English Foreign Language Podcast Taking the frustration out of Phrasal Verbs

Nidia: Welcome to English as a Foreign Language Podcast, Taking the frustration out of phrasal verbs. I'm Nidia Palacio coming to you from NICA University in the wonderful city of Bogot, in the beautiful country, Colombia, and this time on Wordmaster English teacher Myriam Palacios joins us from New York city to talk about phrasal verbs. Myriam: Thank you for inviting me to share with all of you this nice topic. Nidia: On today's podcast, we are going to talk about phrasal verbs because foreign learners have to face with this important part of English language. But what are really phrasal verbs? Myriam: Well, phrasal verbs are verbs plus a preposition or adverb which creates a meaning different from the original verb. Nidia: Myriam, why do you consider it is necessary to learn phrasal verbs? Myriam: Ok, phrasal verbs are very common in spoken and written English so we need them to understand and speak natural English. Nidia: Phrasal verbs are considered to be hard to learn. Myriam: Yes, some learners think so. However, phrasal verbs are not hard to learn, as long as you learn them in a context. I think what has given phrasal verbs a reputation for being difficult is the way they are traditionally taught, which is that students are given long lists of verbs. Nidia: Youre right! Its common to pretend to learn phrasal verbs by memorizing long lists of them. Myriam: For instance if you pretend learn every phrasal verb connected with the verb get. So get up, get away , get around, get back, get down, get in, get off , get together. You see, that's a very tedious way of learning anything."

Nidia: Could you give us some strategies to learn them? Myriam: Of course! First of all, you can learn phrasal verbs by reading and listening: When you see or hear a phrasal verb that you dont know, write it down. But dont just write down the verb and the preposition; copy the whole sentence. So, it is necessary to understand the context. I mean, how the phrase is used with the other words in the sentence is what will make it possible for you to use the phrase yourself in the future. Second, you can learn phrasal verbs by finding out the meaning in that specific context. This is where a teacher or native English speaker can save you time, because there is often more than one meaning for each phrasal verb, but if youre on your own, look it up in a dictionary and decide which definition fits best in context. Third, practicing phrasal verbs in conversation or writing can help you to learn them easily. Get feedback from a teacher or native English speaker about whether or not youre using it the way native speakers do. Another excellent strategy is creating your own phrasal verb list by topics or specific context Nidia: a phrasal verb list, what do you mean? Myriam: If you create your own list of phrasal verbs by contexts such as travelling, using the telephone, dating and romance and so on. Then you should keep adding to the list in which you can include the meaning and an example written by your own. So, in this way, it would be easier for you to remember them. Also, if you find a phrasal verb from your list used in a new way, write down the new example. Nidia: Why dont we try to give an example of phrasal verbs in context? Myriam: Thats a great idea! Nidia: Come on Myriam: a useful context to learn phrasal verbs by learners is precisely school. First, lets see some school phrasal verbs:

 hand in To give something to someone in authority. Don't forget to hand in your homework. hand out To give something to each person in a group. You could hear a pin drop as the professor handed out the final exam. cut class To skip class, to be absent from class without permission It's such a nice day today. Let's cut class and go to the cinema. show up To arrive, come The students waited for an hour but the teacher never showed up. Fill in To give information on a form (one line at a time) Please fill in your name and address here. Check out Take books or movies from a library I want to check out these two books and this DVD. Nidia: Now, lets listen to the previous phrasal verbs in a conversation. Conversation Mary: Hi Teacher Teacher: How are you Mary? Mary: Fine, what happened to you yesterday? We were waiting for you but you never showed up.

Teacher: Sorry, I had to go to the doctor. Thanks for asking, Im better today. Are you ready for the exam? Mary: Yes teacher. Teacher: What about Charlie and Michael? I havent seen them today Mary: They are cutting class, as usual. Teacher: Ok, Im gonna hand out your exams. You have thirty minutes to fill in the blanks. Guys dont forget hand in your homework before you left the classroom. Mary: Teacher, tell us about the assignment for the next class, please. Teacher: Thanks for reminding me Mary, you need to check out a DVD about eating habits from the library and watch it in order to discuss your personal opinion the next class. Myriam: as a conclusion, I think the best thing for a teacher to do, or for a person learning alone, is to learn the phrasal verbs in context. And there are vocabulary books and dictionaries that will cluster the phrasal verbs for the student. There are also so many wonderful Web sites that can be useful and funny for learning them. Nidia: I hope youve learned a lot with this podcast. Thank you Myriam Myriam: It was a pleasure for me to help learners in their learning English process. Bye, bye.