Initial Discussion of Frame Semantics Employed in Learning Particles in Phrasal Verbs

The reports and findings in this chapter are an answer to the second research question, which is how Mandarin Chinese-speaking English learners construct meanings on particles in phrasal verbs when the cognitive linguistic approach of frame semantics is employed, and to what extent this cognitive approach can facilitate L2 learners’ understanding of phrasal verbs. In this chapter, I began by reporting the results of three training sessions designed to teach and learn six target particles in phrasal verbs before addressing L2 learners’ linguistic output in the use of the cognitive linguistic approach of frame semantics. The final section of this chapter discusses ways in which the cognitive linguistic approach of frame semantics exerts an impact on the acquisition of particles in phrasal verbs.

The analysis of the three training sessions shed light on meaning construction and linguistic output that L2 learners had with the worksheets designed for the cognitive linguistic approach of frame semantics. When it comes to how L2 learners construct meanings on the particles in phrasal verbs two broad themes, the similar and unique meaning construction between Mandarin and English, emerged from this. The similarities between these two languages can help L2 learners to understand English particles in

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phrasal verbs, while the uniqueness may cause them difficulty understanding; however some facilitating methods were identified to tackle those types of difficulty, during the training sessions.

Few studies have been found to note the importance of facilitation (Ellis, 2008; Gass & Selinker, 2008) of the similar meaning construction on particles in phrasal verbs. In this study, there were three types of facilitation by which L2 learners may benefit from similar meaning construction. They were: (1) positive language transfer, (2) using the spatial senses to understand the metaphorical senses, and (3) learning a phrasal verb as an idiomatic chunk similar to the process of the first language acquisition. Regarding the first facilitation, many examples were found in the data analysis. For instance, the phrasal verbs ‘go in’ in the sample sentence: ‘I explained the procedure to the new mechanic many times, but it didn’t go in’ can be translated into ‘聽進去’ (literal meaning: listen in) in response to the equivalency of English particle ‘in’. The second facilitation can be seen in the way some participants inferred the abstract meaning of ‘put out the light’ from the meaning of ‘put out the garbage’ spatially, as there is a resemblance between two uses, namely moving out of a container. One interesting finding is that the English idiom ‘go down in history’ is coincidentally equal to a fixed expression in Mandarin ‘留下歷史’ word

for word. One implication of this is the possibility that EFL learners can take advantage of learning two idioms as a formula in a more efficient and effective manner.

In terms of the unique meaning construction between Mandarin and English, the participants in the Frame Semantics Training Group benefitted to some extent from the instructions given, despite some difficulty that remained after the training sessions. The universal conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003) proved helpful. For example, TIME IS MONEY was useful for understanding the temporal sense of particle, and HAPPY IS UP assisted in the understanding of positive emotions. It is argued that encyclopaedic knowledge and the mental lexicon are two sides of the same coin (Littlemore, 2009). The results of this study suggest that it is indeed useful to apply L2 encyclopaedic knowledge to facilitating EFL learners’ acquisition of phrasal verbs. For example, the majority of participants agreed that the phrase ‘put down $20,000’ was one of the most difficult items for them to understand. In order to improve their understanding during the training session, the researcher highlighted the importance of COMMERCIAL EVENT (e.g. the relationship between buying and selling), contextual information and collocation awareness. Subsequently, those who encountered difficulty understanding this particular phrase reported it had become easier for them to process the information. What is more, it might be helpful for improving EFL learners’ understanding of phrasal verbs by noting saliency in English in contrast with Mandarin Chinese. The results suggest the beneficial

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effect of introducing ‘on’ representing ‘a normal state’ and, ‘off’ meaning ‘an abnormal state’ when helping the participants to construct meaning on ‘…the fire alarm went off…’ It seems that language transfer may also exert a positive effect on facilitating Mandarin- speaking English learners’ understanding of unique meaning construction, such as an equivalent Chinese translation ‘受夠了’ (literal meaning: had enough) of the phrasal verb ‘put up with’. This result reflects that of Littlemore (2009) who argues that linking L1 mental lexicon and L2 encyclopaedic knowledge contributes to second language acquisition. She (2009: 73) explains the reason as follows:

‘What successful L2 acquisition requires them to do is to reconfigure their mental lexicon to incorporate L2-style links, thus brining it closer to that of an actual L2 speaker. This means that as they become more proficient in the target language, there will be changes in how their encyclopaedic knowledge is structured and variations in the types of links in the mental lexicon begin to appear.’

