Learning Phrasal Verbs Through Cognitive Linguistics-Approaches: A Case Study of Kurdish EFL University Students

This study aims to examine the effects of cognitive linguistic approaches on learning English idiomatic phrasal verbs among Kurdish EFL university students. The participants of this study were 62 sophomores in the English Department, at Soran University. They were enrolled in the course ‘Communication Skills’, the first semester of the academic year 2022-2023, and they were put into two distinct groups the control and the experiment groups, with 31 students in each group. Students in both groups received instruction from the same lecturer for thirteen weeks. The control and experiment groups were given instructional treatments based on traditional methods and cognitive linguistic approaches, respectively. A semi-structured interview and pre-and post-tests were used as the instruments of the study for data collection. The descriptive statistics of SPSS analysis, by paired samples t-tests, indicated that students in the experiment group outperformed those in the control group. Concerning (p < 0.05), the difference between both groups was statistically significant in favour of the experiment group (t = 2.186, p = .037). Besides, the difference between both groups related to exposed items was not statistically significant (t = 1.153, p = .258). Additionally, the difference between both groups related to unexposed items was statistically significant in favour of the experiment group (t = 2.934, p = .006). The interviewees’ statements supported the statistical data, and they considered cognitive-based lesson plans helpful and joyful.