113). If an L1 feature is perceived as infrequent, irregular, semantically or structurally opaque, or in any other way exceptional, … its transferability will be inversely proportional to its degree of 11
markedness" (Kellerman 1983: 117). This means that there are constraints that prevent positive transfer where there are similarities between L1 and L2, and which also prevent negative transfer where there exist differences between L1 and L2.
Stylistic aspects of the language produced by the language learners are also important for the present study, as in more informal language it is likely that the students produce more phrasal verbs than in more formal language. Nevertheless, certain phrasal verbs were proved by Biber et al. (1999: 410) to have been used more in formal contexts and some were mostly used in more informal contexts. Table 1 shows how Biber et al. (1999) categorise the use of certain phrasal verbs based on semantic domain and across different registers. This list includes all the phrasal verbs that occur more than 40 times in one million words in at least one register.
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Table1. Phrasal verbs by semantic domain across registers (including all phrasal verbs that occur over 40 times per million words in at least one register); (Biber et al. 1999: 410). …………… over 300 ………. over 200 ….. over 100 ... over 40 .. over 20
CONV FIC NEWS ACAD Activity intransitive Come on …………… ….. .. ……………………………………………………………………………………………...... Get up ….. ….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... Sit down ... ….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Get out ...... …………………………………………………………………………………………...... Come over ...... …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Stand up .. ….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Go off ... .. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Shut up ... .. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Come along .. ... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sit up ... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Go ahead ... Activity transitive Get in …...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Pick up ... ….. ... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Put on ...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Make up ...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Carry out ….. ….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Take up ...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Take on ...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Get back ... .. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Get off ... .. …………………………………………………………………………………………...... Look up ….. …………………………………………………………………………………………...... Set up ... .. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Take off ... …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Take over ... Mental transitive Find out …...... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Give up ...... Communication transitive Point out ...... Occurrence intransitive Come off ...... ………………………………………………………………………………………………...... Run out ... .. Copular Turn out ...... Aspectual intransitive Go on ………. ….. ….. ... 13
The list in table 1 includes the most common phrasal verbs that Biber et al. (1999) found in various contexts. It can be observed that the majority of these common phrasal verbs are activity verbs. There are rather small numbers of phrasal verbs in the domains of mental, occurrence, communication and aspectual verbs. The intransitive phrasal verbs are shown to have occurred especially in conversation and fiction rather than news and academic prose. The verb “come on”, which is an intransitive verb, was the most frequent phrasal verb and occurred mostly in conversation. The overall results of the table showed that conversation and fiction were the areas where most of the commonly used phrasal verbs occurred, and news and academic prose were the areas where the least common phrasal verbs occurred. Table 2 includes the overall results of all the phrasal verbs found across different areas.
Table 2. Frequency of phrasal verbs found across different registers; per one million words (Biber et al. 1999: 409). Each * represents 100 ………………………………………………………………… CONV * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ………………………………………………………………… FICT * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ………………………………………………………………… NEWS * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ………………………………………………………………… ACAD * * * * * * * *
Table 2 shows that phrasal verbs are mostly used in conversation and fiction as compared to news and academic prose, where they are relatively rare. As observed in table 2, the number of phrasal verbs found in conversation and fiction reaches almost 2,000 times per one million words in each register.
Although the focus of the present study is on which phrasal verbs are used and how, the researcher also needs to know what strategies the learners employ in order to compensate for their lack of knowledge. Avoidance in SLA was introduced by Schachter (1974). Schachter believed that in SLA research it is important not only to examine the L2 forms which are produced by the foreign language learner but also to 14
examine what they avoid using. Since then many researchers have also been interested in the avoidance behaviour (Dagut & Laufer 1985; Hulstijn & Marchera 1989; Kamimoto, Shimura & Kellerman 1992; Kleinmann 1977, 1978). Some researchers believe that if certain linguistic features are underproduced, this does not mean that they are or will be avoided and that the differences between the structures of L1 and L2 are not the only sources of the underproduction of linguistic features. The learners are expected to avoid using phrasal verbs at certain points for various reasons and use alternatives in order to make up for their lack of knowledge.
This research will demonstrate how a corpus linguistic approach to learner English research can point out the similarities and the differences between the language productions of native and non native speakers of English. It is expected that the results of comparative corpus based studies such as the present study help us identify learners’ needs and difficulties and to help linguists and teachers further their research into areas where language learners apparently have problems.
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2. Review of relevant literature 2.1. Phrasal verbs in descriptive and theoretically motivated studies
In order to cover the research relevant to the concerns in this study and to see what limitations and benefits such studies have had or to what extent they have focused on the phrasal verbs, the present study is going to discuss some of the most interesting of the studies conducted so far. Some of the literature will also touch on the avoidance of certain linguistic elements and the phrasal verbs in learner language. Didactic studies concerning the phrasal verbs will also be discussed in this chapter.
Phrasal verbs have aroused great interest in recent years due to their prominence in natural spoken and informal English. Studies on learner data have also drawn a lot of attention because of their importance in second language teaching and learning. The studies carried out on phrasal verbs and learner English cover a wide range of aspects. Several researchers have focused on the theoretical aspects of the phrasal verbs on the syntactic level and the semantic level (Bolinger 1971; Huddleston & Pullum 2002: 272 288; Palmer 1974; Quirk et al. 1985: 1150 1167). Some studies, however, have focused especially on the phrasal verbs from the semantic point of view (Gorlach 2000, Lipka 1972, McIntyre 2002). There have also been specialised studies on the English phrasal verbs at the syntactic level (Mahler 2002, Mitchell 1958, Sroka 1972). Certain studies even focused on only one syntactic aspect of the English phrasal verbs called “particle placement” (Cappelle 2002, Gries & Stefanowitsch 2004, and Szmrecsanyi 2005).
The study has benefitted the literature from definition of phrasal verbs point of view. In the next section, the applied linguistic topic, which is central to this study, will be dealt with.
2.2. Phrasal verb avoidance by the learner
An area of interest regarding the English phrasal verbs from an applied linguistics point of view is the issue of phrasal verb avoidance by the learners. The reason for 16
giving prominence to these studies is to point out difficulties that are raised by the phrasal verbs for the learners which go beyond positively attested erroneous uses.The first study to focus on phrasal verb avoidance by the learners was carried out by Dagut and Laufer (1985), which was based on Schachter’s (1974) view that the focus in error analysis in such studies should be on what is used by the learners as well as what is not used by the learners. It also followed Kleinmann (1977), whose observations showed that only those linguistic items that are known by the learners are likely to be avoided. This study aimed at students of English at the university who were Hebrew speakers. The researcher wanted to find out whether the subjects avoided using the English phrasal verbs while having passive familiarity with them. The results proved that although the learners showed familiarity with certain phrasal verbs, learners preferred to use single word verbs rather than phrasal verbs in around 50 percent of the cases. The study concluded that the learners avoided using the phrasal verbs because there were no equivalent phrasal verbs in Hebrew, so they avoided them because they could not properly understand them and when they were given the choice, they preferred to use the single word equivalents which were more familiar to them.
Another study carried out by Hulstijn and Marchena (1989) was a study following the conclusions in Dagut and Laufer (1985), who mentioned that phrasal verbs are likely to be avoided by learners whose native language is not Germanic, since phrasal verbs are known to be a common phenomenon in Germanic languages. They assumed that Dutch learners tended to avoid English phrasal verbs due to their complexity. They also believed that the learners would prefer to avoid fewer phrasal verbs in higher proficiency levels. So they basically repeated the study done by Dagut and Laufer (1985) with more systematic control of the proficiency level and a different L1 background. The two studies benefited from designs which were different to a small degree. The results showed that Dutch Intermediate learners used fewer phrasal verbs than advanced learners. Overall the Dutch learners used more phrasal verbs than Hebrew learners of the study conducted by Dagut and Laufer (1985). The findings confirm that phrasal verb avoidance occurs mainly because of semantic complexity and also learners’ L1 background. Intermediate and advanced 17
Dutch learners avoided using idiomatic phrasal verbs and phrasal verbs that had a Dutch equivalent. So similarities in mother tongue and target language can be problematic since both intermediate and advanced Dutch learners were reluctant to use phrasal verbs which had counterparts in their L1.
One other study by Laufer and Eliasson (1993) tried to find out if avoidance of the phrasal verbs was the result of second language semantic complexities or the differences that existed in the structure of the native language and the second language. In order to carry out this study a multiple choice test and a translation test were used. The results of this study proved that Swedish learners of English did not avoid the English phrasal verbs. Swedish learners proved to have used much more phrasal verbs as compared to the Hebrew learners mentioned in the study done by Dagut and Laufer (1985). The Swedish learners also used much more opaque English phrasal verbs compared to Dutch and Hebrew learners. This means that semantic complexity of L2 does not play an important role in the avoidance of the phrasal verbs by learners. Swedish learners did not show any evidence of avoidance of those phrasal verbs that had a Swedish equivalent. This study further concluded that the most important factors leading to phrasal verb avoidance are the differences that exist between L1 and L2.
One of the latest studies on the avoidance of the phrasal verbs was the study done by Liao and Fukuya (2004). This study focused on Chinese learners of English who were divided into two groups, advanced and intermediate. This study followed the studies done by Laufer and Eliasson (1993), Dagut and Laufer (1985), and Hulstijn and Marchena (1989). It aimed at finding out whether phrasal verbs were generally avoided by the learners due to mother tongue interference, the semantic complexity of the phrasal verbs or the effect of test type. Three different test types multiple choice questions, memorization, and translation were used. The results of the study showed that learners' level of proficiency, type of phrasal verb, and test type play roles in the avoidance of the phrasal verbs by the learners. The intermediate learners used much fewer phrasal verbs in the three different test types when compared with the advanced learners. Advanced learners and the native speakers showed similar use 18
of the phrasal verbs. Liao and Fukuya (2004) believed that the avoidance of the phrasal verbs displayed by the intermediate learners was mainly due to the differences in the structure of English and Chinese. This supports the fact that the difference that exists between the mother tongue and the target language of the learners is what causes the avoidance of the phrasal verbs. As was observed earlier, Chinese learners proved to have also used more literal phrasal verbs than figurative phrasal verbs regardless of their level of language proficiency and type of test, but advanced learners used more figurative phrasal verbs than intermediate learners, which supports development in the interlanguage.
The results of the study carried out by Hulstijn and Marchena (1989) did not provide support for the research hypothesis since the results showed that Dutch learners of English showed similar performance in the three test types. In Liao and Fukuya's (2004) study, who studied the influence of test type focusing on the two phrasal verb types "figurative and literal" which were used by the learners, it was found that in the translation test Chinese learners used literal phrasal verbs more frequently than figurative phrasal verbs. The results proved the influence of the semantic difficulty of target language on the use of phrasal verbs by the learners.
Some problems concerning the study done by Dagut and Laufer (1985) were found, one of which was that they had not checked to see whether the learners were familiar with the phrasal verbs and assumed that the learners had been taught the 15 phrasal verbs mentioned in the study. In the other studies discussed, the knowledge of the learners concerning the phrasal verbs usage was checked in advance. Another issue in this study was the avoidance of the phrasal verbs by the Hebrew learners, which could have been the result of the learners' knowledge of the phrasal verbs according to the statement made earlier that only those features can be avoided that are familiar for the learners. For some reason the researchers did not mention that semantic complexity could be the source of the learners' phrasal verb avoidance.
There are common problems in the four studies mentioned above. All the studies used only a very limited number of the English phrasal verbs and two of them 19
included a small number of subjects in order to carry out the studies. The studies failed to keep a balance between the figurative phrasal verbs and literal phrasal verbs in the tests employed in their studies. Another factor which plays a great role in the avoidance of the phrasal verbs and which was absent in all four studies is the teaching and the introduction of the phrasal verbs and, the comprehension of the phrasal verbs by the learners. For these and other reasons, a comparison of these studies with each other is limited to a certain degree.
In one study, McArthur (1989) briefly discusses the structure and a short history of the phrasal verbs, and points out some syntactic and semantic complexities regarding the phrasal verbs.
McPartland (1989) deals with the factors that pose difficulty for the learners when learning the phrasal verbs. She found out that those phrasal verbs with figurative nature were avoided more often by the learners compared to the phrasal verbs with literal meanings. She believes that their ambiguous nature is what results in their avoidance by the learners. Other factors causing the avoidance of the phrasal verbs by the learners were thought to be some syntactic and phonological features of the phrasal verbs 2. McPartland further mentions input or "frequency of use" (1989: 154). She explains that "the frequent occurrence of a phrasal verb in the input seems to accelerate the acquisition process, overriding semantic, syntactic, and phonological complexity” (McPartland 1989: 155), elaborating the reason for the better acquisition of some figurative phrasal verbs.
A recent study concerned with the avoidance of the phrasal verbs was carried out by Chen (2007). This study focused on the avoidance of the phrasal verbs by Chinese learners and provides solutions for it. It explains why Chinese learners avoid using certain phrasal verbs. Chen (2007) recommends that using appropriate pedagogical and methodological approaches in teaching and providing the learners with suitable guidelines in learning will help the Chinese learners perform better regarding the use
2 For example the position of particle and the intonation difference between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. 20
of the English phrasal verbs in the context of English as an international language in China.
2.3. Learner knowledge of the phrasal verbs
There are also other studies focusing on the learners' use of the phrasal verbs, but not on the avoidance of the phrasal verbs. In one study focusing on idiomatic expressions and how they were used by 25 ESL students, Yorio (1989) found that learners used less idiomatic phrasal verbs although they showed similar use compared to the native speakers. Yorio (1989) used compositions written by learners from which the phrasal verbs used were extracted. The problems with this study were that not many of the students' works were studied and not much detail was given on the phrasal verbs used by the learners. The results showed that learners used different phrasal verbs as compared to native speakers.
Sjöholm (1995) focused on the mechanisms, such as the effects of different internal and external factors on second language acquisition and the conditions under which the effects of other languages known by the learners operate, that play a role in the acquisition of the second language by the learners. This study was carried out on Finnish and Swedish learners of English at two different levels of language proficiency and benefited from a multiple choice test. This research wanted to find out in what way studying English or staying in an English speaking country influences the use of the phrasal verbs by the learners. The results proved that native speakers of English used more phrasal verbs than the learners and the Swedish learners used much more English phrasal verbs than the Finnish learners. The fact that there is an equivalent to the English phrasal verbs in the structure of the Swedish language and not in Finnish proved the hypothesis that the difference in the structure of the mother tongue and the target language can cause difficulty when learning the phrasal verbs. The results also showed that the Finnish learners avoided using idiomatic phrasal verbs and the Swedish learners used more English phrasal verbs which had semantically equivalent phrasal verbs in Swedish. The learners from both 21
learner groups who had stayed in an English speaking country used more figurative phrasal verbs than the learners who had no exposure to authentic language.
The study done by Lennon (1996) dealt with errors made by four German advanced learners of English regarding the choice of verbs. The learners in this study used phrasal verbs which had a correct particle but take and put were sometimes wrongly used as dummy verbs. In his study Lennon came to the conclusion that "learners may have a broad outline of verb meaning, but that their lexical knowledge is hazy concerning polysemy, contextual and collocational restrictions, phrasal verb combinations, grammatical environment" (1996: 35). The point to understand from this study is that there needs to be more focus on the frequent verbs rather than the particles when teaching the English phrasal verbs.
Another study focusing on the phrasal verbs from a different perspective was done by Hägglund (2001). This study compared the Swedish corpus from the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) with the Louvain Corpus of ative English Essays (LOCNESS) and then with the results in Biber et al.'s Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999: 410). The results of this study showed that the Swedish learners over and underused twelve of the thirty one phrasal verbs compared to the native speakers of English and, over and underused seven phrasal verbs of the thirty one phrasal verbs when compared to the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber et al. (1999). The researcher came to the conclusion that the language which the Swedish learners and native speakers used was close to the language of news and academic prose when compared with the findings of Biber et al. (1999: 410). The language produced by Swedish learners was more formal and showed features of written language. One limitation of this study was that it only investigated a small number of phrasal verbs and it did not show how the phrasal verbs were approached by the learners. This study used a rather small corpus. Another weakness of this study was its exclusively quantitative nature which is only the first step in a comprehensive corpus study.
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The studies carried out by Klein (1989, 1995a) combine linguistically oriented research with research related to teaching. A corpus study carried out by Klein (1989) aimed at the correct use of verb particle combinations and that this would indicate that learners are syntactically and semantically competent. Seventy two German intermediate essays were studied and all the verb particle combinations were extracted. The results showed that a better mark was given by the teacher in case the learner had used more multi word verbs. The results further indicated that the learners used less figurative phrasal verbs than literal phrasal verbs.
Another study carried out by Klein (1995a) aimed at phrasal verb choice by German learners under the influence of stylistic factors. In this study the researcher wanted to find out which informal English phrasal verbs were the German learners familiar with. The results of the study indicated that the learners were generally familiar with the meanings of phrasal verbs but the more figurative the phrasal verbs became, the less the learners were acquainted with them. And the learners showed better performance in receptive rather than productive activities.
One comprehensive corpus based study was carried out by Waibel (2007). This was a thorough study in that the data were both qualitatively and quantitatively studied regarding phrasal verb use. This study was done on two components of the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) namely the German (G ICLE) and the Italian (I ICLE). The results of the two corpora were compared to each other and then to the Louvain Corpus of ative English Essays LOCNESS. Waibel (2007) used the approach introduced by Mair (1991: 67) which called for a "quantitative statistical" and "qualitative textlinguistic" analysis of the corpora in order to have complete understanding of the language produced by the learners. He states that "The role of the corpus, after all, is not only to provide a limited and representative data base for statistical analysis, but also to provide authentic and realistic data, the close reading of which will allow the linguist to approach grammar from a functional and discourse perspective" (Mair 1991: 77). So according to the method adopted by Waibel (2007) the data were first quantitatively analysed in order to draw conclusions from the frequency of the phrasal verbs used and other frequency related 23
linguistic facts, and then the data were qualitatively analysed in order to find out why certain features were used frequently and why others were rarely used. This study aimed at finding out which features of learner language were under or over used compared to native speaker language and why. The hypothesis was that the learners would underuse the phrasal verbs. The results showed that in general, German students used more phrasal verbs than native speakers, and Italian learners used fewer phrasal verbs than native speakers. Waibel (2007: 159 160) mentioned that the overuse of the phrasal verbs by German learners was due to the increased use of Germanic verbs, and the underuse of the phrasal verbs by the Italian learners was due to the higher number of Latinate verbs in Italian and that phrasal verb like structures are marginal in Italian whereas the English phrasal verbs are mostly of Germanic origin.
One of the few studies dealing with the acquisition and the production of the phrasal verbs by Iranian learners was done by Khatib and Ghannadi (2011). The researchers gained motivation to launch this study from the fact that Iranian learners proved to have problems acquiring the English phrasal verbs. The study focused on the recognition and the production of phrasal verbs by Iranian learners. The learners were divided into three groups. One group was the non interventional control group and the other two groups were experimental groups, one of which was designated the experimental explicit group and the other one the experimental implicit group 3. The subjects were homogenised by a TOEFL test and asked to do a pretest to make sure they were not familiar with the phrasal verbs used in the experiment. After 10 sessions of treatment, the learners were asked to do a post test in order to find out their level of familiarity with the target phrasal verbs. The results showed that the experimental groups performed better than the control group in recognising and producing the target phrasal verbs. The results also proved that the experimental explicit group performed better than the experimental implicit group. The study
3 The terms “explicit” and “implicit” are used in this study to refer to the different teaching strategies employed in introducing the English phrasal verbs to the learners. In the experimental explicit group the phrasal verbs were introduced using the explicit strategy where the structure of the phrasal verbs was clearly and unambiguously defined prior to being presented to the learners in co text. On the other hand, in the experimental implicit group the phrasal verbs were implicitly presented to the learners meaning that the phrasal verbs were presented in co text without providing clear explanation of their structure, allowing the learners to create their own conceptual structures of the phrasal verbs. 24
concluded that, based on the results, a balanced approach to teaching, employing both explicit and implicit instruction, in order to improve phrasal verb learning, would greatly aid the learners in acquiring the phrasal verbs. One of the shortcomings of this study was the small number of subjects under study. There were only 63 learners participating in this study.
In a study by Schmitt and Redwood (2011) learners’ knowledge of phrasal verbs was looked into. The study first aimed at finding out whether the productive and receptive knowledge of some of the most common phrasal verbs was related to the frequency of those phrasal verbs. Then it attempted to study the factors which could have influenced the learners’ knowledge of the phrasal verbs. The learners were asked to sit for two tests, first to evaluate their productive knowledge and then their receptive knowledge of the English phrasal verbs. The learners were required to fill in a biodata questionnaire including questions regarding age, gender and nationality, and some items concerning the language instruction they had received. After analysing the data it was concluded that there is a relationship between learner knowledge of phrasal verbs and the frequency of phrasal verbs. It was also proved that factors like extensive reading, and watching English television programmes and films apparently had positive effect on the learners’ acquisition of the phrasal verbs.
English phrasal verbs are a complex area due to the manifold difficulties they pose for the learners. While the complexities are mostly recognised, not many studies have dealt with the teaching of these structures. Although some researchers like Darwin and Gary (1999: 75) believe that there is a need for the systematic classification of the phrasal verbs in order to improve the teaching of these structures, White (2012: 420) argues that “what is needed is a more systematic pedagogy”. In his paper, White (2012) presents a systematic and concept based approach for the instruction of phrasal verbs. This study aimed at aiding language teachers and researchers in using innovative methods that draw on both cognitive linguistics and sociocultural theory in the classroom. The study comprised of five methodological steps. The first step was dedicated to a new orientation of the learners in terms of phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs were looked at as conceptually 25
motivated rather than arbitrary combinations of verbs and particles. As a requirement of step 2 the learners were asked to go phrasal verb hunting from newspapers, magazines, web pages and course texts. This step provided the learners with the opportunity to look for phrasal verbs in authentic material where they were mostly found. This gave the learners choice and responsibility as main features of autonomous learning (van Lier 1996: 12). The third step involved the discussion of the phrasal verbs collected by the learners in which selected phrasal verbs and their original extracts were used. Then the learners were asked to present the potential meaning of each of the phrasal verbs using contextual cues under the supervision of the teacher. After the teacher provided the appropriate meanings for the phrasal verbs the learners were asked to express the meanings using drawings. The zone of activity was to be presented in each drawing and the learners were given freedom in connecting the spatial sense of a phrasal verb to its opaque or idiomatic meaning. For the last step, the learners were asked to share their drawings with the rest of the class and to explain their intentions of the drawings. This final step was believed to help learners gain insight into the conceptual meanings of phrasal verbs and to make sense of them. The aim of this method was to have learners make use of conceptual tools such as the zone of activity in order to be able to make sense of new phrasal verbs. The results of the study were satisfying in the sense that students made achievements in learning the phrasal verbs and their concepts. The fact that learners displayed improvement with regard to the phrasal verbs from the pre instruction task to the post instruction task and that most of the learners showed interest in completing all the steps of the study proved that benefitting from conceptualisation in the introduction of the phrasal verbs is a worthwhile exercise. Figure 1 is a sketch made by one of the participants to show how he/she tries to represent the concept of the phrasal verb reach out through drawing.
Figure 1. Example drawing for the phrasal verb “reach out”.
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There have been some studies focusing on didactic issues regarding the phrasal verbs. Most of them discuss difficulties of phrasal verbs concerning learners. Some consider the problems related to idiomaticity, style, or collocability (Cornell 1985, Cowie 1993, Klein 1995a, Kurtyka 2001, Neumann & Plag 1995, Side 1990). Some deal with older models which have been put forth for teaching phrasal verbs in the literature related to didactics or in resources used in teaching (Klein 1995b, Kurtyka 2001, Neumann & Plag 1995, Sansome 2000). Many such studies also make suggestions for teaching, such as putting the phrasal verbs in order based on particle semantics (Side 1990), pointing out the similarities and differences between mother tongue and second language (Neumann & Plag 1995), or targeting lists of phrasal verbs in their passive or active form (Cornell 1985, Klein 1995b). Kurtyka (2001) emphasised the importance of visualisation in the teaching of vocabulary that could also be used for learning the phrasal verbs. Klein (1995b) and Sansome (2000) created exercises focusing on phrasal verbs and Wyss (2003) focused on lesson planning with regard to phrasal verbs.
Regardless of the many studies targeting the phrasal verbs, there is still a great need for studying them from different points of view. Phrasal verbs pose an area of interest for researchers in different fields such as linguistics, applied linguistics, and language teaching and learning.
Having discussed all the studies carried out on learner language and the English phrasal verbs, it is quite obvious that there has been a fair amount of research in this regard. Despite the number of studies on learner language and phrasal verbs, it must be noted that similar studies dealing with Iranian learners of English and the English phrasal verbs are extremely scarce. The present study is going to be a pioneering research on the performance of the language learners in Iran concerning the English phrasal verbs. Therefore, it is of great significance since it is the first to draw on intermediate and advanced language learners in Iran and how they use the English phrasal verbs in essay writing. What makes the present research even more significant is that it will be the first large scale corpus based study on Iranian learner language which benefits from a computerised learner corpus. The present study is to 27
analyse far greater amount of data than most other previous studies on Iranian learner language.
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3. English in Iran
The fact that foreign languages are becoming more and more popular throughout the world makes them an important issue that requires great attention. What concerns any foreign language is the teaching and the learning process of that language. One of the languages which has been the centre of attention in many countries around the world is, without doubt, English. Although English has been used for a long time in Iran, there have been other languages which have had their days in this country. What is true about Iran and foreign languages is that knowledge of foreign languages has always been the distinct feature of the elite in Iran (Zonis 1971: 176). Until the Iranian revolution the most favoured foreign languages practised by the elite were French and English. The table below, taken from Zonis (1971: 59) illustrates how the younger generation of the elite preferred to learn English more than they preferred to master French until that time.
Table 3. Age related percentages of Iranian elite claiming to have good knowledge of English or French as foreign languages (Zonis 1971: 59).
Age → 39 or below 40 49 50 59 60 or above English 61.1 42.1 29.7 29.3 French 38.9 57.9 70.3 70.7
The above statistics reflect the situation at that time. Which foreign languages play the same roles in Iran today, is our concern here. By the time of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 the shift from French to English, a lingua franca, had well taken place amongst the academics and the elite. Ever since then, English has consolidated its status as the predominant foreign language in this country. English has gained considerable attraction in recent years since it is widespread throughout the world. This fact calls for the need to learn the language in order to be able to get involved in all kinds of international interactions such as economic and political interactions, and to build up relations with the world. Since the present study focuses 29
on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Iran, the place of English in this country is what needs to be considered here.
3.1. English Language Teaching (ELT) in Iran
There are more than 1.5 billion users of English around the world, a quarter of which are native speakers 4 of English and the rest use English as a second or foreign language (Strevens 1992, quoted in Samimy & Kurihara 2006: 679). With the increasing number of English users around the world, the training of non native teachers of English becomes increasingly important (Samimy & Kurihara 2006: 679). Due to this increasing demand, there is a question of whether native teachers of English are more effective in teaching English or non native English speaking teachers are. In a study on native and non native teachers, Medgyes (1992) concluded that non native teachers could be equally effective in teaching English as native English speaking teachers are, since non native teachers are believed to benefit from certain strengths in teaching, which were obtained through the successful learning of English in the first place. Based on a study by Reves and Medgyes (1994), factors like the teaching qualifications of non native teachers, time spent in an English speaking country and the amount of contact between native and non native teachers of English would influence the self image and the way of teaching of non native teachers; therefore, non native teachers need to have frequent exposure to authentic English and require professional in service training.
In the educational system in Iran nearly all English teachers are non native speakers who were born and raised in Iran. Few of them might have had exposure to authentic English, which means that most of them have not. The teachers might bring with them their experience in learning English, but factors like lack of exposure to authentic language and the scarcity of contact with native English speaking teachers might cause some problems.
4 For a definition of native and non native speakers refer to Samimy and Kurihara (2006). 30
English language teaching in Iran includes what the students receive at school, at non governmental language schools and universities. What is of concern in the present study is the teaching of English to students at school prior to entering university in Iran. The reason for this is that university students being studied here owe a considerable amount of their knowledge of English to the English language training they received at the pre university stage.
3.1.1. English in the school curriculum in Iran
Due to the intensification of contacts in the age of global interconnectedness and technological advancements, Iranian learners, like other learner groups with different L1 backgrounds, feel the need to be able to communicate at international levels. Knowledge of a foreign language can be used for cultural interactions in addition to economic interactions such as tourism, commerce, technology, scientific developments, etc.
In line with these views, the Organisaion for Educational Reseach and Planning of the Ministry of Education in Iran has prepared policy documents on the national curriculum in Iran. According to the national curriculum of the Islamic Republic of Iran 5 regarding the English language:
The learners must be trained to be able to communicate effectively using the four main language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. The national curriculum of English education in Iran should ensure the learners’ familiarity with English in general as well as with the necessary vocabulary and structures required for effective communication. The learners are expected to have the ability to read and comprehend intermediate level texts and to be able to write essays and articles by the end of their schooling in Iran. Language education must go beyond all theories, approaches and conventional methods of the world (37 38).
Although the remarks given in the National curriculum of the Islamic Republic of Iran sound reasonable, what is mentioned by the Islamic Consultative Assembly
5 http://www.medu.ir/Portal/File/ShowFile.aspx?ID=20e6065a f6e3 427d 9e8b 5e95a2381b54 31
Research Center 6 seems slightly different. According to the Islamic Consultative Assembly Research Center:
English language teaching should not involve the import of the so called western culture into Iranian societies because this is believed to result in the westernisation of these societies. Reading and writing skills are the basis for logical scientific advancements, while speaking and listening skills, otherwise known as conversational language skills, are just means of cultural transfer and thus hardly benefit the reading and comprehension of scientific texts. Furthermore, one who learns the conversation language must put it to use in order to gain satisfaction, which could result in acquaintance with the western culture through music, satellite TV, and anonymous internet conversations. On the other hand, reading and writing skills promote the reading of books and scientific articles which helps with scientific developments. This is why reading and writing skills which are regarded as constructive skills must be emphasised in order to enhance the scientific knowledge of the learners (6 7).
As indicated above, while the learning of the four main language skills was encouraged in the national curriculum, listening and speaking skills were not favoured by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, who believed that these language skills must not be incorporated in the national curriculum.
Educational policies in Iran are usually designed by the Ministry of Education in the central government (Ghorbani 2009: 132) but are later revised by certain government sectors, like the Islamic Consultative Assembly, in order to stay in line with the religiopolitical policies of the country. Based on nearly all national policy documents, learning of foreign languages (especially English) is emphasised since foreign languages are useful means which help develop the tourism industry, businesses, technology, and political relations at international levels as well as being used for intercultural and interpersonal communication (Kiany et al. 2011: 465). Unfortunately, national policies and goals have not been specified for the intended purposes (ibid.: 465).
6 http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/report/show/811059 32
There are also certain socio political factors that negatively affect language classrooms in Iran. The first and most important is the fact that teachers have to follow a prescribed curriculum and with it the textbook provided, which means that they do not have the freedom to use other resources in order to meet their students’ needs. The second issue causing limitations in this regard is that learner output is strictly controlled by the mandated national testing scheme which forces learners to study in line with exam requirements. And lastly, the fact that higher scores on exams would mean higher levels of achievement persuades the learners, their parents and school officials to encourage a focus on higher scores rather than on the subject matter (Ghorbani 2009: 132).
All high schools in Iran are expected to teach the same books and to pursue the same standards. Before the 1990s EFL teaching focused mainly on grammar and translation. In the last decade or so the revised high school English education curriculum has put more emphasis on the learners’ communicative competence but the overall outputs remain unchanged since the mandated national testing system remains unchanged with continuing focus on grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension (Ghorbani 2009: 133).
The schooling system in Iran has recently changed. Today it includes primary school and secondary school. Students must pass 6 years for each of these levels, which means both levels include 12 years altogether. This change has recently taken place and it is not known for how long it will remain unchanged. Although Iranian students have a new schooling system, the system of education and the textbooks remain the same with slight changes. There have been promises of major fundamental changes in the near future.
The former schooling system in Iran had three major divisions. The first level was Primary School, during which time the students had to pass 5 years of school and no English language training was offered. The second level was Guidance School, where students had to cover three years of education. English was first introduced to the students at school in the second year of Guidance School. The third major 33
division of the system of education at schools in Iran was High School. This level included three years plus one additional year of study called pre university. Students at high school had to cover one EFL textbook each year with the exception of the pre university stage, during which students had to cover two books which were packed into one book. The English language practised at the pre university stage was, in fact, a review of all the major grammatical points taught in the previous three years of high school.
The EFL textbooks were designed in such a way that by the end of high school the students were thought to have achieved the following (Fazelimanie 2004: 31):
- Knowledge of 3000 English words. - Above average proficiency in English grammar. - Ability to read English texts easily and effectively. - Ability to write short length paragraphs in English. - Ability to effectively get involved in a conversation.
The schooling system in Iran has always relied on the traditional Grammar Translation method. Contrary to this, in recent years, teachers have been trying to employ their own creative methods, trying to bring the classroom closer to the communicative method for teaching English. This progress accompanied the emergence of language laboratories in schools trying to make up for the very small emphasis put on listening and speaking practice in the original EFL curriculum. Besides the small emphasis on listening and speaking, the final exams of the schools and the countrywide university entrance exams all avoided any evaluation of the listening and speaking proficiency of the students. Many teachers, therefore, did not see any purpose in practising listening and speaking in classroom. Teachers usually do not see much point in developing their own materials or employing other teaching methods in classroom, since it is much simpler to follow the syllabus of the course book and to teach only the content of the textbooks (Skehan 2006: 57).
34
The focus of this research is on the students of English at the university who are majoring in a variety of English related fields such as English language translation studies, English language teaching, and English literature. Since the English knowledge of the students was what they seemed to have brought with them from school to the university and because not many have had the chance to be in touch with native speakers of English during their years of education in high school, and with the assumption that they received no other English language training during that time, since not all have this chance due to financial matters, the EFL training of the students at high school and the pre university year are the centre of attention in this study. This is believed to have influenced, to a large extent, the quality of the essays which were written by the university students who studied in the field of English. After analysing the data, the results will be closely studied to find out how the learners’ essays reflect the training they received in high school regarding the English phrasal verbs.
3.2. High school EFL textbooks in Iran
As mentioned earlier above, the final stage of school in Iran before university was called high school. This stage was divided into three years of high school and one year of pre university. While new topics and grammar points regarding English were introduced to the learners during the first three years of high school, the pre university year was dedicated to the review of all the major issues taught during the three years of high school. The EFL textbooks of these last four years of school in Iran will be analysed here. The researcher was provided with the required high school textbooks, school supplementary material and exam material by Mrs. Vajihosadat Fateminezhad, one of the most experienced 7 high school English language teachers in the city of Hamedan, Iran. She also provided a considerable amount of counselling in terms of the institutional setting of Iranian learners. She is one of the few teachers who has had exposure to natural English by staying in the United Kingdom for several years.
7 Mrs. Fateminezhad has had around 25 years of teaching experience in Iran. She is an English teacher at Fatima Al Zahra high school in Hamedan, Iran. 35
The textbooks analysed in this chapter were designed by the Ministry of Education 8 in Iran at the “Organisation for Educational Research and Planning 9”. The titles used for the textbooks of the three initial years of high school were “English Book 1 10 ”, “English Book 2 11 ” and “English Book 3 12 ” respectively. The title used for the pre university textbook was “A preparatory English course: book one & two 13 ”. The supplementary and exam material 14 belonged to Fatima Al Zahra and Tahzib high schools in Hamedan.
The lessons in the high school EFL textbooks were divided into different sections (appendix 1). Explanations on the different sections and their aims and functions were given as preface in the books. The explanations were similar in all the four textbooks.
The latest copies of English Book 1 15 , 2 16 and 3 17 have not undergone much change in 2012. The only changes are the addition of “educational audio software” for textbooks and “teacher’s book”. The only book with somewhat major changes is the pre university textbook 18 . The overall format of the lessons remains unchanged in this book. One of the differences that the latest pre university EFL textbook has with the older version is that most of the reading passages of the lessons have changed in the latest book. Another distinction is that the new book comes with “educational audio software” and “teacher’s book”.
In addition to the relatively small number of changes, at the beginning of the latest high school EFL textbooks it is mentioned that English teaching will go through
8 http://www.medu.ir/Portal/Home/ 9 http://oerp.medu.ir/oerp_en.php 10 Birjandi et al. (2001a) 11 Birjandi et al. (2001b) 12 Birjandi et al. (2002) 13 Birjandi et al. (2003) 14 The exam papers were parts of the united examinations held simultaneously at all schools in Hamedan, Iran. 15 Birjandi et al. (2012a) 16 Birjandi et al. (2012b) 17 Birjandi et al. (2012c) 18 Birjandi et al. (2012d) 36
several fundamental changes in the years to come. These changes are due to the new educational system, which is to be introduced soon. The changes will be made by “Organisation for Educational Research and Planning”. The changes will include the following:
- Focus on all four major language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – rather than only on one or two of them. - The teaching of learning skills will be put to practice. - English will be scientifically, culturally and rationally looked at by taking national and Islamic values into account. - The learners will not benefit from mere input, instead they will be given the chance to analyse and criticise educational contents. - In addition to the textbooks, EFL classes will enjoy other material such as self training multimedia software, teacher’s book, supplementary websites and material, movies with subtitles, and other books and CDs that aid in teaching. - Great emphasis will be on the “output” of the learners as well as their “input”. - Critical thinking in learning will be greatly encouraged.
In the high school EFL textbooks in Iran a great deal of imbalance exists with regard to listening, speaking, reading and writing. There is obviously no focus on listening exercises, very little if any attention given to speaking, which is, in reality, a practice of grammar, and the textbooks do not include daily writing activities such as writing a diary or letters, and writing is instead decontextualised. Most of the textbooks are dedicated to grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension practices (Ghorbani 2009: 134 135). So the textbooks resort to grammar translation and audio lingual methods of language teaching, and the teachers use Persian in order to teach English due to the learners’ lack of communicative competence (ibid.: 136). Aural and oral skills of the learners are not emphasised in EFL textbooks in Iran and are not tested in school final exams and university entrance exams, which is why oral drills, pronunciation, listening and speaking skills are not stressed (ibid.: 132). On the other hand, emphasis is largely put on reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary (ibid.: 37
132). Preparing the learners for success in tests, that mainly focus on writing, reading, vocabulary and grammar, is at the centre of attention in EFL classrooms in Iran so the teachers prefer to skip the other less important parts that focus on the aural and oral skills of the learners (ibid.: 132).
The present study aims at discussing the slightly older versions of High school EFL textbooks in Iran 19 since they were the textbooks which the learners participating in the present research studied during their education at highschool, although not much has changed in the present textbooks.
3.2.1. English Book 1 20
English Book 1 was a review of all the major issues taught at guidance school as well as some additional topics. The biggest feature of this book was that much of the content including the exercises, new vocabulary and passages were created using mainly inauthentic language.
The textbook started with review exercises which were a review of the most important points with regard to EFL taught in guidance school. This section focused mainly on vocabulary, especially verbs. The verbs that were practised were mostly simple verbs. There were only two cases of phrasal verbs in the review exercises. The two phrasal verbs which are also mentioned in Table 4 are “wake up” and “come back”. The meanings of the two phrasal verbs are literal. This could mean that complexity is avoided by material designers. The exercises were, for the most part, fill in the blanks, questions and scrambled sentences. A copy of the review exercises is available in (appendix 2).
Going through English Book 1, 14 different phrasal verbs 21 were found. There were 24 phrasal verbs extracted altogether, which is not a big number for a high school
19 Birjandi et al. (2001a), Birjandi et al. (2001b), Birjandi et al. (2002) and Birjandi et al. (2003). 20 Birjandi et al. (2001a). 21 The phrasal verbs found in high school EFL textbooks were extracted based on the definition provided by the researcher. (see 5.4) 38
textbook. This means that, the authors of the book seem to avoid using the English phrasal verbs, due to their unfamiliarity for the learners. After studying English Book 1, it was found that phrasal verbs were not taught in this textbook leaving the learners a vague picture of their nature and structure. Table 4 below lists all the phrasal verbs spotted and extracted from English Book 1.
Table 4. All the phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 1 and listed alphabetically along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in Frequency English Book 1 (raw numbers) Come back 1 Come down 1
Fly back 1
Get up 8
Go down 2
Go out 1
Grow up 1
Leave aside 1
Put on 3
Speak out 1
Turn down 1
Turn off 1
Turn on 1
Wake up 1
The phrasal verbs in table 4 are listed alphabetically. The meanings of all the phrasal verbs listed here are literal apart from one case of phrasal verb bearing figurative meaning which is “put on” with the meaning wear . This implies that material designers have tried to avoid using the English phrasal verbs due to the extremely 39
low number of cases and have avoided using phrasal verbs the meanings of which are figurative.
The reason for not using a greater number of phrasal verbs could be that they are not introduced to the learners until this stage. The authors apparently believe they must be taught before being extensively used. At this level students are not ready to learn the concept of two word verbs and all the phrasal verbs they encounter is treated as one linguistic item. This way the phrasal verbs are learned as chunks and their meanings are memorised based on mother tongue equivalents given by the teacher. The fixed meanings given by the teacher to the phrasal verbs is what the learners are supposed to recall when they intend to use those phrasal verbs but are not likely to fully succeed due to the opaqueness of certain phrasal verbs and mother tongue interference.
3.2.1.1. Year one exam analysis
After analysing some of the exams used for learner evaluation at school, the findings were interesting. The phrasal verbs found in the exam questions (appendix 3a) of year one high school students were extracted. The exam questions in which phrasal verbs were found were often either in the form of multiple choice questions or in the form of cloze tests and fill in the blanks. Example (1) is a sample of exam material where phrasal verbs were used.
(1) A. Please turn that radio ………… . I’m going to get the baby to sleep. a) down b) into c) on d) up
B. It was nice of you to …………. and let the old man have your seat. a) Climb up b) grow up c) pick up d) stand up
C. I’ll ………….. in two days if you lend me one of your books. a) Look it up b) give it back c) point it out d) take it apart 40
The list of these phrasal verbs shows interesting points which need careful consideration. The list below in table 5 is what was found in the course of this study.
Table 5. The phrasal verbs found and extracted from the final exam material of year one high school EFL courses. These phrasal verbs are alphabetically listed along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in year Frequency
one high school EFL (raw numbers)
exam questions
Climb up 1
Give back 1
Go up 1
Grow up 1
Keep on 1
Look out 1
Look up 1
Pick up 1
Point out 1
Put on 1
Stand up 1 Take apart 1 Turn down 1 Turn on 1 Turn up 1 Wake up 1 Walk in 1
41
The exam material studied here were mostly final school year exams. Four sets of exam questions were randomly selected since the focus of the present study is not on the Iranian high school EFL assessment material. The random selection of exams to be studied here was done in order to find out which phrasal verbs were used in the exam material, what kind of phrasal verbs were mostly used and if any interesting points were worth mentioning.
The study of the exam material helped us understand how the phrasal verbs introduced in the textbooks were assessed in the exam and to what extent phrasal verbs were used in the exam questions. Search for untaught cases or cases of phrasal verbs used differently from how they were introduced in the textbook was also part of the study. After extracting the phrasal verbs from the year one high school EFL exam material 17 different phrasal verbs were found. From the 17 phrasal verbs found in the exam material only 5 were introduced in the textbook, the other 12 phrasal verbs were not mentioned in the textbook at all. One reason for this was that some had literal meanings which could easily be guessed from the components of the phrasal verbs. Examples of such phrasal verbs are “climb up”, “give back”, “go up” and “stand up”. Some other cases which were not introduced in the textbook, however, must have been taught prior to exam since some of them like “keep on” and “point out” had figurative meanings and needed to be taught to the students before being used in the exams. The emergence of such phrasal verbs in exam material needed to be investigated by the researcher of the present study.
After consulting some of the high school EFL teachers in this regard the researcher found out that the teachers had to regularly check the material of the final exams of the previous years while covering each lesson or grammar point in order to make sure that all the materials in the textbook as well as what was mentioned in the exams in the previous years was covered. Since the exam materials contained more information than the textbook, the teacher had to find a way to make up for it. This was, in fact, found to be a deficit of the educational system in Iran which needed great consideration. In order to overcome this problem, the teachers proposed that additional material such as lists of additional vocabulary, supplementary grammar 42
lessons and exercises be provided for the students. This was done in order to compensate for the information that was not provided in the textbook but assessed in the final exam.
Some phrasal verbs which occurred in the exam material but not in the textbook were found to have been introduced in the previous years of EFL learning in guidance school. These occurred neither in English Book 1 nor in the additional material provided by the teachers to the students.
The only figuratively used phrasal verb cases found in the year one high school EFL exam were “keep on”, “put on” and “point out” with the meanings continue, wear and show, respectively. This number is probably kept low since the phrasal verbs were not dealt with in this textbook and due to their somewhat ambiguous meanings which pose difficulty for the learners aiming to learn and use them.
3.2.2. English Book 2 22
This textbook started off with review exercises just like English Book 1 did. As expected, the review exercises went over all the major points of the previous year. This included everything available in the textbook, EFL training at guidance school and the supplementary material provided by the teacher used to make up for the shortcomings of textbooks. There were no cases of phrasal verbs found in the review exercises which meant that the phrasal verbs were not one of the major points at the centre of attention for material designers in English Book 1.
The language used to design the materials of English Book 2 is rather inauthentic. This means that the majority of the exercises were designed using the language produced by non native speakers of English. The passages included in each unit seemed to be texts taken from authentic material but proved otherwise. In fact they were the simplified versions of the original texts which were produced in non native language. Using simplified texts especially by means of inauthentic language means
22 Birjandi et al. (2001b). 43
that the output content would lack some features of authentic language one of which is the English phrasal verbs. That is, as a result of using inauthentic language in order to produce EFL material, the content would not contain as many phrasal verbs as authentic language does. This is proved through the extraction of the phrasal verbs from English Book 2. The phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 2 are put into alphabetical order in table 6 along with the frequency of the phrasal verbs found in the textbook.
Table 6. All the phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 2 and listed alphabetically along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in Frequency English Book 2 (raw numbers) Come back 2 Come out 1 Fill in 2 Find out 1 Get out 2 Get up 3 Give back 1 Go around 7 Go away 2 Go out 2 Go up 1 Grow up 1 Jump out of 1 Keep on 1 Light up 1 Look up 1 Make out of 1 Mix up 3 44
Phrasal verbs in Frequency English Book 2 (raw numbers) Pair up 1 Pick up 4 Put aside 1 Put in 1 Put on 2 Run along 1 Run out of 4 Take off 3 Turn down 3 Turn off 3
Turn on 1
Wake up 1
Walk around 1
As can be seen in the list in table 6 there are 31 different phrasal verbs found and extracted from English Book 2. This shows a greater variety of the phrasal verbs compared to the phrasal verbs found and extracted from English Book 1. In addition to phrasal verb types 23 , the frequency of the phrasal verbs used was also higher than what was observed in English Book 1, with 60 phrasal verb tokens 24 extracted from English Book 2.
The higher variety of the phrasal verbs listed in table 6 compared to the phrasal verbs found in English Book 1 means that phrasal verbs are gradually finding their way into the school curriculum. High school EFL material designers are gradually incorporating more and more phrasal verbs in the textbook material until the phrasal verbs are dealt with separately in detail.
23 ‘Phrasal verb types’ refers to the different phrasal verbs used. 24 ‘Phrasal verb tokens’ refers to the overall frequency of the phrasal verbs used. 45
It is of interest that the number of English phrasal verbs with figurative meanings are still kept relatively low (only 4 among the 31 different phrasal verbs found in English Book 2) in comparison with the English phrasal verbs with literal meanings. The only English phrasal verbs used figuratively are “keep on” meaning continue , “look up” meaning search , “put on” meaning wear , and “run out of” meaning exhaust the supply . What can be understood from this is that the English phrasal verbs are not yet presented systematically as a grammatical category.
One interesting fact about lesson one in English Book 2 is the different way of introducing the English phrasal verbs in high school EFL textbooks. As with every lesson of the high school EFL textbooks, the lesson starts with new words. Notice how one English phrasal verb is underlined in the co text below (Birjandi et al. 2001b: 3).
