When concept-based language instruction meets cognitive linguistics: teaching English phrasal verbs with up and out

Abstract The study investigates the efficacy of instructional practices informed by an integration of cognitive linguistics (CL) and concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) on EFL learners’ learning of polysemous English phrasal verbs. Such efficacy is also compared with that of a traditional instruction in which meanings of phrasal verbs are considered as unanalyzable and arbitrary and acquired through rote-learning. In an 8-week quasi-experiment with a pretest, immediate-posttest, delayed-posttest design, 93 intermediate-level Chinese university students were divided into a cognitive, a traditional, and a control group. The results suggested that the CL-C-BLI integrated instruction facilitated the learners’ memorization and recall of the phrasal verbs’ meanings, but it was not so effective in promoting their recognition and distinction of phrasal verbs’ meanings in sentential contexts as the traditional instruction did. This study contributes to the field by adding evidence of innovative instructional practices in ways that are both usage-inspired and grounded in developmental education.