Effects of teaching approach based on three-dimensional grammar on grade eight students’ acquisition of english phrasal verbs

Abstract

Phrasal verbs, an essential but complex aspect of English vocabulary, are difficult for Chinese EFL learners to acquire, whose first language lacks of phrasal verbs. This quasi-experiment explores the effectiveness of the teaching approach based on three-dimensional grammar on the acquisition of English phrasal verbs by Chinese middle school students compared with that based on conceptual metaphor theory. The finding is that there is a significant difference between the effect of three-dimensional grammar teaching and that of conceptual metaphor teaching, and the former is of great benefit for learners to acquire English phrasal verbs.