Teaching Phrasal Verbs Using the Structural/Communicative Approach

Abstract

Questions which are typically and frequently raised in current language teaching are basically related to the teaching of grammar. Not surprisingly, a large body of literature has been specifically dedicated to it. Throughout the history of teaching Grammar there have been always controversial issues that take the greatest portions of scholars’ interest, one fundamental question which is arisen by many language practitioners concerns whi ch appropriate teaching model to follow. While some of them still approve of and believe in the value of building sound grammatical knowledge through explicit and direct instruction which is adopted by the Structural Approach, others seem to be enthusiastically inclined towards newest communicative doctrines which advocate the usefulness of the communicative practices in developing primarily the communicative skills of the learners which are thought necessary in a widely globalized world. Still, there are others who are of the view that both approaches are remarkably valuable that is why they call for the integration of both approaches within an ideal teaching model that is the Structural/Communicative Approach. Considering the issue of teaching phrasal verbs which is of paramount importance in the English grammar, the present study is conducted specifically to investigate the usefulness of the Structural/Communicative Approach in teaching this particular language form at the Department of Letters and Foreign Languages, Abdelhafid Boussouf University Center of Mila. We hypothesise that if phrasal verbs are taught systematically through t he Structural/Communicative Approach, students would improve their understanding and use of phrasal verbs.We also hypothesize that the Structural /Communicative Approach may become dominant and useful in teaching phrasal verbs . The hypotheses are verified by means of a Teachers’ Questionnaire and a Students’ Questionnaire. Based on the data obtained from both questionnaires, we can confirm our hypotheses especially that both the teachers and the students agreed that using the Structural/Communicative Approach is virtually effective in theteaching of phrasal verbs.