(2)
- He picked up the newspaper and looked at the pictures carefully. What did he pick up ? What did he do then?
Note how the phrasal verb “pick up” carrying the meaning lift is used in different sentences. A phrasal verb carrying a figurative meaning is also used in another co text introducing the new words. Example (3) illustrates this (Birjandi et al. 2001b: 2).
(3) - Mother, please bake a cake for us today. - Sorry, I can’t. We’ve run out of sugar. Why can’t she bake a cake today?
The above examples show that new English phrasal verbs are being introduced by being used in different co texts, especially in a question used to prompt the learners 46
to use that phrasal verb. This is the first time the learners are exposed to the English phrasal verbs in this way. Here, a phrasal verb bearing figurative meaning is also introduced. The verb “run out of” meaning exhaust the supply is one example. This proves that the figurative phrasal verbs are also gradually being brought into the picture here by highlighting them in co text rather than teaching them in advance.
The last exercise in the first lesson of English Book 2 is interesting enough to be discussed here. (4) illustrates this exercise (Birjandi et al. 2001b: 11).
(4) - Fill in the blanks with these verbs.
1. turn down 2. came back 3. get up 4. put on 5. take off 6. picked up 7. give back 8. find out
1. Do you usually ……………. early in the morning? 2. Please ……………… the TV. I want to study. 3. Don’t you want to ………………. the money you borrowed from me? 4. He ……………….. a slice of bread and gave it to me. 5. They’ll soon …………….. who has taken the money. 6. ………………… your coat! It may get cold. 7. Your shoes are dirty. ………….. them …………. . 8. My father ………………. from work very late last night.
As can be seen in the above example, this exercise focuses only on the English phrasal verbs. The oddity of this is that the English phrasal verbs have not been taught until this stage but there is an exercise dedicated to them. The reason for this can be that material designers do not know whether to introduce them one by one as words or as a grammatical structure.
In the other six lessons of English Book 2 the English phrasal verbs were mentioned sporadically in different exercises and passages with no particular stress on any 47
English phrasal verb. As was stated earlier, the number of English phrasal verbs used figuratively was kept low presumably due to their complexity.
3.2.2.1. Year two exam analysis
The exam questions of the year two EFL classroom needed to be studied in order to find out how the learners’ knowledge of the English phrasal verbs was evaluated. Two sample sets of exam questions (appendix 3b) were obtained. After analysing these sets of final EFL exam questions only very few cases of English phrasal verbs were found. The phrasal verbs used in the exam material were mostly used in fill in the blank exercises. The example below shows how the phrasal verbs are used in exam content.
(5)
- Fill in the blanks with the given words. Glowing, at last, run , fast, a lot, near, around, up , wide
1 There is a tree …………….. the car. 2 A monkey is going ……………. the tree. 3 The eyes of the cat were ……………… in the dark. 4 I would like to travel …………….. the world. 5 Let’s buy some meat. We’ve ……………… out of meat. 6 Should we drive ………………… on highways? 7 The garden is fifty meters ……………….. . 8 …………………… we found out who had stolen the pen.
The list in table 7 includes the phrasal verbs found in the exam content.
48
Table 7. The phrasal verbs found and extracted from the final exam material of year two high school EFL courses. These phrasal verbs are alphabetically listed along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in year Frequency two high school EFL (raw numbers) exam questions Find out 1 Go around 1 Go up 2 Run out of 2
Table 7 does not show many English phrasal verbs. This could be because only two sets of exam questions were studied for the purpose of this section. Despite the small number of cases found, the number proves to be low for one exam. What is more is that only one of the four different English phrasal verbs found was figuratively used. The verb “run out of” meaning exhaust the supply was the only phrasal verb with figurative meaning. In fact, not only were the English phrasal verbs deemphasised, but also instances of English phrasal verbs bearing figurative meanings were scarce.
All the cases of phrasal verbs found in the exam questions were introduced to the learners in English Book 2. But since the learners were provided with supplementary material in addition to the textbook, it is very likely that instances of English phrasal verbs could have been found in other exam questions that did not occur in the textbook which were not at hand for the present study.
A set of supplementary vocabulary material (appendix 4) was studied in order to see which English phrasal verbs were introduced in such material. Table 8 lists all the phrasal verbs found in the supplementary vocabulary material.
49
Table 8. List of the English phrasal verbs found in a sample supplementary vocabulary material of year two high school EFL classroom.
English phrasal verbs Frequency
In year two high school EFL (raw numbers)
classroom Supplementary
vocab material
Give back 1
Keep on 1
Mix up 1
Pick up 1
Run out of 1
Send out 1
Take apart 1
Take up 1
The phrasal verb cases found in the supplementary material were, as predicted, not all included in English Book 2. This means that those phrasal verbs included in the textbook and the supplementary material might be included in the exam.
The phrasal verbs mentioned in table 8 do not all have literal meanings. The two phrasal verbs “keep on” meaning continue and “run out of” meaning exhaust the supply are used figuratively. The cases “take up”, “take apart” and “send out” are examples of those phrasal verbs that do not occur in the year two high school EFL material. This proves the assumption that exam questions may contain information that is not all given or explained in the textbooks but mentioned in the supplementary material.
50
3.2.3. English Book 3 25
English Book 3 consists of six lessons. Interestingly there are no review exercises at the beginning of this book but a set of review exercises can be found at the end of the book. The authors of English Book 3 used authentic and inauthentic language in order to prepare the material of this textbook. Most of the authentic material was the simplified version of the source where the material was taken from.
After going through the table of contents of English Book 3 it was realised that the English phrasal verbs are actually taught in this textbook. One grammar section of this textbook is dedicated to the English two or multi word verbs among which the English phrasal verbs were defined and contrasted with other types of English two or multi word verbs.
All the English phrasal verbs were spotted and extracted from English Book 3. The striking fact about the English phrasal verbs found in this textbook was that more than half of the phrasal verbs found in this textbook were extracted from lesson three where the English two or multi word verbs were taught and dealt with in detail.
All the English phrasal verbs found in English Book 3 are listed alphabetically in table 9. The frequency of each phrasal verb is also included in table 9.
Table 9. All the phrasal verbs extracted from English Book 3 and listed alphabetically along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in Frequency English Book 3 (raw numbers) Call up 5 Fill in 1 Find out 1
25 Birjandi et al. (2002). 51
Phrasal verbs in Frequency English Book 3 (raw numbers) Get away 2 Give back 6 Give out 1 Go on 1 Jump down 1 Jump up 1 Keep on 1 Make up of 1 Pick up 5 Put in 1 Put on 12 Sit down 2 Slow down 2 Stand up 1 Switch over 1 take away 1 Take away from 1 Take off 5 Turn down 4 Turn off 9 Turn on 8 Turn up 1 Wake up 7 Write down 1
With a look at table 9 which summarises all the English phrasal verbs found in English Book 3, it can be seen that even though the phrasal verbs were taught in this textbook, the number of English phrasal verb tokens found in this textbook is slightly smaller than the number of English phrasal verb tokens found in English Book 2. 52
This could be due to the more complex grammar points discussed in English Book 3 which overshadow the use or the introduction of the phrasal verbs, resulting in using more limited phrasal verb tokens than expected and compared to the phrasal verbs used in English Book 2.
The reason behind the fact that phrasal verbs occur more frequently in English Book 3 in comparison with English Book 2 is that the English two or multi word verbs are taught in English Book 3. There are 82 English phrasal verbs found in English Book 3 and listed in table 9 out of which only three were figuratively used. The figuratively used phrasal verbs in this textbook are keep on , put on and take off with the meanings continue , wear and remove, respectively. The number of phrasal verbs with figurative meanings in this textbook is very small.
Lesson three in English Book 3 is where material designers start talking about the English phrasal verbs. The grammar spot which is called “speak out” in this lesson starts talking about the English two word verbs by illustrating what is known as the English phrasal verbs in this study. The structure is divided into two parts, namely “structure 1” and “structure 2”. The first section called “structure 1” introduces a form of the English two word verbs using the equation below (Birjandi et al. 2002: 42):
Two word verbs Verb + particle
The two word verbs mentioned here are known to the present study as the English phrasal verbs. Immediately after this equation is given, the phrasal verbs are used in co texts to show the learners how they could be separated. This feature of the phrasal verbs is especially highlighted as the feature which distinguishes them from the similar two word verbs known to this study as prepositional verbs. This feature of the phrasal verbs permits the verb element to be separated from its adverbial particle using either a noun phrase or a personal pronoun. The examples below are from the section of the textbook called “speak out”. In this section the learners are asked to 53
listen to the teacher read the sentences and to repeat after him/her. The idea behind this exercise is to familiarise the learners with the way English phrasal verbs are used in sentences (Birjandi et al. 2002: 42).
(6) - I turned off the radio. I turned the radio off .
- Your brother picked up the coins. Your brother picked the coins up .
- Can he call up the students? Yes, he can call them up .
In the first example, where the phrasal verb “turn off” is used, the components of the verb turn off are separated by a noun phrase in the second sentence. In the second example the phrasal verb “pick up” is also separated by a noun phrase. It is only in the last example that the phrasal verb “call up” is separated using a personal pronoun.
The phrasal verbs are also used in a follow up exercise called “substitution drills”. As the name implies, the learners are given a sample sentence and asked to substitute or insert a noun phrase, a personal pronoun or a phrasal verb in the sentence. The example below is one of the exercises mentioned (Birjandi et al. 2002: 43).
(7) Substitute the words in the pattern sentences. Make changes if necessary. - Please turn the TV off . 1) the radio 2) it 3) the lights 4) them 5) turn on 6) turn up 54
7) turn down 8) turn off
As observed in (7), among the noun phrases and the personal pronouns to be substituted in the sample sentence there are also phrasal verbs which the learners must use to replace the phrasal verb given in the sample sentence. In order to understand and to be able to do this exercise better the learners are taught that personal pronouns only occur before the particle of the phrasal verbs but noun phrases can occur either before or after the particle of the phrasal verbs. The learners are not told about the nature of the adverbial particles which combine with a verb to make a phrasal verb due to their complexity and that they are very similar to the English prepositions. It is believed that too much of explicit teaching may cause confusion among the learners. So the explanations in this regard are kept as simple as possible. The aim of training in the case of the English two word verbs is that the learners be able to use the phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs correctly. What the nature of a phrasal verb is in comparison with a prepositional verb does not necessarily need to be known by the learners. So the learners see the adverbial particles as prepositions with the difference that English phrasal verbs are separable but the prepositional verbs are not. And this is confirmed with the limited number of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs available to them.
The next exercise asks the learners to form questions based on a picture and answer the question using a personal pronoun instead of the noun or noun phrase used in the question. (8) illustrates this exercise (Birjandi et al. 2002: 44).
(8) Look at the pictures and make questions with the given words. Then answer the questions, using pronouns. - turn off / when you left the room.
Expected answer: Did you turn off the TV when you left the room? Yes, I did. I turned it off . 55
The exercise in (8) requires the learners to form sentences using noun phrases and personal pronouns. This helps the learners become more familiar with the use of such combinations. This kind of exercise helps the learners make sentences on their own using prompts and prepares them for the next exercise where the learners are asked a question and are required to answer based on the picture provided and the example given (Birjandi et al. 2002: 45).
(9) Answer these questions. Give two answers.
Example: What’s the man going to do? He’s going to turn down the TV. He’s going to turn it down .
- What’s the boy going to do?
In (9) the learners are asked to answer the questions without providing them with any prompts. This helps the learners rely more on themselves than on the given prompts in making questions using the English phrasal verbs. As the example mentioned in this exercise shows, the learners are to give two answers to the question. One answer would include the phrasal verb and a noun or a noun phrase, and the other answer would include the phrasal verb and a relevant personal pronoun. The material designers are trying to show the learners that the adverbial particle of a phrasal verb can be separated from its verb element. In order for the learners to understand the nature of the English phrasal verbs better and to be able to distinguish them from the English prepositional verbs, the English prepositional verbs were immediately introduced after the phrasal verbs.
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Unlike the phrasal verbs, the prepositional verbs are not dealt with separately. The prepositional verbs are introduced along with “adjective + preposition” combinations. The equation below indicates how they are introduced (Birjandi et al. 2002: 46).
Adjective/ Verb + Prepositions
The exercises which followed were given based on both combinations. The exercises were all of the same types designed for the phrasal verbs section by having a listen and repeat section, substitution drills, and questions to be answered. So the exercises followed the same procedure as explained for the phrasal verbs. The first set of exercises called “speak out” is simply a set of sentences in which prepositional verbs and adjective + preposition combinations are used. This type of exercise shows the learner how the prepositional verbs and adjective + preposition combinations are used in sentences. (10) is a sample of the so called “speak out” exercise (Birjandi et al. 2002: 46).
(10) Speak Out
- He is looking at it - She is looking for her pens/ them. - Ali is very similar to his brother/ him. - They are afraid of the monkeys/ them.
The next exercise for this part of the grammar focus is called “substitution drills”. In this exercise the learner has to substitute a prepositional verb or an adjective + preposition combination with another one of its kind given in the exercise. In order to clearly show how it is given, one of the substitution drills is mentioned below (Birjandi et al. 2002: 46).
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(11) Substitution Drills Substitute the words in the pattern sentences. Make changes if necessary. - We’ll talk to the old man.
1. look for 2. look after 3. wait for 4. listen to 5. talk about 6. talk with
The substitution drills are followed by another exercise where the learners are required to answer questions using either a prepositional verb or an adjective + preposition combination. In order to complete this exercise, the students are provided with pictures as prompts. A sample of this exercise is shown in (12). An example question is answered by the authors (Birjandi et al. 2002: 47).
(12) Answer these questions. Examples:
What is the girl doing?
She’s looking at the picture.
Is the boy talking with his father? No, he’s listening to the radio.
- What is the woman doing?
At the end of the exercises in lesson three of English Book 3 there are two more exercises that focus on the English phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and adjective + preposition combinations. The first exercise in the last section consists of fill in the 58
blank exercises where the learners must fill in the blanks using the given vocabulary some of which are phrasal verbs. The other exercise consists of scrambled sentences which must be put in the correct order by the learners. Two samples of these exercises are given in (13) and (14) (Birjandi et al. 2002: 48 49).
(13) Complete these sentences. Use a suitable two word verb, or adjective + preposition from the box. Use pronouns where necessary.
talk to, wake up , give back , responsible for, put on , full of, turn off , look for
– The children were asleep. They were very tired, so I didn’t …………….. . (Expected answer: wake them up )
(14) Put these words in the correct order.
- turn – off – is going to – it – he.
- the accident – I – am not – for – responsible.
Soon after the exercises, English Book 3 dedicates a section to the teachers helping students become familiar with the two word verbs and shows them how they can define such verbs for the learners in order for them to understand and use them correctly. The “to the teacher” section includes two parts the first part of which talks about the English phrasal verbs, and the second part discusses the English prepositional verbs and adjective + preposition combinations. The learners almost never study this part since they trust what their teacher says is just about everything. So the learners learn and perform depending on how the teachers understand the definitions and how they can convey the meanings related to the structures which are new to the learners. This is thought to be problematic since not all teachers define them in the same way. So the policy of the material designers is that all teachers stick 59
to the definitions provided by the authors of the textbooks and, not to go beyond or modify the definitions. Figure 2 depicts the “to the teacher” section.
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Figure 2. “To the teacher” section of Birjandi et al. (2002: 50). To the teacher:
Structure 1: two word verbs
Compare:
a. I put on my coat. (verb + particle + noun)
b. I put my coat on . (verb + noun + particle)
c. I put it on . (verb + pronoun + particle)
otes:
1. Many verbs in English have two parts: a “base” form and an adverb particle. 2. When the object is a noun it can either follow or precede the particle. 3. When the object is a pronoun, it can only precede the particle. In other words, it separates the “base” form from its particle.
Structure 2: adjective/verb + preposition
Compare: a. He is looking for his pen. (verb + preposition) b. I’m sorry about the accident. (adjective + preposition) c. He is looking for it. d. I’m sorry about it.
ote: Adjectives and verbs can be followed by prepositions. The noun or pronoun which follows the preposition is its object and always comes after it.
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As can be seen in figure 2, the descriptions are kept straight forward and simple. The definitions may not be of the kind you find in every grammar book but the authors of the high school EFL textbooks believe that these definitions are enough for the learners to be able to use the phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs correctly and to be able to distinguish between the two regardless of understanding the nature and the structure of the phrasal verbs. The important point to be considered here is that phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs are introduced to the learners together as English two word verbs. This way the authors try to help the learners distinguish the two in terms of use. And the “to the teacher” section is where the teacher is told to talk about the two verb types together, in order to indicate the distinction.
3.2.3.1. Year three exam analysis
In order to see how the year three high school EFL learners were evaluated with regard to the English phrasal verbs two exam papers were analysed (appendix 3c). After studying the exam papers, some phrasal verbs were extracted and summarised alphabetically in a list. Table 10 illustrates those phrasal verbs found and extracted from year three high school EFL exam papers.
Table 10. The phrasal verbs found and extracted from the final exam material of year three high school EFL courses. These phrasal verbs are alphabetically listed along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in year Frequency two high school EFL (raw numbers) exam questions Call up 1 Com back 1 Get up 1 Go out 1 Pick up 3 62
Phrasal verbs in year Frequency two high school EFL (raw numbers) exam questions Put on 1 Take off 1 Turn down 1 Turn off 1 Turn on 1
After going through two sets of available exam papers, a limited number of the English phrasal verbs were extracted and summarised in table 10, which indicates that there are only two phrasal verbs used figuratively 26 . The first one is “put on” meaning to wear and the second one is “take off” meaning to remove . The rest of the phrasal verbs used in exam content are used with literal meanings. As was seen in the explanations given for the previously discussed High school EFL exams, the number of figuratively used phrasal verbs is kept low.
Ten different phrasal verbs were found in the exam material altogether, which is again a small number. The frequency of all the phrasal verbs found is twelve altogether. Among them, three do not exist in English Book 3. The verbs “get up”, “go out” and “come back” are those verbs that are not included in the list of the verbs found in English Book 3. These phrasal verbs were among the ones used with literal meanings but were, nevertheless, introduced either in English Book 1 or English Book 2, or in the supplementary material provided for the students during year one or year two EFL courses.
26 Many of the phrasal verbs found may also have figurative meanings but it can be confirmed that the learners do not usually use them figuratively. 63
3.2.4. A preparatory English course: Book one & two
After successfully covering the three high school EFL courses, Iranian learners entered a fourth year of study which was known as pre university and was the last year of high school Education in Iran.
A quick look at the table of contents of the pre university EFL textbook “A preparatory English course: book one & two” shows that, in fact, there are two books included in one book. The first book was to be studied during semester one and the second book was to be studied during semester two of the fourth year, because the school year was divided into two semesters in high school. The table of contents also shows that this book was a review of the most important points discussed in the three previous years of high school.
As was done for English Book 1, English Book 2 and English Book 3, the present study aimed at scanning the lessons of the pre university EFL textbook “A preparatory English course: book one & two” in order to find and extract the English phrasal verbs. Since the textbook was divided into two separate books, each book was covered separately. Therefore, the terms “book 1” and “book 2” are used to address the two parts of the pre university textbook.
3.2.4.1. Book 1
Book 1 starts with lesson one rather than a set of review exercises, apparently because this book is a review itself. The format of the lessons are more or less similar to the previous high school EFL textbooks with the difference that the grammar and structure points were dealt with in more detail compared to English Book 1, English Book 2 and English Book 3.
The passages used as a part of each lesson were no longer of the simplified versions of authentic texts. They were, in fact, authentic co texts taken from various sources. They were longer than the passages high school students had seen in the three 64
previous high school textbooks and contained more information in original format written by native speakers of English. This feature of the textbook could mean that we should expect more cases of phrasal verbs used in the pre university EFL textbook compared to the number of phrasal verbs found in the three previous high school EFL textbooks. The exercises designed by the material designers were on the other hand partially simplified and adjusted to the learners’ knowledge and focus 27 .
The phrasal verbs from book 1 were extracted and are available in the list in table 11.
Table 11. All the phrasal verbs extracted from book 1 of the pre university EFL textbook and listed alphabetically along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in book 1 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Call up 2 Carry out 3 Climb up 2 Crawl up 1 Find out 2 Get out 1 Get up 3 Give up 4 Go out 2 Hurry up 1 Jump about 1 Jump off 1 Look up 1 Move down 5 Move up 5
27 Focus is mentioned here to point out that the exercises mostly focused on structure points taught in the lesson and tried to avoid structures mentioned in other or future lessons. 65
Phrasal verbs in book 1 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Pull out 1 Put in 1 Put on 2 Put round 1 Rub together 6 Stand up 1 Take away 3 Take off 3 Take out 2 Take up 2
Throw away 1
Tie together 1
Tie up 1
Turn out 1
Use up 1
Walk along 1
Table 11 shows that there are 31 different phrasal verbs found in book 1 of the pre university EFL textbook out of which 6 carry figurative meanings. The verbs carry out 28 , give up , jump about , put on , take off and turn out which have the meanings do , leave , jump excitedly , wear , stop working and appear, respectively, were the figuratively used cases of phrasal verbs. The figures from this table also show the small quantity of the figuratively used phrasal verbs in comparison with the phrasal verbs with literal meanings.
28 The verb carry out can be used either literally or figuratively. The learners were introduced to the figurative use of this phrasal verb. 66
3.2.4.2. Book 2
Book 2 also needed to be closely studied in this regard. This book started off right away with the lessons. There were four lessons in this book. Each lesson dealing with different structure points all of which were briefly mentioned in English Book 1, 2 and 3.
What is more in book 2 is that the English phrasal verbs are dealt with at the end of this book, and using authentic language to prepare the texts means that more cases of phrasal verbs are expected to be found in this textbook in comparison with book 1, and English Book 1, 2 and 3.
The list of new words mentioned at the end of the lessons was also studied for cases of phrasal verbs. Surprisingly the phrasal verbs found in the lessons were rarely mentioned in the new vocabulary section. This is believed to have happened since the phrasal verbs used in the course of the development of the lessons were already introduced in the previous high school textbooks, or literal meanings were not worth mentioning.
After going through book 2, several English phrasal verbs were spotted. These verbs along with their frequencies are listed in table 12 in alphabetical order.
Table 12. All the phrasal verbs extracted from book 2 of the pre university EFL textbook and listed alphabetically along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in book 2 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Add up 1 Back away 4 Blow out 1 Break out 1 67
Phrasal verbs in book 2 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Bring about 1 Bring out 2 Bring together 1 Bring up 2 Call out 2 Carry on 1 Climb up 1 Come back 2 Come up 2 Cool down 3 Fall down 1 Fall out 2 Fill out 2 Find out 3 Get down to 1 Get off 2 Get out 2 Get up 2 Give up 4 Go away 1 Go out 2 Go up 1 Grow up 1 Hand in 2 Hang up 2 Keep away from 1 Keep out 1 Leave out 1 68
Phrasal verbs in book 2 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Let out 1 Look up 2 Make up 2 Move away 1 Pay back 1 Pick up 2 Point out 1 Pull back 1 Put away 2 Put back 1 Put in 1 Put out 1 Put together 1 Run out of 1 Set off 5 Set up 3 Slow down 2 Stand out 2 Stand up 1 Stick out 2 Take back 1 Take out 7 Throw back 1 Throw out 1 Turn off 2 Turn up 1 Wake up 2 Walk along 1 69
Phrasal verbs in book 2 of Frequency “A preparatory English course: (raw numbers) book one & two” Warm up 1 Wear out 2
Interestingly, the last lesson which is dedicated to the phrasal verbs in detail contains around half of all the phrasal verbs found in book 2. This was not observed in the previous high school EFL textbooks.
Altogether there were 107 phrasal verbs found in book 2 of the pre university EFL textbook. This is the largest number among all the high school EFL textbooks. There were 62 different phrasal verbs found in book 2 which shows a greater variety of phrasal verbs found in one book compared to the phrasal verbs found in the previous high school EFL textbooks.
Among the 62 different phrasal verb types found in book 2 of the pre university EFL textbook 12 phrasal verbs were used figuratively. This is a larger number compared to the figuratively used phrasal verbs found in each of the previous high school EFL textbooks. This proves the fact that using authentic language could be the cause of this issue and the great overall number of the phrasal verbs in comparison with the phrasal verbs found in the previous high school EFL textbooks could have occurred since lesson four in this textbook focuses solely on the English phrasal verbs which was not seen in any of the previous high school EFL textbooks.
The cases wear out , bring about, bring up , carry on , get down to , give up , look up , run out of , set off , stand out , stick out and back away carrying the meanings lose quality , cause , grow , continue , focus , leave , search , exhaust the supply , go , be noticeable , be outstanding and withdraw, respectively, are all the figuratively used phrasal verbs spotted in this textbook.
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After consulting one of the high school EFL teachers it was realised that the teacher, teaching the section of the book on phrasal verbs, not only talks about the phrasal verbs but also contrasts them with the prepositional verbs by calling the phrasal verbs the so called separable verbs and the prepositional verbs the so called inseparable verbs where the preposition cannot be separated from the verb element unlike the phrasal verbs which can be separated by a noun phrase or a personal pronoun. Both groups of verbs, namely phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, are called “two word verbs” in the high school EFL textbooks.
The part discussing the English two word verbs is divided into two parts, review 1 and review 2. (15) depicts review 1 (Birjandi et al. 2003: 138).
(15) Two word verbs (review 1)
Verbs followed by “out”
1. Base meaning of “out”
2. Some extended meanings: a. Remove something from something Take out , put out , fall out b. Cause something to appear, show something Bring out c. Be easily seen Stand out d. Project Stick out 71
In review 1 it is shown that the particle “out” is used to create phrasal verbs by combining it with a verbal element. In number 1 the base meaning of “out” is illustrated using a picture of an arrow pointing outward from something. This is used to create the concept behind the word “out” so that the learners would have in mind this concept when they see it used in a phrasal verb.
Number 2 shows additional meanings that can be used for the particle “out”. Each meaning definition is followed by examples of phrasal verbs to show the learner how it can combine with a verb to form a phrasal verb. Most of the examples used in this part have literal meanings in order to ease the process of learning the concepts for the learners. At this point the exercise benefits from conceptualisation in the instruction of the phrasal verbs. Its only drawback is that this concept cannot be generalised to all phrasal verbs carrying the same particle and the learners are not informed about this.
(16) Shows review 2 which is similar to review 1, but discusses a different particle (Birjandi et al. 2003: 139).
(16)
Two word verbs (review 2)
Verbs followed by “up”
1. Base meaning of “up”
2. Some extended meanings: a. get up (get out of bed or from a chair) b. turn up (increase in loudness) c. look up (search for in a dictionary, …) 72
d. wake up (stop sleeping) e. give up (stop doing something) f. come up (move along /towards ) g. pick up (take away from the floor or ground)
The information given in review 2 is very much similar to review 1 with the differences that a different particle was introduced and in the second part the meanings of the phrasal verbs formed using this particle were given after the phrasal verbs. The second part of review 2 may not make much difference but may cause some confusion among the learners since the meanings of the verbs are provided using a different format. Most of the examples of phrasal verbs given in review 2 have literal meanings.
When looked at closely, the particles of some phrasal verbs used figuratively (e.g. look up and give up) do not have the concept provided in the pictures using arrows. In fact, there is no explanation for such cases which bear the most ambiguity for the learners. This is one of the major drawbacks of the educational system in Iran. The learners enter university with an unclear image of the phrasal verbs which should have been fully discussed and systematically learned prior to entering university. The lack of enough knowledge regarding the phrasal verbs is likely to cause great confusion among the learners in this regard and may hinder the appropriate learning of phrasal verbs approached in the future at the university or elsewhere.
The exercises that followed the review sections were of the “fill in the blank” types requiring the learners to use the appropriate phrasal verbs given, in order to complete the sentences. A sample of these exercises is shown in (17) (Birjandi et al. 2003: 139).
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(17) Use the correct form of the following verbs + “up” to complete the sentences.
Come, climb, stand, go, get
1. You’ve been lying in bed for over an hour reading the paper; now please ………………. . 2. It was very nice of you to …………………. and let that old lady have your seat. 3. The boy ………………….. to a higher branch on the tree. 4. The price of cars has ………………… lately. 5. The stranger ………………… to me and asked my name.
In this exercise the learners are asked to use the correct verbs from the box with the particle “up” in order to complete the sentences. As it can be seen, there is no sign of phrasal verbs with figurative meanings. They seem to have been avoided due to their persisting complexity even after the phrasal verbs have been dealt with in detail.
3.2.4.3. Pre University exam analysis
As with all the previous high school EFL exam material, the exam papers of book one and two of pre university EFL courses (appendix 3d) were analysed for the purpose of this study. The phrasal verbs were extracted from only two sets of exam questions which were at hand. An alphabetically ordered list of the phrasal verbs found in exam papers of book 2 pre university EFL courses is available in table 13.
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Table 13. The phrasal verbs found and extracted from the final exam material of pre university EFL courses. These phrasal verbs are alphabetically listed along with the frequency of each phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs in pre university Frequency EFL exam questions (raw numbers) Blow out 1 Blow over 1 Bring about 1 Bring out 1 Call out 2 Come back 1 Get up 1 Give up 1 Go out 2 Leave out 1 Let out 1 Put out 1 Put together 1 Set off 1 Set up 2 Stand out 1
Stand up 1
Stick out 1
Try on 1
Turn up 1
After going through the two sets of exam papers (appendix 3d) 20 different phrasal verbs were found four of which were figuratively used. The overall frequency of the phrasal verbs found in the exam material was 23. The exams were made up of multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, cloze tests, reading comprehension and 75
matching items. The phrasal verbs were mostly used in the fill in the blank items where the learners had to use the correct form of the given phrasal verbs in the blank spaces provided in the sentences. The phrasal verbs with figurative meanings are give up “leave”, set off “go”, stand out “be noticeable” and stick out “be outstanding”.
Considering that only two sets of exam questions were analysed, a good number of phrasal verbs were found. Only very few phrasal verbs like “blow over” and “try on” were used which were probably either introduced to the learners in the supplementary material or carried straight forward meanings which were understandable needless of previous knowledge.
3.3. Overall results
The findings of the present study proved to be significant for the analyses. This chapter focused on the phrasal verbs found in the EFL textbooks of the four years of high school in Iran and compared the results with the phrasal verbs found in the final exams of each high school year. The results showed that the English phrasal verbs were first formally introduced to the learners in the third year of high school. But until the third year the phrasal verbs were only mentioned in sentences with their Persian equivalents being taught to the learners by the teachers. Almost all the phrasal verbs mentioned in the first two years of high school had literal meanings. The phrasal verbs were taught in English Book 3 where they were contrasted with the English prepositional verbs. The phrasal verbs were known as separable verbs and the prepositional verbs as inseparable verbs. When going through the high school EFL textbooks, it was realised that the number of phrasal verbs and figuratively used phrasal verbs increased year by year. The fourth year of high school called pre university was a point where phrasal verbs had to be dealt with in more detail. The phrasal verbs were focused on at the end of book 2 of the pre university EFL textbook in two review sections. But this time they were not contrasted with the other two word verb category, categorised as prepositional verbs in this study. The concept of the phrasal verbs was partially focused on with no attention to the figurative forms of the phrasal verbs. Most of the phrasal verbs found in high school EFL textbooks 76
were also found in the pre university EFL textbook. The pre university EFL textbook also contained the most figuratively used English phrasal verbs. Apart from all the phrasal verbs found in the pre university EFL textbook, the phrasal verbs were left unattended for the most part, leaving the learners with a rather partial and ambiguous idea of the phrasal verbs.
The significance of discussing high school EFL textbooks is that, in fact, it is at this level that English phrasal verbs are first formally introduced to the Iranian learners. High school is where the foundations of the learners’ knowledge of the phrasal verbs are formed. This is important for the present study, since how the learners perform in the essays written by the learners at the university level for the purpose of the present study could, in many ways, reflect the training they have received during high school. It is true that the essays produced by the learners for the present study are written by intermediate and advanced language learners who are mostly at year three or four of their university studies, but everything else they have learned during the years after school and at the university before writing the essays is expected to have been overshadowed by the ambiguity that is likely to have persisted in their minds regarding the concept of the English phrasal verbs, especially phrasal verbs with figurative meanings. There are not many studies that have focused on Iranian learner language and phrasal verbs in such a large scale by focussing on the school materials in detail. The present study is one of the few in this regard, which includes an in depth analysis of all the high school EFL textbooks in Iran with regard to the English phrasal verbs. In the present study, in addition to the textbooks, supplementary material and exam papers were also studied closely.
The new system of education 29 , which is expected to be launched soon, will include more authentic language, including the necessary idiomatic language and informal textual input required for training language learners with advanced level of language proficiency. It is expected to encourage more interaction in the classroom by having
29 The remarks on the new system of education, which is to be put to practise in the near future, are taken from Birjandi et al. (2012a) and Mrs. Fateminezhad, who attended annual meetings arranged by the Ministry of Education in order to update the teachers regarding future changes to teaching material and school curriculum. 77
more student oriented classes rather than teacher oriented ones. The new teaching system, which is a feature of the new system of education, should tend more toward communicative methods of teaching, including much more speaking and listening tasks. Meeting all the needs of the new educational system needs time and supervision, in order to train the teachers in the best way possible and to have them practically succeed in achieving the goals of the new system. In addition to changes in the system of education, there have recently been many young teachers with higher university degrees employed throughout the country as many retired. Younger teachers are believed to have more energy and motivation to do the necessary tasks in the classroom. Younger teachers are to consult retired (experienced) teachers for a certain period of time, in order to benefit from their experience in the classroom. Due to the above mentioned and many other changes in the new system, the new system is believed to achieve the goals hoped for. It is hoped that the new system of education would help improve student performance and make up for the deficits of the present system which were studied in the present chapter and many other deficits that were not studied here.
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4. The grammar of the verb in Persian and English – a contrastive analysis 4.1. Verb in Persian
A verb in Persian is a word or a set of words that denote an action or situation (Mace 2003: 77). Although Farshidvar (2004: 73) proposes the same definition, he further distinguishes the different semantic classes that a verb represents in Persian. He argues that in terms of meaning a verb may play any of the roles mentioned here:
1. Action e.g. xordᴂn "to eat", dero kᴂrdᴂn "to harvest", rᴂftᴂn "to go" 2. State of being e.g. tᴂrsidᴂn "to be scared", xabidᴂn "to be sleep" 3. Become e.g. ʃodᴂn "to become" 4. To have been e.g. budᴂn "was" 5. Other meanings e.g. xastᴂn "to want", daʃtᴂn "to have" 6. Without any specific meaning and only to make a link e.g. ᴂst as in u zirᴂkᴂst "he/she is clever"
As observed above, a verb does not only denote action.
Persian verbs are divided into two major groups in terms of structure (Farshidvar 2004: 94 112):
1. Simple verb 30 : a verb which is made up of one part e.g. rᴂftᴂn “to go”, amᴂdᴂn “to come”.
2. on simple verb 31 : verb which is made up of two or more words or parts e.g. fᴂrib dadᴂn meaning "to deceive" (lit., to give deceive). There are two types of non simple verbs:
1. Prefix verbs (verbs with a particle or Persian prepositional verbs) e.g. vᴂroftadᴂn "to be overthrown", where the prefix vᴂr having a meaning similar to “over” combines with the verb oftadᴂn meaning “to fall”.
30 For a full account of the Persian simple verbs refer to Tabataba'i (1997: 54 103) 31 For a full account of the Persian non simple verbs refer to Farshidvar (1994). 79
2. Compound verbs e.g. kar kᴂrdᴂn "to work" (lit., to do work), where the noun kar with the meaning “work” or “job” accompanies the light verb kᴂrdᴂn meaning “to do” in order to form a compound verb.
4.1.1. Persian simple verbs
A simple verb is one whose infinitive consists of one word in comparison with the compound verbs, which consist of a non verbal part and a simple verb (Mace 2003: 78).
Lazard (1992: 290 301) discusses how different Persian verbs are formed by indicating that some verbs are derived from nouns by taking the suffix “ id”. Examples (1) and (2) show how.
(1) dozd "thief" ...... dozdidᴂn "to steal"
(2) fᴂhm "understanding" ...... fᴂhmidᴂn "to understand"
Example (2) is another case of the verbs derived from nouns with the difference that the noun used to form these types of verbs are originally Arabic action nouns.
According to Tabataba'i (1997: 105 104) there are 487 simple verbs in Persian. From the 487 simple verbs mentioned, 67 verbs are known as the specific verbs and 420 are the commonly used verbs. From the 487 verbs mentioned here only 17 have been borrowed by Persian (from Arabic, English, French or other languages) and from these, 8 are among the commonly used verbs and 9 are among the specific verbs. From the 67 specific Persian verbs 24 are formed from the dead Persian morphemes and the rest are formed from the ones still used today.
Tabataba'i (1997: 133) stresses that in the word formation process for new technical, scientific and cultural concepts, Persian simple verbs have priority over Persian compound verbs. 80
4.1.2. Verbs with a particle
A number of verbs are formed using a simple verb preceded by a particle. Particles are formed from former adverbs which are no longer encountered as such in contemporary language and the original meanings of which are more or less blurred in the verb particle combinations.
Particles ordinarily precede the verbal form; verbal prefixes and negation are placed between the particle and the verb radical.
(3) bᴂr gᴂʃtᴂn "to return" (particle bᴂr) … bᴂr nemigᴂrdᴂd "he does not return."
Particles always immediately precede the verbal element and cannot occupy any other place. On the other hand, they do not ordinarily cumulate with the verbal prefix "be ".
Mahootian (1997: 275) categorises the formation of such verbs under the derivation of verbs from verbs. She mentions that verbs may be derived using what she calls separable verbal particles ( bᴂr, dᴂr, baz, foru, fᴂra, pᴂs, pɪʃ, xod, vᴂr/bᴂr, sᴂr, va, na). Because these particles change the meaning of the verb they are attached to in different ways, it is rather difficult to come up with a meaning for them (Moinfar 1978: 183).
If morphemes " bᴂr, dᴂr, baz, foru, fᴂra, pᴂs, pɪʃ, xod, vᴂr/bᴂr, sᴂr, va, na " come before a Persian simple verb, whether they change its meaning or not, form a derivative verb: e.g. ᴂndaxtᴂn "to throw" and bᴂrᴂndaxtᴂn "to overthrow". But sometimes they don't give the verb any new meaning (Vahidian Kamyar 2000: 59). This type is thought to come closest to the English phrasal verbs and will be dealt with later in the present chapter.
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4.1.3. Other verbal phrases
Besides compound verbs, Persian possesses a large number of phrases formed from a verb and a nominal element united in a single semantic unit. These phrases are differentiated from compound verbs by the fact that the verb more or less keeps its semantic component and merges with the nonverbal element to form the meaning of the locution.
a) Noun functioning as an object:
mᴂʔzerᴂt xastᴂn (lit., excuse to request) to apologise
b) Noun with preposition:
dᴂr bᴂr gereftᴂn (lit., to breast take) to embrace
c) Adverb:
Birun rᴂftᴂn (lit., to outside go) to go out/ to leave
Note: in colloquial language, the adverb is often placed after the verbal form: e.g. bia ʤelo. This type is another area of Persian grammar which has a structure similar to the English phrasal verbs 32 . It is thought to interfere with the English phrasal verbs learned and used by Iranian learners, and will be discussed later.
d) Object + adverb:
pa dᴂr mian gozaʃtᴂn (lit., foot in the middle put) to intervene
32 The definition of the phrasal verbs considered in the present study is mentioned later (see 5.4) 82
4.1.4. Auxiliary verbs 33
An auxiliary verb is a verb used in combination with another verb. The auxiliary expresses such ideas as capability, volition, and obligation with relation to the second verb. Typical English auxiliary expressions are “can”, “want 34 ”, and “must”. In English the second or the operative verb stands in the infinitive but in Persian it stands in a tense, in the same person as the auxiliary.
The auxiliary verb usually stands immediately after its subject (or in the place of its implied subject). The subjunctive verb stands at the end of the sentence or clause. The important auxiliary verbs are: xastᴂn "to want" tᴂvanestᴂn "can, to be able" bajestᴂn "must, to have to" ʃajᴂd "may, perhaps"
(4) 'u mitᴂvanᴂd fᴂrda berᴂvᴂd (lit., he/she can tomorrow go) he/she can go tomorrow
In example (4) the auxiliary is mitᴂvanᴂd meaning “can” and the main verb is berᴂvᴂd meaning “go” and together they form the verb of the sentence.
4.2. English phrasal verbs versus Persian 4.2.1. English phrasal verbs and their Persian counterparts
As indicated by Yarmohammadi and Rashidi (2009: 3), Iranian students enter university having studied English for six years, but many of them have problems in forming grammatically complete English sentences. They enter universities having many errors in areas such as gerunds, infinitives, conjunctions, subordinations,
33 Mace (2003: 78) 34 Mace (2003: 78) includes want among the auxiliaries which is certainly justified in terms of its function, however in terms of its structure it functions more like a catenative verb like manage to or continue . 83
relatives, prepositions and affixes. Many also leave university with the same errors. Collected data from high school English teachers and students proved various systematic (predictable) errors. Yarmohammadi and Rashidi (2009: 3) use the term systematic errors to address those errors for which a reason can be provided. This means that certain causes of errors can be discovered and formulated, which helps curriculum developers and material designers find ways to tackle such errors.
This section of the present chapter is going to deal with those areas of Persian grammar that come closest to the English phrasal verbs in order to elaborate on the sources of errors which are thought to be systematic in this regard. The Persian so called equivalents of the English phrasal verbs are prioritised and discussed below.
4.2.1.1. Persian light verb constructions
The number of simple verbs in Persian is relatively limited. Many ideas expressed in other languages by simple verbs are rendered in Persian by a verbal periphrasis formed from a simple verb accompanied by a nominal complement (object, predicative attribute, and adverb). Verbal phrases thus constituted are extremely numerous and very much used.
Among these verbal phrases, those which are called "compound verbs" form a considerable group. Compound verbs are formed using a simple verb combined with a noun, adjective, adverb or prepositional phrase 35 (Lambton 1986: 85). The significant element in these verbs is the nominal part. In such structures the verb partly or completely loses its own meaning. Compound verbs in Persian play the role of denominative verbs. This type of formation is very frequent in the contemporary language.
There are around 3,000 compound verbs in Persian, 1,056 of which start with kᴂrd ᴂn "to do" (Rostam Pour 1980: 52). Persian simple verbs that are used
35 The combination of simple verbs and prepositional phrases in Persian is also believed to be very close to the English phrasal verbs. 84
commonly are around 300, which is a relatively small number in comparison to most other languages, and English in particular. Considering the small number of the Persian simple verbs the compounding process of the simple verbs started centuries ago (Tabataba'i 1997: 121).
There are also a number of compound verbs in Persian formed on the basis of Arabic words. Clair Tisdall (1902: 109) believes that it was largely due to the Arabian conquest of Persia (Iran) and the introduction of Islam that many Arabic nouns, adjectives and participles were combined with Persian auxiliaries to form a new verb. Sadeghi (1993: 238, 242; quoted by Dabir Moghaddam 1997: 36), on the other hand, states, “the number of simple verbs formed on the basis of Arabic borrowings into Persian is scarce. This suggests that compound verb formation must have been the dominant tendency in Early New Persian. The existence of a great number of compound verbs in Persian formed based on Arabic participles, nouns, or adjectives borrowed into Persian and combined with Persian verbs further substantiates this tendency.”
Persian has relatively few simple verbs. Except for the most basic concepts a compound verb is used. The compound consists of a non verbal element and a simple verb. The non verbal element may in some cases be a phrase beginning with a preposition. For the most part the two elements of a compound verb stay together, at the end of the sentence or clause.
Compound verbs are divided into two classes, based on whether the nominal element is a noun or an adjective (adverb).
In many cases the noun may be analysed as having within the phrase the function of an object: 'eʔlam kᴂrdᴂn "to announce" (lit., to make announcement). In other cases, the noun expresses direction: e.g. tᴂn kᴂrdᴂn "to put on" (lit., to make/do the body). Frequently the phrase is unanalysable in contemporary language. Whatever their internal structure, phrases of transitive meaning may be accompanied by an object.
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Simple verbs serving to form compound verbs are either verbs of abstract meaning, such as kᴂrdᴂn "to do/make" and ʃodᴂn "to become", or verbs with more concrete meanings such as dadᴂn "to give" and zᴂdᴂn "to strike". In a phrase they ( dadᴂn "to give" and zᴂdᴂn "to strike") lose a part of their semantic content and tend to behave as simple instruments of verbal derivation. Besides, they alternate frequently with verbs of the former group ( kᴂrdᴂn "to do/make" and ʃodᴂn "to become").
Some compound verbs are formed from an adjective or an adverb. When formed using an adjective, it may specify the subject (ex. (5) below) or the object (ex. (6)):
(5) bidar ʃodᴂn (lit., to awake become) to wake up
(6) kᴂsi ra bidar kᴂrdᴂn (lit., someone awake do) to awaken someone
The compound verbs in (5) and (6) formed using the adjective bidar having the meaning “awake” in English in combination with the verbs ʃodᴂn and kᴂrdᴂn are attributes of the subject and the object of the sentence respectively.
Although Persian compound verbs are structurally different compared to the English phrasal verbs, some compound verbs may have English phrasal verbs as their equivalents. One of such cases is demonstrated in example (5). These cases will be further discussed later on in the present chapter.
The English phrasal verbs are believed to have a somewhat distant counterpart in Persian, which is expected to influence the Iranian language learners’ use of the English phrasal verbs. These verbs are known as light verb constructions (LVC) or Persian complex predicates. The term “light verb” was coined by Jespersen (1954). Persian simple verbs have been and at the moment are gradually dying out, and they are being transformed into the Persian LVCs. So in Persian the number of simple verbs is relatively limited but the number of verbal phrases is extremely high and they are extensively used by Persian speakers (Lazard 1992: 294, Thackston 1993: 40, Abrahams 2005: 77, Dabir Moghaddam 1997). One outstanding feature of 86
Persian is its small number of simple verbs some of which are known as the light verbs which take part in the formation of a large group of multi word verbs. The non verbal element of an LVC may be of different word classes such as nominal, adjectival, adverbial or prepositional words or phrases. The two elements of LVCs interact in order to make a new verbal notion. While users of English prefer to use simple verbs, Persian speakers often use LVCs in order to express verbal notions. Persian light verbs also combine with what is called particle (see 4.1.2) in order to form another kind of verbal expression in Persian (another category of the Persian prepositional verbs).
According to Mahootian (1997: 283) the verb formation process which LVCs undergo is called compounding, and has been and currently is a highly productive process for making verbs in Persian. Simple verbs are conjoined with nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases (Mahootian 1997: 283, Lambton 1984[1953]: 85 93, quoted by Dabir Moghaddam 1997: 28). The nonverbal element which combines with a simple verb precedes the verb (Mahootian 1997: 283).
In order to indicate how the LVCs in Persian are formed, Lambton (1984[1953]: 85 93, quoted by Dabir Moghaddam 1997: 28) lists the following simple verbs that may be used freely and independently and that commonly participate in compound verb formation. These are the most frequently used simple verbs for compounding:
Kᴂrdᴂn "to do" ʃodᴂn "to become" zᴂdᴂn "to strike, to hit" dadᴂn: "to give"
Others include: xordan "to eat, to hit" amᴂdᴂn "to come" 87
daʃtᴂn "to have" gereftᴂn "to take" dadᴂn "to give" keʃidᴂn "to pull, to draw" oftad ᴂn "to fall"
Other less commonly used simple verbs as listed by Clair Tisdall (1902: 110) are as follows:
nemudᴂn "to show" bord ᴂn "to carry off" saxtᴂn "to make" fᴂrmudᴂn "to order" didᴂn "to see" danestᴂn "to know" gᴂrdanidᴂn "to render" gᴂʃtᴂn "to become" jaftᴂn "to get, to find" vᴂrzidᴂn "to act"
The above simple verbs (here also known as “light verbs”) participate in LVC formation in Persian. The above list may not include all the light verbs used in the process of compounding in Persian but it includes the most frequent and common light verbs in Persian.
