THE USE OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR ¬¬TEST OF ANDROID GAME TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR COMPETENCE ON PHRASAL VERBS (An Experimental Research of the Fourth Semester Students of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of 2015/2016) -
THE USE OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR TEST OF
ANDROID GAME TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’
GRAMMAR COMPETENCE ON PHRASAL VERBS
(An Experimental Research of the Fourth Semester Students of
English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic
Year of 2015/2016)
A GRADUATING PAPER
Submitted to the Board of Examiners as a partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd)
English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education
Faculty
State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga
By:
Faisal Abi Yusuf
113-12-026
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
SALATIGA
2016
MOTTO
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealt hy, and wise”.
(Benjamin Franklin) “Whatever you are, be a good one”.
(Abraham Lincoln) “Don’t FEAR about what may happen, because FEAR is Face Everything And Rise (FEAR)”.
(The Researcher)
DEDICATION
I dedicate this graduating paper to: 1.
My God, Allah S.W.T who always besides me, listens to me, takes care of me, and gives me the best thing ever.
2. My big family and my beloved parents, my mother and father, and my little brother, thanks for everything.
3. All of my friends of TBI 2012, good luck for you guys.
4. All of my best friends of THE UNBREAKABLE.
5. All of people who supports me who cannot be mentioned one by one.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.Alhamdulillahi rabbil ‘alamin, thanks to Allah because the researcher
could complete this research as one of the requirements for getting degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in the English Education Department of State Institute
for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga in 2016.Peace and solution always be given to our last prophet Muhammad SAW who has guided us from the darkness to the brightness. However, this success would not be achieved without support from individual, people, and institution. For all guidance, the researcher would like to thank to: 1.
Dr. Rahmat Hariyadi, M.Pd., as the Rector of State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga 2. Suwardi, M.Pd., as the Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty 3. Noor Malihah, Ph.D., as the Head of Englsih Education Department 4. Prof. Dr. Muh. Zuhri, M.A. as my academic counselor 5. Rr. Dewi Wahyu Mustikasari, S.S., M.Pd., as the counselor who has educated, supported, directed, and given the researcher advices, suggestions, and recommendations for this graduating paper from beginning until the end 6. Dra. Widyastuti, M.Pd., as the lecturer of Structure IV classes who has allowed me to conduct the research in her class
7. All of the lecturers in English Education Department 8.
All of staffs who helped the researcher process the thesis administration
Yusuf, Faisal Abi. 2016. “The Use of English Grammar Test of Android Game to
Improve the Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs (An Experimental Research of the Fourth Semester Students of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of 2015/2016)
”. A Graduating Paper. English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty at State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga. Counselor: Rr. Dewi Wahyu Mustikasari, S.S., M.Pd.
Key words: English Grammar Test, Android Game, Grammar Competence,
Phrasal Verbs
This research was focused on the implementation of English Grammar Test of Android Game towards the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs of the fourth English Education Department students of IAIN Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016. The objectives of the research were to find out the profile of the students before and after having English Grammar Test of Android Game and to measure how far is the effectiveness of the game. This research was an experimental research. The subject of the research were two classes of Structure IV. It consisted of 50 students. The data was collected through test; pre- test and post-test. The data was tested using t-test formula by comparing the mean score of pre- and post-test from both groups. The significance level was set 5%. The result of the research showed that, first, the students’ profile were different before and after having English Grammar Test of Android Game. The mean of pre-test was 6.23 while the mean of post-test was 8.03. The difference between pre- and post-test mean was 1.8. Second, the result showed that t-observation (t o )
t 6.67 was higher than t-table (t ) 2.01 with the degree of freedom (df) of 48.
Therefore, there was significant difference after teaching grammar using English Grammar Test of Android Game. It means that English Grammar Test of Android Game improved the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs.
TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................ i DECLARATION .......................................................................................... ii ATTENTIVE COUNSELOUR NOTES ....................................................... iii STATEMENT OF CERTIFICATION .......................................................... iv MOTTO…………………………………………………………. ................ v DEDICATION………………………………………………………… ....... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………….. vii ABSTRACT
………………………………………………………………… ix TABLE OF CONTENTS
…………………………………………………… x LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………….. xiii LIST OF FIGURES
………………………………………………………… xiv LIST OF CHARTS
…………………………………………………………. xv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Research ....................................................... 1 B. Problems of the Research ............................................................ 5 C. Objectives of the Research .......................................................... 5 D. Limitations of the Research ........................................................ 6 E. Significances of the Research ...................................................... 6 F. Definition of the Key Terms ....................................................... 7 G. Hypothesis ................................................................................... 9 H. Paper Outline ............................................................................... 10
A.
33 B. Research Approach ..................................................................... 33 C.
40 G. Research Instrument .................................................................... 40 H. Evaluation Criteria ...................................................................... 41 I.
39 2. Documentation ........................................................................
39 b. Post-Test .............................................................................
39 a. Pre-Test ...............................................................................
Research Design .......................................................................... 36 E. Population and Sample ................................................................ 38 F. Method of Data Collection .......................................................... 39 1. Test ..........................................................................................
Research Method ......................................................................... 35 D.
32 2. Time Schedule of the Research ...............................................
Previous Researches .................................................................... 11 B. Information and Communication of Technology (ICT) .............. 13 C. Grammar ..................................................................................... 15 1. Concept of Grammar ...............................................................
Location of The Research ........................................................... 32 1. General Situation of IAIN Salatiga ..........................................
31 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A.
30 b. English Grammar Test Game ..............................................
28 a. Android Games ...................................................................
16 D. Phrasal Verbs .............................................................................. 17 E. Games .......................................................................................... 28 1. Definition of Games ................................................................
15 b. Importance of Grammar .....................................................
15 a. Definition of Grammar .......................................................
Method of Data Analysis ............................................................ 42
A.
Profile of the Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs Before and After Having English Grammar Test of Android Game ......................................................................................................
44 1. Pre-test Analysis .....................................................................
44 2. Treatments ...............................................................................
56 3. Post-test Analysis ....................................................................
57 B. Effectiveness of English Grammar Test of Android Game to
Improve the Students’ Grammar Competence opn Phrasal Verbs ......................................................................................................
65 1. Experimental Group ................................................................
65 2. Control Group .........................................................................
69 CHAPTER V: CLOSURE A.
Conclusion .................................................................................. 74 1.
Profile of the Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs Before and After Having English Grammar Test of Android Game .......................................................................................
74 2. Effectiveness of English Grammar Test of Android Game to
Improve the Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs .................................................................................................
75 B. Suggestions ................................................................................. 76
REFERENCES CURRICULUM VITAE APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Example of Phrasal Verbs .............................................................48 Table 4.4 Interpretation to Pre-test Score of Control Group ..........................
65 Table 4.11 Result of Pre- and Post-test of Control Group .............................
62 Table 4.10 Result of Pre- and Post-test of Experimental Group ....................
61 Table 4.9 Interpretation to Post-test Score of Control Group ........................
59 Table 4.8 Interpretation to Post-test Score of Experimental Group ...............
58 Table 4.7 Result of Post-test of Control Group..............................................
52 Table 4.6 Result of Post-test of Experimental Group ....................................
50 Table 4.5 Distribution Score for Both Experimental and Control Group ......
46 Table 4.3 Interpretation to Pre-test Score of Experimental Group ................
18 Table 2.2 Difference Phrasal Verbs in Use ...................................................
45 Table 4.2 Result of Pre-test of Control Group ...............................................
41 Table 4.1 Result of Pre-test of Experimental Group ......................................
33 Table 3.2 Evaluation Criteria .........................................................................
27 Table 3.1 Time Schedule of the Research ......................................................
25 Table 2.6 Example of New Phrasal Verbs .....................................................
24 Table 2.5 Example of Noun Made Phrasal Verbs ..........................................
20 Table 2.4 Phrasal Verbs and Its Probable Meaning .......................................
19 Table 2.3 Other Examples of Concrete and Abstract Meaning of Phrasal Verbs ........................................................................................................................
69
Figure 2.1 Short Conversation Using Phrasal Verbs .....................................23 Figure 3.1 Design of Experimental Research ................................................
