Comparison of Phrasal Verbs and Idioms of Verb: A Corpus-Based Study between CLEC and Brown

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use of verb, phrasal verbs, and idioms represented by the verb keep employed by Chinese non-English major students as well as by native speakers by way of corpora comparison and Contrastive Analysis. The corpora in this paper involve the English native speaker corpus (Brown) and the subcorpora St3 (non-English major Band 4) and St4 (non-English major Band 6) in the Chinese English Learner Corpus (CLEC). This thesis analyzes the use of phrasal verbs and idioms of verb keep which is commonly used by Chinese non-English major learners. The instruments employed in this thesis are Antconc, SPSS, Microsoft Excel, and so on. In addition, through corpora comparison and contrastive analysis, this paper contributes to explore whether Chinese learners’ grasp of phrasal verbs and idioms of verb keep will get improvement as their English level develops. This research findings show that Chinese non-English majors’ use of phrasal verbs and idioms of keep is far less plentiful than that of native speakers. The Chinese learners are liable to use only a small portion of keep phrasal verbs and idioms compared with the native speakers. Nevertheless, with the development of Chinese learners’ English proficiency, their employment of keep phrasal verbs and idioms is getting much closer to that of the native speakers. Based on the above research, this paper also puts forward some teaching suggestions for verbs like keep. Some pedagogical implications are drawn on EFL teaching and learning. Microlecture videos can be employed for online and offline teaching, which is quite popular nowadays. The first five keep phrasal verbs should be attached great importance. As for keep idioms, the first six keep idioms should be emphasized. Some example sentences and related exercises can be involved. Students are also encouraged to use mind map during vocabulary learning.