The LVCs can be non compositional, that is, their meanings cannot be inferred by translating their elements separately. Example (7) illustrates this feature:
(7) Zᴂmin xordᴂn (lit., Floor eat) to fall off
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Lambton (1984[1953]: 85 93, quoted in Dabir Moghaddam 1997: 28) further mentions that compound verbs in Persian are also formed using a simple verb combined with an Arabic participle, noun, or adjective as can be seen in (8) and (9):
(8) Ersal (Arabic) + daʃtᴂn (lit., send to have) to send off
(9) tᴂslIm (Arabic) + ʃodᴂn (lit., surrender become) to give in
The Persian LVCs or Persian complex predicates are very productive. New light verb constructions are formed using a nominal or an adjectival word (this could also be a loan word from another language) with a light verb:
(10) Email (English) + zᴂdᴂn (lit., email hit) to (send) email
(11) Klik (English) + kᴂrdᴂn (lit., click do) to click (on a mouse)
English LVCs on the other hand have structures slightly similar to that of the Persian LVCs. English light verbs are verbs that combine with particles to create verb particle constructions. Verb particle constructions are combinations of verbs and prepositional (up, down …), adverbial (away, back, …), adjectival (short, …) or verbal (go, be, …) particles, such as "break down" in the old truck broke down (Villavicencio 2005: 415). Verb particle constructions that include prepositional and adverbial particles seem to be the largest and the most productive.
In (12) and (13) taken from Ramchand and Svenonius (2002: 387) two examples of the English light verb constructions are mentioned which are also known as the English phrasal verbs and which are studied in this research.
(12) a) They marched off the hangover. b) They marched the hangover off .
(13) a) They let up the pressure. 89
b) They let the pressure up .
Although (12) and (13) show how English LVCs may also be the English phrasal verbs in some cases, what is of utmost importance is that English phrasal verbs are not conventionally considered the LVCs in English. In fact a majority of the English LVCs are not phrasal verbs. Some cases of English LVCs which do not serve as the English phrasal verbs are given below:
Take a look have a shower do work
The Persian language has more LVCs than English. But the fact that there are more LVCs in Persian than in English and that English LVCs are not conventionally the English phrasal verbs does not mean that the LVCs are to be ignored by the present study. In fact, the findings of the present research will also be dealt with considering the Persian LVCs since in some cases Iranian learners are thought to benefit from Persian LVCs in using the phrasal verbs and in some other cases the LVCs are thought to interfere with the correct phrasal verb use. Iranian learners may make errors such as using the loan translation of Persian LVCs in case a non compositional LVC is used or make any other similar systematic errors. Therefore, there is a need for the analysis of the Iranian learner corpus with regard to the Persian LVCs.
As indicated earlier, the nonverbal element of a light verb in Persian may also be a phrase beginning with a preposition. Together they form some of the Persian LVCs which are believed to be closest to the English phrasal verbs. The examples (14), (15) and (16) which are taken from Mace (2003: 124) demonstrate three of such combinations.
(14) be hᴂm xordᴂn (lit., to each other hit) to mix up, to fall apart
(15) az bein rᴂftᴂn (lit., from among go) to disappear
(16) be kar bordᴂn (lit., to work take) to use 90
In Persian “a preposition shows the relationship between the noun or pronoun following it and the rest of the sentence. The preposition is said to govern its noun or pronoun” (Mace 2003: 133). Mahootian (1997: 59) indicates that prepositions in Persian are divided into two categories. The first types are the simple or basic prepositions and the second types are the prepositions that take what is called “ezafe 36 ” in Persian. Simple prepositions in Persian are illustrated below:
(17) ba ma (lit., with us) with us
In (17) the preposition is the word ‘ba’ which combines with ‘ma’ which is a pronoun. In addition to ba ‘with’ other simple prepositions in Persian are dᴂr ‘in’, ᴂz ‘from’ , be ‘to’ , bi ‘without’ , ta ‘up to’ , joz/bejoz ‘except’, bᴂra ye ‘for’ (Mahootian 1997: 59) and also ta ‘up to/until/than’ (Mahootian 1997: 263) .
Besides the simple prepositions in Persian, there are prepositions made up of a locative word plus the ezafe. The list below includes such structures (Mahootian 1997: 59). These ezafe prepositions are derived from nouns and adverbs: bedun e ‘without’ poʃt e ‘behind’ bɪrun e ‘outside’ mɪyan e ‘between’ nᴂzdɪk e ‘near’ zɪr e ‘under’ tu ye ‘in’ ru ye ‘on’ ʤelow e ‘in front of’ pᴂhlu ye ‘by/beside’
“Prepositions in Persian do not show agreement for any grammatical category with the nouns they govern (…) prepositions do not combine with the articles of the noun phrase they govern” (Mahootian 1997: 264 265).
36 Ezafe is a suffix which is used with certain Persian prepositions in order to show relationship between the preposition and the noun or pronoun following it and which the preposition governs. Ezafe and its structure are beyond the scope of this study since the focus of the study is only on structures relevant to the English phrasal verbs in which case Persian prepositions and verbs that go along with them are of interest. For more on ezafe refer to Mahootian (1997) and Mace (2003). 91
4.2.1.2. Persian prepositional verbs (verbs with a particle)
Persian prepositional verbs are believed to be the closest Persian structure to the English phrasal verbs due to their structural similarity. These verbs can influence the use of the English phrasal verbs.
There are some prepositions that can stand without noun phrases and usually have adverbial functions. The most common ones are (Mahootian 1997: 61): bɪrun ‘out’ tu ‘in’ bala ‘up’ pain ‘down’ daxel ‘inside’
The example below shows how such prepositions are used with a verb to make a complete sentence in Persian (Mahootian 1997: 61):
(18) rᴂft bala (lit.,) went up He went up
As can be seen in this example, these types of prepositions that have adverbial functions often form a sort of combination very similar to the English phrasal verbs defined for the purpose of the present study. These structures are also thought to interfere with the use of the English phrasal verbs by Iranian learners.
Pendar and Sharoff (2007: 5) list 11 common particles which together with a light verb create the Persian prepositional verbs. These prepositions or particles along with an additional one taken from Mahootian (1997: 275) are " bᴂr, dᴂr, baz, foru, fᴂra, pᴂs, pɪʃ, xod, vᴂr/bᴂr, sᴂr, va, na ". Some of these particles are illustrated in (19) with an example mentined for each (Mahootian 1997: 275).
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(19) Particle Verb Derived verb Productivity bᴂr gᴂʃtᴂn bᴂr gᴂʃtᴂn limited back/near to wander/turn to return/turn
bᴂr daʃtᴂn bᴂr daʃtᴂn limited back/near to have to take
dᴂr jaftᴂn dᴂr jaftᴂn limited in to find to receive
pᴂs gereftᴂn pᴂs gereftᴂn no behind/back receive to receive back
pɪʃ rᴂftᴂn pɪʃ rᴂftᴂn no before/forward to go to advance
furu neʃestᴂn furu neʃestᴂn no through to sit to subside
fᴂra residᴂn fᴂra residᴂn no up/forward/beyond to arrive to arise/to come up
va mandᴂn va mandᴂn no again stay to be tired out/to fail
baz gᴂʃtᴂn baz gᴂʃtᴂn no again to wander/turn to return
These verbs are derived using a separable verbal particle. Although using the above mentioned separable particles is not a productive way to derive verbs from verbs 93
anymore, a considerable number of lexicalised verbs is formed using these particles (Mahootian 1997: 275).
Examples (20) and (21) show instances of these combinations:
(20) piʃ "forward" + rᴂft ᴂn "to go" → piʃ rᴂftᴂn "to move forward, to progress"
(21) bᴂr "up" + xastᴂn "to rise" → bᴂrxastᴂn "to get up"
When studied closely, it is realised that the structure of Persian prepositional verbs is quite similar to English phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. This similarity in structure is what is thought to cause interference when Iranian learners tend to use the English phrasal verbs. Example (21) shows how the Persian particle (preposition) bᴂr carrying the meaning ‘up’ can combine with the simple verb xastᴂn ‘to rise’ to form the Persian prepositional verb bᴂrxastᴂn whose structure, meaning and word for word translation are very similar to the English phrasal verb ‘get up’. On the other hand, some Persian prepositional verbs may have English simple verbs as their equivalents. Although some English simple verbs may have equivalent English phrasal verbs which could cause a kind of interference like cases of hypercorrection an example of which is given in (22).
(22) bᴂr (back) + gᴂʃtᴂn (turn) → bᴂr gᴂʃtᴂn (* to return back)
Hypercorrection is a problem in applied linguistics and second language acquisition where it is defined as “the overgeneralisation of a rule in language use” (Richards & Schmidt 2002: 242). Hypercorrection is also a problem in sociolinguistics where it is defined as “the incorrect use of a word, pronunciation or other linguistic feature in speaking as a result of the attempt to speak in an educated manner and in the process replacing a form that is itself correct. Hypercorrections are sometimes used by a second language learner who is attempting to speak correctly or by a speaker of a non standard variety of a language, when speaking formally. This may result in the 94
speaker using more self correction and using more formal vocabulary than speakers of a standard variety of the language” (Richards & Schmidt 2002: 243). To some extent, both approaches to hypercorrection can be relevant to the errors made by the learners, which are to be analysed in the present study.
Also of interest in the present study are those Persian prepositional verbs which have English phrasal verbs as their equivalents and could cause interference when using the English phrasal verbs. The sentence in (23) shows another example of these verbs.
(23) He took out the injured player. u: bazi kon e mᴂʤruh ra dᴂr/bɪrun avᴂrd . (lit., he the player injured out brought )
In (23) the Persian prepositions dᴂr and bɪrun both mean ‘out’ and the simple verb that combines with that preposition is avᴂrd which has the same meaning as the verb ‘take’. The similarity that exists here may be a source of interference and, therefore, a systematic error. But another interesting feature here is that in the English verb the particle occurs after the verbal element while in the Persian verb the particle (particle/preposition) occurs before the verbal element. This too, may cause interference.
Some other examples of Persian prepositional verbs which have equivalent English phrasal verbs with similar word for word translations are given below (Fallahi 1991: 56):
English phrasal verb Persian prepositional verb Get up (to rise) bᴂr xastᴂn (lit., up stand) Pick up (to take, to lift) bᴂr daʃtᴂn (lit., up have) Take off (to detach) bᴂr kᴂndᴂn (lit., up detach) Hang up (to suspend) dᴂr avixtᴂn (lit., in hang)
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It must be stressed that, although the similarity that exists between some of the English phrasal verbs and the Persian prepositional verbs is quite interesting with regard to interference, there are also cases where learners come across the same English phrasal verbs which are figuratively used and do not conform to their equivalent Persian prepositional verbs. This is where learners are thought to face even greater problems and confusion.
(24) Hang up
In (24) the phrasal verb ‘hang up’ has the figurative meaning ‘to end (a telephone) conversation’ which could not be guessed from the meanings of its components rather than the literal meaning ‘to suspend’ which is easier for the learners to recall and use.
4.3. Expected interference
In contrast with the phrasal verbs in English and their ample presence in the language, as discussed earlier, Persian verbs needed to be studied in order to find out which Persian verb forms interfere with the use of the English phrasal verbs by the Iranian language learners. This is known as the mother tongue interference which could affect their use of the English phrasal verbs in different ways.
The fact that the Persian verb system is comprised of only a very small number of single word verbs and a large number of multi word verbs makes them an interesting area for the researcher in this study. Persian simple verbs are giving their place to compound verbs through the process of compounding. Newly formed compound verbs are created every day. Knowing the fact that, multi word verbs (compound verbs) in Persian are productive to a large extent, it is worth mentioning that English has more phrasal and prepositional verbs than Persian. Persian has relatively more LVCs (as one type of Persian compound verbs) than English. Despite such differences in the number of different types of verbs in Persian and English, the English phrasal verbs meet their Persian counterparts in some cases where there are 96
points of similarity as well as in areas where there are differences. In order to overcome the difficulty of understanding the English phrasal verbs and how they might be perceived in Persian, those instances of Persian verbs that are likely to interfere with the English phrasal verbs were to be dealt with.
The two types of Persian verbs which are thought to interfere with the English phrasal verbs, and were explained in detail in the previous section of this chapter are the Persian LVCs which are known as one type of Persian compound verbs and the Persian prepositional verbs also known as verbs with particle. What makes Persian compound and prepositional verbs even more interesting is that most of them seem to have simple verb equivalents in English. Many of these English simple verbs along with a particle create the English phrasal verbs which makes it even more difficult for the learners to use them. Another interesting point regarding the Persian prepositional verbs and the LVCs is that in many cases they seem to have phrasal verb counterparts in English.
Fallahi (1991) divides English two word verbs into four groups and explains how their equivalents are used in Persian. Among the four categories mentioned here only three categories have the characteristics of the English phrasal verbs. The three phrasal verb categories are classified as below.
4.3.1. Separable transitive English phrasal verbs and their Persian equivalents
The first category compares transitive English two word verbs that are separable with their equivalent Persian simple or compound verbs. This class of two word verbs can undergo an optional transformational rule that results in the separation of its particle from the main verb. An example of these English two word verbs is given below (Fallahi 1991: 53):
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Transitive English two word verb Persian equivalent
(25) Call up (to telephone) telefon kᴂrdᴂn (lit., telephone do)
Example: Example: - He called up his sister. u: be xahahᴂrᴂʃ telefon kᴂrd.
- He called his sister up. (lit., He to his sister telephone did)
Further examples where English two word verbs have Persian simple verb equivalents are (Fallahi 1991: 53):
English two word verb Persian equivalent
(26) Put on (to wear) puʃIdᴂn
(27) Burn down (to burn completely) su:xtᴂn
The cases of phrasal verbs in (26) and (27) prove that it is not only the Persian non simple verbs that are the counterparts of the English phrasal verbs. The above separable transitive English phrasal verbs have simple verbs as their equivalents in Persian which is a phenomenon that needs to be dealt with. But since it is mostly the Persian non simple verbs (Persian prepositional verbs and Persian LVCs) that interfere with the English phrasal verbs and how they are used by Iranian learners, the Persian non simple verbs need to be at the heart of the present study and, therefore, needed to be dealt with in greater detail.
Examples where English phrasal verbs have Persian compound verbs (LVCs in this regards) as their equivalents are mentioned in (28) below (Fallahi 1991: 53):
(28) English phrasal verb Persian equivalent
Blow up (to explode) monfᴂʤer ʃodᴂn (lit. explode become) Put out (to extinguish) xamuʃ kᴂrdᴂn (lit., turn off do) Carry out (to do) ᴂnʤam dadᴂn (lit., do give) 98
Try on (to put on) porov kᴂrdᴂn (lit., try do) Put away (to leave aside) kenar gozaʃtᴂn (lit., aside put) Fill out/fill in (to complete a form) por kᴂrdᴂn (lit., fill do)
As indicated in (28), mostly all non simple Persian verbs, acting as the counterparts of the separable transitive phrasal verbs in English, are the so called Persian LVCs which are formed as a result of the compounding process in Persian.
4.3.2. Intransitive English phrasal verbs and their Persian equivalents
The other group of the English two word verbs is a class of phrasal verbs which are intransitive in nature and may either have a Persian compound verb or a simple verb as their equivalents. Some examples are provided in (29).
(29) English phrasal verb Persian equivalent
Show up (to come) amᴂdᴂn (lit., to come) Come about (to happen) etefaq oftadᴂn (lit., happening fall) Give in (to surrender) tᴂslɪm ʃodᴂn (lit., surrender become) Cheer up (to become happy) xoʃhal ʃodᴂn (lit., happy become)
As can be observed in (29), these intransitive English phrasal verbs have Persian simple and compound verbs (LVCs in this regard) as their Equivalents.
4.3.3. English phrasal verbs (verb preposition sequences) and their Persian equivalents
As categorised by Fallahi (1991: 55), the third group of English two word verbs are prepositional verbs (verb preposition sequences) that have Persian prepositional verbs as their equivalents. The researcher of the present study defines most of the verbs in this category as the English phrasal verbs since they possess certain features of the English phrasal verbs defined in the present study (see 5.4). 99
The category devised here are those English phrasal verbs that have Persian prepositional verbs as their equivalents. Therefore, it must be noted that Persian prepositional verbs also needed to be studied in order to understand how they presumably influence the use of those English phrasal verbs that act as their equivalents. The cases in (30) are provided as some examples (Fallahi 1991: 56):
(30) English phrasal verb Persian prepositional verb Get up (to rise) bᴂr xastᴂn (lit., up stand) Pick up (to take, to lift) bᴂr daʃtᴂn (lit., up have) Take off (to detach) bᴂr kᴂndᴂn (lit., up detach) Hang up (to suspend) dᴂr avixtᴂn (lit., in hang)
All the examples mentioned above have the Persian prepositional verbs as their counterparts. This shows that the English phrasal verbs may also have Persian prepositional verbs as their equivalents in addition to the Persian LVCs. But what makes the Persian LVCs more important than the Persian prepositional verbs is that Persian compound verbs, encompassing the Persian LVCs, are much more productive than the Persian prepositional verbs. Furthermore, Persian prepositional verbs are mostly outdated and old fashioned in comparison with the Persian compound verbs, which are up to date, due to their productivity and ample presence in Persian.
4.4. Summary
Fallahi (1991: 58) summarises that a perfect correspondence does not exist between English and Persian in terms of multi word verbs. Fallahi (1991: 58) believes that in Persian, the combination of a verb and a particle does not form a semantic meaning that would be different to the meaning of its individual components; therefore, almost none of the English phrasal verbs have perfect corresponding equivalents in Persian. This is likely to be a major problem for the Iranian learners concerning the 100
English phrasal verbs. The learners are expected to make generalisations which are mainly wrong or create wrong concepts of certain phrasal verbs based on their prior knowledge (brought by the learners from L1, which is Persian in the present study). Besides, many English phrasal verbs have more than one meaning in addition to having more than one usage. Due to such facts an Iranian learner of English realises that a great number of phrasal verb combinations exist the meanings of which have little or no relationship with their individual components. For example, the learner learns the words put and out , but finds out later that the verb put out is a phrasal verb which means ‘to extinguish fire’ (Fallahi 1991: 58). Combination of elements (i.e. put and out ) may also have a literal meaning, that is ‘to leave something outside’, which is understandable by the learners due to its simplicity and that the meaning can easily be guessed from its components, but again this could happen only in case of those phrasal verbs with literal meanings whose meanings are most easily interpreted from their components. The learner may face even more complexity on another level when facing phrasal prepositional verbs such as get along with , watch out for , run away from , keep up with and put up with (Fallahi 1991: 58) due to their interconnected and rather idiomatic meanings in most cases. Despite the efforts put into classifying such structures, Iranian learners do not use them enough and the only way that helps them use such structures effectively is practice, as stated by Fallahi (1991: 58).
Although prior knowledge of the English phrasal verbs may be quite useful in learning and using the English phrasal verbs correctly in young learners, it is still believed that the most effective method for learning and using the English phrasal verbs by younger learners is to teach them as individual and potentially highly idiosyncratic phrasal expressions rather than as an abstract grammatical category. Only at a really advanced level will learners be able to make their own generalisations about new phrasal verbs and different types of phrasal verb constructions on the basis of those items which they have already mastered.
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5. Data and Methodology 5.1. Introduction
A corpus based study of the language produced by language learners provides us with the chance to identify the areas where the learners have difficulty in the language learning process. The study of learner corpora helps us to better understand the nature of the language produced by the learners and to modify teaching tools and materials according to learner needs.
As stated by Keshavarz (2008): "The Second World War aroused great interest in foreign language teaching, especially in the United States of America where most unlimited funds and enormous efforts were devoted to working out the most effective and economic methods and techniques of teaching. Since the advocates of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis claimed that the most effective materials for teaching foreign languages would be those based on contrastive studies, this discipline was recognised as an important and integrated part of foreign language teaching for quite a long time. In fact, Contrastive Analysis was considered as the ultimate panacea for language teaching problems. As a result, a series of contrastive studies (theses, dissertations, papers and monographs began to appear). These studies were essentially pedagogical and aimed at predicting and solving learners' errors and difficulties" (1).
Contrastive analysis (CA) or contrastive linguistics “may be roughly defined as a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them” (Fisiak 1981: 1). Fallahi (1991: 6) defines CA as “a branch of linguistics that brings two language systems together, sets them against each other, and seeks to define the similarities and the differences between them”. Although Yarmohammadi (1996) as well as Fallahi (1991) and Fisiak (1981) believe that contrastive analysis deals with similarities and differences, James (1980: 2) argues that it is more interested in the differences rather than the similarities between languages. Besides all the usages different people have mentioned for CA, it is proved to be a reliable method used to predict and explain learner errors. Di Pietro 102
believes that contrastive analysis is a basis for language teaching and that it was borne as a result of classroom experience (1971: vii).
After having dominated the world of applied linguistics, particularly in the late 1960s, CA experienced a period of disfavour by linguists which lasted more than a decade. Despite the decline of its popularity, CA is now regaining its popularity in translation studies and particularly in interlanguage studies. This could be due to the emergence of computerized learner, bilingual and native speaker corpora, which enables linguists to benefit from their related tools and procedures especially in interlanguage studies which make such corpus studies more scientific and more empirical (Granger 1996: 37).
The term interlanguage was coined by Selinker to emphasise the fact that learner language is not just a deviant form of the target language, or a compromise between native and target language structure, but an emergent system which sometimes follows laws of its own. Although interlanguage could thus be studied as a phenomenon in its own right, comparison with native and target language remains useful for practical reasons (Granger 2003: 127). This is why recently many corpus studies benefit from a contrastive approach where learner corpora are compared with native speaker corpora regarding language use from different aspects, rather than merely analysing learner corpora (Flowerdew 1998; Granger 1998b, 2002, 2003; McEnery & Kifle 2002; Milton & Hyland 1999).
Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (CIA), the theoretical and methodological framework on which the present study is founded, was pioneered by Granger (1998b). It draws on the technological advances which made possible the rise of corpus linguistics and encourages two types of corpus based comparisons. The first is the comparison of L1 and L2, where the structures of the native language of the learners and the target language are compared and contrasted in order to find points of similarity and differences, and the second is the comparison of L2 and L2, through which the learner interlanguages of two or more groups of learners are studied, compared and contrasted from different perspectives. Among other things, this will 103
help researchers distinguish between source language specific interference and crosslinguistically attested universals in second language learning and acquisition. Selinker (1989) believes that this new variety of CA, in which interlanguage data can be compared with native language data and learner data from other groups, has outstanding potentials. James (1994: 14) believes that CIA provides the ground for the contrastive quantitative study of various English interlanguages.
In addition to the various comparable interlanguages, there is a need for a native speaker corpus which can be used as a point of reference to which learner corpora can be compared. While in CIA it is believed that the language produced by native speakers of a given language is a standard norm, one of the major roles of CIA that gives us the opportunity to understand how native and non native speakers actually perform, rather than having books used as reference tell us how they perform, is not to be overlooked (Hunston 2002: 212). Large scale contrastive analyses on the interlanguages of various learner groups can reveal certain specific features of the language produced by native and non native speakers (Altenberg & Granger 2001). Having knowledge of native speaker language and its specific features allows non native speakers to try and improve their language and get closer to the native speaker language norms. CIA also provides us with information regarding learner language which forms the basis for monitoring the language produced by the learners at different stages of language proficiency and across different language learning stages (Cobb 2003). Fields such as curriculum development, methodology employed in EFL and ESL courses, material designing and the preparation of reference tools are among the several fields which can benefit from the qualitative results as well as the quantitative results of CIA (Meunier 2002).
A major drawback of the old style contrastive studies of the 1960s and 1970s was their weak empirical foundation. In a survey by Odlin (1989), reviewing major contrastive studies of the 1970s, it is pointed out that Filipovic argued for the use of bidirectional corpora in CA studies even then. This survey further showed that the studies reviewed benefitted from a corpus of some sort, yet none were standard (Odlin 1989: 110). At the time such studies were carried out, the collection and the 104
processing of computerized corpora were very difficult. Even Filipovic, in contrast to his own recommendation, had to settle for unidirectional corpora rather than bidirectional ones. Today, with the emergence of new tools and latest technologies in the field of corpus studies, this problem no longer exists. With the help of the latest tools used in corpus studies, the retrieval of certain linguistic items from corpora and the comparison of different corpora concerning certain linguistic features can be done much faster.
The present study is going to be of the CIA type, focussing on Iranian learner English and a native speaker corpus, with concerning the English phrasal verbs providing the empirical variable investigated. The Iranian learner English will be the interlanguage which will be studied in comparison with the native speaker corpus. The results will also be compared to a grammar book as another point of reference. For the purpose of the present study there was a need for an Iranian learner corpus to be compiled observing the same standards observed in the compilation of the native speaker corpus in order to have comparable corpora (see 5.3).
The investigation of learner language data in large corpora can be done in different ways. One of the most reliable methods is the "hypothesis finding" approach put forth by Granger (1998a: 16), which is believed to be the most appropriate method for the investigation of the language produced by the learners. Using this method the data is first randomly examined and then the researcher decides which aspect of the learner language to analyse. The study of learner language needs to be qualitatively and/or quantitatively approached. Choosing the best approach in this regard is an important issue since the quantitative study focuses on the frequency of certain features in language use and points out instances of difficulty, but the qualitative study provides us with in depth focus into those points of learner difficulties found. Mair (1991) recommends a combination of both approaches in order to understand language use better.
In order to analyse the data, a quantitative study will be carried out first, and then the data will be qualitatively studied in order to gain an in depth insight into learner 105
language regarding the English phrasal verbs. The results of the quantitative and the qualitative analysis of the present study will be presented in chapters 6 and 7, respectively.
5.2. Tools
The present study needed to benefit from various tools in order to reach the intended goals and to test the hypotheses of the study.
5.2.1. Concordancing and retrieval software
In order to carry out the data analysis in the present study the tools of a software called AntConc 3.2.1.0. were used. This software and its tools were useful in the analysis of the data. Two of the tools which were specifically used in this study were Concordance and Word List. Word List provides us with information such as number of word types, number of word tokens, and provides a list of all the words that appear in the corpus, ordering them alphabetically and based on their frequency. This method was quite beneficial to the quantitative analysis of the study by providing a frequency list of words of the corpus which are listed in isolation, free of their surrounding words in text. Using this method did not provide us with the necessary surrounding texts which were required for an analysis of the lexical items in order to analyse language use regarding each of the listed words. In order to overcome this problem, the concordance tool of the AntConc software was used. Concordance presented the words selected with their surrounding texts, which allowed the researcher to study their use. This tool listed the selected words along with certain amount of the surrounding texts. It listed them in the order they appeared in texts. The combination of these tools helped the researcher gain a comprehensive insight into the frequency of certain words and language use with respect to those words.
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5.2.2. Reference works and materials
The present study also benefitted from phrasal verb dictionaries as points of reference. Cowie and Mackin (1993), and the Cambridge phrasal verbs dictionary (2006) were the two dictionaries the researcher used in this study in order to find out whether a structure of the phrasal verbs exists in the lexicon of the English language or not. If a certain phrasal verb does not exist in these phrasal verbs dictionaries this does not mean that it does not exist in the English lexicon at all. There are some phrasal verbs which do not exist in dictionaries but are used by native speakers of English and are accepted by them. Native speaker language was a further point of reference which was used by the researcher to check the phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners; therefore, in order to see whether specific phrasal verbs that do not exist in dictionaries are used by the native speakers or not, the researcher compared the findings from the Iranian learner corpus with the findings from Louvain Corpus of ative English Essays (LOCNESS). This native speaker corpus was selected for this purpose since it comprised 265,695 words, which makes it comparable in size for this study. In certain cases, where neither the phrasal verb dictionaries nor LOCNESS cover a particular phrasal verb, another native speaker corpus called Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) was used. COCA includes texts from spoken English, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic texts. The essays are collected from 1990 to 2012 and the corpus is updated regularly. The idea behind the selection of COCA is that this corpus is comprised of over 450 million words, making it an even larger native speaker corpus than LOCNESS, adding to the reliability of the results of the study. A larger corpus means a better chance of including much more phrasal verbs than relatively smaller corpora. What makes COCA even more interesting is that it is an American corpus, which makes it a good point of reference for this study, since Iranians usually follow American English when learning English in Iran. COCA is suitable for studying the current and continuing changes of English, due to the way it was designed.
In order to carry out the present study, English and Persian grammar books were also used. Among them were two English grammar reference books which were used as 107
reference. The definition of the phrasal verbs, and how to distinguish them from prepositional verbs and free combinations taken from Quirk et al. (1985) was used in order to identify the phrasal verbs and to shortlist them, and Biber et al. (1999: 410) was used in order to find out the style of writing employed by the learners and the native speakers of English.
Another procedure which adds to the reliability of the study is the calculation of the chi square test of goodness of fit. Soon after the phrasal verbs were extracted from the corpora, where necessary in the quantitative section of the study, the chi square test of goodness of fit was used to test the null hypothesis of the study and to see how significant the findings were.
5.2.3. Corpora
As part of all corpus based studies as well as the present one, two large corpora were used in this study. Since the main focus of the study was on Iranian learners of English, a large enough corpus was compiled in order to carry out this study. As a result, the Iranian learner corpus was thus compiled with great effort from around 15 universities in Iran the essays of 12 of which qualified for the study 37 . The researcher and his fellow PhD student, Mr. Mehdi Hajiyan, had to go through all the essays in order to select the essays which were at intermediate and advanced levels of language proficiency and to key in the essays in order to have computer compatible essays. Thus, this corpus included intermediate and advanced level essays written by Iranian students of English.
Since the phrasal verbs extracted from the Iranian learner corpus needed to be compared with a native speaker corpus as well as reference books such as dictionaries and grammar books, LOCNESS was used as another point of reference. LOCNESS is a corpus which was a compilation of essays written by native speakers of English 38 . The phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus were then also
37 A sample essay from the Iranian learner corpus intended for the present study is available in appendix 11. 38 A sample essay from LOCNESS used in the present study can be found in appendix 12. 108
compared with the phrasal verbs extracted from LOCNESS both qualitatively and quantitatively.
5.3. Data
The data which were used in the present study were the LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus, which was compiled by the researcher and his fellow PhD student Mr. Mehdi Hajiyan.
5.3.1. Subjects
Before beginning the analyses, the main aim of the present study was to compile an Iranian corpus of learner English. In order to achieve such a goal, students of English, who were at the 3rd or 4th year of their studies and were thought to have advanced level of English language proficiency, were asked to write essays ranging from 500 to 1000 words. The learners who were asked to write the essays were from both sexes and they were mostly between 20 to 25 years old. The learners were thought to be mostly at the intermediate level of English language proficiency. Most Iranian learners had little or no experience of visiting an English speaking country, which meant that they had not been exposed to authentic English, meaning that they had learned English as a foreign language in Iran. Nearly all the learners spoke Persian as their mother tongue except for a few the number of which was far too small to be considered in this study. The data were collected from different universities from various regions throughout Iran. Because Iran is a large country, this corpus was thought to represent the knowledge of English possessed by Iranian learners in the best way since the essays were collected from most of the regions in Iran. The learners were mostly undergraduate students and a small percentage were postgraduate students who were studying English in different fields (English translation studies, English language teaching, and English literature).
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5.3.2. The essays
Around 250,000 words were compiled but because not all were qualified for the study due to the low level of language proficiency or being short, many were omitted from the corpus. Finally, around 107,120 words qualified for the study. The total number of the remaining essays was 286. The exact number of words in each essay and the universities where the essays were collected from can be found in appendix 5. Most of the argumentative essays written by the learners were about their own daily life and social problems, and even if they selected one of the 14 suggested topics they would direct it toward a social issue of their own, talking about how it affected them. The selected essays ranged from intermediate to advanced level of language proficiency which is also indicated for each essay in appendix 5. The learners were asked to write argumentative essays. The Iranian corpus intended for this study was compiled at different time intervals at different points during the study. This was believed to help the researcher overcome certain obstacles that may have existed in the compilation of the corpus and the interpretation of the findings in order to avoid needing additional time for experiencing difficulties at this phase of the study. Several universities collaborated in the data collection phase. The collected essays came from both state universities and the so called Azad universities which are nongovernmental universities receiving no benefit from the government. The data were gathered at the Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan, Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran, Islamic Azad University of Hamedan, Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch), University of Isfahan, Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Yazd University, Islamic Azad University of Abadeh, Islamic Azad University of Qazvin, Shahid Beheshti University, and Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen. The role of the teachers as well as the students must not be neglected here. It was for the most part the excellent cooperation of the lecturers and teachers with the researcher which paved the way for the data collection in order to carry out this study in such a vast scale (almost covering all the regions of Iran). In order to motivate the students to take part in the study, the learners were either given the topics to write as exams taken at the universities or promised extra marks by the teachers and the lecturers. In some other 110
cases at only a few universities the learners were paid to write essays or special prizes were promised for those who wrote the best essays. Apart from learner motivation the teachers and the lecturers also needed to be motivated to some extent in order to cooperate in the best way. For this purpose the researcher made a commitment to give a copy of the Iranian learner corpus to the teachers and the lecturers after it was completed.
In order to carry out the data collection, the learners were asked to write argumentative essays in English. There were 14 proposed topics taken from the ICLE guidelines but the students were not limited to the topics presented. The people, who helped the researcher for the collection of the data by collecting the required essays from university students, were given freedom of choice in the topics they presented to the students to write about, since the argumentative nature of the writings would suffice for the present study. The learners were asked to write argumentative essays in order for the data to be comparable with the data from the native speaker corpus LOCNESS. In addition to the essays, the learners were asked to fill out learner profiles which were used in the ICLE project 39 . Learner profiles were forms asking for the students' basic information such as essay length, essay title, general essay conditions, name, gender, age, nationality, mother tongue, foreign language(s) proficiency, amount of exposure to the English language and stays in English speaking countries. This information was thought to help the researcher find any specific feature which could have influenced learner L2 production. The learners could either write these in class as a test or take it home and write it in their own time. They were to mention any reference used to write the essays in the learner profiles. The essays along with the learner profiles were compiled by the researcher of the present study and his colleague Mr. Mehdi Hajiyan as a contribution to the ICLE project managed by Professor Granger from the centre for English corpus linguistics: Université Catholique de Louvain. The compilation of the essays for the ICLE project shall continue by the same researchers even after the completion of the present study.
39 A copy of the 14 essay topics as well as the learner profiles handed out to the learners are available in appendices 6 and 7, respectively. 111
After the essays were written, they were collected by the lecturers in each class along with the learner profiles filled in by the learners. Soon after, the task of checking the essays was carried out by the researcher in order to filter them and to come up with homogeneous essays regarding level of proficiency, which meant that the essays would range from intermediate to advanced levels. The next step, which called for strenuous efforts, was the extremely exhausting task of keying in the essays. At this stage, some rules of the ICLE as observed for all other ICLE corpora needed to be brought into consideration. The first was to leave all the spelling mistakes made by the students as they appeared in the original hand written texts while keying in the writings. The researcher had to be very careful not to add spelling mistakes of his own which required a double check after all the essays were typed in. Another important point was to remove any references mentioned by the authors of the essays and replace them by "
The essays written by Iranian language learners were coded. The code given to each essay had as its part two first letters representing the country where they were collected and a number was assigned to each essay. The full list of the essays written by Iranian learners, the number of word tokens, level of proficiency and the university where they were collected from are included in appendix 5.
LOCNESS, which was the native speaker control corpus in this study, included essays written by American university students from Marquette University, Indiana University at Indianapolis, Presbyterian College/South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Michigan. Its British corpus included some A level essays as well as essays written by university students. The A level essays in LOCNESS were not included in the study in order to bring LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus as closely as possible, that is, both corpora would contain 112
essays written by university students only. LOCNESS is made up of 265,695 words. In this study the focus is going to be on the Iranian advanced learners of English. The Iranian corpus shall be used for the study and the results from this group will be compared to the results from the native speaker group who will be the control group for the present study and to Biber et al. (1999, p. 410).
5.4. Phrasal verbs
The English phrasal verbs and their structure were discussed briefly earlier. At this point two important issues concerning the present study will be discussed in depth. First of all it will be made clear which structures are considered as the English phrasal verbs in this study. Then a detailed explanation is given on how to extract the intended phrasal verb structures from the corpora.
In order to extract the phrasal verbs from Iranian learner data, a clear cut definition for the phrasal verbs in English is required. In order to achieve such a goal, those structures which Quirk et al. (1985: 1150) recognise as "phrasal verbs" and "phrasal prepositional verbs" were considered in the analysis. The verbal elements of these structures can be either transitive or intransitive and may combine with either an adverbial particle, or an adverbial particle and a preposition. The verbal elements of these structures can be either transitive or intransitive. These verbal elements may combine with either an adverbial particle, or an adverbial particle and a preposition. A problematic area concerning these structures is the distinction between transitive phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs which are quite similar in form. The present study will benefit from Quirk et al.'s (1985: 1167) syntactic tests:
(a) The particle of a phrasal verb can stand either before or after the noun phrase following the verb, but that of the prepositional verb must (unless deferred) precede the noun phrase.
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(b) When the noun phrase following the verb is a personal pronoun, the pronoun precedes the particle in the case of a phrasal verb, but follows the particle in the case of a prepositional verb.
(c) An adverb (functioning as adjunct) can often be inserted between verb and particle in prepositional verbs, but not in phrasal verbs.
(d) The particle of the phrasal verb cannot precede a relative pronoun at the beginning of a relative clause.
(e) Similarly, the particle of a phrasal verb cannot precede the interrogative word at the beginning of a wh question.
(f) The particle of a phrasal verb is normally stressed, and in final position normally bears the nuclear tone, whereas the particle of a prepositional verb is normally unstressed and has the 'tail' of the nuclear tone which falls on the lexical verb.
The above criteria are displayed in table 14 taken from Quirk et al. (1985: 1167):
Table 14. Transitive phrasal verbs distinguished from prepositional verbs. Prepositional verb Transitive phrasal verb Call on = 'visit' Call up = 'summon' (a) They called on the dean. They called up the dean. *They called the dean on . They called the dean up . (b) They called on him. They called him up . *They called him on . *They called up him. (c) They called angrily on the dean. *They called angrily up the dean. (d) the man on whom they called *the man up whom they called . (e) On which man did they call ? *Up which man did they call ? (f) Which man did they CALL on ? Which man did they call up ?
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Having a clear picture of the phrasal verbs in mind, table 15, taken from Waibel (2007: 64), sums up the types of phrasal verbs to be investigated in the present study:
Table 15. Phrasal verb structures included in the present study Multi word verb Consisting of Meaning Example Intransitive verb + Phrasal verb Literal Come in, Peter. particle Intransitive verb + Phrasal verb Figurative Susan finally settled down. particle Transitive verb + Phrasal verb Literal He took out the rubbish. particle Transitive verb + They took in a homeless Phrasal verb Figurative particle person. Phrasal prepositional Intransitive verb + A man came out of the Literal verb particle + preposition burning building. Phrasal prepositional Intransitive verb + Seven students came up with Figurative verb particle + preposition the correct answer. Phrasal prepositional Transitive verb + Sarah put the book back in Literal Verb particle + preposition the shelf.
Phrasal prepositional Transitive verb + He took his anger out on his Figurative verb particle + preposition wife.
Since the phrasal verbs are numerous in the lexicon of the English language and are extremely productive, presenting a full list of all possible English phrasal verbs would not be possible in this study. Thus, the 25 adverbial particles mentioned in Waibel (2007: 65), which combine with verbal elements to create phrasal verbs will be given here. Twenty of these adverbial particles are taken from Johansson and Hofland (1989) and 5 are taken from Quirk et al. (1985). Below is a complete list of all the adverbial particles considered in the present study:
Aback Around Down Out Under About Aside Forth Over Up Across Away Forward Past With Ahead Back In Round Without Along Behind Off Through Apart By On Together 40
40 The particle together is not considered an adverbial particle if its meaning is opposite to alone . This is because it will be contrasted with live alone which is not a phrasal verb. 115
A clear definition of the phrasal verbs analysed in this study was given. At this point there is a need for the study to focus on another area of difficulty concerning the phrasal verbs. The extraction of the phrasal verbs from learner writings poses a further methodological problem.
The present study benefited from the AntConc computer software. Being able to search any computerised corpora quickly using computer software is one of the advantages of computer learner corpora. This allows us to be able to go through large amounts of data very quickly and search for aspects of language under study. Searching for the phrasal verbs from predefined lists of phrasal verbs would not be a reliable way of searching for phrasal verbs in learner corpora since there may be phrasal verbs used by the learners which are not included in any such lists. Searching for the phrasal verbs can also be done by searching for the elements of phrasal verbs. In order to achieve the goals of the study, the researcher used the Word List tool of AntConc. This tool listed all the words that occurred in the corpus based on their frequency and alphabetically. All the possible verbs were extracted from the corpus. Different forms of the verbs be , do , and have were also considered. None of the modal auxiliaries were needed for this study since they do not combine with adverbial particles to form a phrasal verb. The extracted verbs were used in the search to look for the phrasal verbs using the Concordance tool. In order to narrow down the search and to avoid going through all the verbs, the search was specified by an adverbial particle. The search was done in the range of five words to the left side and five to the right side of the phrasal verbs. The reason for this was that the particle of a phrasal verb does not always occur immediately next to the verbal element. The reason for checking five words to the left of the verb was to check for those specific instances of phrasal verbs where the particle might occur before the verbal element of the phrasal verb (e.g. up he woke and down she went ) rather than following it (e.g. he woke up and she went down ), as the more common structure of the phrasal verbs in English. After the extraction of the phrasal verbs they were analysed. The search for the phrasal verbs using this semi automatic method may be frustrating, but it 116
requires less time and effort than if the phrasal verbs were to be sought using only the verbal element or only the adverbial particle.
After all the required phrasal verbs were found for the present study, this study aimed at comparing the results from the Iranian learner corpus with the results from the native speaker corpus LOCNESS taken from Waibel (2007). Some incorrect or newly created phrasal verbs were expected to be found in the Iranian learner corpus which provided a good basis for an in depth analysis of the results. In case of borderline instances, which were expected occurrences in learner language, the present study attempted to analyse and interpret the results from all possible perspectives by using the definition and the syntactic tests provided by Quirk et al. (1985: 1167). Other irregularities in the data were also looked at from all possible perspectives in order to either find the sources of errors or come up with an explanation for such cases. The comparison and the in depth analysis of the phrasal verbs are carried out in chapters 6 and 7.
5.5. Research questions
The focus of the present study is mainly on Iranian learner English with respect to the English phrasal verb use. The data were both quantitatively and qualitatively analysed in this regard. Although research questions are mentioned in this section, the researcher was not limited to these questions since there may have been unexpected occurrences in the findings which needed to be discussed. In this section major research questions are mentioned.
- Do Iranian learners avoid using the English phrasal verbs due to their manifold complexities compared to the native speakers of English (LOCNESS)? Would they overuse or underuse the phrasal verbs compared to the native speakers of English?
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- To what extent are the learners going to make errors in phrasal verb use? Are they going to create new ones? Or are they going to give new meanings to the existing ones? What could the sources of their errors be?
- Does the L1 of the learners influence English phrasal verb use? How would the learners deal with their lack of knowledge or compensate for it?
The focus of the present study was mainly on the research questions but not limited to them as there is a possibility of coming across unexpected linguistic occurrences. The above mentioned research questions are dealt with in the quantitative and the qualitative chapters of the study and the overall results are presented in the conclusion.
The data of the present study are looked at from different points of view holding the hypothesis that the English phrasal verbs would probably be overused by Iranian learners due to the influence of the Persian verb system, which tends toward more multi word verb formation. Since Persian LVCs and prepositional verbs are broadly used by Persian speakers, and also because the Persian single word verbs are dying out and the number of multi word verbs are increasing, and also because Persian LVCs and prepositional verbs are the closest Persian structures to the English phrasal verbs, Iranian language learners are expected to show a tendency toward using more phrasal verbs in English than the native speakers of English. They are even expected to produce new English phrasal verbs influenced by their native language (through “hypercorrect” analogical extension of existing English patterns).
But this is not the only plausible scenario. What could also occur is that those phrasal verbs, which are typically used in informal contexts by native speakers of English, would be difficult for the Iranian learners due to their restricted access to natural input. So the learners are expected to show low level of familiarity with regard to informal phrasal verbs. They would probably produce more formal language and, therefore, more formal phrasal verbs than native speakers of English or use more one word verbs to make up for their lack of knowledge in this regard. Of course, the 118
learners are also believed to learn literal phrasal verbs earlier, faster and more easily than figurative or idiomatic ones due to their semantic transparency.
5.6. Points to consider
Before moving on to the next chapter, there are some important points which need to be considered.
In some countries around the world, English is the native language, in some it is the language of education and in some it is a foreign language. But it is recognised as the only international language used by the people of the world for communication purposes. Despite the fact that there are some countries who speak English as their mother tongue, there are only two major varieties of the language which are followed by learners worldwide. These varieties are British English and American English. Iranian learners are exposed to both varieties at school and university levels. This is one of the main issues for selecting the native speaker corpus LOCNESS, which is comprised of British and American essays. This makes the results from both the Iranian learner corpus and LOCNESS comparable in many ways. This should not undermine the fact that most Iranian learners are more attracted to American English rather than British English.
Another issue is the terms used to talk about the frequency of the phrasal verbs used by the learners compared to the native speakers of English. The term 'overuse' and 'underuse' will be used to talk about instances of phrasal verbs in learner writings which occur ±10 times in the Iranian learner corpus as compared to the native speakers.
The number of phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus were different, which would have caused the difficulty of comparing the results. To overcome this problem, as part of most corpus based studies such as the present study, the quantitative data needed to be normalised in order to have comparable data and more reliable results. 119
6. Phrasal verbs in Iranian learner English in comparison with native speaker usage 6.1. Introduction
The analysis of the data in this study is laid out in two different chapters, one chapter dealing with the quantitative analysis of the data and the other with the qualitative analysis. As stated earlier in the present study, in order to gain a better understanding of the results obtained from corpus studies such as the present work, a quantitative analysis should be carried out along with a qualitative analysis. The combination of the two provides a clear image of the results. This chapter is the quantitative approach to the findings.
The LOCNESS, being the control group in this study, consists of essays comprising 265,695 words collected from American and British university students, and British A level students. As mentioned earlier, the essays written by British A level students were excluded. The Iranian corpus consists of 107,120 words. Since the Iranian corpus and LOCNESS were different in sizes, all the findings in this study were normalised. In order to ease the reading of the figures, they were rounded.
Out of the 286 essays selected for the study, around 8,754 different words were found. As mentioned above, the Concordance tool of AntConc was used to study the verbs found in the list of all the words that appeared in the essays among their surrounding texts. Each verb was checked against each of the 25 adverbial particles with which they were thought to form phrasal verbs and as a result a number of idiomatic and non idiomatic phrasal verbs were extracted after all the strenuous efforts put into finding and extracting them from the corpus. The benefit of studying the extracted phrasal verbs among their surrounding texts was that it was easier for the researcher to determine the nature of the word found, to differentiate between the phrasal verbs from other verb types, and finally to find out how the learners used the phrasal verbs. Then a frequency list of all the phrasal verbs which occurred in the Iranian corpus needed to be prepared (appendix 8). Altogether, 3,287 phrasal verbs were found in the Iranian learner corpus and 5,279 phrasal verbs were observed in 120
LOCNESS. The figures show that Iranian learners used 37.73 percent fewer phrasal verbs in comparison with native speakers of English. The most frequently used phrasal verbs in LOCNESS were to be compared to the frequency of the same phrasal verbs in the Iranian learner corpus in order to find out how the Iranian learners performed compared to the native speakers of English.
In some instances the study will use the terms overuse , underuse , or similar use in order to compare the results of the Iranian learner corpus with LOCNESS. They are used to show which phrasal verbs have been used more frequently and less frequently in the Iranian learner corpus than in LOCNESS. If the frequency is between the range ±10 compared to LOCNESS, then the term similar use will be used. These terms are only used to show statistical differences and not to talk about the correct or incorrect use of the phrasal verbs by the learners in individual instances or in specific contexts. This study will also consider the alternatives used for phrasal verbs by the learners and the native speakers, and will also use the above terms in order to address the differences between learners and native speakers. The chi square test of goodness of fit will also be performed in cases where the figures need to be tested for significance 41 . If the chi square is below 3.84 the figures are not significant and in case it is above 3.84, the figures are significant and need to be studied more closely.