36 Figure 3.2 Extension Design of Experimental Design ...................................
37
Chart 4.1 Stud ents’ Performance on Phrasal Verbs Competence for Experimental Group .............................................................................................................
63 Chart 4.2 Students’ Performance on Phrasal Verbs Competence for Control Group ........................................................................................................................
64
INTRODUCTION A.
Background of the Research Started from a technology, everything appears in sophisticated way.
However, it can give affect in every scope of life. In every factors are overwhelmed by the name of technology. As the example is in the field of education. Nowadays, technology can play an important role in education. As modern teachers, they are asked to be able optimally to operate technology in the case of assisting their teaching-learning process. They can use it for their methods of teaching.
Teaching english is not easy as it seems. Since teaching language is divided into four aspects, they are listening, reading, speaking, and writing, it needs different method to teach in each aspect. By the raising of technology, many teachers can use it to help them accomplish their task as a teacher. There are many types of difficulties faced by the teachers and the students regarding with learning language, especially English. It can be the one of solution to solve that problem.
One of the key competence of learning English is by mastering the grammar. Although grammar is not perceived as crucial as the four skills like listening, reading, speaking, and writing, grammar takes an important role in English language. Sultanova (2011: 35) outlines that grammar acquisition is increasingly viewed as crucial to language acquisition. It means that when
1 some people do not focus on grammar while they speak. However, they need grammar for the reason that it can deliver their message clearly and in proper manner. The result is they do not hinder the communication. The risks of being misunderstood are ruled out. Therefore, teaching grammar is also important. There are numerous techniques concerning with grammar teaching. One of the techniques is by using games to develop studen ts’ grammar competence. Moreover, learning grammar is often perceived as a boring and hard process. By applying this technique, it can change the way of learning grammar to be more effective.
Reflecting the facts in State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga especially for the fourth English Education Department students in Structure IV class in the academic year of 2015/2016, they learn many topics about grammar. Seeing the syllabus, they have to learn about passive voice, causative verbs, noun clauses, adverbial clauses, relative clauses, restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, subjunctive, participial inclusive, clause of concession, gerund and infinitive, preposition combination, and phrasal verbs. Unfortunately, they have to learn those many topics in the same technique, called presentation and discussion. In one condition, applying this technique can offer some benefits. Since the technique is student-centered, the student can be more autonomous. They can collect and process information on their own. Later, they can understand the materials by discussing with their friends. They can also share and explain the materials to the whole students in the different topics.
Here, the researcher highlights phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs represents a typical feature of English. Riguel (2014: 111) outlines that multiword expressions, and especially phrasal verbs, can assess the level of English language proficiency. It can be said that phrasal verbs are essential part of spoken and written English at all levels. It is good to learn phrasal verbs through presentation and discussion. However, it is not enough to use such technique like presentation and discussion. It needs additional technique to develop the students’ competence on phrasal verbs. It is because the students cannot just memorize so many phrasal verbs at once. In fact, there are still many students do not master them well. It seems that phrasal verbs are difficult to both understand and remember, especially for non-English speaker.
Phrasal verbs are combinations of ordinary verbs like put, take, come, and go and particles like in, out, on, and off. They are very important part of everyday English like offering something to someone, noticing about something, inviting someone to do something, informing about something, etc. Every student needs at least a basic understanding of the most common phrasal verbs and also common nouns and adjectives made from phrasal verbs. Some phrasal verbs are very easy to understand. For example, it is not difficult to understand sit down and come in because their meanings are obvious. Nevertheless, some of them are unpredictable. For example, every beginning-level students learn the words call, run, off, and out mean, but that means use all of something.
Looking at the problem, instead of using presentation and discussion technique to learn phrasal verbs, additional technique like a game activity is recommended by the researcher. As Metom, Tom, and Joe (2013: 402) state that by applying games in learning activity can motivate the students. It can be said that learning through games is learning the more fun and effective way. It can also increase the students’ enthusiasm and reduce their anxiety. The researcher supports their idea so that the researcher wants to apply a game activity in learning grammar especially phrasal verbs. The researcher have seen at glance a gaming application on Android ca lled “English Grammar Test Game
”. The game contains many exercises about grammar. It also provides many phrasal verbs quizzes. Hence, the researcher has a big question in mind that can this game take influences on developing students
’ grammar competences especially on phrasal verbs.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher propose a research entitled “The Use of English Grammar Test of Android Game to Improve the Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs (An Experimental Research of the Fourth Semester Students of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of 2015/2016)”. The researcher attempts to expose the use of the game to improve the students’ grammar competence.
