The Application Of MIP Approach In Polysemous Phrasal Verbs Teaching

A phrasal verb,composed of a structure of "verb+particle",is an important type of idioms and an indispensable component of English vocabulary learning.Phrasal verbs are numerous,flexible,polysemous as well as figurative,which is a difficult part of English teaching.Recent studies have shown that figurative phrasal verbs can be analyzed and motivated from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and enhancing orientational metaphors of particles can facilitate the understanding of overall meaning of phrasal verbs.However,little research has been done on polysemous phrasal verbs.The present study aims to explore polysemous and idiomatic phrasal verbs teaching by integrating Conceptual Metaphor(CM),Image Schema(IS)and Prototype Category(PC)into MIP approach.This paper aims to answer the following three questions.Firstly,what is the present situation of phrasal verbs learning among Chinese learners?Secondly,what effects does MIP approach have on phrasal verbs teaching?Thirdly,how does MIP approach affect learners to learn new phrasal verbs?Participants in this study are 40 postgraduates who are not English majors.20 students in the experimental class learn phrasal verbs through MIP approach,while the other 20 in the control class are taught phrasal verbs by means of traditional teaching and practice.Learners in two classes are asked to finish the post-test at the end of experiment.Questionnaire and interview are adopted as two major research methods.Quantitative results show that students in the experimental class perform statistically better than those in the control class,indicating that MIP approach can facilitate a deeper understanding and a better retention of polysemous phrasal verbs.Metaphorical elaboration of particles is of great help for comprehending the overall meaning of polysemous phrasal verbs.An interview is conducted to qualitatively show that the application of MIP is useful for learners to correctly understand new phrasal verbs,especially polysemous ones.Specifically speaking,conceptual metaphor and image schema can help learners understand the basic and extended meanings;prototype category is useful for building a semantic network of polysemous phrasal verbs so as to assist learners in grasping them well.This result highlights the implication that deep understanding of orientational metaphors of particles is helpful for learners to accurately acquire various meanings of polysemous phrasal verbs.In addition,the comprehensive MIP approach is advised to teach phrasal verbs as a supplementary method to help students comprehend and memorize polysemous phrasal verbs.