The main goal of the present chapter is to analyse and talk about quantitative results of the study. There will also be points where qualitative explanations are required in order to clarify certain points of difficulty, but a detailed discussion of these cases will be deferred to chapter 7.
One major problem regarding the phrasal verbs is their polysemous nature. This calls for considering the different semantic meanings of the phrasal verbs. Since in learner studies such as the present study there are many cases where the meanings of phrasal verbs differ from dictionary meaning, only additional meanings of some sample phrasal verbs will be discussed in detail.
41 http://www.quantpsy.org/chisq/chisq.htm 121
6.2. The 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in LOC ESS
Here the 25 most frequent phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS by Waibel (2007: 87) are listed along with the frequency of the same phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus in table 16. When searching the corpora for these phrasal verbs, different forms of the same words were searched and included in the list in case they had the function of the verbs being studied. For example for the verb ‘get’ the forms ‘get’, ‘got’, ‘gotten’, ‘getting’ and ‘gets’ were all included in the search but only the base forms were used in the tables. All the figures mentioned in the tables are normalised (n/million words). The one word equivalents selected in order to be compared to the phrasal verbs are searched in the corpora based on the meanings conveyed by the phrasal verbs they are being compared to.
Table 16. The 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in LOCNESS contrasted with their frequency in the Iranian learner corpus. Phrasal verb Frequency in LOC ESS Frequency in Iranian (n/million words) learner corpus (n/million words) 1 Go on 200 28 2 Carry out 42 181 9 3 Point out 154 0 4 Take away 117 56 5 Bring up 109 9 6 Take on 102 0 7 End up 98 28 8 Grow up 98 84 9 Give up 94 37 10 Bring about 87 28 11 Find out 72 93 12 Make up 68 19 13 Set up 64 0 14 Go back 60 47 15 Break down 53 28 16 Get away 53 19 17 Cut off 45 37
42 The bold faced phrasal verbs in table 16 have proved significant after the chi square test of goodness of fit was performed. 122
Phrasal verb Frequency in LOC ESS Frequency in Iranian (n/million words) learner corpus (n/million words) 18 Be out 45 19 19 Bring in 41 19 20 Carry on 41 19 21 Go out 41 56 22 Run up 41 0 23 Turn out 41 9 24 Fit in 38 0 25 Get out 38 19
The figures in table 16 show facts highlighting differences between the Iranian learners of English and the native speakers of English regarding the use of the English phrasal verbs. Go on is the most frequent phrasal verb used in LOCNESS. According to Biber et al. (1999: 410) this phrasal verb is also frequently used in conversation, fiction, and news but less frequently in academic prose. This phrasal verb is "the most common phrasal verb overall in the LGSWE [Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English] Corpus" (Biber et al.1999: 411). This proves the findings in Biber et al. are similar to the findings from LOCNESS in that this particular phrasal verb is placed at the top of both frequency lists. On the other hand, go on is not at the top of the list in the frequency list of the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus. As can be seen in table 16, while there were 200 cases of the phrasal verb go on found in LOCNESS, there were only 28 instances of this phrasal verb found in the Iranian learner corpus. This comparison estimates that the essays, produced by the native speakers, contain more cases of the phrasal verb go on , which is used in less formal styles of writing.
When contrasting the figures related to go on with the verb continue (single word verb equivalent of go on ), it was found that native speakers of English used more phrasal verbs than Iranian learners. In fact the native speakers proved to have used both go on and its single word equivalent more frequently than the Iranian learners. Two other phrasal verbs in the list, which have the same meaning as go on , are keep on and carry on . The findings showed that native speakers used carry on more frequently than Iranian learners but surprisingly showed no instances of keep on as 123
compared to the figures from the Iranian learners which showed 9 instances for this phrasal verb. Table 17 summarises the findings. Table 17. Go on, Carry on , and Keep on vs. continue . Verb LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Go on 200 28 Carry on 41 19 Keep on 0 9 Continue 632 (168) 308 (33)
The overall results show that both native speakers of English and the Iranian learners show tendency toward using the verb continue (the single word verb equivalent of go on ) more often than its phrasal verb equivalent. In the case of Iranian learner corpus, this could be due to the fact that Iranian learners try to avoid certain phrasal verbs due to their semantic complexity and the fact that an equivalent does not exist in their mother tongue. But using the verb continue more often than the equivalent phrasal verbs mentioned in table 17 may prove that both native speakers and learners have tried to produce more formal essays since the verb continue is supposedly more formal than the other three phrasal verbs mentioned here. The chi square test of goodness of fit proved that the figures in table 17 were not significant.
It must be stated that in order to search for the verb continue in the corpora to be included in the study, the researcher also searched for all the forms of the verb continue such as ‘continued’ and ‘continuing’. But the base form of the verb continue was included in the table. This was done for all the other single word verbs compared to the rest of the most frequent phrasal verbs under study here.
Another phrasal verb worth mentioning here is bring about . This phrasal verb was underused by the Iranian learners compared to native speakers of English. Bring about was used 87 times by the native speakers and 28 times by the Iranian learners. One of the simple verb equivalents of bring about is the verb cause. The native speakers used the verb cause 602 times and the Iranian learners used it 673 times in total. Although native speakers of English proved to have used the phrasal verb bring 124
about more frequently than Iranian learners, Iranian learners had overused the simple verb equivalent cause as compared to the native speakers.
Table 18. Bring about vs. cause . Verb LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Bring about 87 28 Cause 602 (160) 673 (72) χ2 = 4.31, df = 1, p < 0.05
The chi square test was performed for the figures in table 18 and the results show that the figures in this table are significant. Table 18 shows the frequency of the phrasal verb bring about and the simple verb cause in the LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus. The figures show that Iranian learners have overused the single word verb cause and have underused the phrasal verb bring about compared to the native speakers of English. The results show that the underuse of the phrasal verb bring about by Iranian learners may be due to the lack of a native language equivalent and lexical complexity, which makes it difficult for the learners to comprehend this verb. The overuse of the simple verb cause is thought to be the result of an avoidance strategy employed by the learners due to the lack of a phrasal verb alternative in Persian and its meaning complexity which makes it difficult for the learners to learn this type of phrasal verb i.e. the learners used more simple verb in order to avoid using its equivalent phrasal verb. But what can also be deduced from the results is that Iranian learners show more tendency toward formal and academic style of writing in this case, since the phrasal verb bring about is supposedly most often used in informal contexts in comparison with the verb cause which is used in more formal contexts.
Example (1) shows an instance of the phrasal verb bring about in LOCNESS.
(1) A doctor might be asked to administer an injection which would bring about an easy and painless death for a patient who is terminally ill. (ICLE US SCU 0012.2) 125
Example (2) is taken from the Iranian learner corpus.
(2) … what is commonly argued is the fact that TV brings about a passiveness and creates a traditional student teacher paradigm … (IR133)
As can be seen in (1) and (2), both of the cases of the phrasal verb bring about have the meaning conveyed by the simple verb equivalent cause , that is, they can be replaced with the verb cause . There are, for sure, other meanings conveyed by the phrasal verb bring about , but what makes the researcher use the verb cause as its simple verb equivalent is that in most cases bring about carries the same meaning as the verb cause in LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus.
Two other English phrasal verbs which are said to be common in academic prose as mentioned by Biber et al. (1999: 410) are carry out and point out . These phrasal verbs are also at the top of the list in the frequency list of the phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS, which proves the findings by Biber et al.. In the Iranian learner corpus, however, these verbs are not at the top of the list. carry out was considerably underused by the learners and point out was not used at all by Iranian learners of English. Table 19 sums up the findings.
Table 19. Carry out vs. point out . Phrasal verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Carry out 181 9 Point out 154 0
The findings show that the phrasal verb carry out was underused and point out was not used at all by the learners. These results show that Iranian learners may have produced more informal essays and less academic essays compared to the native speakers of English, since these two phrasal verbs occur more frequently in academic prose than in conversation or fiction according to Biber et al. (1999: 410). This could be due to the fact that Iranian learners have difficulty comprehending and learning 126
these verbs due to the semantic complexity and the idiomaticity of these phrasal verbs, and lack of a mother tongue equivalent. The level of formality of learner writings will be elaborated further by comparing each of the phrasal verbs mentioned in table 19 with the simple verb equivalents of the phrasal verbs used in the corpora. One word equivalents of the phrasal verbs mentioned in table 19 were also investigated.
Table 20 displays the results for carry out and its one word equivalent perform . As was also mentioned earlier, the simple verb perform , believed to have similar meaning to the phrasal verb carry out , was searched for in both corpora considering the meaning closest to the phrasal verb carry out . This was done in order to have reliable findings. The first meaning of the phrasal verb carry out may be similar to the simple verb do , but since do is much broader in meaning than the phrasal verb carry out , another simple verb nearest to carry out must have been selected for the analysis. So the verb perform was chosen for this purpose and searched in the corpora in order to come up with the frequencies.
Table 20. Carry out vs. perform . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Carry out 181 9 Perform 158 (42) 103 (11) χ2 = 8.59, df = 1, p < 0.01
By performing the chi square test on the figures in table 20, it was observed that these figures were very significant. The figures in table 20 show that the phrasal verb carry out was underused by Iranian learners but the number of its simple verb equivalent perform showed similar use by the Iranian learners. A close look at table 20 reveals that although the phrasal verb carry out was underused by the Iranian learners, Iranian learners used the single word verb perform similar to the native speakers of English. The figures show an evident avoidance of the phrasal verb by the learners but a considerable increase in the use of the single word verb perform , which means that the learners are trying to use more simple verbs in order to make up for their lack of knowledge of its equivalent phrasal verb ( carry out in this case). 127
The learners are believed to have avoided using the phrasal verb carry out due to its semantic complexity and idiomaticity. Since carry out and perform are both believed to be used in formal contexts, both groups proved to have used verbs signifying formal and academic styles of writing.
Example (3) shows a case where the phrasal verb carry out was used in LOCNESS.
(3) … because he still has the choice to carry out the task with dignity. (ICLE BR SUR 0006.1)
And (4) is an example from the Iranian learner corpus.
(4) they are forced to carry out crimes to fulfill their basic needs for instance food and shelter. (IR203)
Examples (3) and (4) show the co texts where the phrasal verb carry out was used. In the sentences in (3) and (4) the simple verb perform can replace the phrasal verb carry out . But the verb do cannot always replace the phrasal verb carry out or vice versa. For instance the verb do in the expression do a favour cannot be replaced by carry out .
The single word verb mention was investigated in the Iranian learner corpus as an equivalent of the phrasal verb point out . The findings are shown in table 21.
Table 21. Point out vs. mention . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learner n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Point out 154 0 Mention 132 (35) 439 (47)
Table 21 shows that point out was not used by the Iranian learners at all but used 154 times by the native speakers of English. When the verb mention , as the one word equivalent of the phrasal verb point out , was investigated in the Iranian learner 128
corpus, the results proved to be interesting. While the figures from LOCNESS showed a decline in using the single word verb compared to the equivalent phrasal verb, the figures from the Iranian learners showed a considerable increase in using this single word equivalent. In fact, the results also show that Iranian learners used the single word equivalent more often than the native speakers did. An overall analysis of the figures proved that Iranian learners preferred to use the simple verb as expected, in order to compensate for their lack of knowledge with regard to the English phrasal verb, an area in which they are thought to face difficulty.
The verb mention and the phrasal verb point out both occurred in LOCNESS, but the phrasal verb point out was not used in the Iranian learner corpus at all, and its simple verb equivalent mention occurred much more than it did in LOCNESS with 439 occurrences. This proves considerable in that the phrasal verb point out was avoided by the learners due to its complexity and its nearest synonym was used instead to fill the gap and compensate for it. Both verbs (‘point out’ and ‘mention’) were used in formal and academic styles of writing. Examples (5) and (6) are cases where the verb mention was used in both corpora.
(5) … it's necessary to mention the financial benefits the use of the rehabilitation of criminals bring about … (IR235)
(6) I will briefly mention the functions of the prime minister. (ICLE BR SUR 0026.1)
Example (5) is a case extracted from Iranian learner corpus and (6) is taken form LOCNESS. Note that the contexts where the verb mention was used in (5) and (6) are relatively formal.
One other phrasal verb of interest in this study is the verb bring up which has a figurative meaning and is thought to be a difficult one for the learners to learn and to comprehend. The simple verb equivalent of this phrasal verb is the verb raise .
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Table 22. Bring up vs. grow . Verb LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Bring up 109 9 Raise 203 (54) 84 (9)
The chi square test for the figures in table 22 proved the figures were not significant. As can be seen in table 22, the verb bring up was underused by Iranian learners. When its single word equivalent ‘ raise ’ was investigated, the results showed that this simple verb was also considerably underused by the Iranian learners compared to the native speakers of English. In other words, great phrasal verb avoidance and also underuse of the one word equivalent was observed among the learners. The phrasal verb bring up has other equivalents, like grow and grow up , in addition to raise . These complications will be dealt with in the qualitative follow up (See chapter 7).
The sample sentence in (7) from LOCNESS is an instance where the phrasal verb bring up is used differently to the simple verb grow .
(7) They constantly bring up the point that coal mining is a very dangerous job. (ICLE US MRQ 0006.1)
The verb bring up is used similar to the verbs mention or discuss rather than the verb grow . On the contrary, (8) taken from Iranian learner corpus and (9) taken from LOCNESS are cases of the phrasal verb bring up that bear the same meaning as the verb grow .
(8) … they are just "work men", brought up just to serve their society, and nothing more. (IR62)
(9) Children are brought up to repent and what is more important is that they must be seen to repent. (ICLE BR SUR 0003.1)
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Another very interesting example is the phrasal verb grow up . Figures in table 23 show the frequency of the phrasal verb grow up and its one word equivalent mature in LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus.
Table 23. Grow up vs. mature . Verb LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Grow up 98 84 Mature 15 (4) 0
What makes the findings interesting here is that since the phrasal verb Grow up is a literal one and literal phrasal verbs are thought to be easier for the learners to learn and comprehend, Iranian learners have produced nearly the same number of the phrasal verb Grow up as compared to the native speakers of English. Although the figures are close, Iranian learners have underused the phrasal verb grow up . The figures show no instances of the single word equivalent of this phrasal verb being used by the Iranian learners while the native speakers used the verb mature 15 times which is not a significant number. The phrasal verb grow up , which is used in informal contexts, occurred in both corpora indicating that the essays containing this phrasal verb tend toward more informal styles of writing.
Table 24 is another example of the use of a simple verb instead of its phrasal verb equivalent, which is done by the Iranian learners.
Table 24. Take on vs. adopt . Verb LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Take on 102 0 Adopt 184 (49) 19 (2)
The verb Take on has a figurative meaning, therefore, Iranian learners seem to have tried to avoid using this kind of phrasal verb which is common in news, academic prose and fiction but not conversation according to the results in Biber et al. (1999: 410). Instead, the Iranian learners have tried using the single word equivalent adopt 131
in order to convey the meaning conveyed by the phrasal verb take on . But table 24 illustrates that the learners have considerably underused the verb adopt as well. This is thought to have happened since the learners are not much acquainted with the correct concept of the verb adopt, so they try to avoid using such concept. This is because a good equivalent which would convey the concept behind the verbs take on and adopt does not exist in Persian, so the learners are not very familiar with this concept. Since both take on and adopt are used in formal contexts, the essays written by native speakers prove to tend more toward formal styles of writing in this case and essays written by Iranian learners tend more toward informal styles considering the verbs in table 24, which is contrary to what was observed concerning some of the previously analysed phrasal verbs.
The other meaning conveyed by the simple verb adopt means ‘to take responsibility (of a child)’. An example of such cases is (10) taken from LOCNESS.
(10) If the parent is prepared for all the efforts necessary to care for their own child who may have a genetic defect then by all means adopt a child already born with a genetic defect rather than risk the life of their genetic child. (ICLE US MRQ 0036.1)
Although there were 19 instances of the verb adopt in the Iranian learner corpus, none of the cases had the same concept as the verb adopt in (10). The verb adopt did not occur much with the meaning ‘to take responsibility (of a child)’, this is why the other concept of the verb adopt meaning ‘to take on’ was searched in the corpora.
Another example proving the informality of the writing style employed by the Iranian learners is the phrasal verb find out . Table 25 illustrates the findings both in LOCNESS and in Iranian learner corpus.
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Table 25. Find out vs. discover. Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Find out 72 93 Discover 233 (62) 84 (9) χ2 = 6.36, df = 1, p < 0.05
After performing the chi square test for the figures in table 25, it was discovered that the figures in this table are significant. Table 25 indicates that the phrasal verb Find out was overused by the Iranian learners but its one word equivalent discover was underused by the learners as compared to the native speakers of English. Since find out is one of the literal phrasal verbs and its meaning can be guessed from its components, the learners showed a tendency toward using more phrasal verb than the single word equivalent of this phrasal verb. The figures in Biber et al. (1999: 410) prove that find out is very frequently used in conversation, less in fiction and news and much less in academic prose, that is, it is more informally used than formally, which means that according to the findings in table 25 the essays written by native speakers may carry a more formal style than the ones written by Iranian learners of English. The results in table 25 also show that the simple verb discover was underused by the learners compared to the native speakers. In fact, the verb discover appeared almost two times more in the native speaker corpus. Since the verb discover is rather formal compared to its phrasal verb equivalent mentioned in table 25, the results proved once more that the essays written by native speakers were of a more formal style in this regard than the essays written by Iranian learners.
One other interesting case is the use of the phrasal verb go back . The one word equivalent of this phrasal verb is the verb return , which was used by both the native speakers and the learners. Another phrasal verb return back with the same meaning, which occurred in learner essays, was also investigated due to its interesting structure and the way it was used by the Iranian learners. Another phrasal verb which has the same meaning as go back is get back , which was also studied.
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Table 26. Go back vs. return , return back and get back . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Go back 60 47 Return 162 (43) 47 (5) Return back 0 9 Get back 30 0
Based on the figures in table 26 the phrasal verb go back was underused by the Iranian learners. The verb return as one of the one word equivalents of go back was also investigated to see whether the learners use this one word equivalent more frequently than the native speakers in order to compensate for the underuse of the phrasal verb. Surprisingly, the learners also underused the single word equivalent. The native speakers used the simple verb return more frequently than go back which shows their evident preference for using single word verbs over phrasal verbs. The figures related to the phrasal verb return back pose an interesting point in this study. Return back was not used by the native speakers but it was used 9 times by the Iranian learners. This phrasal verb is composed of two parts return and back . The verb return has the meaning "go back" on its own and the addition of the adverbial particle back is apparently a wrong combination used by the learners. The learners had no problem using this phrasal verb, and in fact, having used it in their essays was interesting since the native speakers had preferred other equivalents. Iranian learners may have used this particular phrasal verb due to mother tongue interference. In Persian, the verb be 'ᴂqᴂb bᴂrgᴂʃtᴂn (lit., to back back go), is the combination of the Persian LVC bᴂrgᴂʃtᴂn “to go back (or return)” and the (place/time) adverbial 'ᴂqᴂb, which means "back". The similarity in the lexical meanings that exists between the semantically redundant phrasal verb return back and its Persian translation, clearly explains the reason for this particular phrasal verb to be used by the Iranian learners. The last phrasal verb having similar meaning to go back is the phrasal verb get back . As can be seen in table 26, Iranian learners didn't use this phrasal verb in their essays whereas the native speakers of English used it 30 times. This may be due to the polysemy of the verb get which makes it more difficult for the learners to learn and use this phrasal verb compared to the verb go in go back . As 134
a result, the learners preferred to use the phrasal verb go back and its single word equivalent return and not the phrasal verb get back . The phrasal verb return back could also be a case of hypercorrection in the Iranian learner corpus and will be discussed in detail in the qualitative follow up (see chapter 7).
The tables below are two other instances of the learners preferring to use single word verbs rather than phrasal verbs as compared to the native speakers.
Table 27. Break down vs. break . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Break down 53 28 Break 158 (42) 187 (20)
Table 28. Cut off vs. cut . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Cut off 45 37 Cut 128 (34) 159 (17)
The figures in tables 27 and 28, as was also observed in the previous findings, show that the learners underuse the phrasal verbs and over use their single word equivalents in order to compensate for their lack of knowledge. One interesting point to discuss here is the fact that the adverbial particles down and off in the phrasal verbs break down and cut off carry the meaning "completely" and compared to their single word verbs which lack the adverbial particle, are not easy to understand and use. It is thought that the learners feel safer in using the single word verbs instead of the phrasal verb since they are probably not sure how the adverbial particles change the meanings of the verbs and, therefore, prefer to stay on the safe side and use a verb the meaning of which is evident to them.
One of the figurative phrasal verbs worth mentioning at this stage is the phrasal verb fit in . The single word equivalent of this phrasal verb is match which was also investigated to see how the learners used each of them. 135
Table 29. Fit in vs. match . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Fit in 38 0 Match 38 (10) 28 (3)
In table 29, it is observable that the phrasal verb fit in , which was used 38 times by the native speakers of English, was not used at all by Iranian learners. This is thought to be the result of the figurative nature of this phrasal verb and the difficulty it poses for the learners of English when learning or using this kind of verb, so they try to avoid it. Instead, less occurrences of its equivalent simple verb were observed among the learners as compared to the native speakers. Despite having used the single word verb less frequently than the native speakers, the numbers were not very different concerning the verb match .
Table 30 illustrates figures regarding another phrasal verb get out used in both LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus. It also contains figures relating to its single word equivalent exit and one other phrasal verb go out believed to have similar meaning to get out .
Table 30. Get out vs. exit and go out . Verbs LOC ESS Iranian learners n/million words (raw) n/million words (raw) Get out 38 19 exit 8 (2) 0 Go out 41 56
Even though previous tables showed that native speakers used more phrasal verbs than the learners, the figures showed an underuse of the phrasal verb get out by the learners. It was estimated that the learners would use the single word equivalent more frequently than the native speakers of English but the results proved otherwise. In fact, the learners had not used the simple verb at all and the native speakers had used a relatively small number of this simple verb. As this was not natural and the 136
learners must have tried to use an alternative for the phrasal verb get out , the list of the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus was searched and the phrasal verb go out was found, which is thought to have the same meaning as get out . Iranian learners proved to have overused the phrasal verb go out compared to the native speakers. By looking at the figures in table 30, it can be inferred that Iranian learners underused get out due to the polysemy of the verb get and the fact that this verb was more difficult for them to understand and render in comparison with its equivalent go , which was the verb used in go out . This means that the learners preferred to use the phrasal verb which was easier for them to understand, so the overuse of the phrasal verb go out is the strategy the learners use in order to compensate for the underuse of the other phrasal verb get out , which seemed polysemous to them. Although the native speakers used the verb exit very few times, the figure did not prove to be significant, so we can conclude that the figures show similar use of the simple verb exit in the essays written by the native speakers and by Iranian learners.
6.3 Overall findings
The quantitative analyses of the data lead to some interesting results. The present chapter focused on the 25 most frequent phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS. The same phrasal verbs were retrieved in the Iranian learner corpus in order to compare the findings and to draw conclusions based on these findings.
In many cases the results showed that Iranian learners preferred to use the single word equivalent of the phrasal verbs more frequently than the corresponding phrasal verbs, contrary to the native speakers of English in many cases. Despite using more simple verbs, the learners also showed a tendency toward using many phrasal verbs as well. This could be due to the increasing number of multi word verbs in Persian and the fact that most Persian verbs are comprised of more than one word resulting in an increased tendency of the learners toward using more phrasal verbs (see chapter 4). But the phrasal verbs that Iranian learners used were mostly the ones with literal meanings. The fact that Iranian learners had in many cases overused or more frequently used the phrasal verbs which had literal meanings than the ones which 137
carried more figurative meanings is thought to be due to the semantic complexity of the figuratively used phrasal verbs. This is a natural phenomenon since phrasal verbs with figurative meanings are difficult for the learners to learn and comprehend, and to guess their meanings from their components, which in the end makes it difficult for the learners to employ them in their essays. On the other hand, in many cases the learners showed an increase in the use of the single word equivalents of the phrasal verbs with figurative meanings. Overall, the results showed that Iranian learners had used phrasal verbs which were used more in conversation according to Biber et al. (1999: 410) and the native speakers proved to have used more phrasal verbs which were used in fiction, news and academic prose based on Biber et al. (1999: 410). These facts, based on the findings in Biber et al. (1999: 410), prove that the language produced by the learners tend to be more informal and the essays written by native speakers of English tend to be more formal in case of phrasal verb use. But when the phrasal verbs found in the corpora were checked against their simple verb equivalents in English, it was realised that Iranian learners, despite having used more informal and literal phrasal verbs in some cases, used more English simple verbs which were signifiers of more formal styles of writing in many cases. This seems to have happened due to the learners’ restricted access to natural everyday English and easier, still not very easy, access to authentic formal language in which case is academic and formal English (books, scientific papers, news and etc.), which contains less phrasal verbs since phrasal verbs are a general feature of spoken English rather than written English. It was also observed that many of the phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners were of a more formal nature, which also proves the fact that Iranians have been more exposed to formal English than its informal style. The findings show that learners avoided using many phrasal verbs which had figurative nature due to their semantic complexity and also because they appeared not to have an equivalent in the mother tongue of the learners. Lack of mother tongue equivalent and semantic complexity of certain phrasal verbs, which leads to the avoidance of those phrasal verbs by the learners, encourages the learners to use the single word equivalents of those phrasal verbs and phrasal verbs with similar meanings that have literal meanings, in order to make up for their lack of knowledge. The learners have difficulty learning figurative phrasal verbs due to their colloquial 138
meanings and lack of mother tongue alternate. Literal phrasal verbs are easier for the learners to learn and use due to their straight forward meanings which make it easier for the learners to translate them into their mother tongue and understand them. The results also showed instances of hypercorrection. Such occurrences are rare instances which do not always result in a positive transfer.
The phenomena which appeared in this chapter were identified for the quantitative study. After this initial, mostly quantitative analysis, the study will now move on to the in depth error and analytical studies of the phenomena which seem to represent recurrent difficulties of Iranian learner English.
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7. Phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners: an analytic study of errors 7.1. Introduction
Chapter 6, quantitative analysis of the phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners and the native speakers of English, was carried out in order to come up with figures which would point to statistically significant differences between the learners and the native speakers. Chapter 6 focused on the 25 most frequent phrasal verbs used by the native speakers of English and then compared the results to the same phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners. The results from both groups were compared to Biber et al. (1999: 410) and some conclusions were drawn based on the figures. Some aspects of the results were also qualitatively analysed in chapter 6, since based on Mair (1991: 67) both analyses (quantitative and qualitative) need to be combined in corpus linguistic research in order to draw clear conclusions based on the analyses.
The present chapter will be an in depth analysis of the significant findings of the study concerning mother tongue influence, creative language use, and writing style employed by Iranian learners regarding the phrasal verbs. The data will be analysed in order to see how the learners dealt with the idiomatic nature of some phrasal verbs, and whether the phrasal verbs were used correctly 43 . The data will also be investigated in order to find out whether there are any cases of creative language use influenced by factors such as mother tongue interference or hypercorrection. Although some stylistic features of the essays produced by the learners were already discussed in chapter 6, the phrasal verbs will be studied in depth in order to find out what style of writing Iranian learners adopted in their essays based on the findings mentioned in Biber et al. (1999: 410).
43 In the present study, the term correctness refers to what extent the phrasal verbs extracted from learner language are attested either in phrasal verb dictionaries or native speaker corpora. Correct use of phrasal verbs will not be confirmed merely by phrasal verb dictionaries and LOCNESS, as a native speaker corpus. Since English is a globally dispersed and rapidly evolving language, LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries are not believed to cover all the phrasal verbs of the English lexicon, therefore, a much larger and up to date reference tool is required for this purpose, in order to have reliable data for the analyses. In this regard, Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) was selected as an additional reference tool. This is believed to give the claims made by the present author the credibility they require regarding correctness and/or acceptability by native speakers of English. 140
Phrasal verbs pose an area of difficulty for the learners since they are polysemous and need to be approached with respect to the context. Decisions as to whether certain phrasal verbs are correctly used or not are to be made by the person analysing them based on their intended meanings and the context they are used in. Using native speaker judgment as a reference for correct or incorrect use of the phrasal verbs by the learners is not a reliable measure since “there is not necessarily a one to one relation between what native speakers find acceptable or unacceptable (…) and what they themselves produce frequently” (Nesselhauf 2005: 53).
In this chapter LOCNESS, COCA and phrasal verb dictionaries (Cowie & Mackin 1993, Cambridge University Press 2006) will be used in order to check for the right context where certain phrasal verbs are used. If a certain phrasal verb produced by Iranian learners is not used by native speakers of English, this does not mean that it is not used correctly or that it does not exist in the lexicon of the English language. Probably the reference tools used in the present study do not cover that particular phrasal verb. In fact, it may have been used by native speakers elsewhere. This is why, in addition to LOCNESS, another large source of reference, COCA, will also be used at some points, as a point of reference. The idea is to try to find similar cases in native speaker writings by referring to as many tools as possible.
It is also quite difficult to distinguish between mother tongue influence and incorrect combination of phrasal verbs. But this problem would not be an issue in this study since the researcher of the present study is a native speaker of Persian. This makes it easier for the researcher to identify occurrences of mother tongue influence and to distinguish them from inappropriate phrasal verb collocations used by the learners.
It should also be borne in mind that instances of mother tongue influence should be distinguished from the creative use of phrasal verbs. The phrasal verb count up , used by German learners of English, is an example of this problem taken from Waibel (2007: 120). Count up is an example of native language transfer into English (German aufzählen (count = zählen, up = auf)) . The verb aufzählen is translated as list or enumerate. Count up does not exist in phrasal verb dictionaries but after the 141
British National Corpus (BNC) was checked by Waibel some examples were found which were used having the same meaning as list . Now the question is whether this was an instance of mother tongue transfer of the German particle verb into an English phrasal verb or does it represent familiarity of the learners with common phrasal verbs such as eat up and cover up , which are completive phrasal verbs, showing the creativity of the learners in using the English phrasal verbs. Studies of this type have proved that in many instances it is not possible to identify a single clear cause for a learner error.
The quantification of the errors made by the learners does not aim at concluding how well the learners perform, since figures do not provide us with necessary information required for recognising the errors made by the learners. The actual goal of finding the errors of the learners is to point out the weaknesses of the learners so that these errors are dealt with later. This study shall not deal with syntactic problems of the learners regarding the phrasal verbs due to the very few occurrences of such errors and that the focus of the study is merely on the phrasal verbs.
The present chapter is going to deal with the phrasal verbs extracted from learner writings on four different levels. On one level, the focus is going to be on the effects of the native language of the learners on their L2 (English) in order to see to what extent the mother tongue of the learners influences the use of the English phrasal verbs. On a different level, the analysis aims at dealing with examples of creativity, where learners are thought to produce newly made phrasal verbs combining verbs and particles which are not acceptable as phrasal verbs in English but have the syntactic features and the semantic potential of a phrasal verb in English. The last level of focus will be on the style employed by the learners in essay writing, based on the phrasal verbs used in the essays. This section is going to find out which type of the four categories (conversation, fiction, news, and academic prose) mentioned in Biber et al. (1999: 410) the phrasal verbs used by the learners fall into. The results in this regard will help us understand whether the essays produced by the learners have a formal or an informal nature based on the types of phrasal verbs used. As mentioned earlier, it is not possible to come up with a single clear cause for every 142
learner error. In many cases, there may be different causes of errors. This section will try to explain all the possible causes.
7.2. Mother tongue influence
During the quantitative analysis of the data, several instances of mother tongue influence were observed. There are numerous examples of the effect of the mother tongue on the second language. Mother tongue influence can be either negative or positive. The terms 'interference' and 'transfer' (Waibel 2007: 122), meaning negative and positive influence respectively, will be used in this study.
Since the light verb constructions (LVCs) in Persian and Persian prepositional verbs are the closest Persian structures to the English phrasal verbs, it is believed that Persian LVCs and prepositional verbs would be the constructions of the native language of the learners which influence the use of English phrasal verbs. Native language interference can appear in the verbal or the particle element of phrasal verbs, or the whole phrasal verb structure.
The first example to be discussed in this study is the verb face with , which was used 140 times in total by the Iranian learners. This is a transitive verb the passive form of which was idiomatically used by the native speakers of English. This verb was used with the meaning "encounter". One of the forms of this verb used correctly by the learners is mentioned in (1):
(1) This is one of the major obsticles people are faced with in the matter of not having time or interest in doing mental activities. (IR170).txt
In this example, the verb face with means "encounter". This is an instance of the correct use of this verb. As can be seen in (1), the correct form of this verb is not considered a phrasal verb. Although the other cases of this phrasal verb carry the same meaning to some extent, they have been very much influenced by the native language of the learners. Below are some examples of this phenomenon: 143
(2) When students face with problem, they cannot solve their problem because they learn everything theoretical. (IR122)
(3) If they face with a problem of any kind, they will react using force and we have witnessed many times that when their beloved team has lost a competition, they will react fiercely against spactators of opposit team. (IR183)
(4) Facing with Ugly reality is something Mallon always scared out of it. (IR47)
As can be seen in (2), (3) and (4), native language interference plays a big role in changing the structure of the verb. Face with is wrongly used by the learners in these examples. The correct form of the verb in these cases is the verb face rather than face with , the use of which is influenced by the mother tongue. In Persian, the verb movajeh ʃodᴂn "to face" (lit., face become) is used with the preposition ba meaning "with" in all contexts. The simple verb ʃodᴂn in Persian is used in compounding to create abstract meanings but is also used in creating passive Persian verb constructions. In example (1), the learner probably benefited from the similar verb structure in Persian in order to use the structure face with which was correctly used in this example. In examples (2), (3) and (4) this Persian verb structure interferes with the verb face in English, which is used without any particles as a simple verb meaning "encounter" and the phrasal verb face with is used in the wrong way.
The next case is the phrasal verb come back . Examples of this phrasal verb in learner writings are given below:
(5) It was about 5years ago when my uncle came back from Europe. (IR255)
(6) How they can find that a person can come back to the society. (IR117) 144
The phrasal verb come back was used 75 times in essays written by Iranian learners. This phrasal verb was used correctly in all cases and is thought to be the result of native language transfer from Persian into English. The verb b ᴂrg ᴂʃtᴂn "to return" or "to come back" (lit., back come) is a Persian prepositional verb which is formed using the preposition b ᴂr "back" and the light verb g ᴂʃtᴂn "come". This Persian prepositional verb is believed to facilitate the correct use of the phrasal verb come back in English. As can be seen in (5) and (6), this phrasal verb is used with the meaning "return" in learner writings, which is similar to native speaker usage.
Another example of learner errors is as follows:
(7) Such imaginations will certainly influence your performance when you really come across with the real situation. (IR174)
The phrasal verb come across in English is a transitive verb which occurs without the preposition with in English. In (7) the phrasal verb itself is not affected by the mother tongue of the learner. It is the additional preposition which is added erroneously to this phrasal verb. This preposition could be the direct result of L1 interference, which produces an unusual phrasal prepositional verb, which is unacceptable to the native speakers. In Persian, the verb ruberu ʃodᴂn "to come across/to face/to encounter" (lit., face become) is followed by the preposition ba "with" forming a prepositional verb in Persian. When Iranian learners use the phrasal verb come across , they mostly insert the preposition with after this phrasal verb due to the interference of the L1 which results in unusual language produced by the learners.
A rather similar example is presented below:
(8) Because of it, when they go to university, they don't have special knowledge of their field and when they encounter with the styles of teachers, they become happy and they don't have any objection against them. (IR207)
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The verb encounter with , mentioned in (8), has the same meaning as examples (1) and (7). When LOCNESS was checked, the verb encounter occurred alone as a verb in all cases. But, as can be seen in examples (1) and (7), the Persian verb ruberu ʃodᴂn "to come across/to face/to encounter" (lit., face become) combines with the particle with in order to create a Persian prepositional verb. The L1 of the learners in these cases influences the use of English verbs such as face , encounter and come across , which carry similar meanings, and urges Iranian learners to add the particle with to these verbs resulting in correct or incorrect formation of these English verbs.
The phrasal verb return back used by Iranian learners in (9) may be considered as a case of hypercorrection observed in the Iranian learner corpus. Although the nature of this phrasal verb was discussed to some extent in the quantitative analysis of the present study, an in depth study of this phrasal verb is done in this section, focusing on its intended meaning and the reason for its structure.
(9) Maybe nature is something from our inside. We go to it in order to return back to our originality. (IR166)
As was already mentioned in the quantitative analysis of the present study, this newly made phrasal verb is in some cases the direct influence of the mother tongue, which is Persian in this study. In the Persian verb be 'ᴂqᴂb bᴂrgᴂʃtᴂn "to return back" (lit., to back back go), which is the combination of the Persian LVC bᴂrgᴂʃtᴂn and the adverbial 'ᴂqᴂb, the word 'ᴂqᴂb means "back" and bᴂr also means "back", so the similarity in the lexical meanings that exists between the phrasal verb return back and its Persian translation clearly explains the reason for this particular phrasal verb to be used by the Iranian learners. Apart from this description, which seems to be quite probable, there may be another reason for this unusual structure. The term unusual is used because the verbal element return which carries the meaning "go back" and carries the notion "back" is combined with the particle back to create this new phrasal verb in which the notion "back" is used two times, which is not necessary. The reason for this semantic redundancy could be that the learner is not entirely familiar with the notion of the verb return but knows that it 146
must be used in this context. The learner uses the word back in this combination, in order to try to be on the safe side with the meaning he/she intends to convey. According to these estimates, it is not unlikely that this phrasal verb would be a case of hypercorrection.
Since no instances of the phrasal verb return back were found in phrasal verb dictionaries and LOCNESS, The researcher had to go through COCA to see if any similar structures would be found. As a matter of fact, some similar cases were observed (appendix 9g). After studying this structure in native speaker language and learner language, it was realised that most of the forms of return back found in COCA are highly special forms and the same forms used by the learners are much simpler. In many cases of native speaker language, this structure was not a phrasal verb at all since the word back was either used to form a time adverbial or a place adverbial. Two cases of this structure, which were found in COCA, are presented in (10) and (11).
(10) … live up there for one or two weeks on and work, and then they return back home to their communities. (COCA:2006:SPOK NPR_ATC)
(11) … no evidence of any distress call being made, no evidence of an effort to return back to the airport . ( COCA:1996:SPOK CNN_News)
In (10) the structure back home forms an adverbial phrase. In (11), however, there are two possible constructions. One is that the structure back to the airport could form another place adverbial. Another possible construction is that the word back is combined with the verb return to form a phrasal verb. So in some examples it is not very difficult to decide which is the correct form but in some other examples it is to some extent difficult to decide which construction is the right one. While the learner in (9) might have used the correct form of this structure, the possibility of slight influence of the learner’s L1 must not be fully overlooked.
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One interesting case observed in leaner language is the phrasal verb make off . An example of this case is given in (12).
(12) If anything here is to be said about the in justification of money it should be directed towards those institutions who continue to engage themselves in the unfair practice making money off of money and continuing to get richer and richer by the minute. (IR252)
The phrasal verb make off has a meaning totally different from what was used in (12). According to Cowie and Mackin (1993: 230), make off means "to leave in a hurry". When looking at the LOCNESS, it was observed that there were 15 instances of the same structure used by the native speakers of English 44 with a different meaning. Native speakers used this phrasal verb with the same meaning as the Iranian learner did in (12); therefore, the structure used by the learner is believed to be acceptable in this context. The particle off is used with the meaning "from" by the native speakers of English. This particle in (12) is thought to carry this meaning based on its context. The occurrence of the preposition of may have been an instance of mother tongue transfer since in Persian the compound verb pul dᴂravᴂrdᴂn (lit., money out take) meaning “make money” always occurs with the preposition ᴂz “of” . The examples (13) and (14) are two cases of the phrasal verb make off , used by the native speakers of English observed in LOCNESS:
(13) It angers and discourages me to think that young and old women are being used as ploys for the beauty industry to make money off of our insecurities. (ICLE US SCU 0004.2)
(14) I, for one, do not want to give up personal liberty so the media can make money off their "right to know." (ICLE US SCU 0012.4)
44 The phrasal verb make off was not listed in the phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS by Waibel (2007) but it is included in the final list of the phrasal verbs found in Iranian learner corpus and LOCNESS in the present study (appendix 8). 148
In the three examples (12), (13) and (14), off means "from", which is different from how the Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs by Cowie and Mackin (1993: 230) defines it. The particle off presumably signifies informal language in the examples (12), (13) and (14).
One of the very interesting phrasal verbs used by the learners is the verb grow up . This phrasal verb was used 84 times by the learners and is of great interest due to its polysemous nature. It was observed that this phrasal verb was erroneously used as a transitive verb by the learners:
(15) I think we should start from the first step and we should can grew up our children in the best way and parnt's should be familiar with their child aim and study them. (IR260)
Example (15) is the transitive usage of grow up. Here the learner has wrongly used this phrasal verb in the place of the verb bring up or raise which fit this context best. The reason for such an error is the fact that the verb bring up has different meanings and the verb grow is one of its equivalents. In this case, the verb grow was generalised from other uses of this verb, e.g. grow tomatoes , to refer to the raising of children. The verb grow up in (15) is an over generalisation on the basis of intransitive grow up , which is here extended to a transitive context . When used transitively, it is used without the particle up, carrying the meaning "raise" or "bring up" when talking about a person maturing. When used intransitively, there is a need for the verb grow to be used with the adverbial particle up, which combine to form the phrasal verb grow up meaning "to mature" in English.
Another issue influencing the wrong use of this phrasal verb by the leaner is the native language influence. The verbs bozorg ʃodᴂn "to grow up" (lit., big become) and bozorg kᴂrdan "to raise" (lit., big make) are transitive and intransitive respectively. The learner knows that the equivalent English verb for these two verbs is formed using the verb grow , but because of the lack of required syntactic 149
knowledge, fails to distinguish between the transitive and intransitive forms of this verb in English.
There were also cases where this phrasal verb was correctly used:
(16) Whole generations are growing up addicted to the television. (IR263)
Example (16) shows an instance of the phrasal verb grow up being used correctly as an intransitive verb.
The effect of L1 on the L2 production of learners is believed to be a universal feature of learner language. Depending on the nature of the learners’ mother tongue, their L2 is affected in different ways.
7.3. Creative language use
The English phrasal verbs have certain features. It is predicted that learners of English create new phrasal verbs based on those features. This is what causes creativity in the production of the phrasal verbs. Thus, also in this section, those newly made phrasal verbs are considered that are formed based on the features of a phrasal verb and which do not exist in dictionaries or native speaker language. In some cases there may be more than one cause to learner errors. Phrasal verbs formed as a result of creativity may also be formed as a result of mother tongue influence. This comes from the fact that there may be more than one cause to learner errors.
The verb reach back in (17) could be a case of creativity in language use.
(17) The origins of the internet reach back to the 1960s. (IR212)
The verb reach in combination with the particle back is thought to be a newly created phrasal verb, which seems to have the features of a phrasal verb. This verb is used to refer to an earlier point in time or space based on Cowie and Mackin (1993: 150
154). The verb reach includes the meaning of the verb go but is not synonymous with it. The verb reach is normally used to talk about physical access to something, but since this verb is also used to talk about going to a place meaning that you would have physical access to the place, then the learner would think that go and reach have the same meaning. This verb is probably used in the wrong way by the learner when referring to a time in the past. The verb go tends to talk about the movement from one place or time to another, but does not imply physical access to the place or time.
After checking LOCNESS, no similar instances of the structure reach back were found. But when searching COCA, some similar cases were spotted (appendix 9b). In all the cases, the word back forms either a time adverbial or a place adverbial. None of the cases proved to be a phrasal verb. The structure reach back in (17) is similar to the cases found in COCA. This means that, what was thought to be a phrasal verb was in fact the verb “reach” plus the time adverbial “back to the 1960s” and not a phrasal verb.
Example (18) includes another structure that seems like an English phrasal verb.
(18) Instead of studying they are buzzing around teachers to persuade them to score some grades. (IR152)
The structure buzz around is created by the learner, presumably to refer to the annoying act of walking and talking around the teachers, which resembles the way flies and bugs fly around a person annoyingly making a buzzing sound. This structure is normally not used to refer to people. The particle around is used to refer to the periphery of (sb) or (sth). This is the first meaning that is deduced by this particle. Aimlessness, movement, and hastiness are other notions which this particle carries. This structure is used by the Iranian learner to talk about students who talk in an annoying way in order to receive good marks in the exam.
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Since no similar cases were found in LOCNESS, the researcher had to go through COCA, in order to find similar instances of this structure used by native speakers. Most of the cases found in COCA (see appendix 9c) show that this structure is used to refer to the annoying noise made by flies. Surprisingly, there were similar instances to the way the learner used this structure in (18), where this structure referred to people and not to flies.
Regardless of it being used by native speakers, there is still the question as to whether this structure is a phrasal verb or not. After studying all the cases, it was concluded that this structure is actually the combination of the verb “buzz” and the place adverbial “around teachers” meaning that this structure is not a phrasal verb in English.
An unusual case of phrasal verbs is the verb figure up in (19).
(19) Furthermore, he figured himself up on a decisive gambling with his future. (IR264)
This phrasal verb is probably used by an Iranian learner instead of another similar phrasal verb figure out , which includes the same verbal element but a different particle. Figure out means “to solve” or “find the answer to sth” or even “to find”. The intended meaning of the learner in this respect is "to find". If the verb figure out is replaced by the verb find , the sentence would sound meaningful. This is because these two verbs have the same meanings but have different usages. The verb figure out is used to talk about “finding (sth)” or “finding the answer to something”, but the verb find alone may refer to “seeing oneself in a certain position or situation” as well as “finding (sth)”. The reason for using a different particle, up instead of out , is not very clear but is thought to be due to the neighbouring on which has the notion of being in a high position. The other possibility for using this construction is that the learner uses the verb figure in an informal sense which means "find" in such contexts. This verb was observed to have been used by native speakers of English when LOCNESS was checked. If the verb figure is correctly used by the learner as a 152
simple verb, which is informally used by the native speakers, then the particle up is a preposition which is probably intended to combine with on in order to create the preposition upon . Up could also be a preposition which is used in addition to the preposition on accidentally by the learner being influenced by the notion of on talking about being in a high position physically. This happens because there is no need to use up due to the nature of the verb figure in this case, which could be a single word verb.
Another unusual case is (20).
(20) They that may persuade men for example about having power may be meaningless for women or the need to be indulged by with lovely words may seem silly for men. (IR63)
The structure indulge by is believed to be one of the newly made phrasal verbs which is erroneously formed by the learners. The verb indulge is not mistakenly used in this context. The only problem resulting in a wrong construction is the use of particles by and with , which have both been used in a context where only by would suffice. This is actually a passive construction where a ‘to be’ verb is combined with a past participle form of a verb. A passive is usually followed by the preposition by in order to mention the agent of the sentence which is a usual structure in passive voice. The passive voice uses the preposition by in order to introduce the agent, and not the preposition with . But the learner in this case has probably used both for this purpose due to their semantic similarity. The learner is supposedly not familiar with the correct usages and thus forms a wrong phrasal verb by actually forming a prepositional verb.
Example (21), which may also be a case of creativity with respect to the English phrasal verbs, includes the phrasal verb interact together .
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(21) For instance bear in mind a situation in which all the people have to work hours by hours without see each other and interact together . (IR91)
This phrasal verb is probably used in the place of interact with , which is the correct form and must be used instead of the newly made phrasal verb. In this example, the verb interact is apparently used to point out that there exists action and reaction between two parties, so, this phrasal verb must be combined with the particle with . The learner uses the particle together in this context due to the partial familiarity with the phrasal verb interact with , and because the learner wants to stress that the action and reaction is taking place between two parties, yet he/she is not fully aware of the fact that the verbal element of this phrasal verb carries this meaning within it as well.
Lug around in (22) is thought to be another instance of creativity regarding the phrasal verbs.