Problems of the Research
To clarify the problems, the researcher draws some problem statements as follows:
1. How is the profile of the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs before and after having English Grammar Test of Android Game?
2. To what extent is the effectiveness of English Grammar Test of Android
Game to improve the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs?
C. Objectives of the Research
The objectives of the research can be stated based on the problems as follows:
1. To find out the profile of the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs before and after having English Grammar Test of Android Game.
2. To measure how far is the effectiveness of English Grammar Test of Android Game to improve the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs.
Limitations of the Research
In order to come into focus on this research, the researcher limits the research to be concerned as follows:
1. The research is limited in the using of English Grammar Test of Android Game.
2. The research is limited in the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs.
3. The research is carried out at the fourth semester students of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the academic year of 2015/2016.
E. Significance of the Research
The researcher hopes that this research can offer some contributions for academic and practical fields as follows:
1. Theoretically a.
This research can be helpful to learn a lot about teaching and learning activity using grammar games.
b.
The results of the research can be used to foster the techniques or strategies in teaching-learning process.
2. Practically a.
For the students This research can motivate the students to learn grammar in different way by using Android game. b.
For the teacher This research can build up the teacher’s ability to be more creative in teaching-learning process using modern technology.
c.
For the institution The result of the research can contribute the institution to fulfill the demand of English curriculum like inserting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as tool in teaching-learning process. Thus, the students are able to get satisfactory achievement.
F. Definiton of Key Terms
Based on the title, some key terms need to be explained, they are: 1.
Phrasal Verbs
Riguel (2014: 111) states that phrasal verbs are typical of English language. They always represents an important part of English. Phrasal verbs make up one-third of the English verb vocabulary. She thinks that there is no universal definition of phrasal verb as emphasized by Gardner and Davies (2007) (as quoted in Riguel, 2014: 112) that phrasal verbs are difficult to be defined by linguists and grammarians.
However, some linguists do not stop at that path. They finally make consensus by qualifying phrasal verbs as the combination of a verb and a preposition or an adverbial particle. Whereas the others only study a phrasal verbs as a verb followed by an adverbial particle. Therefore, verb and adverbial particle.
2. English Grammar Test Game
English Grammar Test Games is one of gaming applications on Play store. As cited from SevenLynx (2016: para. 1), it is a proper game to improve English grammar knowledge. It has stunning minimalist design and clear user interface that make easy to test English language skill. It has been managed by putting twenty English grammar units for each level. It is set in each test in a way that each question is a part of certain unit. It also explains which aspects we good at or require more practice after we played it.
3. Grammar Competence
This term consists of two words, they are grammar and competence. Each word has each different meaning. According to Richards and Schmidt (2010: 260-261), grammar is the way of how words and phrases are conjoined together to create sentences in a language.
Meanwhile, Richards and Schmidt (2010: 103) explain competence in scope of generative grammar as implicit system of rules that establish someone’s knowledge of a language. It consists of someone’s ability to produce and understand sentence. e term ‘grammar competence’ can be defined as the ability of someone to establish their knowledge in the study of how words and phrases conjoined together to create sentences in a language.
G. Hypothesis
According to Black and Champion (as quoted by Kumar, 2011: 87) define a hypothesis as a tentative statement about something, the validity of which is usually unknown.
In this research, the researcher formulates two hypotheses. First is null
o
hypothesis (H ). It states that there is no improvement of using English Grammar Test of Android Game towards the students
’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs. The symbolic expression as illustrated by Schreiber and Asner-Self (2011: 244) looks like:
a
The second hypothesis is alternate hypothesis (H ). It states that English Grammar Test of Android Game improves the students’ grammar competence on phrasal verbs. The symbolic expression as illustrated by Schreiber and Asner-Self (2011: 244) looks like:
Paper Outline
This research is divided into five chapters. Each chapter is discussed as follows: The first chapter exposes about introduction. It consists of background of the research, problems of the research, objectives of the research, limitations of the research, significances of the research, definition of key terms, hypothesis, and paper outline.
