Presenting English polysemous phrasal verbs with two metaphor-based cognitive methods to Chinese EFL learners

Abstract

The present study examined whether cognitive linguistic methods facilitate Chinese EFL learners' acquisition of English polysemous phrasal verbs. 120 participants were tested in a 2 (method: traditional v. cognitive) × 2 (English proficiency: intermediate v. high) between-subjects design in which the control group was presented English polysemous phrasal verbs in the traditional method and to the experimental group there were presented in a cognitive method. Both groups were then asked to take an immediate test to test their short-term memory, and a delayed post-test was conducted one week later to test long-term memory. Results show that compared with the traditional method 1) presenting polysemous phrasal verbs with metaphor association is beneficial to participants' long-term memory and English proficiency influences the understanding and retention of the learning materials; 2) presenting polysemous phrasal verbs based on orientational metaphor cannot efficiently facilitate participants' meaning retention of the phrasal verbs, neither in the short-term nor in the long-term test. The study confirms that cognitive methods are much more suited for EFL learners in the learning of polysemous phrasal verbs and appropriate L1 input is necessary when a new teaching method is introduced.