(22) So when I go to buy my horse, instead of lugging around and measuring out each gild coin for purity and authenticity, I have in my hand a claim check from a reputable bank in the amount of 100 yen, dollars, pesos whatever. (IR252)
This structure shows features of English phrasal verbs. It does not appear in LOCNESS. It also does not exist in the phrasal verb dictionaries but its intended meaning can be guessed from the context it is used in. The verb lug meaning "to pull (with force)" or “to carry” and the particle around which carries the notion "in the periphery of sth" combine together and create this new phrasal verb which is irrelevant to context. Based on the way it is used, this verb may carry a figurative meaning in this context. Although this creative phrasal verb does not appear in LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries, it does not mean that it is not used by native speakers at all. This phrasal verb could be informally used by native speakers but the researcher of this study found no evidence of its occurrence. In order to 154
confirm the findings, the researcher scanned COCA for cases of this verb. The findings (appendix 9d) were surprising, since many cases of the phrasal verb lug around were found. But all the cases conveyed the meaning “to carry around”, which is the literal form of this verb and different from the meaning given to it by the learner in (22). This shows that the verb lug around in (22) is used in the wrong context and must be replaced by another verb.
The verb scare out , given in (23), may be another instance of wrong use or even creative use of phrasal verbs.
(23) Facing with Ugly reality is something Mallon always scared out of it. (IR47)
The phrasal verb scare out is probably used instead of the phrasal verb scare away, since cases of the phrasal verb scare out were not observed in LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries. The verb scare out has a correct verbal element in this context but bears the wrong particle. The reason for the learner using the particle out could be that the learner is to some extent familiar with the notion of the phrasal verb scare away but does not know its correct form. The learner knows the meaning of the verbal element scare and is aware of the notion that if (sb) is scared he/she would move away due to the fear. He/she then tries to fill in the gap, where there is a need for an adverbial particle, with a particle carrying the similar notion as away , in this case out . As a result, the phrasal verb scare out is formed, which means that the learner is familiar with the notion behind this phrasal verb but is not quite familiar with the correct form of this phrasal verb.
Since LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries were not the only reference tools used in the study, the researcher checked COCA as well, for any instances of scare out . Surprisingly, a number of similar cases were found in COCA (appendix 9i). The existence of such cases in native speaker language would probably mean that the learner has not made a mistake in (23) by using this phrasal verb in such a way. The learner might have accidentally used this verb correctly, since it has a literal meaning 155
to a certain degree, or might have tried to use a native speaker language as model in this case.
The verb relieve off , indicated in (24), may also be the creative formation of a phrasal verb.
(24) In other words, man needs love to comfort his mind, to relieve his stresses off , to even step out of the exhausting machinery life opposed on him by the force of living in a society into a lighter place, into a dream of somewhat no technology for a moment. (IR162)
This phrasal verb, which does not exist in LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries, was observed in the Iranian learner writings. At first, it was believed that the particle off , was combined wrongly with the verbal element relieve, and was used in the place of another verb structure relieve of 45 , which exists in the lexicon of English and should have probably been used in this context. Since relieve off , rather than relieve of , was the meaningful match for the sentence, COCA was also checked to see if any cases of the verb relieve off occured in native speaker language at all. As a result, one instance of this structure was observed that carried the same meaning (appendix 9h). This single example is enough to judge that this phrasal verb does, in fact, exist in the lexicon of the English language and, contrary to the presumptions, is actually acceptable by the native speakers of English. The particle off in this case is used to express the notion of "getting rid of something" which the learner believes nicely fits this context. The learner might have come across similar cases in native speaker language, which could explain his/her choice of this rarely used phrasal verb. Other similar examples are wear off and ease off the particles of which convey the same notions. The articles of verbs of these types have aspectual functions indicating completion (e.g. eat up, use up ) or reduction of intensity (e.g. wear off, ease off, …) in some cases. Such structures are intermediate in status between literal uses such as
45 Relieve of , which is considered a phrasal verb by Cowie and Mackin (1993: 293), is not considered a phrasal verb in this study due to the particle of which has a prepositional nature based on the definition of phrasal verbs used in this study for the present analysis. 156
walk in / out / up / down and figurative / non compositional ones such as run out of (supplies), fall out "quarrel" or give up "surrender".
So far, In addition to cases of mother tongue influence, instances of wrongly used or creative phrasal verbs were also mentioned which were combinations consisting of either a wrong particle or a wrong verbal element resulting from partial familiarity of the learners with the components of a phrasal verb or the lack of knowledge regarding a certain phrasal verb. At this point, some other examples of phrasal verbs will be presented that are thought to be cases of hypercorrection which are also categorised as creative use of the phrasal verbs.
The first cases which were probably examples of hypercorrection were observed in (25) and (26) given below:
(25) Man's desire to rise ahead of others is too strong, and money is not the only thing that man competes over. (IR180)
(26) And because all men are not equal in ability and other characteristics, no matter what the playing field is, Some will rise ahead and others will fall behind, and those who are behind will feel intense jealously, even if the competition is about something other than money. (IR180)
The phrasal verb rise ahead , observed in these examples, is not actually a phrasal verb but is created in accordance with the features of phrasal verbs. This structure was neither observed in phrasal verb dictionaries nor in LOCNESS. The learner tries to stress that sth/sb/group of people is/are (a) pioneer(s) in sth and stand(s) out among a group. The verb rise is usually used with the particle up or above , in order to talk about sb/sth moving upward. These examples mentioned in (25) and (26) are examples of the phrasal verb rise ahead . In these cases, the verb rise is supposed to be used alone. The meaning of the verb in this case is close to the learner's intended meaning "to stand out among a group". Example (25) and (26) show instances that are presumably examples of hypercorrection, since the learners in these cases 157
apparently use self correction by trying to use more correct language without being fully aware of the correct form. The particle ahead is used carrying the same meaning as to rise "move upward/lead" in order to stress on sth/sb leading, but actually there is only a need for the verb rise to be used in this position.
Gain back may be regarded as another example of creativity given below in (27):
(27) What feminism asks women to do is to be like men to gain their rights back . (IR63)
In (27) the phrasal verb gain back is presented which was used by one of the Iranian learners. This phrasal verb may be another example of creative use of phrasal verbs. Gain is the verbal element of this phrasal verb which includes the notion "take" in this context. Although a combination of this verb with the particle back seems possible in such a context, no instances of this phrasal verb were observed in LOCNESS and none of the entries in the phrasal verb dictionaries included this phrasal verb. Although this case seems to be another example of creative language use, many similar instances were observed in COCA (see appendix 9e). Most of the instances were used to talk about gaining weight again. Other cases were used to talk about receiving money or even land again. Since this phrasal verb was observed in native speaker language and because our definition of correctness includes such cases, this phrasal verb is proved to be correctly used by the learner in (27).
Another case, which is presumably an instance of hypercorrection, is the construction get join together in (28), which is a rather normal and predictable error made by the learners.
(28) This system to come into existence for purpose variate accouts and in the end on global scale to get join together . (IR212)
This structure has the features of a phrasal verb but it is formed using two verbal elements and one adverbial particle. Phrasal verbs in English are composed of one 158
verbal element only. The interesting fact is that both of these verbal elements combine with the adverbial particle together to make two phrasal verbs carrying the same meaning. The phrasal verbs get together and join together are these combinations. The learner appears to have knowledge of the different elements of the structure get join together but apparently is not fully aware of the combinations made with these elements that form phrasal verbs, therefore, puts an effort in using both verbal elements at the same time. This is probably because the learner wants to make sure that the structure he/she uses is correct so he/she uses both verbal elements to be on the safe side. One other possibility is that the learner is not entirely familiar with the meaning of the verb get due to its polysemy and knows that this verb combines with the particle together to make a phrasal verb. Lack of sufficient familiarity with the meaning of the verb get may have caused the learner to use it together with the verb join , forming an instance of hypercorrection, in creating the wrong phrasal verb get join together .
A more likely assumption could be that the learner is trying to construct an English ‘get passive’ but unable to hit the target correctly. Instead of the correct form get joined together he produces get join together .
The next example given in (29) is probably another instance of creativity resulting from hypercorrection.
(29) However, on closer inspection, we see clearly that, not only couldn't we shake off our mysterious supernatural dimensions, but the more we progress forward , the more our life is likely to get involved in ethereal matters. (IR148)
Progress forward is a phrasal verb which was formed by Iranian learners. The meaning of this phrasal verb can be understood from its components. In this context the verb progress , the verbal element of this phrasal verb, means "moving forward". The learner combines the verb progress with the particle forward in order to stress on the notion of "moving forward". It can be inferred that the learner in this case 159
does not fully understand the meaning of the word progress but knows to some extent that this verb includes the notion "forward" as well. The learner forms this semantically redundant phrasal verb as an example of hypercorrection, in order to try to be on the safe side with the meaning he/she tries to convey. No similar instances were observed in LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries, but only one similar case was spotted in COCA (appendix 9f). The case found in COCA is very much similar to the way the learner in (29) used this phrasal verb, which could mean that the learner may have not made any error using this phrasal verb and may have just tried to copy native speaker language, that he/she could have come across earlier.
Render out in (30) is believed to be a further example of hypercorrection.
(30) At first of all, its better to render a classified description out of both the theoretical and practical one. (IR182)
The phrasal verb render out is a wrong combination, which is apparently an example of creativity in this study. Although the verbal element render carries the meaning "yield" which represents the notion "giving out" in this context, the learner also uses the particle out . In fact, as was also observed in the previous examples of hypercorrection, the learner uses a particle the notion of which is already included in the verbal element of the phrasal verb. This could happen because the learner, attempting to stay on the safe side with the meaning he/she tries to convey, employs this type of self correction.
Thus far, cases of creativity with respect to the English phrasal verbs were analysed, which were produced by Iranian learners of English. There were cases of creativity, where wrong verbal elements or particles were used in order to create phrasal verbs. Some examples also included instances of hypercorrection. The learners were thought to have put an effort into staying on the safe side by supposedly trying to correct the verb they had used or in order to convey meanings better by trying to add notions to the verbs which already existed within those verbs. Some examples showed new phrasal verbs formed by learners and some were cases where a phrasal 160
verb was wrongly used in a context where it did not belong. There were also many cases of mother tongue influence, including both negative and positive effects of the learners’ native language.
In two other examples, learners used some phrasal verbs which were formed according to the features of phrasal verbs but did not exist in LOCNESS or phrasal verbs dictionaries. These newly made phrasal verbs had no specific meaning and were not related to the context they were used in. In fact despite their opaqueness, they were apparently used with no specific reason. The examples (31) and (32) display these cases of wrong phrasal verb uses.
(31) He lives life to achieve a peak of satisfaction for his desires and thirsts, some of which are now quenched through through his obsession for technology; but some can only be fed through his sensibility and dreams. (IR162)
(32) Nowadays imagining life with out technology and industry is something impossible. Every things revives around these two. Money and power are for countries that are dominent in these aspects. (IR171)
A case of wrong phrasal verb used in learner writings is the structure quench through given in (31). This verbal structure, which was created following the phrasal verb definition given in this study, does not match the context it is used in. The notion conveyed by the verb quench in this context is "satisfying needs" which is correctly used in this context. What is the source of confusion in understanding the meaning of the phrasal verb quench through is the particle through which is consecutively repeated two times. This makes the first one an adverbial particle and the second one a preposition. Looking closely at this structure proves that there is actually no need for the first instance of the particle through since the verb quench conveys the necessary meaning on its own in this context, so no additional notions are required. 161
This means that the particle through is either accidentally repeated here or the learner tends to convey some sort of meaning which is integrated with the verb quench , making it an adverbial particle. The former seems to be more probable than the latter, since the meaning of the verb quench in this context is already complete and seeks a preposition in order to formulate the prepositional phrase that follows. So the first instance of the particle through which has an adverbial nature should probably be deleted and the second instance which has a prepositional nature be kept in order to have a correct verb structure. The verb quench needs to be used alone and this eliminates the need for the existence of a phrasal verb in this position and this context.
The last case of creativity and/or wrong phrasal verb is the verb revive around . This structure is another one of those examples that have no relevance to the context. As was observed in a similar previously mentioned example (32), the correct verbal element of the phrasal verb was seemingly confused by the learner for another verb which had formal similarity with the correct verbal element. This example guided the researcher as to the possibility of a similar case. The newly made phrasal verb revive around was believed to be the result of a confusion of forms by the learner since this structure was in no way relevant to the context. When considering the context clues, a few assumptions were made. The search for relevant phrasal verbs having the similar form to the present incorrect structure, which would go with the context, resulted in a partially similar form, which perfectly fits this context. This was the phrasal verb revolve around , that carries the notion "having (sth) or (sb) as center of interest". The replacement of the verb revolve "to rotate" with the verb revive "resurrect" was a mistake the learner made due to their formal resemblance. The wrong selection of the verbal element of the phrasal verb revolve around does not mean that the learner is not familiar with this phrasal verb. It actually could mean that the learner, despite being familiar with the meaning of this phrasal verb and partially familiar with its form, mistakenly uses another verb as its verbal element which was relatively similar to its actual verbal element in terms of form, resulting in this case of phonetic confusion.
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The phenomenon of creativity in learner language also needs to be attended closely as was the case with mother tongue influence. Learner L2 production needs to be free of mother tongue influence, be natural sounding and contain the least creativity in order to gain the native speakers' acceptability. The intention of all language teaching curriculums is to make sure the L2 of the learners be accepted by the native speakers of English.
7.4. Iranian learner language
At some points in the quantitative analysis, brief explanations were given as to the type of style employed by the learners. In this section of the present chapter this will be viewed further.
The total number of English phrasal verb tokens in the Iranian learner corpus reached 3,287 46 . This figure in the native speaker corpus LOCNESS reached 5,279. Table 31 indicates that the Iranian learners used fewer phrasal verbs than the native speakers of English overall, which may have been the direct result of the fact that phrasal verbs were largely ignored in high school EFL training in Iran. Table 31 illustrates these figures.
Table 31. Total number of phrasal verb tokens per million words in LOCNESS and the Iranian learner corpus. Iranian learner corpus LOC ESS 3,287 5,279
The results from the Iranian corpus and LOCNESS were compared with the 31 phrasal verbs listed based on their semantic domains across different registers, which include all the phrasal verbs which occurred more than 40 times per million words in at least one register (Biber et al. 1999: 410). This comparison, based on the phrasal
46 All the figures given in this study are extrapolated to one million words so that the results of the study could be compared to the results from the native speaker corpus for which the same strategy was also used. 163
verbs used by Iranian learners and the native speakers, proved that the essays produced by the Iranian learners were of a more informal nature than the essays in LOCNESS, which were written by native speakers. The 31 phrasal verbs in Biber et al. (1999: 410) were checked in the Iranian learner corpus and the native speaker corpus LOCNESS. This comparison showed that the phrasal verbs that the Iranian learners used were mostly found in conversation and fiction, but the phrasal verbs used by native speakers were mostly found in news and academic prose. These results meant that, based on the phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners and the native speakers, the essays produced by Iranian learners were of a more informal nature while those essays written by native speakers of English were of a more formal nature. When the simple verb equivalents of the phrasal verbs were checked against the phrasal verbs, it was realised that Iranian learners used more simple verbs with more formal nature than the native speakers did. The results also proved that Iranian learners used more single word verbs than phrasal verbs in comparison with the native speakers in order to make up for their lack of knowledge in terms of the English phrasal verbs. This is also another point to be considered since phrasal verbs are generally known as signifiers of more informal language used in spoken everyday English, but simple verbs, especially those of Latin or French etymological origins, are signifiers of a more formal style of language use employed by the Iranian learners.
Another issue regarding the language produced by Iranian learners is the fact that Iranian learners have simplified vocabulary restricted to highly frequent and common expressions in English. As a result, they tend to avoid using phrasal verbs, especially those with idiomatic meanings, in their language.
7.5. Summary
The present chapter is comprised of the qualitative analysis of the phrasal verbs produced by Iranian learners and the native speakers of English. In order to fulfill the goals of the chapter, the influence of the learners' mother tongue was studied with respect to the phrasal verbs. Then cases of unnatural language produced by the 164
learners were studied. The next section dealt with learners' creative use of the phrasal verbs. And the last section focused on the writing style employed by the Iranian learners and the native speakers of English.
The native language of the learners proved to have effect on the L2 of the learners. There were some instances of mother tongue transfer observed in the present study but there were more cases of mother tongue interference observed, which is believed to be the result of different structure of the verbs in Persian and English.
One learner error which is thought to be an example of foreign soundingness regarding the English phrasal verb use is presented in (33).
(33) There are unreal matter in internt that to cause to deviate young minds and to make giddy that matter is true or false on the other hand ther mind to break out with matters isn't true. (IR196)
The phrasal verb break out is usually used to talk about a sudden start and expansion of fire, disease, rioting, violence or looting (Cowie & Mackin 1993: 35). In (33), the verb break out is used in a completely different sense to what the native speakers of English use. Break out in (33) probably means “to fill”, which deviates from the actual meaning of this phrasal verb. The learner in this context selected the wrong phrasal verb which proves the lack of knowledge of the learner regarding this phrasal verb.
The phrasal verb swallow down is another interesting example of foreign soundingness observed in the essays written by Iranian learners. This phrasal verb is presented in (34).
(34) Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle box". We rush home or swallow down our meals to be in time for this or that program. (IR263)
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Swallow down is a phrasal verb with literal meaning. This phrasal verb is to some extent correctly used in this context because it conveys the necessary meaning, although a suspicion remains that what the writer may have meant is “swallow up,” denoting the completion of the act of swallowing, with the meaning “consume the food completely. This is a pattern which we can also observe in related pairs such as “eat – eat up,” “drink – drink up,” etc.
Going through the native speaker corpus LOCNESS and phrasal verb dictionaries, no instances of this phrasal verb were found. This might be a sign that this phrasal verb does not exist in its present form in the lexicon of the English language but it conveys the necessary notions due to its literalness. The actual idiomatic phrasal verb which needs to be used in this context that exists in the lexicon of the English language is swallow up . The learners probably used swallow down instead of swallow up . This may be the case since the combination swallow up is not easily understood by the learners due to the notion that when something is swallowed it goes downward in the throat and not upward in the throat. The learner, having this notion in mind and lacking the necessary knowledge of the idiomatic phrasal verb swallow up , may use a simplified alternative phrasal verb, swallow down . The phrasal verb swallow down may be a case of unnatural language use, since the process of simplification may have been employed by the learner. On another level, since the phrasal verb swallow down is a verb with literal nature, there is no need for phrasal verb dictionaries to include such verbs with literal meanings.
Since LOCNESS did not include any instances of swallow down , COCA was checked in order to see if any instances of this phrasal verb could be found in native speaker language. The findings showed numerous cases of this phrasal verb in native speaker language (appendix 9a). This is another case where learner language is proved correct after checking COCA, which is a considerably larger native speaker corpus compared to LOCNESS.
Learner writings were also studied in order to find cases of creative language use with respect to the English phrasal verbs. In terms of creativity, some cases of 166
substitution were analysed. The learners used unusual substitutes for either the verbal element of the phrasal verbs or the adverbial particle which combines with the verbal element to create a phrasal verb. Instances of creativity were also studied and analysed in depth, where cases of hypercorrection were observed. And the last part of this section dealt with those wrong phrasal verbs which had no specific meaning and were in no way relevant to the context. The structure revive around , given in the examples, is a case of wrong phrasal verbs which was created based on the formal similarity that existed between its verbal element and the verb which was used in its place. The next example of wrong phrasal verb was the structure quench through , which is thought to be the result of a mistakenly repeated preposition.
The styles of writing which the Iranian learners and the native speakers in LOCNESS used were also studied considering phrasal verb use. The phrasal verbs the learners used were mostly found in conversation and fiction but native speakers of English mostly used phrasal verbs which could be found in news and academic prose. On the other hand, the findings related to the English simple verbs used by Iranian learners and the native speakers proved otherwise.
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8. Conclusion 8.1. Major findings
The present research is the first large scale study of the English phrasal verbs in Iranian learner language based on a computerised corpus of learner language. With all due modesty, the study can be claimed to be significant empirically, through the observations on learner errors which it makes, and methodologically, opening up the way for studies of different error types by other researchers on the same corpus or for further comparisons between Iranian learner language and learner language produced by speakers with other L1 backgorunds.
The goals of the present corpus based study of Iranian learner English were pursued in the analyses. The main focus of the present research, which was an in depth study of learner language compared to native speaker language, was the analysis of the English phrasal verbs in learner writing. The language learner group was comprised of Iranian learners at university level. The native speaker corpora, which were used in the present study as control corpora, were LOCNESS and COCA. The analysis and comparison of the findings from both corpora in this study were divided into two major parts. The first, which was carried out using AntConc 3.2.1.0. in order to come up with the frequency profiles of the phrasal verbs produced by learners and native speakers, was a quantitative analysis. The quantitative study of the phrasal verbs pointed out numerical similarities and differences that existed between Iranian learners and native speakers of English in their use of the relevant forms. The 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in the native speaker essays were compared to their counterparts in the Iranian learner corpus to find out points of interest. At many points, one word equivalents and alternative phrasal verbs used in the corpora were checked to find out how the learners would try to make up for their lack of knowledge with respect to phrasal verb use. Although at some points certain learner errors were detected in the quantitative analysis, the purpose of this section was not to detect errors. The following qualitative study, on the other hand, picked out significant cases of the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus, and then they were investigated in detail in their discourse context. In this part, which aimed 168
at providing multi causal explanations to learner errors, the errors were looked at from different perspectives to see if there were different causes to learner errors. In order to achieve this, cases of mother tongue influence were studied. There were also instances of unnatural language use by the learners. Unnaturalness in learner language is believed to be the result of learners’ insufficient knowledge of idiomatic language as the main cause, limited grammatical knowledge of the learners and lack of coherence in learner language. In this section the phrasal verbs used by the learners were analysed to see whether the learners used them correctly or not, and to see to what extent the learners were familiar with the idiomaticity of the phrasal verbs. The Iranian learner corpus was also checked for cases of simplified use of the phrasal verbs. The learner corpus was also studied for examples of creative phrasal verb use. Instances of hypercorrection were spotted and analysed in the qualitative analysis. There were also wrong phrasal verbs used, which were analysed and the reasons for the errors were accounted for. Many of the errors made by the learners had more than one cause, which is why all possible causes to learner errors were considered. In the end, by looking at the phrasal verbs used by the learners and comparing them to the LOCNESS and Biber et al. (1999: 410), the style of writing adopted by Iranian learners in general was assessed.
The results of the quantitative study revealed that Iranian learners used fewer English phrasal verbs than the native speakers did. This is believed to be mainly due to the phrasal verbs being largely avoided in high school EFL material in Iran. Although it was observed that Iranian learners used fewer phrasal verbs than the native speakers did in general, Iranian learners used many single word verbs, which were equivalents of the phrasal verbs, instead of the phrasal verbs. Another important issue was mother tongue interference among the findings. Persian LVCs, other compound verbs and prepositional verbs were believed to interfere with some English phrasal verbs, causing learner errors in this regard. The findings actually proved that, in some cases, learner errors were the direct influence of such structures.
When comparing the 25 most frequent phrasal verbs in LOCNESS with their counterparts in the Iranian learner corpus, some interesting cases were found. There 169
were cases of overuse and underuse observed, when comparing the results of the learner corpus with the native speaker corpus. As an example, the phrasal verb bring about , which has a figurative meaning, was underused by the Iranian learners. This was a natural and expected phenomenon since the learners were apparently not quite familiar with the intended meaning of this phrasal verb, due to its figurative nature. The learners overused its equivalent single word verb cause compared to native speakers of English. This proved that the learners used the single word equivalent of a figurative phrasal verb in order to make up for their lack of knowledge regarding that phrasal verb. This was not the case for the phrasal verb get out and its single word verb equivalent exit . It was found that the learners underused its single word verb equivalent. So the phrasal verb equivalent of get out which was the verb go out , whose meaning was transparent, was searched in the corpora and the surprising overuse of this literal phrasal verb by the learners showed that learners prefer to use those phrasal verbs the meanings of which are transparent. In the quantitative analysis of the study a case of mother tongue interference was observed. The phrasal verb return back is thought to be the direct influence of its Persian counterpart be 'ᴂqᴂb bᴂrgᴂʃtᴂn "to return back" (lit., to back back go). This example may be a case of hypercorrection. When studying this phrasal verb closely in the qualitative analysis section, similar instances were observed in native speaker language. But it was realised that those cases found in native speaker essays were highly special structures compared to the much simpler forms used by the learners. The quantitative analysis of the study resulted in some interesting facts regarding the phrasal verbs and the numerical data. An in depth analysis of the interesting findings of the quantitative analysis was carried out in the qualitative approach.
In the qualitative study, the most important findings of the quantitative analysis of the data were investigated in addition to the overall interesting findings. As mentioned earlier, learner errors were looked at based on the different causes of errors with regard to the phrasal verbs. The errors were of different types consisting of mother tongue influence, foreign soundingness and creative use of phrasal verbs. One outstanding example regarding mother tongue interference was the phrasal verb face with . This phrasal verb was used as a result of L1 interference influenced by the 170
Persian verb movajeh ʃodᴂn "to face" (lit., face become) which always combines with the preposition ba meaning "with" in Persian. In these examples the phrasal verb face with is used instead of the verb face . In some other examples the phrasal verb face with was used correctly, carrying the meaning "encounter" in the context it was used in. The correct form of this phrasal verb is a transitive verb the passive form of which was used in learner writings. Another case was the verb come across with . The phrasal verb come across in English is used without the preposition with in all contexts. Its Persian counterpart ruberu ʃodᴂn "to come across/to face/to encounter" (lit., face become) is followed by the preposition ba "with", which forms a prepositional verb in Persian. The learners have apparently translated the Persian version of the verb into English, resulting in mother tongue interference. A phrasal verb used in a different sense compared to how the native speakers of English use it was break out . This phrasal verb was used inappropriately based on context. A case, which was not found in phrasal verb dictionaries but observed in native speaker language, was the phrasal verb shake out . Another example worth mentioning here is the phrasal verb grow up . This phrasal verb was used both appropriately and inappropriately by the learners. The inappropriate use of this phrasal verb was where the learner used it instead of the transitive verb grow in some cases. As mentioned in the qualitative study, the learner is confused between the transitive and intransitive Persian counterparts of the phrasal verb grow up and the verb grow , respectively. This structure is believed to have been a generalisation of the verb grow , as in grow tomatoes , wrongly used to talk about the raising of children in learner language. One of the instances believed to be formed as a result of creativity was the phrasal verb figure up . The most probable estimation regarding this phrasal verb was that the learner used the particle up instead of the particle out . This results in the formation of the phrasal verb figure up instead of figure out , which means "find" in this context. The phrasal verb figure out in this example did not mean “to find something”, instead it meant “to see oneself in a certain position or situation”. There were also cases of hypercorrection among the forms of creativity regarding the phrasal verbs observed in learner writings. The structures rise ahead , progress forward , render out , and return back were among those instances of creativity and hypercorrection found in learner writings. All of these forms were cases of semantic redundancy, since the 171
particles used carried a notion which already existed in the verbal element. The creativity in using phrasal verbs in learner writings goes as far as they used some phrasal verbs which were apparently irrelevant to the context where they were used in. In order to find out the style of writing employed by Iranian learners compared to the native speakers, the phrasal verbs found in both corpora were compared to Biber et al. (1999, p. 410).
8.2. Comparison of the major findings
Learner corpora similar to the Iranian learner corpus, compiled in preparation for the present study, have been compiled and studied from different perspectives. Numerous studies have been carried out on ICLE, as a large collection consisting of different learner corpora. These studies provide information about the language of advanced learners of English. After large scale studies such as the present study and Waibel (2007), generalisations can be made on the nature of learner language and native speaker language concerning the English phrasal verbs. These studies also help linguists understand the nature of the learners' acquisition and use of the English phrasal verbs.
As was hypothesised earlier in the analysis of the introduction of the English phrasal verbs in Iranian high school EFL textbooks, Iranian learners proved to have used more English phrasal verbs that carried literal meanings. The learners often avoided using figurative phrasal verbs, which was apparently caused by the semantic and idiomatic complexity of such phrasal verbs, which was also proved by various researchers mentioned in the literature review. It was also realised that complexity alone was not the only reason for the learners to avoid using figurative phrasal verbs. So the fact that all of the four EFL textbooks taught during the four years of high school in Iran avoided using the figurative phrasal verbs in order not to cause confusion among the learners meant that learners were obviously not encouraged to use figurative or idiomatic phrasal verbs, since they were not fully introduced to them in the first place.
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Although the scale of the present study and the findings are considerable to a certain degree, in order to gain a better insight into learner universals and learner language, the findings of the present research will be compared to the findings in Waibel (2007) in this section. The results of the study carried out by Waibel (2007) are of significance to the present study since this study along with Waibel (2007) are among the few studies to have systematically looked at learner corpora by approaching them both quantitatively and qualitatively. Furthermore, Waibel (2007) focuses on the phrasal verbs in learner language which is also central to this study and, like Waibel (2007), all occurring phrasal verb tokens are extracted from learner language in order to be compared to native speaker language.
The number of phrasal verbs found in I ICLE and G ICLE by Waibel (2007), and the Iranian learner corpus needed to be compared to the number of phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS, in order to see how differently the learner groups performed compared to native speakers of English. Overall, 5,279 47 phrasal verbs were extracted from LOCNESS; 6,475 phrasal verbs were found in G ICLE, 3,030 in I ICLE and 3,287 in the Iranian learner corpus. The results showed that Italian learners used 42.6 percent fewer phrasal verbs than native speakers in LOCNESS did, German learners used 22.65 percent more phrasal verbs than native speakers and Iranian learners used 37.73 percent fewer phrasal verbs when compared to native students 48 . As stated by Waibel (2007: 160), the overuse of phrasal verbs by German students is marked by the increased number of Germanic verbs they used, due to the fact that phrasal verbs are based on Germanic verbs in general. In contrast to German learners, Italian learners underused the phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs do exist in Italian, but are different in terms of frequency and use, that is, they are restricted to colloquial and spoken language (Dardano & Trionfo 1997: 333, quoted by Waibel 2007: 38). This is why they were expected to underuse the phrasal verbs. Iranian learners also underused the English phrasal verbs but the reason was quite different. This is because Persian, Iranian learners’ mother tongue, is not compatible with English.
47 The frequencies of the phrasal verbs found in the corpora used in the present study were all normalised to one million words in order to add to the clarity and ease the legibility of the results. 48 In the comparison of G ICLE and I ICLE with LOCNESS here, the percentages are slightly different from what is mentioned in Waibel (2007: 83). This is because the number of phrasal verbs found in LOCNESS is slightly smaller in Waibel (2007) than it is in this study. 173
Although Persian verb system is quite distant from the English verb system that is comprised of mostly Germanic verbs, but certain similar structures exist in Persian which are believed to interfere with the English phrasal verbs. Furthermore, since the national policy documents in Iran emphasised reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary, rather than focusing on spoken and colloquial language, where phrasal verbs mostly occur, the learners were expected to have a poor knowledge of English phrasal verbs (especially idiomatic phrasal verbs).
Although a mixture of both formal and informal styles in the same essay was the feature of German essays, they were more informal in general, which was marked by the many informal and colloquial phrasal verbs they used. Italian essays, on the other hand, were marked by more formal style of writing. Iranian learners used fewer phrasal verbs than native speakers, and the phrasal verbs used by Iranian learners were found in conversation and fiction whereas the phrasal verbs used by native speakers were observed more in news and academic prose 49 . Although Iranian essays were believed to have a rather informal style based on the type of phrasal verbs used, it was realised that Iranian learners used more simple verbs than native speakers did, in order to make up for their lack of knowledge regarding the phrasal verbs. In comparison with native speakers, the simple verbs used by Iranian learners were markers of a more formal language which meant that Iranian essays benefitted from more formal language than essays written by native speakers.
Cases of unnatural language use were observed in G ICLE and I ICLE as well as the Iranian leaner corpus. All the three learner corpora included instances of collocational deviations, and inappropriate choice and the simplification of phrasal verbs as features of non native language. The results from Waibel (2007: 161) also showed that 20 percent of both German and Italian learners produced more phrasal verbs if they had spent some time abroad in an English speaking country. Based on this, one of the main reasons for Iranians to produce fewer phrasal verbs in
49 The results of the study regarding the phrasal verbs were compared to the four areas of language style mentioned by Biber et al. (1999: 410) in order to find the style of writing employed by the learners and native speakers. 174
comparison with native speakers is that hardly any Iranian student had L2 exposure, by staying in an English speaking country.
Although the present research and Waibel (2007) share similar findings in certain areas, the problems faced in the present study were of a different nature from Waibel (2007). At this point, after the comparison of the major findings of the present study with findings from other learner corpora, we will now draw on the practical implications of the current study.
8.3. Practical implications
The Iranian learner corpus specifically aimed at contributing to the Iranian component of ICLE, which will continue to do so even after the completion of this study. The Iranian learner corpus has certain features that make it interesting to researchers. It records language use by learners operating in a different institutional setting with different pedagogical traditions, which make it different from all the other corpora from different language backgrounds. The introduction of a corpus based approach as a rather new domain in Iran, which was adopted by the present study, is expected to revolutionise applied linguistics research through its systematic approach toward learner language, which gives researchers, teachers and curriculum developers a clear view of the nature of learner language by pointing out its weaknesses and points of interest.
EFL textbooks in Iranian schools, especially high school, suffered from many shortcomings. Besides, the outdated method of teaching which was employed in EFL classrooms in Iran, which mainly followed the standards of the so called “Grammar Translation Method” of teaching, did not provide the learners with the required language input. The material selected for the textbooks either used inauthentic language or used simplified forms of authentic language. In such simplified and inauthentic language, there was very little room for phrasal verbs altogether, especially those with figurative meanings. There was not much focus on speaking and listening in class which meant much more grammar, vocabulary and translation 175
tasks were exercised. Only in some classes did the teachers provide extra practice, which included materials that were not covered inside the classrooms but were evaluated in the final examinations. Outside the classroom, however, students benefitted from different forms of L2 input. Some of those who could afford private training and language courses were able to compensate for parts of the shortcomings of the educational system, but not many of these language courses had the standards of a good language course. Among the learners, there was hardly anyone who had spent some time in an English speaking country. The type of English language input that most of the learners had received was mainly English news, academic prose, fiction and movies. So, most of the style of language the learners were exposed to was formal. The learners had very little exposure to spoken and informal baseline styles, and they had very small amount of interactive language practice either with peers or native speakers. The L1 of the Iranian learners, like the L1 of all learner groups, influenced their L2 production. This was mainly in the form of interference with L2 production. The Iranian students who contributed to the Iranian learner corpus had different forms of motivation for learning English. Unlike those leaner corpora the learners of which were learning English to be able to communicate in a more international setting, not many Iranian learners were motivated in this way. The main aim of learning English for them was to gain good marks at school. Another important form of learner motivation came from the fact that English is becoming rather fashionable in today’s Iran, since a good knowledge of English signifies higher level of education and ability to participate in transnational and global domains of communication for the learners and that they will be better accepted by the society. However, some learners may have intended to learn English in order to be able to communicate internationally.
The language distance that exists between the English phrasal verbs and similar Persian structures prevents successful phrasal verb learning. Even similarities may result in cases of interference. An example is the verb “return back”. It was indicated earlier in the study that the form of the verb return back used by Iranian learners is a much simpler form than the forms used by native speakers of English. It is advisable to material designers to encourage learners not to use such structures at the 176
intermediate level of language proficiency, due to its complications. When learners are at the advanced level of language proficiency, they may be permitted to use such structures, but they must be informed of the complications. Although such verbs did not occur much in the learner corpus, they add to the importance of mother tongue influence, i.e. transfer or interference.
No clear conclusion can be drawn regarding the learning of the phrasal verbs based on the present study. Idiomatic phrasal verbs are regarded as phraseological units, which is why it is estimated that they are learned and produced as single units (Waibel 2007: 163). Since there were few cases of idiomatic phrasal verbs in Iranian learner corpus, it is inappropriate to conclude based on this small number and the few errors made in this regard. Creative instances of phrasal verbs are probably not perceived by learners as single units. Corpus based studies such as the present one need to undergo experimental elicitation studies (Waibel 2007: 163), in order to be able to provide us with a somewhat clear picture of the learners’ learning strategies.
Based on the few errors found in learner language regarding the phrasal verbs, it can be concluded that the input received by the students has been efficient. Looking at the teaching methods and the school material, the students seem to have performed much better than expected. This is believed to have happened due to other sources of input. Going back to the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus, it was realised that the majority of the phrasal verbs were literal and did not need to be learned in order to be used correctly. Only those with collocational restrictions needed previous input.
In addition to the learners’ extremely low amount of exposure to natural spoken language, the teachers were also found to have a low amount of this type of exposure to L2. This adds to the problem of learner input in terms of natural input. If learners and teachers both have had very little exposure to L2, then where are the learners expected to receive the type of input required for advanced level of language proficiency from? Advanced language proficiency level calls for proficiency in colloquial and idiomatic language. 177
Knowledge of phrasal verbs is considered as a feature of advanced level of language proficiency and is mastered at this level. Some may argue that learners master the English phrasal verbs at higher levels of language proficiency, e.g. university level after school, so there is no need to focus on them at school. But it must be noted that not all learners will be studying English at university and not many may continue learning English after school, which is why it is recommended that students receive systematic teaching of the phrasal verbs, in order to be able to communicate effectively, a part of which is idiomatic competence. Based on the findings of the present study, Iranian learner English is restricted to highly frequent and common expressions in English, but phrasal verbs are rare instances, especially idiomatic ones.
Studies such as the present one not only contribute to the field of corpus linguistics but also to the fields of applied linguistics and second language learning and teaching. The results of such studies can be valuable for language teachers and teacher trainers when a certain teaching method is to be assessed. Looking at the results from the Iranian learner corpus concerning the English phrasal verbs, it was found that Iranian learners used the majority of the English phrasal verbs correctly. Although this might prove that the educational system covers the English phrasal verbs quite well, a closer look at the types of phrasal verbs used by the learners proved that the learners performed better using literal phrasal verbs but did not show much proficiency in using figurative phrasal verbs. This could mean that the educational system and the teaching methods employed in this regard have shortcomings to some extent when it comes to the figurative use of phrasal verbs. Many instances of mother tongue influence were observed which occur as a result of the learners' lack of idiomatic knowledge regarding the English phrasal verbs.
In the Iranian high school EFL textbook series relevant for the period in which the learners contributing to the corpus had been taught in school, only 110 phrasal verb tokens (appendix 10) were found. The phrasal verbs were not explicitly approached until the third and fourth year of high school and only very few exercises were 178
devoted to them. Phrasal verbs were not systematically looked at during school. They were introduced to learners as separable and inseparable verbs, as far as classroom teaching was concerned. There was no word on the idiomaticity or the polysemy of the phrasal verbs and they were presented as chunks in textbooks. The textbooks are reflections of the way material designers see phrasal verbs and they apparently see them as unsystematic since they occur mostly in spoken English, which is not considered necessary for knowledge of so called “good” English. With so little focus on the phrasal verbs in the institutional setting of Iranian learners, learners were not expected to demonstrate high proficiency in terms of phrasal verbs. Based on Waibel (2007: 166), German learners were only exposed to 90 phrasal verb tokens at high school, but used much more compared to Iranian learners. There are two possible causes for this. First of all, German is compatible with English in terms of its verbal morphology, but Persian is quite incompatible with English, and since phrasal verbs are mostly formed using Germanic verbal roots, English and German are believed to be two languages which are quite close to each other. Persian, on the other hand, is much different from English, which is why Iranian learners do not perform really well in terms of phrasal verb use. Secondly, German learners have much more exposure to up to date natural input than Iranians, much of which is spoken, and since phrasal verbs are features of spoken and informal English, German learners have more exposure to phrasal verbs than Iranian learners do in general. As a consequence, material designers in Iran need not only to include more phrasal verbs in textbooks in general, but also to include more phrasal verbs that occur frequently in native English and to look at phrasal verbs more systematically.
The results of the study show that there are weaknesses in the methods employed in teaching the English phrasal verbs to Iranian learners. The full analysis of Iranian high school EFL textbooks regarding the English phrasal verbs revealed that material designers in Iran have to a great extent avoided presenting the English phrasal verbs in detail and avoided introducing phrasal verbs with figurative meanings. It is strongly recommended that curriculum developers and syllabus designers of the Iranian educational system address certain aspects of EFL such as the English phrasal verbs used by native speakers of English in addition to the phrasal verbs in 179
general, in order to train the learners in the best way possible and to achieve the goals of the curriculum, which is to bring the level of learners’ language proficiency as closely as possible to the language of the native speakers of English. Previous studies highly recommend making use of innovative methods like conceptualisation in the teaching of the English phrasal verbs, which proved to be a successful approach in the instruction of the phrasal verbs.
In addition to improvements in school material and an increase in authentic input, the effective teaching that students receive at the university is thought to make up for the learners’ lack of knowledge regarding phrasal verbs. The effectiveness of the teaching of phrasal verbs at university level calls for another study focussing specifically on the phrasal verbs at university level. It is also worth investigating the influence of natural language input in a separate study. Since mother tongue interference seems to be a cause of learner errors, a separate study using experimental data would provide us with clearer answers concerning how and to what extent mother tongue structures influence phrasal verb use.
It is quite evident that Iranian learners are not much exposed to the English phrasal verbs at school. Whether this is made up for at the university level is not to be discussed in this study. The limited exposure of the learners to authentic material and authentic language is thought to be another source of the learners' limited knowledge of the phrasal verbs. It is proved that the more the learners are exposed to authentic language the more proficient they become. Only very few of the learners who took part in the present research had previously travelled to English speaking countries due to political restrictions that prevent Iranians from traveling to English speaking countries. This meant that almost all the learners had limited access to authentic spoken English, but as stated earlier, the learners had easier access to more formal language in the forms of scholarly articles and books. This was confirmed through the results of the study since the learners showed a tendency toward using more formal simple verbs in English than native speakers of English. Native speakers proved to have used more phrasal verbs than Iranian learners. This was thought to have happened since phrasal verbs are signifiers of more informal and spoken 180
language and proved again that the language used by the learners tended more toward formal styles. The findings also confirmed the limited training the learners received at school concerning the English phrasal verbs. Restrictions for traveling to English speaking countries due to political sanctions are believed to be one of the major issues influencing the results of the study to a great extent. Results of studies such as the present study can provide political analysts and researchers with valuable ground for studying the situation of other countries which are facing similar problems in today’s world. There is a great potential for studies taking into consideration the influence of learner exposure to authentic language and stay in an English speaking country.
In addition to the present study and its focus on the high school EFL textbooks in Iran, there have been other studies (e.g. Fazelimanie 2004) that have dealt with a history of EFL training in Iran. All have revealed certain deficits in the educational system in Iran such as lack of authentic language input, avoidance of particular aspects of language and etc., which have affected the learners’ language use in many ways, resulting in low level of language proficiency in certain areas. The problematic areas indicated in different research on learner language provide the basis for curriculum developers and material designers in order to try to improve and modify educational syllabi and to try to make up for the deficits that exist. Since the EFL training system in Iran, as well as the whole educational system and textbooks are to undergo great changes in near future, and the system is expected to show improvements in many areas, the outcome of the changes are to be studied in future research to be carried out some years later, focusing on the difficulties the learners faced in the present educational system in order to see if the problems have been solved or not. It is hoped that the drawbacks of education in Iran, especially concerning the English phrasal verbs and other aspects of English which pose difficulty, are dealt with in the new system of education and the new textbooks.
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8.4. Recommendations for future studies
The present study was a comparative corpus based study of the English phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus and the native speaker corpus LOCNESS. One learner corpus was analysed in this study and the results were compared to the results from two other learner corpora in Waibel (2007) in order to draw general conclusions. In order to draw further general conclusions concerning learner language, more research on different learner corpora needs to be carried out in the same field. Comparing the results from the present study with other studies involving learners from different language backgrounds could provide us with valuable insights and other universal features of learner language. Comparing the results with the results of studies on learners from different language backgrounds can provide us with knowledge regarding common features of different language families as well.
Since the essays written by Iranian university students were intended to contribute to ICLE, after the completion of the Iranian sub corpus of ICLE, having conformed to all the standards of ICLE, different aspects of this sub corpus can be compared to the other ICLE sub corpora and to native speaker corpora, such as LOCNESS and COCA, in order to draw conclusions based on different learner L1s.
The results of the present study can be related to research on the Persian verb system in general or to research comparing the verb system of Persian with other languages. The results may also be related to future research on Iranian learners’ use of collocations and other phraseological units.
Future studies must not only focus on the problematic areas of the present educational system, which are thought to be resolved through the future reforms, but must also draw on other aspects of Iranian learner language to see whether the new system of foreign language instruction in Iranian schools would suffer from further problems which should be tackled in future applied linguistic research.
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Corpora, dictionaries, software, and web sites
Anthony , L. 2010. AntConc 3.2.1.0 . Accessible at http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html British ational Corpus . BNCweb World Edition accessible at http://escorp.unizh.ch . Cambridge phrasal verbs dictionary . 2006. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge international dictionary of phrasal verbs. 1997. Cambridge: CUP. Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) . Accessible at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ Cowie, A. P., & Mackin, R. 1975. Oxford dictionary of current idiomatic English. Volume 1. Verbs with prepositions and particles. Berlin: Cornelsen & OUP. Cowie, A. P., & Mackin. R. 1993. Oxford dictionary of phrasal verbs. Oxford: OUP. Courtney, R. 1983. Longman dictionary of phrasal verbs. Harlow: Longman. Cullen, K., & Sargeant, H. 1996. Chambers dictionary of phrasal verbs. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap. Louvain Corpus of ative English Essays . Information concerning accessibility at www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/fltr/germ/etan/cecl/Cecl Projects/Icle/locness1.htm McArthur, T., & Atkins, B. 1974. Dictionary of English phrasal verbs and their idioms. London & Glasgow: Collins. Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. 2002. Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics , 3 rd edn. Harlow: Longman. Sinclair, J., & Moon, R. 1989. Collins COBUILD dictionary of phrasal verbs. London & Glasgow: Collins. http://www.medu.ir/Portal/Home/ http://oerp.medu.ir/oerp_en.php http://www.quantpsy.org/chisq/chisq.htm http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/report/show/811059 http://www.medu.ir/Portal/File/ShowFile.aspx?ID=20e6065a f6e3 427d 9e8b 5e95a2381b54
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10. Appendices
Appendix 1: Prefaces of all high school EFL textbooks.
Section A: ew words
- To familiarise the students with the new words of the reading passage. - To introduce new words using the English language (not the learner’s L1). - The teacher must use the below to teach the new words: • Show objects to the students • Use actions to show the meanings of verbs • Use pictures • Provide simplified definitions • Use synonyms and antonyms - Short sentences, questions and answers, are used to provide learners with situations where the new words are used in communication. - In addition to the short sentences used, the teacher can use additional sentences that call for using the new words, if he/she feels it is necessary.
Section B: Reading
- The aim is to read the text and to understand it. - The text must not be translated for the students. The students must be able to read a text and try to understand as much from it as possible without the help of their L1. - The teacher must not explain all the grammar points of the sentences throughout the lesson. Grammar must only be dealt with in the grammar focus, sections D and E. - Previously taught words are repeated throughout the lessons, therefore, learning them is necessary for learners.
Section D and E: Speak Out, Write It Down
- These sections focus on grammar. Grammar points are introduced and exercises including repetition, substitution, transformation and production – follow.
Section F: Language Functions
- This part is dedicated to short conversation practises and the grammatical components of the sentences should not be discussed. The learners are not to memorise the sentences. They should role play, applying the given sentences in real situation conversations.
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Section G: Pronunciation Practice
- The aim is to teach the pronoun of letters, words and sentences. This should include repetition and practise. - New words in this section do not need to be learned by learners.
Section I: Vocabulary
- In this section the new words of the entire lesson are listed.
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Appendix 2: Review Exercises (Birjandi et al. 2001a: 1 6).
Review Exercises (1)
I. Look at the pictures and answer the questions.
1. What are those?
2. What is there on the desk?
3. What time is it?
4. What’s that?
5. Whose bag is it?
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6. What colour is this pen?