The second chapter describes about literature review. It consists of previous researches review. The researcher takes out some books and journals related to the research especially about grammar, concept of grammar, games, phrasal verbs, Android games, and English Grammar Test game.
The third chapter extends the research methodology. It explains location of the research, research approach, research method, research design, population and sample, method of data collection, research instrument, evaluation criteria, and method of data analysis.
The fourth chapter presents research findings and discussions. It presents the data analysis that has been collected. It includes pre- and post-test analysis, calculation, and discussions.
The last chapter is closure. It exposes conclusions and suggestions based on the research findings.
LITERATURE REVIEW A.
Previous Researches
The researcher is inspired by other researches dealing with games to teach grammar. There are several researches taken from some relevant sources related to this research exactly. However, the researcher pick four of them. The first previous research was done by Sultanova (2011: 35) entitled
“The Use of Games in Learning English Grammar”. His goal was to examine some traditional techniques of teaching grammar and compared them with the use of language games for grammar presentation and revision, in order to determine whether the students were succesful in presenting and revising grammar than other methods. From his research, he found that the students were enthusiastic about practicing language by means of games. He stated that the grammar games were not only fun but also helped students learned without conscious analysis or understanding of learning process while they acquired communicative competence as second language users.
The second previous research was the research from Yolageldili and Arikan (2011: 219) in
“Effectiveness of Using Games in Teaching Grammar to Young Learners”. The aim of their study was to explore the effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to young learners from the points of view of Turkish EFL teachers. To collect the data, they used questionnaire consisted of teachers’ opinion towards using games in grammar teaching. The results and learning because it promoted many advantages.
The next previous research was done by Wang, Shang, and Briody (2011: 217) in
“Investigating the Impact of Using Games in Teaching Children English”. This research examined the overall effects of using games on the improvement of young children’s English proficiency. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the usage of games and students’ English proficiency. To collect the data, they used questionnaire, interviews, and document collection. The major findings showed that students got significant improvements in their learning motivation and vocabulary acquisition, and their anxiety levels due to peer pressure were reduced when learning included games.
Then, the last previous research was done by Metom, Tom, and Joe (2013: 402) in
“Mind Your Grammar! – Learning English Grammar the Fun Way”. The main objectives of this research was to offer a creative and fun tool for teaching grammar to the beginner-level of English language learners, both in schools and higher learning institutions. They used a board game called “Mind Your Grammar!”. Based on the survey, a huge majority of the participants responded that it was a useful, practical and fun tool learning English Grammar.
By considering those four previous researches, the researcher conducts research entitled “The Influence of English Grammar Test Games towards Students’ Grammar Competence on Phrasal Verbs”. This research is more the games that he uses, called English Grammar Test Game. The game is just can be installed on Android or Smartphone. Secondly, the researcher specifies the part of grammar that he observes, it is phrasal verbs. The method is also different from the previous researches. The researcher uses test to collect the data. It consists of pre- and post- test to measure the students’ competence on phrasal verbs. At last, the researcher tries to analyze the influence of English Grammar Test Game. The researcher applies it in hope to help the students to learn grammar in a fun and enjoyable environment.
B. Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Davies, et al., as cited by Mustikasari (2011: 37) states the term Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a replacement of IT (Information Technology) since it exposes the importance of electronic communication as well as computer feature. It can be said that ICT deals with set of technologies usage as a tool. This kind of tool is to help people gather many information, assisting their works, and facilitating their tasks. The good point is that ICT can offer benefits in educational field. As Loveless and Ellis (2003: 2) mention that ICT go together with a set of conceptual understanding related to literacy or how to gain information through technology. It can be used by the teacher and the students to obtain information. For the teachers, they can use it as a teaching method in a class. For the students, they can access the internet to help them learn subject lesson outside the class. use ICT as a tool to gain information. The technologies are everywhere. The technology itself can be computers, tablets, or smartphones. People can use them to gather information by connected to internet. However, they have to filter which contents are good and bad for them.