If we now turn to the linguistic production made by the Frame Semantic Training Group, the results were very encouraging. Participants in this training group were asked to create a story in response to a set of phrasal verbs given in each training session. This type of in- class activity offers L2 learners an opportunity to explore the complexity of phrasal verbs by developing their vocabulary creativity and flexibility. Some may argue that the recruited participants in this study were all adult L2 learners; however, an implication for this is the possibility that a bottom-up teaching mode can be employed, such as starting from primary education, since the results above suggest that some phrasal verbs can be learned as idiomatic chunks as in first language acquisition. Another implication is that the explicit teaching of phrasal verbs might be taken into account in pedagogical design. EFL teachers may require certain amount of training in ways to employ cognitive linguistic approaches in the teaching setting. Both EFL teachers and learners can benefit from explicit instruction (Ibraim & Justi, 2016; Littlemore, 2009; Nation, 2001; Rupley et al, 2009) because it can help teachers to identify the potential difficulty that learners may encounter in the process of learning.

Concerning errors participants made in their linguistic output, five types of error emerged from the analysis:

 Incorrect particle: ‘…? _{go on my friend’s car…’}

 Misuse of direction of the main verb in the phrasal verb: ‘…?_{took his book in the} drawer…’

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 Lack of contextual and collocational awareness: ‘…?_{come off the elevator…’}

 Negative language transfer: ‘…take ?_{up my glasses…’and ‘…took} ?_{down my} shoes.’

Detailed discussion of the errors identified above can be found in Sections 7.1 to 7.3. The issues emerging from these results relate specifically to the lack of adequate L2 encyclopaedic knowledge and mental lexicon. The factor of limited sample sentences provided in the restricted timeframe of three training sessions may have hindered the L2 learners to build their vocabulary breadth and depth. It may also have caused them to overgeneralise and have stereotyped ideas about meanings of phrasal verbs. As mentioned in the literature review (see Section 2.4), the theoretical framework adopted in this chapter is underpinned by the cognitive linguist Charles Fillmore’s (1975, 1977, 1982, 1985a; Fillmore & Atkins 1992) theory of frame semantics. Thus the various contextul clues, such as the words surrounding the target phrasal verb and the relationships between the language users, were highlighted as a way to trigger participants’ encyclopaedic knowledge. Further research on the current topic is therefore recommended.

This chapter has described the results of the cognitive linguistic approach of frame semantics used in this investigation. The data of post-test and interview gathered after all the training sessions completed are analysed and discussed in the next chapter. A synthesis of the three cognitive linguistic approaches adopted in this study will be evaluated in Chapter 9.

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Chapter 8 Post-tests and Interviews—Findings and Discussion

This chapter discuss the following results. To begin with, the results of the post-test are reported in the first section to investigate participants’ mastery of particles in phrasal verbs after the training sessions. The results of the post-test are also used to present a preliminary discussion of how three cognitive linguistic approaches can exert an influence on teaching and learning particles in phrasal verbs in the context of EFL. It then moves on to review a comparison of the results between the pre- and post-test in order to provide some quantitative data as supporting evidence to complement the qualitative data. Finally, the interview data are analysed and presented across the training groups to explore participants’ perception of the use of the three cognitive linguistic approaches (image schemas, categorisation, and frame semantics) with reference to the acquisition of particles in phrasal verbs.

8.1 Post-test Results of Image Schemas Training Group, Categorisation Training Group, and Frame Semantics Training Group

There are several purposes of conducting the post-test in this study. Firstly, the results of the post-test papers were to measure the outcomes of the participants’ language performance after they completed the training sessions of learning particles in phrasal verbs in terms of three cognitive linguistic approaches (image schemas, categorisation and frame semantics). Moreover, the purpose of the post-tests was used to compare and contrast what cognitive linguistic approach is more facilitating than the others in the aspect of teaching and learning particles in conjunction with phrasal verbs. Lastly, the development of participants’ concepts of the multiple meanings of particles in phrasal verbs: spatial senses, temporal senses and metaphorical senses were examined and reported.

Thirty question items were tested in the post-test. The content of the post-test paper was the same as in the pre-test paper; however, there was an extra section of multiple choice added for the participants to choose the meaning sense of a given phrasal verb. Three options: the meaning of space (S), the meaning of time (T), and the meaning of metaphor (M) were given, only one of which fitted the given sentence context. This section was designed to investigate to what extent the classification of multiple meanings of phrasal verbs can facilitate L2 learners’ understanding of particles in phrasal verbs; furthermore, the results of this section were used to evaluate which cognitive linguistic approach can help L2 learners to acquire the multiple meanings of particles and phrasal verbs in a more systematic and efficient manner. The number of question items of distributing three types