7. How much is the coat?
8. Is she a fat girl?
9. How many pens does he have?
10. Does she go to bed at 7 o’clock?
11. Where does he live?
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12. What do you see in the picture?
13. Did he go to school at 8 o’clock yesterday morning?
14. What are the boys doing?
15. What was she doing when her mother arrived?
16. How much water is there in the glass?
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II. Put these words in the correct order. 1. usually him I on Mondays see. 2. is in the kitchen who the dishes washing? 3. swimmer badly bad a swims. 4. small their is house very new. 5. at map please this look. 6. need you do how much money? 7. do did homework your when you? 8. water me some give please. 9. a lot of saw I cars new yesterday. 10. sometimes he in the library studies on Sundays his books. III. Complete the following questions. 1. Hamid ate a sandwich in that restaurant last night. a) Who ? b) What ? c) Where ? d) When ? 2. She can read several pages very carefully in a few minutes. a) What ? b) How many ? c) How ? d) How long ? IV. Answer the following questions. 1. How old are you? 2. What are you? 3. What grade are you in? 4. How many brothers and sisters do you have? 5. Where is your high school? 6. Who is your English teacher? 7. Where do you live? 8. When do you do your homework? 9. What are you doing now? 196
10. What do you see in your classroom? 11. What do you usually do on Fridays?
V. Complete the passage with the words given.
Good caref ully do go
My name is Bahram. I’m a student. I’m 15 years old. I to school in the morning. I’m a student. I usually my homework in the afternoon. I study my books very .
sometimes doesn’t like has
wakes up reading his
am watching fast him
Today is Friday. It’s 7 o’clock in the evening. We don’t go to school on Fridays. I TV now. I like cartoons very much, but my father cartoons. You can see in the picture. He a newspaper in hands. He’s it. He usually reads the newspaper carefully, but he reads some 197
pages very . He usually early in the morning. He says his prayers, eats his breakfast at about 6 and then goes to work. He comes back home in the evening.
Was cleaning arrived ate didn’t have was had left
My father didn’t go to work this morning. He his breakfast at about 8. But my mother very busy this morning. We some guests. My mother the kitchen when they . They before noon. They lunch with us.
will do watch leave be
Tomorrow morning I’ll in my high school. I’ll there at about 12:30. I’ll have lunch with my mother and sister. In the afternoon I my homework. I’ll TV in the evening.
ow answer these questions about the passage: 1. Does Bahram go to school in the evening? 2. How many sisters does he have? 3. How old is he? 4. When does he usually do his homework? 5. What is he doing now? 6. What is his father reading? 7. What does his father do in the morning? 8. What was his mother doing when their guests arrived? 9. Where will he have his lunch tomorrow? 10. When will he do his homework?
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Appendix 3: Examination papers of high school EFL courses. Appendix 3a: Examination papers of English Book 1: first set Ministry of Education Hamadan Educational Office The sixth Provincial English Olympiad for the High School students of Grade One ame: Date: 2 May 2005 School ame: Time: 45 Minutes
Choose the best alternatives (a, b, c, or d). 1) Hamid’s car cost a lot, ……….? A/ didn’t it B/ did he C/ doesn’t he D/ does it 2) Had the dishes …………… to the kitchen by your sister before you went to help her? A/ brought B/ been brought C/ were brought D/ be brought 3) The Japanese use seven times ………… for food as Americans do. A/ the fish B/ more fish C/ as much fish D/ as fish 4) Of all the families in the city, they are …….. . A/ the richest B/ richer C/ richest D/ richer than 5) The old man ……….. see his doctor because he was sick. A/ have to B/ must C/ had to D/ should 6) We’d be at home by lunch if we ……… the early train. A/ catch B/ caught C/ had caught D/ will catch 7) He is the teacher ……… way of teaching I like. A/ who B/ whom C/ that D/ whose 8) Driving in the snow is very dangerous. You ……. Drive more slowly. A/ will B/ should C/ could D/ may 9) The old man kept on ……… for hours and made us all tired. A/ talk B/ have told C/ talking D/ was told 10) A: Who puts on clothes on your little children? B: Nobody, both Majid and Maryam put on their clothes …….. . A/ herself B/ himself C/ ourselves D/ themselves 199
11) Which of the following is the correct order of the given words as a sentence? (sometimes/he/in the library/ studies/his books) A/ He studies sometimes his books in the library. B/ He studies his books sometimes in the library. C/ He studies his books in the library sometimes. D/ He sometimes studies his books in the library. 12) It’s warm in Bandar Abbas. You ……… take your overcoat. A/ can’t B/ needn’t C/ mustn’t D/ Won’t 13) Mr. Taban’s new book was one of ……… books that I read last year. A/ interesting B/ as interesting as C/ the most interesting D/ more interesting 14) We were lost when we were walking in the streets of London, but a policeman ……… us where our hotel was. A/ guided B/ invited C/ repeated D/ received 15) In the mathematics classes we have to solve one ………. after another. A/ basis B/ lesson C/ question D/ problem 16) Please turn that radio ……… . I’m going to get the baby to sleep. A/ down B/ into C/ on D/ up 17) The road which led to the sea was so wide that drivers could ………. drive side by side. A/ busily B/ easily C/ hardly D/ heavily 18) We have eaten our lunch, but you were late. Now, you can have your ………. of the food. A/ share B/ pair C/ meal D/ loaf 19) It was nice of you to ………… and let the old man have your seat. A/ climb up B/ grow up C/ pick up D/ stand up 20) He sat at a table and ordered a sandwich. In which of the following sentences, does “order” have the same meaning as the underlined one in the given sentences? A/ Leave everything in good order. B/ The phone is out of order. C/ She ordered three shirts for her husbands. 200
D/ He ordered the words alphabetically. 21) This problem is so ……….. that you do not need any help. A/ hard B/ simple C/ strong D/ weak 22) I was very surprised to see that our teacher couldn’t ………. my name. A/ remember B/ invite C/ preach D/ receive 23) I’ll ……….. in two days if you lend me one of your books. A/ look it up B/ give it back C/ point it out D/ take it apart 24) Two people who are walking along holding hands, are walking ……… . A/ hand to hand B/ hand in hand C/ hand by hand D/ hand over hand 25) Which of these is not a piece of furniture? A/ a timetable B/ a coffee table C/ a dining table D) a beside table 26) What was your ……….. for choosing such an expensive car? A/ behaviour B/ attention C/ reason D/ method 27) Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something ………. . A/ wrong B/ correct C/ worried D/ angry 28) How much do you weigh? A/ I’m twenty five B/ I’m quite good looking C/ I don’t like D/ I don’t know exactly 29) What is his job? A/ He must be a nurse. B/ He must leave here. C/ His job is easy. D/ He likes his job. 30) A: What does your mother look like? B: Well, she is …………… . A/ very attractive B/ teaching English C/ wearing a brown suit D/ 45 years old 31) A: Would you mind not leaving the door open? It’s rather windy today. B: …………………………………. . A/ Thank you B/ Oh, sure C/ Not at all D/ Yes, please 32) Can I watch the news on television? A/ Yes, here you are B/ Oh, I see C/ Oh, thanks a lot D/ sure 201
33) Which word has a different vowel sound? A/ book B/ look C/ soon D/ took 34) Choose the word with /ei/ sound. A/ raise B/ rise C/ field D/ size 35) The vowel sound in ……….. has the same sound as the vowel in “TOUCH”? A/ mouth B/ group C/ outside D/ young
Hossein is a very curious student. He likes to spend his free ……(36)……. Taking things apart to see ……(37)…… makes them work. He has a ……..(38)……. Of old clocks and watches and different automobile …..(39)….. around the yard. He is especially …..(40)….. in taking old car engines apart.
36) A/ money B/ energy C/ work D/ time 37) A/ when B/ what C/ why D/ where 38) A/ collection B/ museum C/ record D/ yard 39) A/ chairs B/ parts C/ boards D/ garages 40) A/ unwelcome B/ invited C/ interested D/ truthful
There was a great deal of trouble in the city the other day. A horse got out of a field and came into town on its own. It walked across the public gardens and through a busy street. Then it sat down in the middle of the main road opposite a church. All the traffic stopped. Quite a few people tried to lead it away, but no one could move it, just then, a farmer appeared. He called to it. It got up and he led it away. 41) The underlined word in line one means …………. . A/ a lot of B/ very C/ a little D/ many 42) “It” in the second line refers to …………… . A/ the city B/ the horse C/ the church D/the road 43) The horse …………. . A/ left the road alone B/ made a few people tired C/ made a lot of troubles D/ got up and let it away 44) “Across” in line two has the meaning ………… . A/ from one side to the other B/ from beginning to end 202
C/ through D/ a and c 45) …………… led the horse away. A/ The writer B/ A few people C/ A farmer D/ No one When we were at school as children, we were made to wear inside shoes inside the school building. The teachers would never let us put on our outdoor shoes at all and they made us change them in the changing rooms from the minute we arrived in the building. I’d never known teachers to be more strict about any other school rule. The difficulty was that my indoor shoes really made me upset because they were so tight. One of my classmates said, “let’s make our shoes larger.” He had a bright idea. We put plastic bags inside our shoes and filled the bags with water. We fastened the bags carefully and put our shoes into the freezer, of course the ice made the shoes larger and we didn’t have any difficulty to wear them, with this clever idea I finished my schooldays with less trouble and I have never forgotten it! 46) The writer had to ………… . A/ change all his clothes B/ wear tight shoes C/ study in a small classroom D/ drink water from a plastic bag 47) They put the shoes into the freezer to …………… . A/ make them larger B/ help their teacher C/ go inside the building D/ make their classmate angry 48) The word strict in line 5 means ……….. . A/ having very good ideas B/ changing the school rules C/ giving the students low scores D/ making people do what you want 49) The writer will never forget ………… . A/ his pleasant time at school B/ the idea of expanding the shoes C/ the pleasure of wearing outdoor shoes D/ the moment in the changing room 50) According to the passage, it is true that …………….. . A/ they put ice into the bags B/ the teacher was in trouble C/ they finally had comfortable shoes D/ the teacher suggested a bright idea 203
Examination papers of English Book 1: second set Ministry of Education Hamadan Educational Office English Book 1 ame: Date: School ame: Time: 75 Minutes
1) Complete the incomplete words. Kindergarten is a German w_rd. The monkey drops coconuts do_n to the farmer. Few men of that time were wi_er than Newton. What are you doing out s_de in the snow? When he returned he had tw_ tickets for a b_ll fight. The water in kettle began to _ing. Where is the moo_? He went in his work clot_es. I like to eat my din_er at 9:00 p.m. They gave him the titl_ of “Al Amin”. They were very happy to see prophet of Go_.
2) Fill in the blanks with the words provided. There is one extra word.
Fridays, countries, fly, tomatoes, milk, get up, remember, grows 1 Some birds can not ………….. . 2 I need some ………………. for the baby. 3 We have to …………… early in the morning. 4 We need …………….. and water to live. 5 A flower …………. on a plant. 6 We need some ………… for salad. 7 In Iran schools are closed on …………. . 8 English is spoken in many …………. .
3) Find the synonyms of 9 and 10, and the opposites of 11 and 12.
9 You should not give food to your little brother. a. coming up 10 Smoke was rising from the fire. b. enemies 11 I have five friends. c. wake up 204
12 It is time for us to sleep. d. changed e. feed 4) Complete the sentences with your own knowledge.
13 Kindergarten is a …………… . 14 Iran is our …………… .
5) Select the best item.
15 Boats and some ……….. can move on the water. a. fans b. planes c. wagons d. a and b 16 The holy Mohammad is our …………… . a. host b. prophet c. guest d. teachers 17 The birds can find …………., seeds and fruits to eat. a. people b. sandwiches c. coconuts d. insects 18 I sometimes …………. the holy Koran. a. ride b. swim c. read d. sleep 19 Mr. Amini …………. to the school since 2 months ago. a. has not come b. comes c. have not come d. to come 20 A letter ………….. last night. a. was written b. will be written c. were written d.is written 21 Ali went to the library, …………….? a. does he b. did he c. don’t he d. didn’t he 22 My mother is not …………. my father. a. oldest b. older c. older than d. old
6) Write the correct form of the words in brackets.
23 They ………….. in this city for 2 years. (live) 24 He is the ……...... boy in the class. (tall) 25 A rich man ……………. To lunch last week. (invite) 26 My brother ……………. Go to doctor yesterday. (have to) 205
7) Answer the questions according to the pictures.
27 Where are the farmers? 28 What are they doing?
29 What have they done?
8) Put the scrambled sentences in the correct order.
30 Monday you – next – go – to – school – should – the ? 31 guess – that – Ali – come – I – will – here.
9) Match the questions in column A with answers from column B.
A B 32 Which one is Mr. Akbari? a. 55 kilos 33 May I use your car? b. She is a teacher 34 How much does he weigh? c. Yes, just a moment, please. 35 What is your nationality? d. I am German. 36 May I speak to the teacher? e. He is the fat man. 37 What does your sister do? f. No, thank you. g. Sorry, I need it right now.
10) Which word has a different pronunciation to the others? 38 ship – sit – sheep – live 39 why – high – try – with 206
11) Choose the best item. 40 Monkeys are clever animals. They can learn many things. According to the passage, monkeys learn many things ………………. . a. because they are funny. b. because they are lazy. c. because they are clever. d. because they are in a zoo. 41 The ripe coconuts are brown. Ripe means …………… . a. green b. not green c. red d. black 42 Our holy prophet was born ………………. . a. In Mecca b. in 571 A.D. c. in sixth century d. all of them
12) Read the text below and answer questions 43 and 44, and select the best item for the rest of the questions. What can fire do for you? It can do many good things but it can also do bad things. It can warm your house and give you light. Fire can burn houses, trees, animals and people. Young children often like to play with fire. But fire is not a toy for children and they must not play with it because it is dangerous. Their parents must be careful too. 43 What can fire burn? 44 Who likes to play with fire? 45 We must not play with fire because it is …………. . a. toy b. good c. not bad d. dangerous 46 What can fire do for us? a. anything b. nothing c. many things d. many fire 47 young men like to play with fire F T 48 Fire can warm our houses. F T Good Luck 207
Examination papers of English Book 1: third set
Ministry of Education Hamadan Educational Office English Book 1 ame: Date: School ame: Time: 85 Minutes
1) Complete the incomplete words. He ca_led the new school a kindergarten. The monkey clim_s each tree. Th_n he heard a loud noi_e. Fin_l_y on a piece of paper he dr_w a picture of a mushroom. Many things about bird mi_ration are still a m_stery. He re_ _ved two letters. The host was s_rprised at this. The man repl_ed. Muslims w_rship the one God.
2) Complete the sentences using your own knowledge. 13. A ………… is a place where you can study. There are many books there. 14. When a fruit is ……….. it is good to eat. 15. Spain is a …………. . It is not a city. 16. It rises from hot water. It is ………… .
3) Fill in the blank using the given words. welcomed – same – burnt – found – foreign – believe – down – entire – picked 17. I ………… him standing by the fire. 18. Will you buy the ……….. pen for me? 19. The host came to the door and ………… us warmly. 20. The nice farmer ……….. a red apple for me. 21. Some people don’t ………. this is true. 22. The tea was very hot. It ……….. my mouth. 23. Please turn ………. the radio. I want to study. 24. She is not from this country. She speaks a ………. language.
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4) Find the synonym or the opposite of the words on the left from the sentences on the right. 25. rich ≠ ………. a. keep boiling water out of reach of children. 26. hot = ………. b. James Watt built the first steam engine. 27. beside ≠ ………. c. Ali’s father helps poor people. 28. made = ………. d. He was seated far from the host.
5) Select the best choice according to the sentence. 29. In the morning the snow was deeper. It was hard to see where the road was. This means that …………………………… the road. a. Everybody could see b. b. there was a lot of water on c. It was difficult to see d. There wasn’t any snow on 30. The table is too heavy. She can’t move it. This sentence means ………….. . a. it is easy for her to move the table b. she is too heavy to move it c. it is not a hard work for her d. she needs help to move the table 31. Those two boys were friends but now they are enemies. This means …………….. . a. they were not enemies before b. they were enemies before c. they are not enemies now d. they are still friends
6) Read the text below and answer the questions. It is very hot in the summer and in the evenings nobody likes to stay at home. People walk in the streets or sit in the parks. We have a special summer cinema and my friends and I often go there. There are tall trees all round and it’s very cool. Sometimes the films are not good, but we don’t mind. The stars shine in a clear sky and there is often a large bright moon. 209
32. What do people do in the evenings? 33. How is the weather in the summer? 34. When the film isn’t very good we leave the cinema. (True – False) 35. There are tall trees all round and it is very cool. “cool” means ………….. . a. warm b. hot c. not very cold d. very cold
7) Select the best choice. 36. It was cold. We …………… to put on our coats. a. could b. had c. should d. have 37. His handwriting is ……….. than mine. a. the best b. as good c. better d. good 38. The students ……….. very late, didn’t they? a. came b. comes c. come d. to come 39. My grades are very good because I …………. Hard. a. Will study b. study c. studying d. have studied
Good Luck 210
Examination papers of English Book 1: fourth set
Ministry of Education Hamadan Educational Office Fatima Al Zahra high school English Book 1: Midterm exam ame: Date: Time: 60 Minutes
A) Complete the incomplete words.
Tom lo_ked out the wind_w. We visit many for_ign countries. They were sit_ing in a restaurant in a small vi_lage and wanted to order their f_od. They don’t have en_ugh money to buy a car. I sat near the fir_place. Not all birds migrat_, but great num_ers of them do. At dinner I was se_ted near the host. He treated me as a spec_al guest.
B) Fill in the blanks using the correct forms of the given words. Fast – kindly – guest – him – invited map 1. I …………… my friends to dinner. 2. This is the ……………. Of the world. 3. The baby is hungry. You should feed ……….. . 4. He passed the suger to the ………… . 5. He spoke ………….. to them.
C) Complete the sentences with your own knowledge. 6. Ali’s father is not poor. He is ………… . 7. Some birds can not …………. .
D) Select the best item. 8. My bicycle doesn’t work. Can you ……….. it? a. return b. repair c. repeat d. receive 9. Which word means “to answer”? “To ………….. .” 211
a. reply b. write c. speak d. study 10. All the students ………. the words now. a. are repeated b. repeats c. are repeating d. repeat 11. The car ………. by the mechanic. a. is repairing b. was repaired c. repairs d. repaired 12. Her hand writing is ……….. than mine. a. the best b. as good c. better d. good 13. The teacher …………. us a new lesson yesterday. a. taught b. bought c. thought d. brought 14. His garden is ……….. beautiful garden in this village. a. more b. the most c. most d. very
E) Put the scrambled sentences in the right order. 15. can – hope – the city – she – I that – visit. ……………………………………………….. 16. to the park – go – to – like – does – Jack? ………………………………………………..
F) Use the correct form of the verbs in brackets. 17. She …………… that letter many years ago. (write) 18. Ali was happy because all his money …………. Yesterday. (find)
G) Find the synonyms of the words in brackets in the sentences that follow. (again – changes – go up) 19. What time does the sun rise? 20. In the winter, the water turns into ice.
H) Answer the questions according to the pictures. 21. Which tree is the tallest?
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22. How and where did she read the book yesterday?
I) Which word has a different pronunciation? 23. put but cut bus
J) Read the following text and answer the questions. A small man went to the cinema, bought a ticket and walked in, but after two or three minutes he came out, bought a second ticket and then went in again. A few minutes later he came out again and bought a third ticket and two or three minutes after that he came out and asked for a fourth ticket. But the man said to him, “why are you buying all these tickets? Are they for your friends?” “No”, the small man said, “they aren’t, but each time I go to the door, a big man takes my ticket.”
24. Who went to the cinema?
25. Did he need only one ticket?
26. He bought 3 tickets. (true – false)
27. Why did he buy more tickets? a. He liked the film, b. A man took his ticket. c. He bought them for his friends. d. He wants to watch it again.
Good Luck 213
Appendix 3b: Examination papers of English Book 2: first set
Ministry of Education Organisation for Educational Research and Planning English Book 1 academic year 2004/05 ame: Date: School ame: Time: 90 Minutes
A) Complete the incomplete words. 1/2. His father bought him a t_y car as a rew_rd. 3/4. They can sa_l on canals about a foot w_de. 5/6. This man is a m_ner. He has a terribl_ life. 7/8. My brother doesn’t like chicken s_up and spaghet_i at all. 9/10. You know that hic_ups aren’t an illnes_. 11/12. It is very usual to talk about the transp_rt s_stem when you are on a bus.
B) Vocabulary a) Fill in the blanks using the provided words. law – run out of – mountain – topic – glow – tourists – cameras – record – fixed
13. People usually agree about the weather, so it is a safe ………….. for small talk. 14. He will not change his idea. You know that he has a …………….. idea. 15. This young man holds the world …………. in the 400 meters. 16. A lot of ………… can visit the city museum every day. 17. I think it’s against the …………. to make very young children work. 18. There are a lot of tiny light bulbs that make the city …………. at night. 19. The …………. in the spaceships have taken a lot of pictures. 20. We’ve ……………. bread. Stop the car and buy some bread for lunch.
b) Complete the sentences using your own knowledge. 21. The ……….., on the moon, were made by very big rocks. 214
22. The doctor told him to take a deep …………. and say “AH”. 23. The teacher asked his students to write a ………….. about war for the exam. 24. My friend’s father works in a coal …………… .
c) Select the best choice. 25. Mary’s teacher wanted her to be ……………. while she is teaching. a) depend b) quiet c) sufficient d) suitable 26. One of the ………………… that help you breathe starts jerking for no good reason. a) giggle b) cures c) sudden d) muscles 27. This little boy needs a bar of …………… . His hands are very dirty. a) soap b) soup c) sugar d) jar 28. She wants to cut the cake. Please give her a ……………… . a) wagon b) space c) knife d) glass
C) Grammar. a) Fill in the blanks using the correct forms of the words in the brackets. 29. These students are trying …………….. the qustions quickly. (answer) 30. Where would you work if you ……………… four languages. (know) 31. She had ………………….. the house before you arrived. (leave)
b) Select the best option. 32. My mother is thirsty. She’s going to make some tea for ………….. . a) she b) her c) hers d) herself 33. My father bought ……. car on ……… Tuesday. a) the/the b) a/the c) a/ d) the/an 34. The woman ………….. telephoned your mother is my Arabic teacher. a) whom b) who c) what d) which 35. What do we call a store which sells shoes? It is called ………….. . a) the shoe stores b) the store shoes c) a shoe store d) a store shoe
c) Answer the following question with “no”. 215
36. How many cars can you see in the street? I can see ………………………. in the street.
d) Answer the following questions based on the pictures.
37. Is this man a taxi driver?
38. Which boy is from China?
e) Put the scrambled sentences in the right order. 39. me/call/he/on/Monday/promised/to/. 40. stay/fine/isn’t/will/if/it/home/we/.
D) Language function.
Find the answers to the questions in column A from column B. There is one additional answer. 41. What is the weather like in Tabriz? a) Oh, about 300 tomans, I think. 42. When is your appointment with the doctor? b) Yes, quite a lot. 43. What is the capital of England? c) It is on the fifteenth, I think. 44. How much does a box of eggs cost? d) It is not very small. 45. Do you get much snow in your town? e) It is pretty cold most of the time. 46. Would you mind not leaving the door open? f) London, I think. g) Oh, all right.
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E) Pronunciation. The vowel sound of which item is different from the others? 47. a) door b) more c) store d) those 48. a) excuse b) rule c) music d) pupil
Good Luck
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Examination papers of English Book 2: second set Ministry of Education Tahzib high school English Book 1 academic year 2004/05 ame: Date: Time: 60 Minutes
A) Complete the incomplete words.
1. Jack hurt his t_umb when he was pl_ying. 2. She pi_ked up as a sl_ce of banana. 3. Small bo_ts sail on canals ab_ut a foot wide. 4. There were no men in the sp_ceship. 5. But there were cam_ras that took pic_ures of the other s_de of the moon. 6. Tr_ins along tiny tracks.
B) Fill in the blanks using the words provided. (glowing – at last – run – fast – a lot – near – around – up – wide)
1. There is a tree ……………. the car. 2. A monkey is going ……………. the tree. 3. The eyes of the cat were ……………….. in the dark. 4. I would like to travel …………….. the world. 5. Let’s buy some meat. We’ve ………………. out of meat. 6. Should we drive ……………….. on highways? 7. The garden is fifty meters …………… . 8. …………….. we found out who had stolen the pen.
C) Fill in the blanks using your own knowledge. 1. If you want to take a photograph, you must have a ……………… . 2. The boy is ………………..... the box.
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D) Use the correct forms of the words in brackets to fill in the blanks. 1. Mina was sad because she ……………… a big mistake. (make) 2. When he came, she …………… him to my room. (bring)
E) Put the scrambled sentences in the right order. 1. speak/ the/ do/ English/ usually/ in/ you/ classroom? …………………………………………………………? 2. the man/ I/ who/ has/ know/ ten children. …………………………………………… .
F) select the best choice. 1. Man can’t live on the moon, because it has no ……………….. . a) rocks b) air c) holes d) seas 2. Whose money is this? It is ……………….. . a) me b) my c) I d) mine 3. There is a lot of ………………….. in the bag. a) sugar b) apple c) oranges d) onions 4. Which word doesn’t have the sound /u:/? a) roof b) cool c) soon d) look 5. There is a ………………… for you if you find my book. a) letter b) reward c) number d) puzzle 6. The moon goes ……………. the Earth. a) Along b) award c) around d) away 7. He fell on the ground and …………….. his arm. a) Burnt b) stole c) broke d) found 8. I have two sisters. Both of ……………… are nurses. a) Them b) they c) us d) we
G) Answer the questions according to the pictures. 1. Which animal is wild?
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2. Were there any boys in the classroom?
H) Relate the following sentences using relative pronouns. 1. This is a film. I like it very much. …………………………………………. . 2. That is a boy. I saw him yesterday. ………………………………………… .
Good Luck 220
Appendix 3c: Examination papers of English Book 3: first set
Ministry of Education Organisation for Educational Research and Planning English Book 1 academic year 1998/99 ame: Date: School ame: Time: 80 Minutes
A. Complete the incomplete words. Please keep the news as a s_cret. My friend is interested in wres_ling. He didn’t tell me the deta_ls of the accident. The student was ash_med of what he did. You can improve your av_rage easily. I req_ire peace and quiet.
B. Vocabulary use. Fill in the blanks using the given words. Call up – topic – experiments – behind – society – information – overlearning – far apart – competitions
1. “Could you write the composition?” “No. The …………….. was very difficult for me to understand.” 2. “Can free education solve all the problems of our ………………?” “No, I think it is not enough.” 3. “Do Reza and Hadi live near each other?” “No, they live ………………..” 4. “Where have you parked your car?” “It is just ………………….. yours.” 5. “What are the researchers doing in the lab?” “They’re doing some …………….. on monkeys.” 6. “Why are you going to the stadium?” 221
“We would like to see the ………………. among the athletes.” 7. “When did you …………………. your friend?” “I telephoned him before dinner.” 8. “Can you give me some ………………. about computers?” “Yes, of course. I know different computer systems.”
Complete the following sentences using appropriate words. 9. Mental or physical power which is needed to do something is called …………... 10. Moslems don’t eat on certain days. In fact they ……………… .
Fill in the blanks using the correct form of the words in brackets. 11. We measured the ……………… of the table. (long) 12. Do you ……………… believe life exists on that planet? (actual) 13. Mrs. Kabiri didn’t accept Mina’s ………………. for being absent. (explain) 14. He’s unhappy because his job is ………….. . (bore)
C. Grammar. Select the best answer. 15. That boy is responsible for ………………. the glasses. a) break b) breaking c) to break d) broke 16. Last week the doctor advised me ………………. late in the morning. a) don’t get up b) not getting up c) not to get up d) didn’t get up 17. Those bridges ………………. many years ago. a) were built b) are building c) are built d) were building 18. They were very sorry ……………….. the accident. a) in b) at c) of d) about 19. If I were you, I …………………. that large house. a) will buy b) would buy c) have bought d) had bought 222
20. “Was it important for the professor …………… French?” “Yes, of course.” a) learning b) learned c) learns d) to learn 21. “Did you understand the math problem?” “No, I was …………… .” a) confusing b) to confuse c) confused d) confuse 22. Mr. and Mrs. Hamidi ……………. to Mashhad next month. a) are going to travel b) had travelled c) have just travelled d) were traveling
Put the words into a sentence. 23. allowed – the bicycle – to use – me – they. 24. like – beautiful – carpet – I – Persian – that.
Complete the sentences based on the information provided. 25. They told me, “Don’t take off your shoes.” They told me not …………………………… . 26. Finding a good job is important for him. It …………………………………………….. .
Answer the question according to the picture. 27. What did he expect her to do?
D. Pronunciation Which words have a different stress pattern. 28. a) enough b) myself c) never d) above 29. a) envelope b) holiday c) realize d) together
E. Language function. Select the answers to the questions. (There is one additional answer) 30. When is her appointment with the dentist? a) We usually cycle. 223
31. What does your sister do at weekends? b) He’s with Iran Air. 32. How do you go to work? c) She reads story books. 33. What company is he with? d) It takes about ten minutes. e) It’s on the fourteenth.
F. Reading comprehension. Select the best choice based on the content of the sentences. 34. “Most things are forgotten in the first hour or day after they are learned, but less is forgotten after a week or so.” This means that …………………………………… . a) pace of forgetting doesn’t change b) forgetting is slow at first and then it becomes fast c) after a week we never forget anything d) forgetting is faster right after learning things 35. “At the end of the experiment most of the families said that in future they would watch only certain programs, and not allow their lives to be influenced by TV.” This means that the families decided …………………………………………………… . a) to influence certain TV programs b) not to watch all TV programs c) to do some experiments in future d) to watch only experiments about their lives 36. “Some new words become part of a language, just as hello did. That word was kept because it was so useful. Other new words that aren’t so useful may be forgotten soon.” According to the above sentences …………………………………………… . a) the word “hello” didn’t become a part of the English language b) the words which aren’t so useful should be kept c) some new words are kept and some are forgotten d) the word “hello” was forgotten soon
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Read the following reading passage and answer the questions.
Penguins get their food from the sea. Although these birds have wings, they never fly. They use their wings for swimming. Their home is on land but many of them can stay in the sea for months. When penguins are born, they are afraid of water. Therefore, their parents have to find sufficient food for the babies. When autumn days grow shorter and it gets cold, penguins migrate to new homes. There, young penguins must learn how to swim and how to find their food. 37. Why can’t baby penguins find food for themselves? 38. Do penguins migrate in summer? 39. Penguins use their wings for flying and swimming. a) True b) False 40. Penguins always stay in the sea. a) True b) False
Good Luck
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Examination papers of English Book 3: second set
Ministry of Education Organisation for Educational Research and Planning English Book 1 academic year 2000/01 ame: Date: School ame: Time: 80 Minutes
1. Complete the incomplete words. A.B. I don’t know the story compl_tely. In fact, I don’t know all the deta_ls. C.D. “What do you require?” “I just want some sug_r.” E.F. You know that it is diffic_lt to make a good choi_e. G.H. Every word is a puz_le because it has a se_ret story behind it. I.J. Takhti was the father of wres_ling. He took part in the comp_t_tions. K.L. Computers can be used in the field of med_cine. They can help doctors to res_ _rch diseases.
2. Fill in the blanks using the given words. stick – attract – healthy – orbit – habit – degree – struggle – accounts – opinion
1) “Is overlearning useful?” “Yes, it makes things …………… in the mind.” 2) “Do you say ‘Hello’ when you pick up the telephone?” “Yes, it has become my … .” 3) “How can doctors and nurses help us?” “They can help us have a ………. life.” 4) “Did the spacecraft ……….. round the moon?” “Yes, and it took some pictures of it.” 5) “How did you end the ……….. among the children?” “I turned off the TV.” 6) “He studied at Tehran university.” “Oh, I didn’t know that he had a university ……” 7) “Can you change your father’s ………?” “No, he has a fixed idea.” 8) “What does your job involve?” “I keep …………… .” 226
3. Complete the sentences by using appropriate words. 9) Some people are very rich. Some are very poor, but a large number are ………….. . 10) The 15 th of Sha’ban is a great religious …………… . 11) The brain’s ability to remember things is called ……………. . 12) A person who is not able to see is called a(n) …………… person.
4. Fill in the blanks using the correct form of the words in brackets. 13) Put on your overcoat …………….. . We want to go out. (quick) 14) It has been dry for two weeks, but I think next weekend will be ……… . (rain) 15) He is an ……….. person. Everyone likes and admires him. (honest) 16) The …………. of the water here is over three meters. (deep)
5. Select the best choice. 17) You must tell me what you think. I’m interested ………… hearing your opinion. a) at b)on c) for d) in 18) The teacher told his students ……………….. the time uselessly. a) don’t spend b) not to spend c) not spending d) not spend 19) I am studying for the exam. Could you please stop ………… so much noise? a) making b) to make c) make d) makes 20) “Why are you turning on the television?” “I …………… the news.” a) am watching b) am going to watch c) have watched d) would watch 21) It is impossible for him ………….. that tall tree. a) climb b) climbs c) to climb d) climbing 22) Those interesting films ……………. at school on Fridays. a) are shown b) show c) are showing d) have shown 23) “Did she pick up the bars of chocolate?” “Yes, she picked …………….. .” 227
a) up them b) it up c) them up d) up it 24) If I sold my car, I ……………. much money for it. a) got b) had got c) will get d) would get
6. Put each set of words into a sentence. 25) box – is – small – in the kitchen – the – metal. 26) some cake – to – my sister – I – for – me – asked – make.
7. Complete the sentences using the given information. 27) The children are amused because the story is amusing. Why ……………………..? 28) “What time will you come back?” “I don’t know what time ……………..” 8. Answer the question according to what you see in the picture.
29) What has made Maryam tired?
9. Which word has a different stress pattern? 30) a) father b) happy c) city d) before 31) a) angry b) belief c) above d) decide
10. Find the answers to the questions in column A in column B.
A B 32) What’s the date on Friday? a) I walk. 33) Where is his car parked? b) It’s the twenty second. 34) How often do you go to the theatre? c) We usually stay at home. 35) How do you get to work? d) About two hours. 36) How long does your exam take? e) In front of the shop. 228
37) What do you do at weekends? f) Twice a year. g) At seven thirty.
11. Select the best option based on the content of the sentences. 38) Most things are forgotten in the first hour or day after they are learned, but less is forgotten after a week or so. We understand from this sentence that ……………….. . a) the pace of forgetting doesn’t change b) after a week nothing is forgotten c) forgetting is what we don’t learn d) forgetting is rapid at first, then slows down
39) The Winter Olympics are always held in countries with snow covered mountains. We understand from the above sentence that …………………………………. . a) hot countries cannot be the host of the Winter Olympics b) the Winter Olympics are held in all countries c) mountains are always covered with snow d) the Winter Olympics can be held in any season
40) The man spoke English so well that we never realized he was German. This sentence means that ………………………… . a) the man didn’t know German well b) although the man was German, he could speak English well c) the man was not able to speak English at all d) although the man was English, he could speak German well
12. Read the following reading passage and answer the questions.
Jack was a clever boy. He had to work in his free time and during holidays to pay for his education. However, he managed to get to the university. As it was very expensive to study there, he found it necessary to get jobs in order to earn enough money to pay for his studies. 229
He got a job in a butcher’s shop during the day and another in a hospital at night. In the butcher’s shop he learnt to cut meat up quite nicely. In the hospital, on the other hand, he was allowed to do only the simplest jobs such as taking sick people from one part of the hospital to another. Both at the butcher’s shop and at the hospital, Jack had to wear white clothes.
41. Why did Jack have to work day and night? 42. What did he do in the hospital? 43. Jack was not a stupid student. a) True b) False 44. Jack found a way to solve his problems. a) True b) False
Good Luck
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Appendix 3d: Examination papers of “A preparatory English course: book one & two”: first set Ministry of Education Organisation for Educational Research and Planning Emam Khomeini Pre University center English Book 1 academic year 2002/03 ame: Date: Time: 90 Minutes
I. Spelling: fill in the blank with the missing letters. 1/2. According to recent findings, stress may r_s_lt in high blood pre_ _ure. 3. Accepting the job inv_l_es living in Bandar Abbas. 4. We suppl_ _d him all the books he needed. 5/6. Some animals are s_ _red when an enemy enters their te_ _itory.
II. A) Vocabulary. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words below. There is one extra word. forced/ symptoms/ cause/ procedure/ composed/ invaded/ content/ exactly/ disturb/ discover/ brought/ details/ attend
7. What is …………… of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. 8. The collections of aerosols reflect the sun’s heat and ……. the earth to cool. 9. Don’t …………. him. He seems to be sick today. 10. I was ……………. to stay at home because of the heavy rain. 11. Ali was sick for a long time. He didn’t ……………. his classes regularly. 12. Keep working hard. I’m sure you will ………………. the joy of it. 13. I am sure that you will succeed because you know the ………… . 14. The rescue group need to know …………… where the accident happened. 15. The report is very general. We need more ………….. to start the project. 16. He is sneezing a lot today. That could be a ……………. of flu. 17. Overactivity of deer ………………… about their death in James Island. 18. Some cities in the North are …………… by tourists during the summer. 231
B) Word definition: Match the definition in column A with words in column B. There is one extra word in column B. A B 19. to change the usual conditions of something a. claim 20. take or suck in (a liquid) b. responsible for 21. be in charge of c. way of doing things 22. procedure d. disturb 23. to put into position e. set up 24. to need or require f. replace g. absorb
C) Vocabulary. Complete the sentences with proper words. 25. Aerosols are collocations of small liquid or solid ……………. in air. 26. The problem of child ………………. should be solved through better laws. 27. We aren’t ready for the exam. We are going to ………. the exam until next month. 28. Animals suffer both …………… and mentally when they are kept in overcrowded conditions.
III. Structure. A) Check the correct answer. 29. We would have received the parcel sooner if it ……………… by mail. a) had sent b) will be sent c) was sent d) had been sent 30. If I hadn’t forgotten the map, we …………………….. the way. a) wouldn’t find b) could have found c) could find d) wouldn’t have found 31. I wish I ………………….. for the exam before. a) have studied b) would study c) will study d) had studied 32. My friend never helps me with my homework. I wish he …………….. me with my homework. a) helps b) had helped c) would help d) helped 33. He ………………. me that he wasn’t content with his job. 232
a) told b) said c) say d) tell 34. They said that they ………….. to Tehran the following day. a) will go b) had gone c) would go d) have gone 35. The teacher asked me if …………. speak English correctly. a) can you b) can I c) I can d) I could 36. I told him I ……………. some books the previous day. a) had brought b) was bringing c) brought d) would bring 37. Could you tell me where ………………….? a) did they go b) they went c) will they go d) have they gone 38. After he had watched TV, she went home. ……………….. TV, she went home. a) Watching b) Having had c) Watched d) Having watched 39. If you don’t know the meaning of a new word, please look ……… in the dictionary. a) them up b) up it c) up them d) it up 40. The doctor advised my father …………………… any more. a) smokes b) not smoke c) not to smoke d) not smoking 41. The house ………………….. out because of its unusual shape. a) sticks b) looks c) brings d) stands 42. The students were happy while ………………. the school. a) they left b) leaving c) they leave d) left
B. Complete the sentences based on the situation given. 43. I couldn’t buy that car because I didn’t have enough money. I ……………………………… if I had had enough money. 44. My brother always does his homework carelessly. I wish he ………………………………….. carefully. 45. He said, “I was at home last night.” He said that …………………………………….. . 46. He asked me, “Did you meet your friends there?” He asked me ……………………………………... . 47. The children are watching TV now. Afterwards they will go to bed. 233
Having ………………………………………………………………. .
C. Pronunciation: choose the words which have different vowel sound. 48. a) talk b) both c) draw d) cross 49. a) book b) full c) pull d) food
IV. Language function: Match column A with column B. There is one extra item in column B.
A B 50. how often does the university bus leave? a. You want a number 114 51. I’m calling about your advertisement. b. About 20 hours. 52. How long does the trip take? c. That one’s very nice. How much is it? 53. Here you are. Is this the one? d. Oh yes, that’s mine. Thanks very much. 54. Can I try on these shoes, please? e. Certainly. 55. Do you like any of these? f. Every fifteen minutes. g. Yes, what would you like to know?
V. Reading comprehension 1. Check the correct answer. 56. In many parts of the world the conditions Dickens described continue almost unchanged today. It means that …………………………… . a) something has happened to Charles Dickens b) everything in the world has changed c) everything is all right d) conditions have hardly changed. 57. They keep their personal equipment at home so as to be ready within fifteen minutes. It means that ……………………………… . a) they will set up a base within fifteen minutes. b) they like their personal equipment c) they will start a fifteen minutes journey d) they equipped in order to start the journey without delay 234
58. Many years ago, girls were prevented from attending school. This sentence means that many years ago, girls ………………………………… . a) were allowed to go to school b) were forced to go to school c) were not interested in going to school d) were not permited to go to school
VI. Reading comprehension 2: Read the following passage and answer the questions. The Earth seems big to us, but it is only one particle floating along with countless other particles in space. Our sun is another such particle. It is only a large star at the edge of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Nine small planets and about two thousand smaller bodies all move round it in a fixed order. There are many stars larger and brighter than the sun in the Milky Way. There also many millions of galaxies in the universe as big as or bigger than, the Milky Way. The distance from the Earth to other bodies is measured in light years, that is, the distance that light travels in one year. The farthest galaxies are more than two billion light years from the Earth. Each galaxy is made of millions stars and satellites.
59. What does the word underlined it in line four refer to? 60. How do you define a light year? 61. How many planets and bodies does the sun have? 62. The Earth is …………………………………….. . a) the largest object in the universe b) the only particle floating in space c) more than two billion miles away from the farthest galaxies d) one of the smallest bodies floating in space 63. The Milky Way ………………………………….. . a) orbits the sun in a fixed order b) is made of millions of galaxies c) is not the only galaxy in the universe 235
d) is not smaller than the universe 64. Which of the following is the best title for this passage? a) The speed of light b) The size of the universe c) The Milky Way d) The sun’s energy
VII. Cloze passage 1. Read the following passage and choose the best answer. Every culture and every country in the world (65) new year, but not everyone does it in the same way. There are many interesting customs in (66) countries for celebrating the new year. In Iran New Year’s Day is called No Ruz. It begins on march 21and (67) for thirteen days. No Ruz is a happy time (68) winter is ending and spring is beginning. Each member of a family usually reads from the Koran, and then all (69) each other and say “May you live 100 years.” 65. a) celebrate b) supervises c) justifies d) surprises 66. a) nervous b) curious c) serious d) various 67. a) links b) lasts c) leads d) looks 68. a) through b) until c) because d) therefore 69. a) congratulate b) experience c) apologize d) calculate
VIII. Cloze passage 2 Many people’s favourite hobby is sport. They spend much of their (70) time playing team games like football or baseball, game for two or four people, like (71) or golf or practicing a(n) (72) sport like running, mountain climbing or swimming. People usually practice a sport for at least two (73). First they enjoy it and second, they feel a need to (74) fit. 70. a) easy b) present c) restful d) free 71. a) volleyball b) tennis c) hunting d) waterpolo 72. a) team b) water c) individual d) snow 73. a) project b) reasons c) advices d) conditions 74. a) keep b) take c) have d) grow Good Luck 236
Examination papers of “A preparatory English course: book one & two”: second set Ministry of Education Hamadan Educational Office ame: Date: School ame: Time: 90 Minutes
1) Complete the incomplete words. 1/2. We should stop the spr_ _d of aerosols in the atmosp_ere. 3. Althoug_ the work they do is often light. 4/5. They ask how many people are inv_lved and what kind of inj_ries there were. 6. These d_stan_es are not the same for all people.
2) Fill in the blanks by selecting the appropriate words. elements – value – separate – overcome – set off – arms – including – best – confined – rather – equipment 7. With strong will you can …………….. all problems. 8. We …………….. our journey early in the morning. 9. We buy our …………………. supplies from various countries. 10. They carry more supplies, ……………… a stretcher for the victim. 11. Has it got a ……………….. dining room? 12. He did his ………………... to buy some stretchy cotton. 13. Water is composed of two …………………. . 14. He hates to be …………………… within an office for all his life. 15. The ………………….. of good education is not known for all. 16. I am …………………. puzzled by your question.
3) Match the definitions from column A from the words in column B. One word is extra.
A B 17. Give somebody a very bad surprise. a. set up 237
18. To put into position. b. collection 19. Having a close relationship. c. contact 20. A set of things of the same type that have been put together. d. shock e. intimate 4) Use the appropriate form of the given words to fill in the blanks. give up – get up – call out – put out stand out – turn up – stand up 21. Shall we let the robber go or …………. him ………….. to the police? 22. The firemen didn’t arrive on time ………………. the fire. 23. The house ……………. because of its unusual shape. 24. Would you mind not ………….. the radio? I am studying. 25. You have been lying in bed for long and never want to …………….. . 26. The servant was ……………… for further questionings.
5) Grammar: Select the best choice.
27. The flower hasn’t got any seeds. The wind ………………….. . a) has blown out them b) have blown them out c) has blown them out d) have blown out them 28. Where do you work? He asked me ………………… . a) where did I work b) where I work c) where I had worked d) Where I worked 29. I wish I ………………… why you are so tired today. a) knew b) know c) had known d) will know 30. If she …………….. , she will be able to go with us. a) hurry b) hurries c) would hurry d) hurried 31. ………………… the tree, the boy fell down. a) Climbing b) Climbed c) Climbs d) Climb 32. Jane: I will wash the dishes, Jane offered ………………….. . a) wash the dishes b) to wash the dishes c) washing the dishes d) washed the dishes 33. Our country is more ………………… than many countries in Asia. 238
a) advancement b) advancing c) advance d) advanced 34. The children are getting wet outside. Did you ……………….? a) let them out b) let out them c) blow them out d) blow out them 35. ………………. , I asked the policeman. a) Not know b) Not knowing c) didn’t know d) Won’t know 36. She usually ………………… her best dishes when she has guests. a) brings out b) sticks out c) falls out d) leaves out
6) (a) Complete the incomplete questions.
37. I didn’t study well so I didn’t pass the test. If I ………………………………………….. . 38. I have to work hard to finish the work, but, ... I wish I ……………………………………………. .
(b) Change the sentences into indirect speech.
39. Mary said to the children, “Did you study hard last night?” …………………………………………………………………………… 40. The teacher said to Ali, “I will tell your father about it.” ……………………………………………………………………………
(c) Relate the below sentences by omitting the subject of the first sentence. 41. He completed the form. He gave it to the teacher later.
7) Match the conversations in column A and B.
A B 42. I have spilt milk on my Jacket. a) I hope to be back next week. 43. How long will you be away? b) Certainly. 44. What does your town look like? c) What a shame! d) Quite big. 239
8) Which word has a different stress pattern? 45. a) thermometer b) ability c) experiment d) income 46. a) pencil b) machine c) apple d) sugar
9) Select the best answer based on the content of the given sentences. 47. Hardly does a day pass that writing is not necessary in some form for all of us. The above sentence means that ………………………….. . a) writing is hardly necessary b) we always need to write in some form c) some forms of writing are necessary d) days hardly pass without writing
48. The only difference is that nowadays employment of children is confined to small industries and family businesses such as hotels, restaurants and particularly, farms, rather than to large factories. The above sentence says that …………………………. . a) children are not employed in large factories b) industries have limited the employment of children c) small industries are different from family businesses d) small industries are very limited
10) Read the following reading passage and answer the following questions.