Currently, many people get smartphones on their hand. The one of smartphone products comes from Android. People can manage it to help them learning English language in a fun way. Many applications deal with English learning are available. As the example is the raising of Android games in education-based genre. It means that Android games, as one of technology, can be media or tools to support English language learning.
Loveless and Ellis (2003: 67) support that ICT can bring to learning activities for conditions in appropriate manner on when and how to use the technologies. It means that, by ICT, the students can develop their knowledge and skill to collect information from various sources. They can generate their ideas using ICT tools and even enhance their work. They can also share information with other students. Thus, they can evaluate their own work.
Grammar 1. Concept of Grammar a. Definition of Grammar
Phrases and sentences are linked with grammar. Yule (2006: 74) explaines that one way of defining grammar is by excluding all the ungrammatical sequence and explaining all the grammatical sequence in language in case of describing the structure of phrases and sentences process. Moreover, Richards and Schmidt (2010: 260-261) define that grammar is the way of how words and phrases are conjoined together to create sentences in a language. It describes structure in the language into meanings and functions in a whole system. From two previous theories, the definitions of grammar have the same idea. The idea is that grammar deals with sentences and part of sentences they are words and phrases. The second theory is more detail than the first one.
It highlights on what process are words and phrases dealing with. They deal with sentence construction.
Furthermore, Thornbury (1999: 1) describes that grammar deals with the study of form or structure that are possible in a language. It can be said that grammar attempts to explain the rules on how a language are acceptably in a sentence formation. Largely, grammar is conventionally viewed as the study of syntax and morphology of sentences. However, it is study of linguistics of how the way of words are chained together in a particular order. Williams formation and explains how the language works together in meaningful formations.
According to some experts’ definition above, it seems that the term ‘grammar’ means many different things. We can say that grammar is a branch of linguistics, which concerns on language patterns. We can also say that grammar are mostly used in writing or teaching writing. We may even say that grammar is the name of part of speech. However, we have to straight our mind on one decision to define grammar. Therefore, after knowing many theories from some experts, the term grammar conclude as the study of structure of language that rules how words fit together to produce meaningful constructions.
b. Importance of Grammar
Grammar is very important for English language learners. It becomes the heart of communication amongst people. However, many English language learners usually never pay attention on grammar while speaking. Subasini and Kokilavani (2013: 57) comment that using correct grammar is important because it can avoid misunderstandings between speaker and listener. An error language can hinder the communication and conversations. Likewise, the concisely.
The learners’ goal of studying English language is to achieve communicative goals. To achieve that goal, Debata (2013: 483) explains that learning grammar cannot be ignored. It means that when people learn a new language like English, they have to study the grammar in hope to speak more clearly and using appropriate manner. Therefore, grammar is essential for English language learner to construct meaningful forms in communication.
2. Phrasal Verbs a. Definition of Phrasal Verbs
McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 6) explain phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a particle matched together creating one meaning. It means that phrasal verbs are the combination between two words which producing new meanings. The first word is usually a verb. Then the second word is usually a particle. Particle are small words that already known as prepositions or adverbs. There are some of the most common phrasal verbs particles, they are; about, around, at, away, back, down, for, in, into, off, on, out, over, through, to, up.
Later, McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 6) comment that to know about phrasal verbs is to know the meaning of the whole phrasal verbs as a unit, not in isolation. It can be said that we cannot guess the e word ‘look down ’, it can have several different meaning. It is distinctly different if we try to define it word by word. The word ‘look’ means to use your eyes, and the word ‘down’ means the opposite of up. To define this phrasal verb should be in a unit or as one part
. The word ‘look down’ means underestimate someone or think that you are superior to the others. If we interpret word by word, the meaning will be seeing things underneath. The other examples of phrasal verbs can be seen in the table below:
Table 2.1 Example of Phrasal Verbs
Verb Particle Example Meaning
Count On You can count on me that I will be here soon.
You can rely to that person that he will be there soon. Break Down She was panic when her car was
broken down.
She was panic when her car was stopped because of engine failure.
Carry Out He carried out his duties until late night.
