The Effects of Using English Captions on Iranian Intermediate EFL Students Learning of Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are regularly used in spoken English. Because of the difficulties experienced by Iranian EFL students in learning phrasal verbs (Khatib Ghannadi, 2011), the present study intended to examine the effects of using English captions on Iranian EFL learners’ learning of phrasal verbs in terms of recognition and production. A language proficiency test was managed to 68 EFL learners, among whom 60 intermediate learners were chosen as the participants of the study. They were randomly assigned into two groups: control group and experimental group. Prior to giving any instruction, the researcher administered a pre test. Then, students in the experimental group watched video clip with captions whereas learners in the control group received video clips without captions. To compare improvement between and within each group t test analyses were conducted. The result of the study indicated that the learners in the experimental group outperformed those of control group in their writing performance. So, watching English captioned movies affects student’s phrasal verb knowledge.