A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks

Phrasal verbs (PVs) are one of the most notoriously puzzling aspects of English language instruction. Despite their difficulty and idiosyncrasies, they are of high relevance for ESL/EFL learners because mastery of PVs is often equated with language proficiency. Different from prior researches, thi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin, Elfeky, Mahmoud, Kamarudin, Rafidah, Abdul Majid, Faizah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/1/79970_A%20Corpus-based%20Study%20on%20the%20use.pdf
_version_ 1848788881704484864
author Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin
Elfeky, Mahmoud
Kamarudin, Rafidah
Abdul Majid, Faizah
author_facet Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin
Elfeky, Mahmoud
Kamarudin, Rafidah
Abdul Majid, Faizah
author_sort Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description Phrasal verbs (PVs) are one of the most notoriously puzzling aspects of English language instruction. Despite their difficulty and idiosyncrasies, they are of high relevance for ESL/EFL learners because mastery of PVs is often equated with language proficiency. Different from prior researches, this content analysis study seeks to identify the PVs used in the Malaysian upper secondary school textbooks and the frequency count of each PV in each textbook using a corpus linguistic approach. The most frequently PVs in each textbook were compared to the list provided by Biber et al (1999)’s Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English corpus. Findings from this study revealed that the selection and presentation of these combinations in the secondary school textbooks used in Malaysia depended more on authors’ intuition rather than on empirical findings and pedagogical principles. There were no clear explanations of Phrasal Verbs in both textbooks that were analysed. Despite the large number of PVs in the corpus, their presentation in the textbooks was far from satisfactory with some being over-repeated at the expense of some others. This paper makes a few suggestions to further improve the present treatment of PVs in the textbooks used at upper secondary schools in Malaysia. It is suggested that accurate definitions and appropriate selection and presentation of PVs should be considered. Rather than relying on intuition, Malaysian textbook writers must consider integrating the use of corpus into their selection of PVs to be presented to students
first_indexed 2025-11-14T17:47:52Z
format Article
id iium-79970
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T17:47:52Z
publishDate 2019
publisher Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling iium-799702020-04-20T05:04:24Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/ A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin Elfeky, Mahmoud Kamarudin, Rafidah Abdul Majid, Faizah LB2300 Higher Education PE English Phrasal verbs (PVs) are one of the most notoriously puzzling aspects of English language instruction. Despite their difficulty and idiosyncrasies, they are of high relevance for ESL/EFL learners because mastery of PVs is often equated with language proficiency. Different from prior researches, this content analysis study seeks to identify the PVs used in the Malaysian upper secondary school textbooks and the frequency count of each PV in each textbook using a corpus linguistic approach. The most frequently PVs in each textbook were compared to the list provided by Biber et al (1999)’s Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English corpus. Findings from this study revealed that the selection and presentation of these combinations in the secondary school textbooks used in Malaysia depended more on authors’ intuition rather than on empirical findings and pedagogical principles. There were no clear explanations of Phrasal Verbs in both textbooks that were analysed. Despite the large number of PVs in the corpus, their presentation in the textbooks was far from satisfactory with some being over-repeated at the expense of some others. This paper makes a few suggestions to further improve the present treatment of PVs in the textbooks used at upper secondary schools in Malaysia. It is suggested that accurate definitions and appropriate selection and presentation of PVs should be considered. Rather than relying on intuition, Malaysian textbook writers must consider integrating the use of corpus into their selection of PVs to be presented to students Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. 2019-11-30 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/1/79970_A%20Corpus-based%20Study%20on%20the%20use.pdf Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin and Elfeky, Mahmoud and Kamarudin, Rafidah and Abdul Majid, Faizah (2019) A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 8 (6). pp. 75-85. ISSN 2200-3592 E-ISSN 2200-3452 https://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/5941/4256 http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.6p.76
spellingShingle LB2300 Higher Education
PE English
Md. Zamin, Ainul Azmin
Elfeky, Mahmoud
Kamarudin, Rafidah
Abdul Majid, Faizah
A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title_full A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title_fullStr A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title_full_unstemmed A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title_short A corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in Malaysian secondary school textbooks
title_sort corpus-based study on the use of phrasal verbs in malaysian secondary school textbooks
topic LB2300 Higher Education
PE English
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/79970/1/79970_A%20Corpus-based%20Study%20on%20the%20use.pdf