To present and give controlled practice of nine phrasal verbs
with the particle 'up' or 'down' by Gerard Eley
Preliminary information
Level: Mid-intermediate
Time: 1 hour
Main aims:
To present and give controlled practice of nine phrasal verbs with the particle 'up' or
'down'.
To present the grammatical rules that are necessary when using phrasal verbs and to
increase the students' awareness of what they need to take note of when learning
phrasal verbs.
The verbs have been chosen because of the common link of 'up' meaning 'increase'
and 'down' to mean 'decrease'. I have not chosen a lexical set of phrasal verbs as this
often means choosing a set of verbs with low frequency, which would not be
appropriate at this level. In addition the main aim of this class is not to insist on
production, as avoidance of phrasal verbs usually does not impede communication,
however, there is a need to develop the stds' awareness of phrasal verbs for receptive
purposes.
Subsidiary Aims:
To give further practice in using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.
To increase the students' knowledge of terminology in dictionaries.
To give revision practice of narrative tenses and linking expressions
Timetable Fit:
The stds have been doing a lot of grammar and skills work and are generally
progressing well. The students tend to under-utilise phrasal verbs in both spoken and
written language production. Although this lack of use does not usually impede the
stds ability to express themselves, a working knowledge of phrasal verbs will be very
useful for receptive purposes. This focus on phrasal verbs is part of an on-going
process to increase the stds vocabulary range by focusing on different areas.
Assumptions:
The stds know what is meant by a phrasal verb and use some of the more basic ones
well. However, their knowledge of the rules that encompass the use of phrasal verbs is
limited and for this reason they are reluctant to use them and have difficulty
understanding them. Some of the stronger stds may know some of the verbs in the
presentation stage but will benefit from a greater knowledge of the mechanics.
Anticipated problems and solutions:
Dictionaries may not provide information about separability of verbs - T directs stds
to example sentences or will have to offer solutions.
Stds are not used to looking up grammatical information in dictionaries - Overcome
by close monitoring and micro-teaching. However, dictionary use is part of an ongoing teaching programme.
Aids:
Cuisenaire rods, coursebook, handout, pictures, board.
Procedure
Stage 1 Warmer. To warm the stds up and compensate for late arrivals
2 mins
1. Stds reorganise the seating arrangements according to who has the largest family.
They have to decide how far the family extends.
Stage 2 Presentation 1
20 mins
1. T presents the new vocabulary - see the chart below - using cuisenaire rods as a
visual aid - each verb is contextualised with a sentence or two - elicit & drill chorally
& individually. The mini-contexts would depend on your stds & what you have been
doing recently in class - try & link it in.
2. Stds use rods as a stimulus to remember new vocabulary.
3. Controlled practice. Stds complete sentences with appropriate verb.
4. Stds compare.
5. Feedback. If short for time, on the board.
6. T tries to elicit the common meaning of 'up' and 'down' meaning increase and
decrease.
Stage 3 Presentation 2
20 mins
1. Stds read with teacher through the three main points of the handout. T clarifies any
areas of doubt or confusion and explains terminology.
2. Stds work in pairs or small groups to complete table on the worksheet with the use
of monolingual, bilingual dictionaries and the example sentences.
3. Stds compare.
4. Feedback - if short for time on the board
5. Stds brainstorm phrasal verbs that they know and try to classify them in the same
way. If time activity/homework activity
6. Group feedback.
Stage 4 Revision - the pictures are not included in the plan
15 mins
The main aim of this task is to provide practice of narrative tenses and linking
expressions. The pictures have been chosen so that the stds could use some of the
vocabulary presented in this class. However, as stated above, production of this
vocabulary is not the main aim. The pictures are of very general situations and there is
no obvious link between them. Consequently the stds may produce very minimal
stories, to overcome this I will be encouraging them to develop the stories at the group
stage.
1. In small groups stds chose six of the pictures and decide on a story line.
2. T monitors and micro-teaches as required.
3. Groups tell stories to other groups but withhold last 1or 2 pictures and invite the
others to suggest an ending. Story telling group gives their version of events
4. T monitors, takes note of errors and successes.
5. Group error analysis and correction.
Handout for stage 3
Phrasal Verbs - what you need to know
When you learn a new phrasal verb, you need
to learn the following;
Meaning
Many phrasal verbs have more than one
meaning. Consider 'cut down';
'We cut the tree down because it was dead.'
'The doctor told me to cut down my cigarettes
to no more than five a day.'
Transitive or Intransitive
Just like other verbs, phrasal verbs can be
transitive, intransitive or both. If a verb is
transitive it has to have an object, if it is
intransitive then it doesn't. You need to make a
note of this with the meaning because it can
change with different meanings.
For example. The first use of 'cut down' has to
have an object. This verb is transitive.
The second use of 'cut down' is intransitive.
We cannot say: 'I cut down cigarettes'
To find out if a verb is transitive or intransitive
you need to look in dictionary. Look at the
following extract from a monolingual
dictionary.
cut down vb. (adv.)
1. (tr) to fell
2. (when intr., often followed by on) to reduce
or make reduction (in).
tr and intr tell us if the verb is transitive or
intransitive. Some dictionaries use a different
notation such as 'I' or 'T''.
Seperable or inseperable
If the verb is transitive, we need to know
where the object can go.
For example. "I cut down the tree." is the same
as "I cut the tree down." so 'cut down' is
separable we can say "I cut it down."
However, we cannot say "I cut down it."
If a verb is separable and we use a pronoun
then the pronoun has to go between the verb
and the particle. An example of an inseparable
verb is 'look after' We can say. "Look after the
baby." "Look after her." but we cannot say
"Look the baby after." "Look it after."
Not all dictionaries state whether a phrasal
verb is separable or not. But if there are
example sentences in the dictionary this
usually helps.
Verb Meaning Trans. Intrans. Sep/Insep.
Grow
up
Heat
up
Wind
down
Cheer
up
Bring
up
Turn
down
Cut
down
Hurry
up
Slow
down