|
Multi-word verbs in english language teaching: insights from research and practice| title | Multi-word verbs in english language teaching: insights from research and practice |
|---|
| start_date | 2024/06/28 |
|---|
| schedule | 14h30-16h |
|---|
| online | no |
|---|
| location_info | salle Paul Imbs |
|---|
| summary | Multi-word verbs (MWV) are a characteristic feature of L1 English discourse and an important subject of study for learners of English as a second or foreign language (EFL). While they are not a straightforward linguistic phenomenon, recent studies in corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics have uncovered insights into how they are used, which in turn has led to some promising approaches in MWV-focused pedagogy (Garnier & Schmitt, 2015; Gilquin, 2022; Lu & Sun, 2017; Strong & Boers, 2019; Tyler, Mahpeykar, & Tullock, 2020; White, 2012). This paper presents the key findings from a study that aimed to gauge the presence of MWV-related applied linguistic insights in general English Language Teaching (ELT). The study included a survey of 80 language teachers working in Spain and a quantitative qualitative
analysis of 12 CEFR B1-C1 internationally published coursebooks. The survey elicited information on the participants’ current practices and beliefs regarding the verb group, while the coursebook examination included a contrastive analysis of the reading and listening comprehension texts with L1 English corpora (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Gardner & Davies, 2007; Garnier & Schmitt, 2015; Liu, 2011) and an explorative analysis of instruction in the MWVfocused activities.
The results pointed to a limited picture of evidence-based MWV pedagogy. Responses to the survey established that most participants relied on coursebooks for MWV teaching, underscoring the need to assess published materials. Regarding the teachers’ beliefs, most agreed that MWVs can be challenging, and responses to the open questions suggested that many felt limited in their ability to promote MWV learning beyond increasing incidental exposure. Only a small number of participants demonstrated an awareness of research-informed metalinguistic approaches to the verb group. Results from the corpus analysis revealed that the token and sensebased frequency of MWVs in the materials aligned with the L1 English corpus sources. Input increased steadily as the coursebooks’ target proficiency levels rose, and a higher proportion of items were identified in the listening transcripts than in the reading passages. This suggests that text elaboration for the materials involved deliberate omission or addition of items for pedagogical purposes. While the texts may lack sufficient depth for incidental learning, they can offer a starting point for more intentional MWV instruction exploring language in context. However, analysis of the MWV-focused activities revealed that the overall degree of explicit attention to the language feature is relatively low in the materials, both in terms of the number of focused activities and target items. The qualitative analysis revealed some traces of research-informed instructional approaches, but for the most part, conventional methods based on a “traditional view of language” (Tyler, 2012, p. 4) are upheld. |
|---|
| responsibles | Gobert |
|---|
Workflow history| from state (1) | to state | comment | date |
|---|
| submitted | published | | 2024/06/20 13:28 UTC |
| |
|