There was a bad storm in our city last night. A lot of rain fell in a very short time, and the wind blew very hard. I went outdoors so that I could watch the storm. The wind broke some windows in our house and it blew one of our trees over. It fell into the street and stopped the traffic for a long time. I was afraid during the storm. I went inside the house because of the noise and because I was wet. The rain stopped after a while and everyone else went out again. I stayed indoors however, because the weather was so changeable. 240
49. I came back inside some while later because I ……………………………… . a) was wet b) was noisy c) was afraid of the traffic d) didn’t like the storm 50. There was a heavy traffic for a while because …………………………… . a) everyone went out to stop the traffic b) the cars were outside to stop the traffic c) the tree fell into the street d) the policemen were not there 51. When the storm stopped after an hour, I still stayed inside since ………… . a) the weather was not still fine b) the noise outside was increasing c) the traffic noise was much d) nobody was outside to help me
11) Cloze passage A lot of birds, insects and large animals move in very large groups from country to country ……52……. the year. Some of …..53…… move when there is no food to eat in one place or when the weather gets ……54…… . This movement of animals from one place to another to ……55……. for food or find warmer homes is called ……56…… . It is studied by many ……57…… around the world. In most cases they are able to say where the animals and birds are going, but they still cannot ….58….. why such large groups of birds and animals move together all at the same time. 52. a) between b) during c) before d) against 53. a) their b) theirs c) they d) them 54. a) colder b) darker c) better d) cleaner 55. a) design b) attack c) search d) absorb 56. a) migration b) election c) formation d) extension 57. a) architects b) organizer c) physicians d) scientists 58. a) suggest b) produce c) explain d) concern
Good Luck 241
Appendix 4: Sample year two supplementary vocabulary material for English Book 2.
Review: Follow: come or go after some one Entire: whole Receive: get something Guide: show someone where to go Duty: what you do in your job Message: piece of information, order, or question that one person sends to another Trustful: ready to believe other people Trustworthy: whom you can trust Trusting: honest Truthful: saying what is true Against: word that shows that you do not like an idea
Lesson one: Slice: piece (part) Reward: present Understand: know (find out) (discover) Keep on: continue Run out of: have no more of something (finish) Give back: return Pick up: take up (lift someone or something from the ground) Lift: take Right: good (true, correct) ≠ wrong Take apart: separate something into parts Wait: stay where you are until someone comes
Lesson two: Both: the two 242
Navy: all the warships of a country with officers and men Photograph: picture Camera: machine that makes photographs Width: from side to side Other: not the same A lot: very much Lot: much, many Earth: this world (land/ground) Hold: keep Around: somewhere near Hole: opening Fall: drop
Lesson three: Toy: playing tool for a child Train: engine with wagons behind Tiny: very small Thumb: short, thick finger on the inside of the hand Hammer: tool for hitting nails Hurt: break (damage) Highway: main road Hour: time Sail: travel on the sea Bulb: round electric thing that makes light Push ≠ pull Remember ≠ forget In front of ≠ back (behind) Inside ≠ outside
Lesson four: Engine: machine that gives power or that makes things move Mine: big hole in the ground 243
Miner: someone who works in a mine Earn: get money for doing work Terrible: very bad Feel: touch something Real: true (natural) Law: rule of all the people of a country Accident: happening Die: come to the end of life Just: only Hard: difficult Hard ≠ easy Cry ≠ laugh Sad ≠ happy Poor ≠ rich
Lesson five: Seaside: shore Go on a trip: travel Lovely: beautiful Look like: similar to Mix up: confuse (misunderstand) So: therefore
Lesson six: Scare: frighten Last: at the end Giggle: laugh in a silly way Breathe: take air into and send it out from your nose and mouth Jerk: move suddenly Bother: trouble someone Hold: having something in the hands (keep)
244
Appendix 5: List of Iranian learner essays including essay codes, place of origin, length of each essay and proficiency level. The essays written by Iranian learners are available in the CD accompanying the dissertation.
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR1) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 285 Intermediate (IR2) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 251 Intermediate (IR3) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 237 Intermediate (IR4) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 316 Intermediate (IR5) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 304 Intermediate (IR6) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 831 Intermediate (IR7) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 288 Intermediate (IR8) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 251 Intermediate (IR9) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 408 Intermediate (IR10) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 430 Intermediate (IR11) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 490 Intermediate (IR12) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 220 Intermediate (IR13) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 286 Intermediate (IR14) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 218 Intermediate (IR15) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 353 Advanced (IR16) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 225 Advanced (IR17) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 337 Advanced (IR18) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 347 Advanced (IR19) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 313 Advanced (IR20) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 253 Advanced (IR21) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 347 Advanced (IR22) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 384 Advanced (IR23) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 268 Advanced (IR24) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 199 Advanced (IR25) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 343 Advanced (IR26) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 458 Advanced (IR27) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 334 Advanced (IR28) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 310 Advanced (IR29) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 342 Advanced (IR30) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 215 Advanced (IR31) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 264 Advanced 245
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR32) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 220 Advanced (IR33) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 433 Advanced (IR34) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 479 Advanced (IR35) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 366 Advanced (IR36) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 366 Advanced (IR37) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 581 Advanced (IR38) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 504 Advanced (IR39) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 242 Advanced (IR40) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 600 Advanced (IR41) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 208 Advanced (IR42) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 263 Advanced (IR43) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 585 Advanced (IR44) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 493 Advanced (IR45) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 291 Advanced (IR46) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 503 Advanced (IR47) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 931 Advanced (IR48) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 512 Advanced (IR49) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 301 Advanced (IR50) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 337 Advanced (IR51) Islamic Azad University of Boroujerd 239 Advanced (IR52) Shahid Beheshti University 190 Intermediate (IR53) Shahid Beheshti University 215 Advanced (IR54) Shahid Beheshti University 495 Advanced (IR55) Shahid Beheshti University 307 Advanced (IR56) Shahid Beheshti University 1198 Advanced (IR57) Shahid Beheshti University 678 Advanced (IR58) Shahid Beheshti University 464 Advanced (IR59) Shahid Beheshti University 321 Advanced (IR60) Shahid Beheshti University 314 Advanced (IR61) Shahid Beheshti University 318 Advanced (IR62) Shahid Beheshti University 266 Advanced (IR63) Shahid Beheshti University 290 Advanced (IR64) Shahid Beheshti University 296 Advanced (IR65) Shahid Beheshti University 296 Advanced (IR66) Shahid Beheshti University 289 Advanced (IR67) Shahid Beheshti University 318 Advanced 246
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR68) Shahid Beheshti University 545 Advanced (IR69) Shahid Beheshti University 259 Advanced (IR70) Shahid Beheshti University 275 Advanced (IR71) Shahid Beheshti University 238 Advanced (IR72) Shahid Beheshti University 305 Advanced (IR73) Shahid Beheshti University 314 Advanced (IR74) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 217 Advanced (IR75) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 594 Advanced (IR76) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 256 Advanced (IR77) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 619 Advanced (IR78) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 402 Advanced (IR79) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 663 Advanced (IR80) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 326 Advanced (IR81) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 533 Advanced (IR82) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 473 Advanced (IR83) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 502 Advanced (IR84) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 467 Advanced (IR85) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 355 Advanced (IR86) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 221 Advanced (IR87) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 628 Advanced (IR88) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 255 Advanced (IR89) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 494 Advanced (IR90) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 489 Intermediate (IR91) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 408 Advanced (IR92) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 361 Advanced (IR93) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 910 Advanced (IR94) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 482 Advanced (IR95) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 341 Intermediate (IR96) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 223 Intermediate (IR97) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 286 Intermediate (IR98) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 268 Intermediate (IR99) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 324 Intermediate (IR100) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 239 Intermediate (IR101) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 290 Intermediate (IR102) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 283 Intermediate (IR103) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 139 Intermediate 247
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR104) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 274 Advanced (IR105) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 205 Intermediate (IR106) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 246 Advanced (IR107) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 251 Advanced (IR108) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 280 Advanced (IR109) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 377 Advanced (IR110) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 456 Advanced (IR111) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 363 Advanced (IR112) Shahid Beheshti University 251 Advanced (IR113) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 469 Advanced (IR114) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 577 Advanced (IR115) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 649 Advanced (IR116) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 182 Intermediate (IR117) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 201 Intermediate (IR118) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 295 Intermediate (IR119) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 197 Intermediate (IR120) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 239 Intermediate (IR121) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 194 Intermediate (IR122) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 204 Intermediate (IR123) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 230 Intermediate (IR124) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 300 Intermediate (IR125) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 275 Intermediate (IR126) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 218 Intermediate (IR127) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 96 Intermediate (IR128) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 129 Intermediate (IR129) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 137 Intermediate (IR130) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 325 Advanced (IR131) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 235 Intermediate (IR132) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 256 Advanced (IR133) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 250 Advanced (IR134) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 236 Intermediate (IR135) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 228 Advanced (IR136) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 413 Advanced (IR137) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 237 Intermediate (IR138) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 340 Advanced (IR139) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 274 Intermediate 248
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR140) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 213 Advanced (IR141) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 357 Intermediate (IR142) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 288 Advanced (IR143) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 189 Intermediate (IR144) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 272 Intermediate (IR145) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 236 Intermediate (IR146) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 283 Intermediate (IR147) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 334 Advanced (IR148) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 564 Advanced (IR149) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 663 Advanced (IR150) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 326 Advanced (IR151) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 520 Advanced (IR152) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 593 Advanced (IR153) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 657 Advanced (IR154) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 406 Advanced (IR155) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 628 Advanced (IR156) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 315 Advanced (IR157) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 355 Advanced (IR158) Islamic Azad University of Rud e Hen 502 Advanced (IR159) Shahid Beheshti University 462 Advanced (IR160) Shahid Beheshti University 398 Advanced (IR161) Shahid Beheshti University 427 Advanced (IR162) Shahid Beheshti University 360 Advanced (IR163) Shahid Beheshti University 353 Advanced (IR164) Shahid Beheshti University 282 Advanced (IR165) Shahid Beheshti University 398 Advanced (IR166) Shahid Beheshti University 497 Advanced (IR167) Shahid Beheshti University 454 Advanced (IR168) Shahid Beheshti University 412 Advanced (IR169) Shahid Beheshti University 778 Advanced (IR170) Shahid Beheshti University 333 Advanced (IR171) Shahid Beheshti University 375 Advanced (IR172) Shahid Beheshti University 320 Advanced (IR173) Shahid Beheshti University 241 Advanced (IR174) Shahid Beheshti University 529 Advanced (IR175) Shahid Beheshti University 415 Advanced 249
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR176) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 724 Advanced (IR177) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 357 Advanced (IR178) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 315 Advanced (IR179) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 567 Advanced (IR180) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 425 Advanced (IR181) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 516 Advanced (IR182) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 317 Advanced (IR183) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 623 Advanced (IR184) Islamic Azad University of Tehran (central branch) 535 Advanced (IR185) Yazd University 570 Advanced (IR186) Yazd University 585 Advanced (IR187) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 361 Intermediate (IR188) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 284 Intermediate (IR189) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 233 Intermediate (IR190) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 260 Intermediate (IR191) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 356 Intermediate (IR192) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 256 Intermediate (IR193) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 388 Intermediate (IR194) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 233 Intermediate (IR195) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 264 Intermediate (IR196) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 208 Intermediate (IR197) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 338 Advanced (IR198) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 188 Advanced (IR199) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 353 Intermediate (IR200) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 318 Advanced (IR201) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 226 Intermediate (IR202) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 270 Intermediate (IR203) Yazd University 955 Advanced (IR204) Yazd University 541 Advanced (IR205) Yazd University 722 Advanced (IR206) Yazd University 604 Advanced (IR207) Yazd University 271 Advanced (IR208) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 229 Advanced (IR209) Yazd University 504 Advanced (IR210) Yazd University 398 Advanced (IR211) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 545 Intermediate 250
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR212) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 418 Intermediate (IR213) Yazd University 317 Advanced (IR214) Yazd University 718 Advanced (IR215) Yazd University 506 Advanced (IR216) Yazd University 224 Advanced (IR217) Yazd University 172 Advanced (IR218) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 382 Intermediate (IR219) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 782 Advanced (IR220) Yazd University 278 Advanced (IR221) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 126 Intermediate (IR222) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 894 Advanced (IR223) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 138 Advanced (IR224) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 116 Advanced (IR225) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 120 Advanced (IR226) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 180 Intermediate (IR227) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 842 Intermediate (IR228) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 394 Intermediate (IR229) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 309 Intermediate (IR230) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 390 Intermediate (IR231) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 247 Intermediate (IR232) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 998 Intermediate (IR233) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 291 Intermediate (IR234) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 1205 Intermediate (IR235) Yazd University 569 Advanced (IR236) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 489 Advanced (IR237) Islamic Azad University of Hamedan 731 Advanced (IR238) Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran 242 Advanced (IR239) Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran 226 Advanced (IR240) Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran 173 Intermediate (IR241) Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran 115 Intermediate (IR242) Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan 240 Advanced (IR243) Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan 158 Advanced (IR244) Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan 247 Advanced (IR245) Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan 151 Advanced (IR246) University of Isfahan 94 Advanced (IR247) University of Isfahan 159 Advanced 251
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR248) Islamic Azad University of Abadeh 177 Advanced (IR249) Islamic Azad University of Abadeh 226 Advanced (IR250) Islamic Azad University of Abadeh 192 Advanced (IR251) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 254 Advanced (IR252) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 495 Advanced (IR253) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 296 Advanced (IR254) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 425 Advanced (IR255) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 297 Advanced (IR256) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 313 Advanced (IR257) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 226 Advanced (IR258) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 325 Advanced (IR259) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 327 Advanced (IR260) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 324 Advanced (IR261) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 328 Advanced (IR262) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 274 Advanced (IR263) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 432 Advanced (IR264) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 578 Advanced (IR265) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 234 Advanced (IR266) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 527 Advanced (IR267) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 551 Advanced (IR268) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 495 Advanced (IR269) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 676 Advanced (IR270) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 412 Advanced (IR271) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 407 Advanced (IR272) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 436 Advanced (IR273) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 535 Advanced (IR274) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 325 Advanced (IR275) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 540 Advanced (IR276) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 663 Advanced (IR277) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 291 Advanced (IR278) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 251 Advanced (IR279) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 289 Advanced (IR280) Islamic Azad University of Qazvin 269 Advanced (IR281) Yazd University 754 Intermediate (IR282) Yazd University 135 Advanced (IR283) Yazd University 209 Advanced 252
Text Place of origin Length Comments (in words) (IR284) Yazd University 178 Advanced (IR285) Yazd University 753 Advanced (IR286) Yazd University 155 Advanced
253
Appendix 6: Proposed ICLE essay titles used for the collection of essays for the present study.
Essay Titles Please select one of the following topics for your essay:
(1) Crime does not pay (2) The prison system is outdated. No civilised society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them (3) Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value (4) A man/woman's financial reward should be commensurate with their contribution to the society they live in. (5) The role of censorship in Western society (6) Marx once said that religion was the opium of the masses. If he was alive at the end of the 20th century, he would replace religion with television (7) All armies should consist entirely of professional soldiers: there is no value in a system of military service (8) The Gulf War has shown us that it is still a great thing to fight for one's country (9) Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good. (10) In his novel Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote "All men are equal: but some are more equal than others" How true is this today? (11) In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil" (12) Europe (13) In the 19th century, Victor Hugo said: "How sad it is to think that nature is calling out but humanity refuses to pay heed."Do you think it is still true nowadays? (14) Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion? 254
Appendix 7: ICLE learner profile template used in the present study.
LEAR ER PROFILE
======Text code : (do not fill in)
Essay : Title : Approximate length required : 500 words 0 +500 words 0 Conditions : timed 0 untimed 0 Examination : yes 0 no 0 Reference tools : yes 0 no 0 What reference tools ? Bilingual dictionary : English monolingual dictionary : Grammar : Other(s) : ======Surname : First names : Age : Male 0 Female 0
ationality : Native language : Father's mother tongue : Mother's mother tongue : Language(s) spoken at home : (if more than one, please give the average % use of each)
Education : Primary school medium of instruction : Secondary school medium of instruction : Current studies : Current year of study : Institution : Medium of instruction : English only 0 Other language(s) (specify) 0 Both 0 ======Years of English at school : Years of English at university :
Stay in an English speaking country : Where ? When ? How long ? ======Other foreign languages in decreasing order of proficiency : ======I hereby give permission for my essay to be used for research purposes .
Date : ...... Signature : ...... 255
Appendix 8: List of all the phrasal verbs found in the Iranian learner corpus and LOCNESS according to frequency, in one million words (raw).
Phrasal verbs Frequency in Phrasal verbs Frequency in Iranian learner LOC ESS in corpus in one million one million words (raw) words (raw) Face with 140 (15) Go on 200 (53) Put in 121 (13) Carry out 181 (48) Find out 93 (10) Point out 154 (41) Grow up 84 (9) Take away 117 (31) Come back 75 (8) Bring up 109 (29) Sit in 65 (7) Take on 102 (27) Go out 56 (6) End up 98 (26) Root in 56 (6) Grow up 98 (26) Take away 56 (6) Give up 94 (25) Come up 47 (5) Bring about 87 (23) Engage in 47 (5) Find out 72 (19) Go back 47 (5) Make up 68 (18) Put on 47 (5) Set up 64 (17) Cut off 37 (4) Go back 60 (16) Come out 37 (4) Break down 53 (14) Give up 37 (4) Get away 53 (14) Pick up 37 (4) Cut off 45 (12) Put forward 37 (4) Be out 45 (12) Show off 37 (4) Bring in 41 (11) Turn on 37 (4) Carry on 41 (11) Wake up 37 (4) Go out 41 (11) Break down 28 (3) Run up 41 (11) Bring about 28 (3) Turn out 41 (11) End up 28 (3) Fit in 38 (10) Fall in 28 (3) Get out 38 (10) Get up 28 (3) Set out 38 (10) Go on 28 (3) Be around 38 (10) Go through 28 (3) Back up 34 (9) Move forward 28 (3) Bring back 34 (9) Pay off 28 (3) Come out 34 (9) Rely on 28 (3) Put forward 34 (9) Take up 28 (3) Start out 34 (9) Be around 19 (2) Build up 30 (8) Be over 19 (2) Come up 30 (8) Work out 19 (2) Get back 30 (8) Be out 19 (2) Give back 30 (8) Break away 19 (2) Hold up 30 (8) Bring in 19 (2) Look down 30 (8) Build up 19 (2) take over 30 (8) 256
Phrasal verbs Frequency in Phrasal verbs Frequency in Iranian learner LOC ESS in corpus in one million one million words (raw) words (raw) Calm down 19 (2) Bring out 26 (7) Carry on 19 (2) Come about 26 (7) Come up with 19 (2) Come back 26 (7) Cut down 19 (2) Draw up 26 (7) End in 19 (2) Pay off 26 (7) Fall down 19 (2) Pick up 26 (7) Figure out 19 (2) Speed up 26 (7) Gather together 19 (2) Stand up 26 (7) Get away 19 (2) Take up 26 (7) Get in 19 (2) Break away 23 (6) Get out 19 (2) Bring down 23 (6) Go in 19 (2) Bring together 23 (6) Go up 19 (2) Go down 23 (6) Live on 19 (2) Open up 23 (6) Live up 19 (2) Slow down 23 (6) Lock up 19 (2) Start off 23 (6) Look around 19 (2) Take out 23 (6) Look down on 19 (2) Throw out 23 (6) Make up 19 (2) Turn off 23 (6) Move in 19 (2) Come together 19 (5) Pass by 19 (2) Cut down 19 (5) Put aside 19 (2) Face up 19 (5) Reach back 19 (2) Fall back 19 (5) Rise ahead 19 (2) Hand over 19 (5) Shake off 19 (2) Lay off 19 (5) Space out 19 (2) Look back 19 (5) Step in 19 (2) Pass on 19 (5) Step out 19 (2) Put up 19 (5) Stick in 19 (2) Turn on 19 (5) Sum up 19 (2) Wake up 19 (5) Travel back 19 (2) Act out 15 (4) Work together 19 (2) Bring on 15 (4) Act out 9 (1) Come down to 15 (4) Back down 9 (1) Get on 15 (4) Be away 9 (1) Hold on 15 (4) Be behind 9 (1) Keep out 15 (4) Be up to 9 (1) Make off 15 (4) Break off 9 (1) Move forward 15 (4) Break out 9 (1) Move on 15 (4) Bring together 9 (1) Put forth 15 (4) Bring up 9 (1) Slip back 15 (4) Buzz around 9 (1) Sort out 15 (4) 257
Phrasal verbs Frequency in Phrasal verbs Frequency in Iranian learner LOC ESS in corpus in one million one million words (raw) words (raw) Call out 9 (1) Turn away 15 (4) Carry out 9 (1) Break apart 11 (3) Cash in 9 (1) Carry through 11 (3) Catch up 9 (1) Catch up 11 (3) Catch up with 9 (1) Come along 11 (3) Come across with 9 (1) Come off 11 (3) Come along 9 (1) Drop out 11 (3) Come in 9 (1) Explain away 11 (3) Come over 9 (1) Get up 11 (3) Cut down on 9 (1) Get down 11 (3) Cut in 9 (1) Get ahead 11 (3) Cut out 9 (1) Give in 11 (3) Dream up 9 (1) Give away 11 (3) Drive in 9 (1) Go away 11 (3) Eat up 9 (1) Go through 11 (3) Fade away 9 (1) Go by 11 (3) Fall behind 9 (1) Kick out 11 (3) Fiddle about 9 (1) Lead away 11 (3) Figure up 9 (1) Leave behind 11 (3) Fill in 9 (1) Line up 11 (3) Gain back 9 (1) Look up 11 (3) Gather in 9 (1) Lose out 11 (3) Get ahead 9 (1) Make out 11 (3) Get along 9 (1) Miss out 11 (3) Get down 9 (1) Move away 11 (3) Get join together 9 (1) Play out 11 (3) Get together 9 (1) Play out 11 (3) Go away 9 (1) Pull out 11 (3) Go by 9 (1) Put on 11 (3) Go off 9 (1) Put off 11 (3) Go over 9 (1) Rip away 11 (3) Gulp down 9 (1) Run out 11 (3) Hold on 9 (1) Run away 11 (3) Impinge on 9 (1) Seek out 11 (3) Impose upon 9 (1) Set apart 11 (3) Interact together 9 (1) Sign away 11 (3) Jump off 9 (1) Single out 11 (3) Jump out 9 (1) Stand out 11 (3) Keep away 9 (1) Take off 11 (3) Keep off 9 (1) Think out 11 (3) Keep on 9 (1) Throw away 11 (3) Keep up 9 (1) Turn back 11 (3) 258
Phrasal verbs Frequency in Phrasal verbs Frequency in Iranian learner LOC ESS in corpus in one million one million words (raw) words (raw) Kneel down 9 (1) Turn around 11 (3) Leave in 9 (1) Walk in 11 (3) Lie behind 9 (1) Watch out 11 (3) Lie down 9 (1) Write down 11 (3) Link together 9 (1) Do away with 11 (3) Link up 9 (1) Back out 8 (2) Live out 9 (1) Band together 8 (2) Live through 9 (1) Blow away 8 (2) Lock in 9 (1) Bog down 8 (2) Log on 9 (1) Break out 8 (2) Look forward to 9 (1) Clean up 8 (2) Lug around 9 (1) Clear up 8 (2) Make off 9 (1) Cling on 8 (2) Make out 9 (1) Come around 8 (2) Measure out 9 (1) Come in 8 (2) Move away 9 (1) Come forth 8 (2) Pay back 9 (1) Come across 8 (2) Piss off 9 (1) Cry out 8 (2) Pop up 9 (1) Cut back 8 (2) Pour in 9 (1) Die down 8 (2) Progress forward 9 (1) Fight back 8 (2) Pull off 9 (1) Figure out 8 (2) Put away 9 (1) Fill out 8 (2) Put back 9 (1) Follow up 8 (2) Put out 9 (1) Go off 8 (2) Put under 9 (1) Go along 8 (2) Quench through 9 (1) Hit out 8 (2) Relieve off 9 (1) Hold down 8 (2) Render out 9 (1) Join together 8 (2) Return back 9 (1) Keep up 8 (2) Revive around 9 (1) Lay out 8 (2) Revolve around 9 (1) Lay down 8 (2) Roll about 9 (1) Leave out 8 (2) Rummage around 9 (1) Let down 8 (2) Scare out 9 (1) Link together 8 (2) Send out 9 (1) Live out 8 (2) Set aside 9 (1) Look forward 8 (2) Set out 9 (1) Look over 8 (2) Shake out 9 (1) Move out 8 (2) Show up 9 (1) Pass down 8 (2) Sit down 9 (1) Pay back 8 (2) Stand up 9 (1) Pick out 8 (2) 259
Phrasal verbs Frequency in Phrasal verbs Frequency in Iranian learner LOC ESS in corpus in one million one million words (raw) words (raw) Step forward 9 (1) Put together 8 (2) Store away 9 (1) Put aside 8 (2) Suck out 9 (1) Revert back 8 (2) Swallow down 9 (1) Roll down 8 (2) Take out 9 (1) Run back 8 (2) Take over 9 (1) Rush around 8 (2) Take together 9 (1) Seize back 8 (2) Thought out 9 (1) Sell out 8 (2) Throw away 9 (1) Shake off 8 (2) Throw in 9 (1) Show up 8 (2) Try out 9 (1) Sit down 8 (2) Turn back 9 (1) Spring up 8 (2) Turn off 9 (1) Stay away 8 (2) Turn out 9 (1) Strike back 8 (2) Walk along 9 (1) Take back 8 (2) Walk through 9 (1) Tear away 8 (2) Wind up 9 (1) Tear apart 8 (2) Wipe out 9 (1) Tie together 8 (2) Trace back 8 (2) Tune in 8 (2) Turn in 8 (2) Turn over 8 (2) Walk out 8 (2) Want back 8 (2) Whip up 8 (2) Win over 8 (2) Wipe out 8 (2) Work out 8 (2) Be away 8 (2) Be back 8 (2) Be off 8 (2) Be on 8 (2) Be over 8 (2) Be up 8 (2) Have over 8 (2) Allow in 4 (1) Allow back 4 (1) Ask back 4 (1) Back off 4 (1) Bear out 4 (1) Beat up 4 (1) Bind together 4 (1) 260
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Block out 4 (1) Blow out 4 (1) Boil up 4 (1) Bottle up 4 (1) Bounce back 4 (1) Buckle up 4 (1) Break up 4 (1) Bring forth 4 (1) Bring over 4 (1) Call forth 4 (1) Call in 4 (1) Call out 4 (1) Call back 4 (1) Carry away 4 (1) Carry over 4 (1) Check up 4 (1) Check out 4 (1) Chill out 4 (1) Chip in 4 (1) Churn out 4 (1) Combine 4 (1) together Come by 4 (1) Contract out 4 (1) Cover up 4 (1) Crack down 4 (1) Cram in 4 (1) Cut up 4 (1) Date back 4 (1) Divide down 4 (1) Divvy up 4 (1) Drive out 4 (1) Drive around 4 (1) Dig up 4 (1) Drag up 4 (1) Erode away 4 (1) Fade away 4 (1) Fall down 4 (1) Feed back 4 (1) Filter over 4 (1) Fill up 4 (1) Flame on 4 (1) 261
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Flare up 4 (1) Flow in 4 (1) Focus in 4 (1) Follow back 4 (1) Follow through 4 (1) Free up 4 (1) Gather together 4 (1) Get across 4 (1) Get through 4 (1) Get over 4 (1) Get together 4 (1) Go under 4 (1) Go forward 4 (1) Go around 4 (1) Go ahead 4 (1) Go up 4 (1) Go in 4 (1) Gouge out 4 (1) Group together 4 (1) Hand out 4 (1) Hand down 4 (1) Hang on 4 (1) Heat up 4 (1) Help out 4 (1) Hold in 4 (1) Hold out 4 (1) Hold back 4 (1) Hold together 4 (1) Hook up 4 (1) Join up 4 (1) Jump in 4 (1) Keep apart 4 (1) Keep together 4 (1) Keep down 4 (1) Knock down 4 (1) Lag behind 4 (1) Lash out 4 (1) Lead up 4 (1) Let off 4 (1) Lie ahead 4 (1) Lie around 4 (1) Lie down 4 (1) 262
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Light up 4 (1) Linger on 4 (1) Live on 4 (1) Look on 4 (1) Lop off 4 (1) Lure in 4 (1) March in 4 (1) Mark up 4 (1) Measure up 4 (1) Meet up 4 (1) Melt together 4 (1) Merge together 4 (1) Mix together 4 (1) Mix in 4 (1) Move ahead 4 (1) Move along 4 (1) Own up 4 (1) Pair up 4 (1) Pass off 4 (1) Pass up 4 (1) Pass by 4 (1) Pay out 4 (1) Persuade away 4 (1) Pile on 4 (1) Plan out 4 (1) Pop up 4 (1) Pile on 4 (1) Plan out 4 (1) Pop up 4 (1) Press ahead 4 (1) Price out 4 (1) Print out 4 (1) Push aside 4 (1) Push back 4 (1) Push forward 4 (1) Push out 4 (1) Push off 4 (1) Push away 4 (1) Put back 4 (1) Put away 4 (1) Put in 4 (1) Rain in 4 (1) 263
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Reach out 4 (1) Read out 4 (1) Refer back 4 (1) Rip off 4 (1) Rip apart 4 (1) Roam around 4 (1) Roll around 4 (1) Roll away 4 (1) Round up 4 (1) Rule out 4 (1) Run around 4 (1) Run off 4 (1) Run about 4 (1) Rush out 4 (1) Scout out 4 (1) Scrape by 4 (1) Scream out 4 (1) Screw up 4 (1) Send back 4 (1) Send away 4 (1) Send out 4 (1) Set in 4 (1) Set aside 4 (1) Set down 4 (1) Shine through 4 (1) Ship out 4 (1) Shoot down 4 (1) Shoot back 4 (1) Shove off 4 (1) Show off 4 (1) Shrug off 4 (1) Shut down 4 (1) Shy away 4 (1) Sign on 4 (1) Sign in 4 (1) Sit in 4 (1) Sit back 4 (1) Sit around 4 (1) Slave away 4 (1) Slide with 4 (1) Snap out 4 (1) Sneak around 4 (1) 264
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Snuff out 4 (1) Spark up 4 (1) Spark off 4 (1) Spread out 4 (1) Spur on 4 (1) Stamp out 4 (1) Stand around 4 (1) Stand back 4 (1) Stand down 4 (1) Stay on 4 (1) Steer away 4 (1) Stem back 4 (1) Step out 4 (1) Step up 4 (1) Step back 4 (1) Step down 4 (1) Step in 4 (1) Step forward 4 (1) Stress out 4 (1) Strewn about 4 (1) Suck up 4 (1) Sum up 4 (1) Swoop down 4 (1) Table up 4 (1) Take in 4 (1) Take down 4 (1) Talk back 4 (1) Throw back 4 (1) Tie up 4 (1) Tip off 4 (1) Tone down 4 (1) Toss out 4 (1) Train out 4 (1) Travel back 4 (1) Tune out 4 (1) Turn up 4 (1) Veer away 4 (1) Walk by 4 (1) Walk away 4 (1) Walk on 4 (1) Ward off 4 (1) Weed out 4 (1) 265
Phrasal verbs Frequency in LOC ESS in one million words (raw) Weigh down 4 (1) Wind up 4 (1) Work off 4 (1) Wrap up 4 (1) Wear away 4 (1) Be down 4 (1) Do back 4 (1)
266
Appendix 9: Phrasal verbs found in COCA. Appendix 9a. “Swallow down”
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA:2012:FIC off every lad that's come this way ever since that fool Martin '' Bk:Firelight He swallowed down his words aware, for once, that even he might have gone too COCA:2012:FIC eyes to fully appreciate every single taste sensation of the cake, when she Bk:ThisKiss finally swallowed it down and opened her eyes back up, she was surprised to find a COCA:2012:FIC say noroc in Engtish? he asked. # Cheers, she said, and swallowed her MassachRev shot down . The biology instructor immediately refilled it. # Easy, said COCA:2011:FIC That's why you jumped out of your chair in the roadhouse. '' Analog He swallowed the pie back down again. '' It killed a woman. '' '' Oh COCA:2011:FIC in my ear and the weight of his thick body pressing against me. Bk:LinenQueenNovel I swallowed down the bad taste that rose in my throat. Soon his lips moved across COCA:2011:FIC a hand. '' Priscilla Patterson. I'm your daughter. '' # Bk:TraceFever Trace swallowed down a curse. He wanted to toss the girl, in her ridiculous clothes COCA:2010:FIC from her camera, she found her nose almost against a loinclothed crotch. Bk:ShutUpKissMe She swallowed a lump down her throat and rose the rest of the way. Although she COCA:2010:FIC something for the longest time, not until after I'd snapped it up Bk:FetchThiefChet and swallowed it down . Croissant: that was it. Not the sausage and egg kind, which COCA:2009:FIC calling, and next time I'm not telling them no. '' # I swallowed down the Bk:RedHotLies tension that felt thick in my throat. Jane Augustine was the most COCA:2009:FIC surprised him. They'd bet a beer and when he paid up, Bk:WindlessSummer she swallowed it down within two minutes and ordered another one on his tab. It was COCA:2009:FIC . She glanced at Jacob, and paused. He picked up his cup Lilith and swallowed down the whiskey, peering at her as he drank. The air between them COCA:2009:FIC hand right into my mouth. I would of eaten that new baby up AntiochRev and swallowed it right down . I'm lighting a cigarette up thinking again about that tissue COCA:2009:FIC antique Crockett and Kit Carson that brawny doer of rejoicing good RecContempFic deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; still, whether that strictly makes a COCA:2008:FIC unfamiliar with the concept of uninhibited movement. // It's over now. Bk:SinsNight He swallowed down bitter acid. My life is again my own. // Still, fear COCA:2008:FIC throat and jerked his neck as though ready to spit it out, but ArkansasRev then swallowed it back down . # '' Why you bossing her? '' I asked. COCA:2006:FIC , five towns ago, side by side forever. Rem shook his head SCarolinaRev and swallowed down his beer and said to himsel fuck it, no good thinking about that COCA:2005:FIC through avocado and endive, or at least Jean Paul and I were. Richie Ploughshares had swallowed his salad down in two bites, as if to show how puny it was COCA:2005:FIC up from her chest, all the way to her eyelids. No. She swallowed it down. FeministStud # '' Your name? '' the chief asked. # '' COCA:2005:FIC forward. Instead, I did what I urged others not to do, FeministStud I swallowed it down ... yet the projector kept whirring and clacking. # There 267
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA:2003:FIC much longer, she must fight with all the strength she had left. BkJuv:DarkEnchantment She swallowed down a sob, and made a desperate lunge. She missed and fell to COCA:2002:FIC our glasses, and even though I was already feeling a little tipsy, Esquire I swallowed mine down in a couple of gulps. We turned up the news again and COCA:2001:FIC tipping alarmingly until his stomach heaved. He gripped the arms of the Analog seat and swallowed down the bile. It's only a blistering film, he reminded himself. COCA:1999:FIC . Then she took a huge swig of water on top of it, and swallowed it VirginiaQRev all down . # '' Try it, '' she said. '' All COCA:1997:FIC '' Who's a fidget? '' She mocked his voice, a tight Ploughshares baritone swallowed down into her glass, doubling in on itself in a liquidy echo. She COCA:1996:FIC to his gonads, palmed the quarter, tossed it in his mouth, Ploughshares and swallowed it down with an audible gulp. It was one of his tricks. Years COCA:1995:FIC it. Instead of the wedge, the creature took hold of the wheel BkJuv:Arkadians and swallowed it down in one gulp. '' You've an appetite bigger than yourself, COCA:1995:FIC She wanted to spit it out, as always, but she chewed it BkJuv:Indio and swallowed it down to please the friars. During the weeks after the Easter pageant, COCA:1995:FIC the gourd to his lips again. This time Kadoh raised his head slightly BkJuv:Indio and swallowed the liquid down in awkward, choking gulps. Ipa cupped her brother's face COCA:1994:FIC deep into the flesh of the impudent finger; but then the blistering idea LiteraryRev was swallowed with her saliva down the back of her throat, as an expression of acquiescence COCA:1992:FIC or keep them in the house. '' # I thought about Judy. I swallowed my Ploughshares coffee down to the thick sediment. Judy didn't have any antique silver COCA:1991:FIC Darla's neck had tensed, the nose was throbbing red. But soon KansasQ Darla swallowed her passion down without uttering a word. Minnie was grateful for her friend's COCA:1991:FIC went into anarchy, a revolt. My breath stuck in my throat. KenyonRev I swallowed down an uprising of stomach acid. My eyes stung, my nose felt beaten COCA:1990:FIC taste. God knows what mixture it was. But I did not VirginiaQRev gag. Swallowed it down like nectar and could feel, with each taste and swallow, warmth COCA:1990:FIC years earlier when she went into the house from working in the cactus Bk:MigrantSouls garden, swallowed down an entire glass of iced tea without taking a breath, and suffered a COCA:2012:FIC '' # '' But why? '' A wretched sob escaped before she Bk:Firelight could swallow it down . Hateful that she should be weak before him. # He stopped COCA:2007:FIC struggles against the intrusion. Throwing its head back and forth, it Mov:Ark manages to swallow the torch down . Now turning its attention to Gregor, it opens its mammoth COCA:2005:FIC he could only feel wells of spit collecting, little puddles he would have SCarolinaRev to swallow back down . # Kelton Smith said, '' What's the matter with you COCA:2004:FIC impishly foisted kasha kugel or pot roast with raisins on my father. IndiaCurrents He'd swallow it down with that same hitched scowl until Mom gave a laugh and squeezed his
268
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA:2004:FIC don't mean she won't reach over and pinch me again. # NewEnglandRev I swallow down air and let it out. Too late, the burp come back up COCA:2003:FIC wanted. '' Katya hated hearing the desperation in her own voice and tried Bk:RoomService to swallow it down past the lump in her throat. She put a hand on Nathan COCA:2002:FIC smoking, Songster. I done. Lion could keep he powder. '' SmallAxe He swallow down the beer Michael just buy for him, his hand shaking as he try COCA:2002:FIC made his first cry and already he was causing me unhappiness. I had Bk:TwistedRoots to swallow it down . '' Thank you, '' Miguel said. After they had left COCA:2001:FIC could acknowledge now that much of it would be forever beyond his Analog comprehension. To swallow down the entire 21 '' century was too big a mouthful. His only hope COCA:2000:FIC whole milk at every meal, and from his place at table he watched Atlantic Antoine swallow it all down . Anemia was not what bothered Antoine. He was hardly aware COCA:1999:FIC put his arm around his wife. A day off! He'd have to swallow down the Bk:NewSong guilt before he could get up and enjoy it. '' Timothy. COCA:1999:FIC Timothy, you just can't. '' '' I've never been able to swallow that down . '' '' Bk:NewSong Remember the sign I have over my drawing board at COCA:1997:FIC and coarse brown sugar. Nelia, who was fretting, wasn't able KenyonRev to swallow down more than a spoon or two of hers so Connie devoured that, too COCA:1992:FIC closer. She kneels. Giggles bump in my stomach and bubble up. Iris I swallow them down . The clock on the mantle chimes. Her hand reaches out. COCA:1992:FIC thwarted adults at leisure. I notice an apology ballooning out of me, MassachRev and swallow it back down . # We shake hands on the front steps. I tell COCA:1992:FIC '' Her voice held more, but she contained it; I could see Ploughshares her swallow something down . # We pulled away and! told her, '' You embarrassed COCA:1992:FIC now depended upon him for survival. Kaylla took a deep breath and BkSF:RelicEmpire forced a swallow down her choked throat. '' Magister Dawn? '' the comm called. '' COCA:1990:FIC fingers in her hair. Her heart beat a throbbing cadence as she tried Bk:PeopleWolf to swallow down a fearknotted throat. '' Dreamer? '' Raven Hunter said, grabbing the
269
Appendix 9b. “reach back”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:1997:SPOK first president born after World War II. And an effort in this address CBS_Special to reach back to Franklin Roosevelt and to John Kennedy. Franklin Roosevelt had his New Deal COCA:1996:ACAD $20 million to escape further criminal and civil liability. # Northrop's criminal Humanist convictions reach back to 1972, when it was convicted of maintaining a slush fund which was COCA:1995:MAG gaining the trust and support of local residents. Bob Jacobs, whose McCarthy NatlParks ties reach back to the late 1970s, says widespread distrust of both state government and the COCA:1993:NEWS Blind Willie's. Some of the vocalist songwriter's tunes are new, but Atlanta others reach back to the 1930s. 10 p.m. Sunday. $ 5. 828 North Highland Ave COCA:2009:SPOK about diplomacy and international cooperation in dealing with these kinds of Fox_Sunday threats and has to reach back to World War II and Hitler to justify his the steps that he COCA:2009:NEWS to realize that some publicly reported data lags months behind current Atlanta performance. Medicare does reach back to 2005 to calculate its current pneumonia death rates. # Emory Eastside said COCA:2008:ACAD the late 1990s, when he was still an undergraduate. The town's Archaeology origins reach back to 1850, when missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints
270
Appendix 9c. “Buzz around”
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text
COCA:2012:MAG seen up close, where few details go unnoticed. Whether you're watching MotherEarth bees buzz around pepper blossoms or following the spiraling growth of pole beans, every container garden COCA:2010:FIC anyway. One time, she snapped at me and said, '' Your Bk:DaughterDarkness questions buzz around my ears like annoying flies. '' She waved her hand near her head COCA:2009:FIC startled look on his fece. '' You know those flying bug things that Analog occasionally buzz around the compound? I think they're actually seed packets from one of the COCA:2008:FIC soon rescue her from her sister's trying foolishness. // Tiny flies continued Bk:FrontierCourtship to buzz around Faith's head. Beads of perspiration gathered on her temples while sweaty rivulets COCA:2008:FIC the catering crew, the refueling crew, the baggage handlers, the tire Bk:ConventLittleFlowers pressure checking crew all buzz around some airplane, swarming into it and then popping out at odd places. COCA:2008:MAG $50 per day, 242 333 2372) at the foot of the Government Boat Dock Shape and buzz around the island. Stop in Dunmore Town, the hub of Harbour, for COCA:2007:FIC how much of this just goes away? These people are like flies. FantasySciFi They buzz around , but they hardly ever land. Now the guy's called twice, COCA:2007:NEWS by finishing every check. They are relentless. They don't quit. USAToday They buzz around like wasps at the family picnic. # 12. Nashville Predators: The COCA:2006:FIC how to make it work, '' I would always reply. And he Analog would buzz around the lab like a redheaded bumblebee, getting in everybody's way. My COCA:2006:MAG goes, turning the fan and the single bare lightbulb on and off. Forbes Flies buzz around the room, and children run in and out. # The women have COCA:2006:MAG astonishing is the newfound energy. '' People think I'm on drugs because Prevention I buzz around so much, '' says Pam, who used to sleep until noon and COCA:2006:NEWS , pushing the dress code to its limit. The boys take notice. Denver They buzz around , talking big, making an impression. # Perla has a boyfriend. COCA:2005:MAG of a smoke filled patio, while warmer weather attracts all sorts of USAToday annoying insects that buzz around the deck. The Holmes Group, Milford, Mass., offers a stylish COCA:2005:NEWS was here last week, and Marine F 18 jets arrive next week. Lumbering C CSMonitor 17s buzz around like oversize bumblebees. # This is a composite picture of Defense Secretary Donald COCA:2004:FIC She leans forward, her eyes dark circled and earnest. She coughs. The FantasySciFi angels buzz around us, so loud I can hardly hear myself think. '' What about COCA:2004:MAG unadorned. A hand lettered menu hangs above a long white counter where SouthernLiv a half dozen cashiers buzz around taking and filling orders. Behind them, white jacketed fry cooks stand over bubbling COCA:2004:NEWS when compared to the grimy halls and wards. Of the doctors and nurses Denver who buzz around Sean, several work without surgical gowns, and some have handguns strapped to COCA:2003:FIC college, '' he says. # '' Yes, Papa. '' # Flies buzz around the horse's head. Ploughshares Her eyes are dilated, and she breathes heavily 271
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA:2002:FIC SHOW HALL DAY 70 # Orlean looks at Laroche. In the background Mov:Adaptation people buzz around flowers: feel petals, stare deep into nectaries, jabber passionately, carry COCA:2002:FIC ? 2 Ninevites have a pile of old fish in front of them.? Mov:Jonah Flies buzz around the pile. Man Are these fish fresh? jeAN CLAUDE You bet! COCA:2002:MAG , clusters of wild flowers and blooming ground covers, such as clover, TodaysParent where they buzz around and gather food. TURN ONS: Scented soaps and perfumes. Movement. PREVENTION
272
Appendix 9d. “Lug around”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:2011:FIC , and Sara never lets her get a leg up. All Courtney does is lug around gowns. Bk:WeddingWriter # The other day Lucky heard Courtney announce that her real game COCA:2011:MAG . But who wants to spend six hours a day hunting for deals, or lug around a fat Redbook binder stuffed with coupons? Jamie Chase, author of The Lazy COCA:2011:NEWS # The problem with almost any laptop is that it's too big to easily lug around . USAToday The problem with even the most capable phone is that it's inherently COCA:2010:SPOK , like you, Hoda. KOTB: Would you use would you I lug my NBC_Today stuff around . GIFFORD: Yeah, but don't you do COCA:2010:FIC handbag she'd simply forgotten. I was old baggage she didn't want Bk:CorpseOnCob to lug around anymore. Eventually, of course, I had to call my dad, COCA:2010:MAG replaced the 10 grand or so of scan tools and all the equipment PopMech I lug around to test cars with an iPhone and a cable. I hate it COCA:2009:MAG in low light. In red, black, and pink. Pocket Camcorders Why lug around your GoodHousekeeping pricey camcorder? Pocket ones are lower cost, kid friendly, and designed to COCA:2009:NEWS doesn't carry a handbag and uses a small paper bag with handles to lug her SanFranChron belongings around . # '' It's a burden, '' Owen said, COCA:2008:MAG recommends some practical choices. '' Be smart about what you pack. HarpersBazaar Don't lug around 10 extra suitcases because you couldn't make up your mind, '' instructs COCA:2007:SPOK technology and every gadget has to be smaller and cooler, she got people NBC_Today to lug around these big, thick, printed books as if they were the hottest gadget COCA:2007:NEWS easier for terrorists to obtain, it would be too heavy for one person AssocPress to lug around in a suitcase. # Plutonium, he notes, would require the cooperation COCA:2006:FIC thing on? '' Though I suppose that a grandfather clock would be hard Bk:SecretSociety to lug around . '' Lame, lame, lame. '' And probably not atomic. COCA:2006:MAG don't need to be tied.) * One hand laundry hampers. No need to lug around a Ms basket these mesh hampers are easy to tote, even on steps. Available COCA:2006:MAG concerned not just about power, but also about how much tool they have PopMech to lug around . So we weighed each drill with battery pack, and then drove and COCA:2006:ACAD Company, Inc. # Leprosy causing bacteria (shown above left in false NaturalHist co/or) lug around a lot of fossil genes about 40 percent of all the genes they COCA:2004:FIC dumb in that stupid bucket of a helmet. Who would want to have KenyonRev to lug around a hose that looks like a python? And risk getting burned or killed COCA:2004:MAG make it a great choice. And at eight pounds, it's relatively easy to lug around . Parenting (Graco, $60, 800 334 4109, wimw.gracobaby.com) Portable monitor Have monitor COCA:2003:FIC least that. Now he wassomeone who carried an arm as an eccentric might Bk:SnipersWife perpetually lug around a heavy stuffed animal. Except that his burden wasn't that interesting. COCA:2002:MAG all, the leading golf club maker ought to sell a good, sturdy bag Inc. to lug around those Big Berthas. What you couldn't have seen when you hoisted that COCA:2002:ACAD with the bare minimum number of genes for smelling. # The fact that NaturalHist we lug around 580 defunct genes may seem bizarre, particularly when you consider that their close COCA:2001:SPOK : If I asked you whether in your opinion your mother would be able CBS_48Hours to lug around a 100 pound bag of seed, you think shell be able to? NICK
273
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA COCA:2001:MAG do. He refused to stay in the stroller, instead demanding that his USAToday father lug him around everywhere. It actually was quite funny because, unlike his older siblings COCA:2001:MAG is used up, you simply toss it out. There is no charger to lug around and no PopMech waiting for the battery to charge. These disposable batteries are a great COCA:2000:SPOK Ms GORDON: You can even go wacky with plaids. Then the new way NBC_Today to lug things around is in a big oversized bag in a big oversized print, like COCA:2000:SPOK is actually a 20 pound empathy belly that we borrowed from Planned ABC_GMA Parenthood. I will lug this around on the subways, and I sure hope I get a seat. COCA:1999:MAG GPS satellites allowing you to determine your location anywhere in the world. PopMech Don't lug around that stand alone GPS unit this Casio watch is 60 percent lighter and smaller and goes COCA:1998:MAG on brawn and horsepower: trucks now outsell cars, and minivans and sport TIME utility vehicles lug the family around . (By the way, where' s the New Age COCA:1997:MAG run safely all night using most portable power sources there's no need SkyTelescope to lug around heavy duty marine batteries, which are typically required for field operation of cooled CCD COCA:1997:NEWS 10 12. # In an effort to minimize the amount of equipment he had Houston to lug around , Chancellor received permission from St. Thomas athletic director Jerry Donohue to leave a COCA:1995:NEWS , and no national credit cards exist. Because of rampant inflation, Russians CSMonitor either lug around huge suitcases of money for large purchases, or use debit cards, which COCA:1994:FIC I myself, who bear no resemblance to Floris in any way, in ContempFic fact lug around with me a pile of contradictory, superficial odds and ends that is just COCA:1994:ACAD items are limited. Take the minimum! Remember you are going to have PSAJournal to lug it around . # We carry the following: 2 camcorders of the same format COCA:1992:SPOK have an electric lawn mower, at least we did, and you had to lug around the Ind_Geraldo cord so you wouldn't chop it over with the lawn mower.
