Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

The acquisition of prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs has always been a problem for the L2 language learner. This is a study that targets the Egyptian intermediate learners{u2019} acquisition of prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs and their incorporation in the learners{u2019} writing production. The study adopted a quasi-experimental methodology where two groups were randomly assigned to the experiment at the university where the researcher works. The deductive learning approach was applied on the first group, and the inductive learning approach was applied on the second group. Both learning approaches integrated the Data-Driven Learning (DDL) approach through the usage of concordance lines from the COCA corpus (Corpus of Contemporary American English). The findings of the study indicated two things. The first significant finding was the deductive learning approach{u2019}s upper hand compared to the inductive learning approach in relation to the learners{u2019} writing outcomes. The second significant finding was the improvedlearners{u2019} retention capabilities of the English prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs more through the inductive learning approach compared to the deductive learning approach due to encouraging a more learner-based environment where the learners relied on their comprehension and analysis of the concordance lines to create their own understanding of the target prepositional and phrasal verbs as opposed to depending, solely, on the instructor for direction and guidance which led to the deductive group{u2019}s focus on the grammar rule and dictionary meaning instead of focusing and analyzing the concordance lines provided during the presentation stage of the treatment

Issued also as CD