Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Péter Antonyi: Phrasal verbs: a study and its implications for teaching methods

fact, it was supposed that relatively good knowledge of phrasal verbs has been given through tuition, but a curious deadlock seems to hinder the switch from passive to active vocabulary. At least one reason for this deadlock could be identified as a general feeling of uncertainty associated with this area. 1.2 Subjects 1 tested three groups of Hungarian students of English on the use of phrasal verbs. In order to survey a bigger spectrum, I examined two groups of secondary school students and one group of university students. A short description of each group in the chronological order of testing is as follows: 1.2.1 Group one Group one (hereafter Gl) numbered seven secondary school students of the fourth grade (age: 18). Each holds a certificate of medium level Hungarian State Language Examination in English. This roughly means that they are (upper-) intermediate students of English. 1.2.2 Group two Group two (G2) consisted of twelve secondary school students of the third grade (age: 17), only one of them holding a certificate of the language examination mentioned above. Nevertheless, it was an excellent group with some conspicuously sparkling students. Their average level could be determined as intermediate. 1.2.3 Group three Group three (G3) comprised eighteen first-year university students. As a matter of fact, English majors are widely presumed to have a good command of English (at least upper-intermediate level). However, this is not always the case because students come to university with considerably varied language backgrounds, ranging from low intermediate to highly advanced level. Basically, an average level, which is quite hard to estimate for a concrete group like this, would probably be upper-intermediate. 1.3 Materials and procedures Basically, I have used a test-sheet that consists of two authentic passages. It was turned to be a gap-filling exercise with the phrasal verbs of interest omitted. The term 'phrasal verb' is used in a broader sense as defined in Exercises on Phrasal Verbs by Jennifer Seidl, for, strictly speaking, the 68