He completed his duties until late night. Look After My sister looked My sister take care that she found at she found at the the backyard. backyard.
Let Down Do not ever let me Do not ever
down! disappoint me!
A phrasal verb can often be replaced by a synonym. The single- verb synonyms are often, but not always more formal. Here are the examples as illustrated by McCart hy and O’Dell (2004: 8):
Table 2.2 Difference of Phrasal Verbs in Use
Less Formal More Formal
Let’s put off the meeting until Let’s postpone the meeting until Friday. Friday.
Please take off your shoes Please remove your shoes when when you enter the temple. you enter the temple.
Everyone turned up on time Everyone arrived on time for the for the meeting. meeting.
b. Phrasal Verbs and Abstract Meaning
Later, McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 8) state that phrasal verbs can have abstract meanings. It means that we need to guess the meaning based on the context. We cannot define the meaning literally. As the example the verb ‘break’, the basic meaning of the verb ‘break’ shows concrete actions that means ‘separate into pieces’. However, when that verb is part of phrasal verbs, it often has abstract meanings too.
It could be ‘break up’ that means ‘to divorce’, ‘break down’ means ‘to stop working or functioning’, and ‘break away’ means ‘escape’. Sometimes the concrete meaning can help to infer the abstract meaning, for example:
‘The thieves looked out the window to ensure they were saved ’. (concrete meaning – look outside the window), or
‘Look out! He’s trying to rob your jewels’. (abstract meaning – be careful) Other examples can be seen in this table below as illustrated by
McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 8): Table 2.3
Other Examples of Concrete and Abstract Meaning of Phrasal Verbs
Verb Concrete Meaning Abstract Meaning
Give I give my essay in Her parents finally give in yesterday. (handed it to the and let her go to the party. teacher) (agreed to something they had refused before)
Get She got on the bus.
Jim and Mary don’t get on. (entered)
(don’t like each other and are not friendly to each other)
round this evening? (come hours but came round in
to my home) hospital. (became conscious again)
c. Separable and Non-separable Phrasal Verbs
Hart (2009: 1) states that phrasal verbs can be separable and non-separable. However, there is no rule to define whether the phrasal verbs belong to separable or non-separable. It means that it just need a habit to know whether it separable or non-separable. It can be done by taking conversation with native speakers, watching movies, reading English newspapers or articles, and listening to music. Here are the differences of separable and non-separable phrasal verbs:
1) Separable Phrasal Verbs
Hart (2009: 1) explains that separable phrasal verbs can be separated by their object. It can be said that the object is inserted between the phrasal verbs. When the object is noun, however, it is usually optional to place the object whether between the verb and particle, or placed after the particle. Both sentences below are correct:
I put my clothes on. I put on my clothes. placed between the verb and particle. It means that it must be separable, for example: I put them on. (correct) I put on them. (incorrect)
Hart (2009: 1) adds that the phrasal verb with two objects, it must be separated, for example: She put the cat out the house. (correct) She put out the cat the house. (incorrect)
2) Non-separable Phrasal Verbs
As Hart (2009: 1) defines if separable phrasal verbs can be separated by their object, non-separable phrasal verbs are the opposite. They are different because they cannot be separated by their object. It means that the object of phrasal verbs must be placed after the phrasal verbs, for example:
He looked forward to his old friend. (correct) He looked his old friends forward. (incorrect) d.
Particles in Phrasal Verbs
McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 10) states that particles play an important role in phrasal verbs. It means that by combining different particle in the same verb will give different meaning or sense. In other words, particles influence the meaning of the phrasal verbs. As explained beforehand, a particle is either a preposition (e.g. from, to, particles into a basic verb.
McCarthy and O’Dell (2004: 10) illustrate the examples below: Table 2.4
Phrasal Verbs and Its Probable Meaning
Phrasal Verbs Probable Meaning Jack invited me out.
Let’s go out together. Rosie invited me in. Please come in! Jill invited me over. Come to our place.
Paul invited me round. Come to my house for dinner or drink.
Mark invited me up. Come upstairs to my flat. Bill invited me back. Come back home with me.
e. Nouns and Adjectives Based on Phrasal Verbs 1) Nouns Made from Verb + Particle