The impact of guessing and retrieval strategies for learning phrasal verbs

Abstract Previous research on phrasal verbs has focused on the effectiveness of exercises requiring learners to provide the missing particle for a given verb. However, this research does not address other common exercise formats, such as those requiring learners to complete entire phrasal verbs. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring such an exercise format and its two principal implementations. The participants were 134 Japanese EFL learners. Both exercise setups present the definition and initial letter of a phrasal verb as a prompt. In the guessing method, students attempt to fill in the missing phrasal verb based solely on the prompt and then receive corrective feedback. In contrast, in the error-free retrieval method, students study the phrasal verb and its definition before attempting the same gap-fill exercise. Retention of phrasal verbs improved more with the guessing method. Further, across both methods, participants struggled more with recalling particles than verbs.