274
Appendix 9e. “Gain back”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:2012:SPOK . Some will gain, some will weigh back, but interestingly even when CBS_ThisMorning they gain back some weight, the diabetes is still in good control usually. GAYLE KING: Mm. COCA:2011:MAG car blogger the Auto Prophet (an automotive engineer) pointed out recently PopMech that to gain back the nearly $10,000 price premium on a new Chevrolet Volt, you'd have COCA:2011:MAG beach bag for glossing touch ups throughout the day. Mist it on dry hair HarpersBazaar to gain back luster and give your color a lift. Jessica Prince # Calypso St. Barth COCA:2010:MAG machines that attack fat cells without incisions or anesthesia, but specialists say Cosmopolitan if you gain back the weight, it may pop up in odd places. P. 29 THE COCA:2009:MAG stops producing hormones needed to release an egg, and your flow ceases until Cosmopolitan you gain it back . SOURCE: DEVORAH WIEDER, OB GYN AT THE CLEVELAND CLINIC'S WOMEN COCA:2009:NEWS 2 pounds can creep up on you really fast, and I'm scared to gain the USAToday weight back . '' # Wadden agrees that dieters should weigh themselves daily and COCA:2008:MAG but they were impractical long term, so I'd lose a few pounds, GoodHousekeeping then gain it back . When Lent came around, I decided this was going to be COCA:2008:MAG sustain ovulation. Visit your MD; she can help you figure out how Cosmopolitan to gain back enough pounds so you see red again. 2 Your Eyelid Twitches Uncontrollably An COCA:2006:MAG longer something they fear. And despite the statistics suggesting that they're Prevention likely to gain back as much as 50% of their excess weight, they don't worry. COCA:2003:ACAD may explain why they would react to their own external LOC beliefs by SportBehavior attempting to gain back control through the practice of superstition. # Findings of the second research question COCA:2000:ACAD Those newspapers have to adopt the principle that '' if you lose here, AsianAffairs you gain back somewhere else. '' Therefore, supplements become an area that those newspapers work COCA:2000:ACAD our own province face difficulties in exportation. The domestic fruit planters AsianAffairs can not even gain back the costs. Their situation is understandable. # Due to the governmental opening
275
Appendix 9f. “Progress forward”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:2003:SPOK ourselves and be proud that we are actually using our intelligence as human NPR_Science beings to progress forward . FLATOW: But what about in the interim what about you
276
Appendix 9g. “Return back”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:2000:SPOK return to the past. Russia has chosen the way, and it won't return back . That's CNN_Insight the most important thing MANN Dmitry Yakushkin, thank you so COCA:2005:SPOK : And starting Monday, residents in some of those areas will be allowed MSNBC_Abrams to return back home. Monday the 26th, the residents of the famous French Quarter will be COCA:1991:SPOK stop it at all, and now when he says that he is going to return back , I think and PBS_Newshour I'm very sorry for him that he will find COCA:2006:SPOK live up there for one or two weeks on and work, and then NPR_ATC they return back home to their communities. We don? t know yet if their jobs COCA:2007:SPOK stay planning for future. It isn't hopeless. We believe that Iraq ABC_Nightline will return back to the civilization. MARTIN BASHIR 1AB# (Voiceover) It's part of ABC's award winning series COCA:2010:SPOK want a government that stays within the boxing, and what they want is CNN_JohnKing a return back to free markets limiting the role of government in their lives and not spending COCA:1996:SPOK no evidence of any distress call being made, no evidence of an effort CNN_News to return back to the airport. But again, all that means is we have not COCA:1990:NEWS not a fond farewell. I get to say goodbye without leaving, because USAToday I return back to work the next day. '' # The way he sees it, COCA:2003:SPOK around the home. And once that is completed, the family was allowed CNN_LiveFrom to return back to their house. Meanwhile, though, in the back yards and the COCA:2009:ACAD classroom teachers that stated that students that had physical education in the PhysicalEduc afternoon tended to return back to class '' more wound up. '' Analysis of the data suggests that COCA:2007:SPOK If, in fact, there are elections a year from now, will you return back to NBC_MeetPress Pakistan and run for prime minister? MS BENAZIR BHUTTO : Well, I would COCA:2010:SPOK needs. And we are working with those people in the camps who wish PBS_NewsHour to return back to their initial neighborhoods. RAY SUAREZ: So, what will the people of Port au Prince COCA:2008:NEWS '' That could prove difficult as many evacuees said they are restless and eager Houston to return back home. An atypical cold front that dipped into the state wasn't helping COCA:2011:SPOK . '' CUPAIUOLO: Sure. Well, in this edition, we really made a return back to NPR_TellMore the book's roots in terms of a focus on reproductive health and
277
Appendix 9h. “Relieve off”
Source in Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA
COCA:2008:NEWS the District, according to the center. // '' Anything we can do to relieve the WashPost pressure off of our waiting lists is a positive, '' said Lee Price
278
Appendix 9i. “Scare out”
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text
COCA:2012:FIC purpose today is to bring in the inspection teams. '' # '' And to scare Analog the bejasus out of us, '' another giant caUed. # '' You say COCA:2012:MAG of storms and getting lost, the stories these sportsmen share will FieldStream inspire you and scare the snot out of you. # That may be why survival stories are always COCA:2011:FIC a distinct heat source. # '' APEs, '' I bellowed, hoping to scare the shit FantasySciFi out of her. '' Drop it! '' # I scared something COCA:2011:FIC into it. But my neighbor is sort of worried that he's going to scare the SouthernRev crap out of the girls. # The story is about how on Halloween COCA:2011:FIC , Charlie, do you like spooky tales? # CHARLIE: Sure! They scare MichiganQRev me out of my wits. Still, it's good to get out sometimes COCA:2011:FIC Shit! My hotel is in East Berlin and so is the gallery! Skinheads scare AmerTheatre the shit out of me. I once ran into some when I was in COCA:2011:MAG # How did having children influence your work? # I used to try to TodaysParent scare the crap out of people, to talk about how bad it could get. COCA:2011:NEWS can hear outside noises, and I'm thinking,' I'm going to scare the crap USAToday out of this kid as 32,000 horsepower launches. '' # She relocated COCA:2011:ACAD of communism and Truman's decision to take Senator Arthur ForeignAffairs Vandenberg's advice and '' scare the hell out of the country '' ignited populist fears about the Soviet Union, COCA:2011:ACAD a small time marijuana dealer in Nashville. Armed with unloaded ABAJournal guns, they intended to scare him out of the neighborhood. # According to court records, the pair forcibly COCA:2011:ACAD . He insisted that he did so on behalf of a local religious group to ABAJournal scare Daniels out of the neighborhood. Abdur' Rahman told jurors that he remembered taping COCA:2010:SPOK back this Taliban sanctuary. And the best way to do that was to NPR_TalkNation essentially scare the Taliban out of town. And even if they wound up surviving to fight COCA:2010:SPOK the Republican are trying to think of how they can out offer or how Fox_Susteren they can scare the living daylights out of the conservatives. BETTELHEIM: They already are raising the COCA:2010:FIC rest of your Ufe you'U regret the price you paid. I'm supposed to Bk:TalentVanessa scare you out of having your surgery. '' She frowned, creating unattractive wrinkles in COCA:2010:FIC called the Kaiserkeller. With their ever increasing musical confidence Bk:PaulIsUndeadBritish and ability to simultaneously entertain and scare the crap out of their growing audiences, the five Liverpudlians knocked the three Hamburgers COCA:2010:FIC to his side. '' Jesus, darlin', you sure know how to scare the hell out of Bk:DangerousDesires a guy. '' He grinned, dropping the gun on COCA:2010:MAG break your heart, '' '' move you to laughter and tears '' and '' scare you America out of your skin. '' We only have to reflect on the response COCA:2009:SPOK that to the people they're trying to take hostage, so they basically Fox_Beck scare the daylights out of them. BECK: So may I and I do COCA:2008:FIC '' David thought about it. The alien woman had gone to considerable Analog trouble to scare him out of it, but she hadn't stopped him. She had only COCA:2008:MAG happy, healthy, easygoing rats make ideal test subjects when it comes PopScience time to scare the holy crap out of them. To understand why rats and other animals 279
Source in COCA Phrasal verb in its surrounding text COCA:2008:MAG you with the glow of mild victory. Others call on every survival Backpacker instinct and scare the crap out of you. Catherine Cox got the latter when her team endured COCA:2007:FIC Zach said. '' You'll have to bang on the sides of them to scare the JackandJill animals out before you go in. You might have to hide in the COCA:2007:FIC Catholic nonsense you've taken up. Did that priest tell you to go and FantasySciFi scare the dickens out of your mother? '' '' It does have something to do COCA:2007:FIC and Alice's, for that matter, are not part of some scheme to scare the MassachRev wits out of him. A grand and important gesture is what's called COCA:2006:FIC he was scared out of his craziness. Other times she had been able to NewYorker scare him out of it herself, by weeping and howling and even banging her head COCA:2006:FIC No, they don't. '' '' Anyway, it's my right to scare Zekk out of his hide, Bk:StarWars but Zekk's a Jedi. He doesn't COCA:2006:MAG in to your calling that it will approach very close to your location and OutdoorLife likely scare you out of your wits if you're not expecting it when it suddenly appears COCA:1994:SPOK with us some weeks ago, and I'll tell you what that'll scare the beans CNN_News out of you, this next book ROSS It really did. It COCA:1998:NEWS a low key life as a child psychiatrist when Coles encountered a white Atlanta mob trying to scare the life out of a little black girl named Ruby Bridges. The civil rights
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Appendix 10: Phrasal verbs in all high school EFL textbooks in Iran ordered alphabetically.
Phrasal verb Frequency Add up 1 Back away 4 Blow out 1 Break out 1 Bring about 1 Bring out 2 Bring together 1 Bring up 2 Call out 2 Call up 7 Carry on 1 Carry out 3 Climb up 3 Come back 5 Come down 1 Come out 1 Come up 2 Cool down 3 Crawl up 1 Fall down 1 Fall out 2 Fill in 3 Fill out 2 Find out 7 Fly back 1 Get away 2 Get down to 1 Get off 2 Get out 5 Get up 16 Give back 7 Give up 8 Go around 7 Go away 3 Go down 2 Go on 1 Go out 7 Go up 2 Grow up 3 Hand in 2 Hang up 2 281
Phrasal verb Frequency Hurry up 1 Jump about 1 Jump down 1 Jump off 1 Jump out of 1 Jump up 1 Keep away from 1 Keep on 2 Leave aside 1 Leave out 1 Let out 1 Light up 1 Look up 4 Make out of 1 Make up 2 Make up of 1 Mix up 3 Move away 1 Move down 5 Move up 5 Pair up 1 Pay back 1 Pick up 11 Point out 1 Pull back 1 Pull out 1 Put aside 1 Put away 2 Put back 1 Put in 4 Put on 19 Put out 1 Put round 1 Put together 1 Rub together 6 Run along 1 Run out of 5 Set off 5 Set up 3 Sit down 2 Slow down 4 Speak out 1 Stand out 2 Stand up 3 Stick out 2 282
Phrasal verb Frequency Switch over 1 Take away 5 Take away from 1 Take back 1 Take off 11 Take out 9 Take up 2 Throw away 1 Throw back 1 Throw out 1 Tie together 1 Tie up 1 Turn down 8 Turn off 15 Turn on 10 Turn out 1 Turn up 2 Use up 1 Wake up 11 Walk along 2 Walk around 1 Warm up 1 Wear out 2 Write down 1
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Appendix 11: Essay samples from Iranian learner corpus.
Appendix 11a.
"What's the economy for?" If you ask people this question you may face with different answers. Some of them define economic success in terms of the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) or stock prices. If that is the case, then what dose it have to do with the people's life? Why many wealthy countries can't meet the needs of their citizens? Giving an example, in the US, there are more citizens living in poverty and a much greater overall sense of insecurity today despite more than a 60 percent increase in GDP compared to the past. But what if we answer this question differently, like "the greatest good for the greatest number over a long run". In that light, economic success can not be measured by GDP or stock prices. It must take in to account other values that constitute the greatest good health, happiness, kindness, knowledge for the greatest number equality, access to opportunity over the long term in a healthy democracy and sustainable environment. But how can we achieve this goal? Realizing this concept requires applying simplicity in our lives. Simplicity influences our life in different aspects such as environmental sustainability, happiness, equality, and politics. Let's elaborate on them separately. To examine the effect of simplicity on the environment let's compare two different society, one in which simplicity is not applied in their lives and the other in which it is. In today's American society, people work harder, they double their working hours to meet their needs and to close the gap between rich and poor, while European nations are choosing more leisure time rather than working harder to close the consumption gap with Americans. The result is that EU countries require only half of the energy consumption as that of Americans, while producing 70 percent as many goods and services. The average American has an ecological foot print the productive land and water necessary to produce his/ her life style of 24 acres, for European the average is 12 acres. The European progress has come to a lower cost to the environment. In a world of finite recourses and delicate ecosystems, unnecessary consumption would lead to the life destruction, both human an animal, while applying simplicity can lead to a sustainable environment. The more money you spend the more time you have to be out there earning it and the less time you have to spend with the ones you love. Some people practice simplicity to reduce the need for purchased goods or services and, by extension, reduce their need to sell their time for money. Some will spend the extra free time helping family or others. Others may spend the extra free time to improve their quality of life, for example pursuing creative activities such as art and craft. Though some people seek to buy happiness, materialism very frequently fails to satisfy, and may even increases the level of stress in life. It has been said that "the making of money and accumulation of things shouldn't smoother the purity of soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of family, or the good of the society. In terms of politics, the alleged relationship between economic growth and war, when fought for control and exploitation of natural and human resources, is a 284
good reason for promoting a simple living life style. Avoiding the perpetuation of the resource curse is a similar objective of many simple living adherents. Opposition to war has also led some to a form of tax resistance in which they reduce their tax liability by taking up a simple living life style. In these tough economic times, it makes sense to consider cutting down on spending and taking a good, hard look at one's consumption. It may turn out that simply having enough to get buy is more fulfilling than having a myriad of possession that are not necessary. living simply, valuing our relationship with one another and our earth, breaking away from a material based life that fails to ever satisfy our innermost needs doesn't mean you are weak. It means you are strong enough to refrain from being controlled by our consumer driven society. One of the biggest concerns in nearly every country throughout the world is unemployment. But different causes result in this problem in each country. In most of today's western countries his is the result of economic recession that is unavoidable. This is not the case in our country it's the result of lack of skill on the part of students after graduation. Nearly 70% of graduates are not prepared for the job market outside. Why this should be the case? Dose it mean our university degrees have a little value? If it is the case we should search for some reasons. If we go exactly through the higher educational system of our country, we may come up with some reasons. The first and foremost reason is that students don't have the necessary insight about the purpose of studying. They don't have any idea about neither the future of their field of study nor the future of their life. They just follow the purpose of passing the exam and getting a degree, no more. Besides, the professors too, don't want anything more than that from the students. Those students who can find the sample questions can get a better mark and be a good student and the professor is satisfied with them. When it comes to curriculum, there are several problems with that. There are many courses presented for students in graduate level which contain basic and general knowledge about the field which is not enough for getting a job. It is just a matter of familiarity with the field. Students don't pursue them professionally, and even if they want they have to enter in a post graduate level. Given an example, an English translation student is supposed to pass several courses such as translation of simple texts, economic texts, political texts, literary texts, law texts, and etc, all of which are unrelated to each other. In the real world there is no one that can work in all of these branches professionally at the same time. So students have a general knowledge about each of them and after four years of study they have to register in courses outside the university to follow one of those fields professionally. The last but not the least reason is that the employers outside are waiting for an experienced and skillful employee. It seems to be fair, because he is in search of more profit and credit for his company, so he won't devote his time, money, and energy to prepare an inexperienced and unskillful person for the job. So, it seems that the university degrees in our country are of very little value, because degree by itself doesn't guarantee getting a job in the real world. And when there is no job for students to apply their theoretical knowledge in practice, they feel that they have been wasting their time. Instead they could pursue a field of their interest professionally outside the university and guarantee their future job and future life. 285
Appendix 11b.
After Socond world war, The jaint amount of odd experience had got to happen for all levels of societies both as low class people or middle class ones. The waves of this tragic destroying Bomb had expanded whole. Through different parts of humen lives such as: style of their living, mode of thought, Education. Technology, Science and the most undeniable part, Artas general. There is no doubt that literature as one of the most important of seven arts had started to showing off another face by it self and changed the most bases of its doactrines and codes. Hence theater is one of the sub category of of literature. It was the first foranner in this dark and complicated world which was happened aften world warII.
"Showing and Going from heart of darlkness to the heart of darkness is my job for eternal" Becket said. Samuel Beckett was the most important playwright ", wit out any exaggeration" said pinter. After second world war by the so called theater of absurd. His trilogy as Molly, Mallon Dies unnammable. Molly was a kind of drama which was famous because of perfect structure and choic of word. Having monatenous way of telling the story which is not story at all. Mallon Dies was unbelievable famous among amteur readers as a areal diffinition of work of art. Unnamable was unique and antique job by Samuel Beckett. Hence all of are the best example of this diffinition from Heart of Darkness to heat of Darkness. By "Samuel the Great Beket" said Russel.
Then for Beckett had to explain the complicity of them all over his interviews. The complicity which repeated over and over after second world war. The complicity which was mixed by meaningless way of living and off course mode of thought of people as wall. As critic, as Reader Inneso always Believed Molly showed the act and re act of human among reaction of himself Natune, and sometimes showing reation among "Nothing Nobody" Said Innesco Beckett was so on interested of having complicated characters inspite of showing their simplicity all over the actions and dialogues.
Mallon Dies was Fundamentally different from both characters and dialogues and off course choic of words. choosing the words which had different layers, meaning and beyond meaning as the most beautiful work ever, By beautiful nobody can't reject the ugliness of the inside plot, them, and characters themselves.
The ugliness which happen after second world war and made the whole life people "Full of emptiness" of "Nothigness and absurdity said Edward saeed. Mallon dies as you can see by its own title is about death which nobody understand what kind of death happened at the end of drama or even some body died at least or not. Doubt is most element of drama by Becket who was playing with this element always and ever. Mallon inside was a great character by outside he had nothing to loose in this world. Every thing he got vanished in front of his face. Facing with Ugly reality is 286
something Mallon always scared out of it.Them "Horror" is most Beautifully expand in this drama by Beckett as the most important signifier of theater of Absurd.
Unnamable as you can see, there is no doubt that "unammable" is derived by desperate mind of Becket who was so unknown and off course unnammable in the world of theater in his age "He wasn't inseek for finding of getting fame said pinter.No body can force and put the name of Becket in special category. Hence Beckett called himself unnammable in world of theater and let it to play on the stage.
Crying all over scenes is the real mode of thought of Becket himself. theater of Absurd had no place when Becket and started it. A hopeless acts in this world of Absurd people and Absurd mind was so undeniable in this world and of course the era which was lived by Becket.
Becket unammed unknown, character of his own life was trying hard the "whole vanity of None" said Crew in his drama. By the whole vanity of None "maybe he means their "vanity was great sin Bible said for and among people who are always trying to keep themselves in varity of life by doing meaning less action. Actions which was taken by their absurd way of thinking and absurd way of living, Becket who was so aware of this situation, make this scenes reminable for ever.
Finally by Becket the end of word is never. " The end of words". The Great Beckett wrote until his last of his life. In all his works,The last blind hopefulness is always remaining in his last words. Even in his most "Bitterness" work Mallon Dies, we are facing with last seconds of hope all around of drama very vaiguly. As readers of this are "living through all dangerous mode if though" said Eliot. human is a real "Fake character". second world war was the most shaking power by the "Bomb of Hiroshima" but this Bomb made life and the quality quantity of this life ruined by the quality quantity of time thought, Beckett understood this matter find and make his thorgh words and his theater absurd for good "living and disliving of this world" said Jacob, the most undeniable phrase by the world of Beckett is facing. The mind of the Reader with this exact meaning of disliving by the world of Absurd people "who are all seeking for every thing which is nothing at the ened of Road said Becket.
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Appendix 12: Essay samples from LOCNESS.
Appendix 12a.
The question of philosophical optimism was the main movement of thought during Voltaire's life. He wrote Candide in 1758 and published it in 1759, by which time he was 64 years old and was feeling very sceptical. Voltaire began his life mildly optimistic but by the time he reached 64 years, he came to the conclusion that the question of philosophical optimism had to be dealt with.
Thus, in Candide, meaning 'Optimism', he chooses to attack the doctrine of Optimism in a subtle and amusing way. He chooses the hero, named 'Candide' and throughout the book, makes him either the witness or the hero. The chapters are short and precise, including the necessary detail to portray the question of optimism. Candide, the hero is often the mouth piece of voltaire and in this way Voltaire can express his own views through the character.
The book, 'Candide', is full of tragedies and some of the experiences endured by the characters are devastatingly shocking. However, Voltaire's aim is not to move but to amuse. he writes the tragedies in such a way that they bring laughter to the reader rather than tears. The Narrative side takes second place as Voltaire concentrates on the philosophy he is trying to put forward.
In order to tackle the question of philosophical optimism in Candide, Voltaire has to prove his philosophy of rejecting the doctrine of optimism or at least trying to slow it down . Thus, he begins the story by making Candide agree to philosophical optimism and listen to his tutor, Dr. Pangloss who preaches it. Then as the story progresses, the changes in attitudes and thoughts can develop, resulting in the way Voltaire believes.
Voltaire aims to persuade the reader that the doctrine of optimism is not a valid one. Everything that happens in this world is not for the best according to Voltaire and there is too much suffering in the world for everything to be so positive. Voltaire uses suffering in order to criticize the doctrine of optimism. The story is one continuation of suffering and tragedy to the characters.
From the very beginning of the book, Candide experiences and witnesses suffering and things go from bad to worse. However, he is not dissuaded from the philosophy of optimism because of these occurances thanks to his tutor Dr. Pangloss. However, in chapter VI, after complete devastation by an earthquake, a storm and being shipwrecked, Dr. Pangloss is hung and Candide is flogged. Naturally, Dr. Pangloss is presumed dead, however he does reappear, but not until the end and by this time, Candide has changed views and rejected the philosophy of optimism. Voltaire cleverly rids him of Dr. Pangloss, so Candide can develop his own ideas without being influenced by Dr. Pangloss.
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However it must be stated that Voltaire gives Candide the chance to experience many different views on philosophical optimism by meeting different people who have all had different experiences in life, before he makes a decision. It took Voltaire most of his life to fully decide that he rejected the doctrine of philosophical optimism, so he does the same to Candide, to prove that his rejection is justifiable.
Some of the characters that Candide meets on his metaphysical journey of discovery, have a great influence on him and help his views to develop. Voltaire places characters at allocated times in the book, to represent a certain type of person. For example, there is the old woman in chapters XI and XII, who during the sea voyage between Cadiz and Buenos Aires, is given the chance to tell her life story. She is a tragic figure in that she has endured so much pain and suffering throughout her life. She was born of high birth, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Urban X, however she was sold into slavery at an early age and from then on had a life full of terrible experiences. However, the old woman is a representative of optimism. She never gave up hope and although she knew of twelve people who voluntarily put an end to their miseries, she is still content with her life and has gained fortune after much misfortune. Voltaire uses the old woman as an example of optimism, someone who has succeeded eventually in life, having endured so much pain.
In complete contrast, there is the character Martin, who is first mentioned in chapter XIX. This is a significant part of the book and here Voltaire wants to make the reader realise that Candide has reached the turning point and is finally becoming accustomed to the idea of rejecting optimism.Candide having killed three people and experienced much suffering, is faced with a tragic vision of a negro who has no left leg and no right hand. The negro has been unjustifiably left to die and this makes Candide realise that there is no excuse for these actions and everything cannot possibly be for the best. Voltaire appropriately brings in the character, Martin, at this stage who is a complete contrast to the old woman. Martin is a representative of philosophical pessimism as he had led such a terrible life as well. He worked in a bookshop for ten years, had been tricked by many people and was accused of a form of heresy. He has suffered but not physically, unlike the old woman, however Martin has the complete pessimist's view that life is not really worth living if there is no control over what you do and everything goes wrong when you least want it to. Voltaire uses Martin as the type of radical person who rejects optimism. Martin has extreme views and the influence of Martin on Candide gives Candide the chance to decide whether he will go from one extreme to the other and accept Martin's doctrine of pessimism or whether he will just reject optimism.
Voltaire is given one particularly major opportunity to lead a better life where everything he ever wanted will be there for him. This is in the place called Eldorado. Candide is given the chance to escape suffering and tragedy in this world of paradise, where everything in life would be for the best and the question of philosophical optimism being true, would have unanimous support. However, Candide does not possess everything he ever wanted to, because the love of his life, Lady Cunégonde is not with him. Voltaire here portrays that even if it seems you have everything in life and everything is for the best, there is usually something missing and nowhere satisfies someone with everything. 289
It is established therefore, that Candide rejects Dr. Pangloss' philosophy and many other philosophy on optimism about two thirds of the way through the book. However, Voltaire wants to emphasize that although Candide has rejected optimism he still keeps going. hope is what spurs him on and the thought of one day meeting with his beloved Lady Cunégonde again.
Having experienced so many tragedies, Candide's hope brings him to what he thought was final happiness. However, just to completely damn the doctrine of optimism, Candide is met with disappointment. The Lady Cunégonde has turned out to be a disappointment and in his final years, he therefore resorts to having metaphysical discussions with Dr. Pangloss who survived his execution. Voltaire has voiced his own opinions through Candide and Candide ultimately rejects philosophical optimism. However, Candide does not reject one doctrine, in order to adopt another, that of Martin. He simply believes optimism is not the correct and not a justifiable philosophy where everything is done for the best.
In the final chapter (XXX), Voltaire expresses his own philosophy using two Turkish men. A Turkish philosopher meets Candide in order to show him the uselessness of metaphysical speculation and a Turkish farmer shows Candide the value of work. Voltaire has tackled the question of philosophical optimism in a very successful way, in Candide. Both views are given on the subject by the main characters and the outcome is justifiable, according to Voltaire. Using the main character as a mouthpiece, concentrating on the philosophy involved rather than the narrative and seeking to amuse rather than shock means Voltaire can express his views clearly and emphasize his ultimate rejection on philosophical optimism.
Appendix 12b.
Oreste's birthplace was Argos and on the death of his father, the king (who was, incidentally, murdered) he was taken away to Athens to be brought up there by a noble family. When he returns to Argos, he cannot feel a part of the city for the simple reason that he is innocent, and feels innocent, whereas all those citizens born in Argos and living there, have supposedly been born into guilt. The whole point of the play seems to be an attack on the Church and religion (especially Catholic) which holds good considering Sartre's atheism.
The whole city of Argos is in perpetual mourning and repentence for a murder which happened unbeknown to many of them: for those who were around, guilt is theirs for not having prevented the atrocity. The Queen's mournful clothing and black funereal make up emphasize the point: there is no happiness in the city. They are all allowing themselves to be ruled by the past and, in fact, seem to be in a time warp, not moving forward, not even seeing their futures. All the features Sartre placed in the play show 290
an exaggerated set up of the real world and its religion. The fact that religion tells us we are guilty because we are human and we live governed by the murder of Christ which happened unbeknown to us, but we must still repent this sin. A significant attribute is the plague of flies around and in Argos, to enhance the picture of being totally enclosed and "attacked" by something which Sartre implies is all in the mind. This ability to shock his audience was an attribute he found very powerful and positive, in that he was thus guaranteed their attention and a reaction. Here, he has even placed a god "on earth" as it were, as if to prove that they are in fact no greater than us and the fact that they can produce miracles, has no bearing on their power over us and does in no way justify our servitude under them.
Then, enter Oreste. As the Christ of our bible, he enters his homeland innocent and totally apart from the citizens of Argos. Nobody is laughing and the stark, brutal morbidity of the city and its "tradition" hits him hard: . He is incomplete and unfinished, looking to find an identity with his birthplace. At this point he still believes in the guidance of the deity and is amazed by Jupiter's miracles. However, this does not last for long. In this play, Sartre's object was to show the development of Oreste from innocence to knowledge and understanding: it is well to note that Oreste starts from nothing. All existentialists seem to pass through a stage of nihilism although recognised as the temporary stage it is, and this seems to be significant in that starting from zero is how your character or nature can accept life and mortality, being honest and knowing the truths, yet living freely and with choice:
.
He emphasizes the people's bad faith in denying themselves freedom and in not choosing their own destinies. Sartre was particularly against letting oneself be ruled by the past: what's done is done, life must go on. Here, he also parodies the Easter resurrection and celebration of the French Catholic Church with the "Fêtes des Morts": the people being ruled by the past. The people believe that the dead of the city return to "live" among them to make them suffer for their deaths. The play shows the farcical nature of such a practice: the Catholic Church has the spirit of Christ returning to Earth in much the same way. Here, he is trying to show that the dead only "live" in the minds of the people; their "religion", repentence and guilt are only in their minds. Jupiter ironically tells Oreste: .
Only Electre seems lively enough to want out of this city. However she is, like many, a coward. She believes in some Messiah, in the form of her brother, coming to save her. She refuses to do anything constructive herself to deny the despotism underway in Argos and ultimately when Oreste arrives refuses to help him and tells him to leave them alone. She seems to parody the average man, here, who will complain violently about his life, his situation, what he could have been if only "X" had not happened or "Y" had not prevented him: yet this person will refuse to attempt to change his position. To Sartre this is bad faith: the refusal to admit your own freedom and to take responsibility for your own actions.
Oreste only decides to stay in Argos because of Electre: she sparks him into action, although his pride and search for an identity back her up . This has a good existentialist choice: facing up to your problems, not running away , taking 291
responsibility for what you are doing. Oreste is now abandoned and alone: realizing your freedom and accepting it means defamiliarization and solitude. This springs from Sartre's idea of the condemned man: man is condemned to be free.
Oreste also faces anguish, a large concern of Sartre's in his proffering of the existentialist ideology. Oreste is taking the responsibilities of a nation/city on his shoulders, moving forward into an uncertain future: the decision is his, and his alone, and he is alone in making it.
Oreste then rejects Jupiter's help. Jupiter is portrayed here as the god of guilt and death; he is also portrayed elsewhere as the god of love. I find this rather ironic: the christian God is known as the "God of love", yet it is His religion that says we are guilty and it is He who makes us mortal: how in the world do we worship such tyranny?
Oreste's rejection of religion leaves him feeling he's lost something. This is the defamiliarization. Abandoned also by his sister he is alone. Yet, while Electre accepts Jupiter's guidance, he who will give a meaning to your life, she sinks further and further into the depths of despair, while Oreste, who has asserted his mental power and freedom, survives. When the truth has been recognised, and religion rejected, the gods have no power left: Jupiter disappears. Oreste's actions prove that man can stand alone and survive: they don't need any powers on high to direct them.
Oreste murders the king and queen, and stands before the crowds who are looking to kill him. This is a typical human reaction, and reminiscent of the Jews Christ was desperate to help. Change makes lives uncertain, and taking away a ruler means people have to decide for themselves and therefore have no one but themselves to blame for any wrongs in their lives. When Oreste announces his coronation he also announces that he will be leaving Argos. His decision to do this is reminiscent of Christ: he sacrificed his innocence to give the people their freedom and will leave so that they can exercise that freedom (Christ dies, he leaves). If he stayed, they would be living under his rules and that would simply be replacing one totalitarian state by another. He has shown them their freedom and it now up to them to accept it and do what they will. He tells them: so that they do not have to repent for his crime. He found his freedom in Argos, and he, in return, has given Argos its freedom. The citizens now have the choice to develop their projects and move from the past into the future. Significantly the flies leave Argos; it is back to "l'état pur", from where everything can begin anew.
Caligula's change of nature comes after his sister's death, a sister with whom he was very much in love, up to the point of being, or almost being, incestuous. He disappears alone to think about everything, and returns to the court to proclaim that a note? would be enlisted to kill the citizens.
Throughout the first scenes, especially, there is a repetition of "rien", perhaps reflecting Caligula's numbness of feeling, his loss, his defamiliarization and perhaps including echoes of the nihilism of existentialist experience. The once religious, calm, literary and respected leader, has now become a tyrant, killing at whim and 292
ruthlessly callous in his treatment of his citizens. His personal revolt causes a revolution in his Empire whereby he has lower servants working in responsible administrative positions and vice versa, much to the patricians disgust. Yet despite all the atrocities he commits, I don't believe the audience ever really hates Caligula and I do believe that Camus manages to evoke both sympathy and admiration for him.
To begin with, Caligula first loses his sister, and implied lover, which will evoke sympathy from the start. He realises that love does not last forever, and this hurts. At this point, I feel that Caligula would probably want to commit suicide, but as Le Mythe de Sysyphe advocates living to a maximum in the face of mortality, I believe that Caligula embarks on a quasi suicide, inviting death to him as he begins his tyranny. It is simply a matter of how far he can push the people before they react, how passive are they. The fact that he does want to die and now feels so alone reinforces the sympathy aspect.
There is logic behind Caligula's act. If death is the only truth we have, an idea proferred in Le Mythe, and death conquers all, then death must be right and he decides to become an apostle of death. Everything he stands for becomes aligned to death: he chrystallises death. In bringing people's lives to a premature end he instills insecurity, fear and anxiety into his citizens and as such gives them a heightened awareness of the importance of living. In this way, Caligula is in fact doing them a favour by presenting the absurd to his citizens (and expressly to the audience). It seems to me a sort of perverse cruel to be kind type of rule.
In acknowledging the absurdity of life, Caligula becomes a lonely figure. He has detached himself from the solidarity with mankind and lost sight of himself in relation to the "grandeur of the cosmos" and has, in Camus' words, moved into the "desert" of exile. And yet, he has done so because he realised . He wants to act out the impossible in order to change this:
this seems symbolic in that the moon is associated with night and darkness and what he really wants is for man not to die: man falls into darkness when he dies, the black for mourning all seem to suggest to me that the moon refers to man's "night", that is his death. Maybe he's just calling for his own death. However he does refer to changing the universe, achieving the impossible so that men no longer die and are as such happy. He takes on the form of a god demanding deaths, proclaiming famines:
.
Although I have said that his ideas are logical, they are not moral, and by presenting such an extreme figure as Caligula, Camus is showing us the dangers of taking freedom too far and not finding oneself any limits.
He is persistent in his actions, willing to follow his proclamations to the very end. He provides a perfect example of living an experience to the maximum, following Don Juan and the others of Le Mythe. Here, unfortunately, he has chosen to kill to the maximum: all acts are equal in the long run, aren't they? One tends to feel sorry for him because he seems to be so full of grief and despair, as if trying to hit out at someone, to take revenge, for the blow that has been dealt to him. 293
I don't believe we cannot sympathise with him when such characters as Cherea, Scipion, Caesonia and Helicon never hate him and even sympathise with him themselves. The interrelation of characters is very important. The fact that the patricians hate him is not really significant: they are shallow, old and very negative characters. Caligula does right to mock them when one insists on the importance of "le Trésor" over everything else. At least Caligula is aware of what is important in life: the fact that he takes life from others seems symbolic with his desire for death himself, forcing people to be unhappy () and ultimately to make people aware of their situation and to react.
On the other hand Cherea and Scipion are very positive figures. They are both pure characters, have depth and understand Caligula's logic althought they don't agree with it. Helicon loves and respects Caligula although again does not agree with him. Caesonia acts on Caligula's behalf and follows him devotedly because she loves him. Scipion admits to loving Caligula for having taught him that although life was hard, there was religion, art and literature to save you from despair. Although Caligula has moved from this now to seeing and understanding the absurd, the others still believe in those things. Caligula has taken it on himself to be their instructor on life and sacrifices himself to give them the freedom to accept responsibility for their own lives and decisions, and to realise the absurd. They have to learn revolt: "human insurrection is a prolonged protest against death". They have to learn the importance of their lives and therefore want to preserve it and make the most of it: they have to revolt against everything that tries to reduce their freedom and reduce their lives.
Camus did not advocate despair, which was an option for Caligula. He takes on the revolt Camus wants us to assume, and in doing so takes responsibility for himself and his acts, answerable to no one else.
Camus often used tragedy to get across his ideas. He felt that the tragic form of the play allowed the audience to become more emotionally involved and they therefore became more accessible.
The very fact that Caligula admits he was wrong at the end sparks off sympathy and even admiration. . Even as he kills Caesonia, he realises that killing her for being guilty of being human was not the solution. He is emotional, up to a point, especially at the end; and no one can ignore emotion. He realises he's been wrong and sees the innocence of others who have not committed his crimes. He basically realises that the only truth we know is death and though we still, and must continue to, strive for other truths we will never find any. The play shows the need to find limits through experience and here shows an example of a stubborn human nature persistant to the end.
Although death is inevitable one must overpower it, not let it rule our lives but always be aware of it and revolt. Poor Caligula had death in everything he did.
The symbolic smashing of the mirror at the end of the play signifies his death. He dies knowing that he has driven the pure Scipion and reasonable Cherea to the crime 294
they were condemning him for; he dies knowing that he has made them at least aware of the importance of their lives and that they could not have access to the absurd.
Hugo joins the party, as do most intellectuals, on a guilt trip, to escape their bourgeois backgrounds and to become a part of the working class movement. They can bring prestige to the party and promote it, but most of the time intellectuals simply import their personal hang ups and anguishes and are dangerous due to the liability to stray or their unreliability resultant of their backgrounds.
The political parties went through phases of embracing or rejecting intellectuals, and Sartre wrote this play in the middle of a freeze period. He was well aware of the hostilities and prejudices aimed at intellectuals and these became apparent in the course of the play with Louis and the bodyguards distrust of Hugo. Louis empitimises??? the Communist party next??? to intellectuals, being extremely negative and hostile towards Hugo. He not only calls him an anarchist, but tells him he is undisciplined and untrustworthy.
Hugo is a young man looking for a family environment and for some security. He is not really political, but is rebelling against the bourgeois establishment which symbolises for him the lonliness and cruelty of his childhood. He is looking to grow up and seeks to do it on a one to one basis with other people, being very aware of others' reactions to him. He can therefore never integrate into the party. He will not be subordinated, putting his views before those of the Moscow central line. He is basically a capitalist of nature, selfish, individualistic and very self concerned. He, in fact, admits to not liking people very much they don't care for him, so why should he for them? As Hoederrer tells him: . He reacts emotionally and personally to all issues in the play he is not at all politically minded, which is apparent in his dealings with other characters. While Hoederrer has great command, radical thinking and diplomacy, the true politicians, Hugo fumbles and grabs at issues, behaving patronisingly towards the guards. He cannot deal with people: he feels threatened and insecure due to the existence of other people. This is reminiscent of Sartre's thought: "hell is other people". He takes a guilt trip in front of the Prince and Karsky and attacks them and what they represent with hostility and hatred. He also attacks Hoederrer in front of them for conspiring to unite with them, undermining his authority and showing the complete lack of obedience and discipline he claims to lack.
He actually asked for the job to murder Hoederrer, thinking this would bring him respect and prestige in the party, but especially from Louis and Olga. He does not want to kill for the right reasons, because it is in line with the party's desires and to preserve its security; he has romantic dreams about being a hero on his return and being grown up and accepted as one of the gang. Hoederrer says how intellectuals always want to act but if he killed anyone it would ruin him because he is an intellectual. Hugo takes the name of a romantic character of Dostoyevsky's and says he will kill himself if caught, in true dramatic fashion. But once in Hoederrer's household, the reality seems almost too much for him. He risks many lives by his inability and indecision over whether to perform the murder. Therefore he is 295
dangerous. He is not mature enough and whole enough as a person to be able to fight for others' causes. He's is still fighting for his own. His great desire and hang up here is to have people to trust him: . He repeats this like a child all the way through. In fact he is very much the child. His ultimate act of murder was committed on an impulse not really out of jealousy and certainly not for the party's sake. He was just annoyed that Hoederrer had time for someone else: he wanted all his time and attention, for himself and for him alone:
He has no clear perception of the future and how. What tactics would best promote the good of the party. He believes in hitting out and hitting hard, regardless of the consequences. He fails to see that concession which Hoederrer advocated would bring long term benefits for the party. Unlike the honest, straightforward Hoederrer, Louis wanted a pure revolution: no lying, no concessions, but no real meaning either. To him everything was black and white with no inbetween. That is why he tragically walks to his death at the end: he has no thought for the good of the party, he has no thought of loyalty or what he owed to the party either. He simply refused to give in , stood by the principles he held on to so tightly and walked to his death, ever the tragic hero. He says of himself: . He realises himself that he is superfluous, that he has no meaning in his life and that he is a living sole which is unneeded. He feels that proving himself would give him that meaning: he failed to understand that the party wanted action for the right motives: it was not
, they were not there to aid personal promotion and security on an individual level, to ease personal anguish and despair.
Even Hugo's marriage to Jessica seemed to be a complete failure. They were two immature characters playing at being grown up. The fact that he married her anyway, and the photos of his childhood that he kept meant he refused to totally cut himself off from his background. Joining the party seems to have been an act to get back at his father, perhaps humiliate him, rather than one which was seriously thought out and carried out from conviction belief in the party's line.
Never at any time does he seem to be at one with the party. He deals on an individualistic level, on a one to one basis. He doesn't even know why he killed Hoederrer: .
If he had been a true and dedicated party member, he would have accepted the party's changed line of action and slipped back into the party without objections. Unfortunately he took the matter personally and felt they were attacking him. It was not only Louis who rejected Hugo's participation in the party. Hoederrer too realized that Hugo did not fit and was an outsider, although as is expected, he did so with more diplomacy than Louis.
Hugo was simply reaching out for help. He was looking for guidance and being relatively apolitical himself simply wanted to lift the bourgeois out of power as a sort of revenge: beyond that he did not care what happened. He wanted to be needed, to feel important, but individualistic needs were not to be sought in a revolutionary Communist group. His lack of security simply meant he was a liability to the party.
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11. Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Gebrauch englischer Mehrwortverben der Typen phrasal verb, prepositional verb und phrasal prepositional verb durch iranische Studenten der englischen Sprache. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist das Verb put out, welches sich aus dem Verb put und dem Partikel out zusammensetzt.
Diese Verben mit komplexer Syntax haben entweder eine figurative oder wörtliche Bedeutung. Die untersuchten Mehrwortverben sind von grundlegender Bedeutung für die vorliegende Arbeit, da sie in der persischen Sprache keine unmittelbare strukturelle Entsprechung haben, aber auch, weil sie oft in hohem Maße polysem sind. Was sie zudem interessant macht, ist, dass die Sprache von Muttersprachlern des Englischen voll von diesen Strukturen ist, während die meisten Menschen, die das Englische als Fremdsprache lernen, diese nicht so häufig benutzen, oder sogar versuchen sie auf Grund ihrer Komplexität zu vermeiden.
Das Material zu dieser Arbeit über den Fremdsprachen Erwerb im Iran, das für die vorliegende Studie vom Autor eigens zusammengestellt wurde, setzt sich aus Essays zusammen, die von Universitätsstudenten, die Englisch auf einem fortgeschrittenen Niveau lernen, geschrieben wurden. Da angenommen werden konnte, dass die Englischkenntnisse der Studierenden stark durch das Englisch, das sie in der Schule lernten, beeinflusst wurde, untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit alle Lehrbücher, die im Iran in weiterführenden Schulen im Fremdsprachenunterricht für Englisch eingesetzt werden, um herauszufinden, wie die untersuchten verbalen Strukturen im Englischunterricht eingeführt werden.
Da die Lernenden, die das Datenmaterial für die vorliegende Untersuchung lieferten, Sprecher des Persischen waren, musste die Grammatik dieser Sprache mit der des Englischen verglichen, werden um zu sehen, ob es im Persischen Strukturen gibt, die den untersuchten englischen Mehrwortverben ähneln. Die iranischen einfachen Verben und die präpositionalen Verben werden als Verbtypen verstanden, die den englischen Phrasal verbs am nächsten stehen. 297
Das Korpus der iranischen Studierenden wurde mit Hilfe der Software AntConc untersucht, um alle Phrasal verbs zu extrahieren. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit Wörterbüchern für Phrasal verbs und Muttersprachlerkorpora wie LOCNESS und COCA als Kontrollkorpora verglichen, um zu beurteilen, wie die Lernenden mit diesen sprachlichen Besondersheiten umgegangen waren.
Die Ergebnisse wurden zuerst quantitativ und anschließend qualitativ analysiert. Die Ergebnisse belegten, dass iranische Lernende weniger englische Mehrwortverben des untersuchten Typs benutzten, als Muttersprachler des Englischen es taten. Zuerst wurden die 25 häufigsten phrasal verbs in LOCNESS mit den gleichen Verben im Korpus der iranischen Lernenden gegenübergestellt. Die einfachen Verben, die inhaltlich den Phrasal verbs entsprechen, die von iranischen Studenten unterdurschnittlich gebraucht wurden, wurden herausgesucht, um zu sehen, ob die Lernenden versuchten ihr beschränktes Wissen in durch den Gebrauch entsprechender einfacher Verben auszugleichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sie in der Tat einfache Verben verwendeten, um ihr beschränktes Wissen hinsichtlich dieser Phrasal verbs auszugleichen. Es wurde angenommen, dass die Fehler, die die Lernenden in Bezug machten, auch noch andere Ursachen hatten. Sie waren Ergebnis einer Interferenz eines unidiomatischen oder kreativen Sprachgebrauchs. Diese Untersuchungen zeitigten einige interessante Ergebnisse. Zusätzlich wurde auch der Schreibstil der iranischen Lernenden untersucht und mit dem Schreibstil von Muttersprachlern des Englischen verglichen. Dies wurde auf der Grundlage einiger phrasal verbs und der verwendeten Verbtypen gemacht. Es wurde herausgefunden, dass iranische Lernende allgemein eine formellere Sprache verwendeten als die Muttersprachler des Englischen. Dies liegt daran, dass die iranischen Lernenden im Vergleich zu den Muttersprachlern weniger englische phrasal verbs verwendeten, insbesondere idiomatische.
Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst insgesamt acht Kapitel. Das erste Kapitel ist eine Einführung in die englischen phrasal verbs und ihrer Definition. Das zweite Kapitel bietet eine Übersicht über relevante Untersuchungen, die vor der vorliegenden Arbeit 298
von anderen Forschern auf diesem Gebiet durchgeführt wurden. Kapitel drei ist eine Untersuchung des Englisch im Fremdsprachen Unterrichts an weiterführenden Schulen im Iran. Kapitel vier umfasst die kontrastive Untersuchung der englischen phrasal verbs und ihrer iranischen Entsprechungen. Kapitel fünf setzt sich mit den Instrumentarium und den Methoden der vorliegenden Arbeit auseinander. Die folgenden zwei Kapitel sechs und sieben umfassen die quantitative und die qualitative Analyse der Arbeit. Das letzte Kapitel ist den abschließenden Bemerkungen gewidmet.