Visual representation of English particle-verb (PV) constructions by Croatian secondary-school learners

The central aim of this study was to explore visual representation of English particle-verb (PV) constructions in Croatian secondary school students. The task was to investigate in what way PV constructions were represented. More specifically, we were interested if the participants would find the PV construction’s components important enough for the meaning of the PV construction to include them in their drawings. There is a number of existing studies on strategic construal of particle verbs and on beneficial effects of pictures in the learning process. However, few studies analyse the nature of self-generated visual representations in connection to the meaning. Self-generated visual representations offer an insight into the collaboration of other cognitive processes and cognitive motivation in the process of the construal of meaning. Therefore, we were interested in seeing what the visual representations of particle-verb constructions would show. The sample consisted of four grades of high-school students aged 15 to 18 (N=92). The instrument included 24 English particle-verb constructions, but only 16 constructions were analysed in this study. Participants were provided with the meaning of each PV constructions with the task of drawing it. The results offered interesting findings. A large part (74.04%) of subjects’ drawings corresponded to the PV constructions’ figurative meanings provided in the questionnaire. A part of the subjects’ drawings (22.07%) included meanings of one or both components, which means the data offered evidence of conceptual integration of meaning. In addition, the data offered insight into the use of conventional symbols and body language when presented with a task of visual representation of meaning. Cilj ovog rada bio je istražiti vizualnu reprezentaciju engleskih fraznih glagola hrvatskih učenika srednje škole. Cilj je bio istražiti na koji se način frazni glagoli prikazuju, to jest, smatraju li sudionici komponente fraznih glagola dovoljnih bitnima za značenje da bi ih prikazali svojim crtežima. Postoje razna istraživanja na temu strateškog konstruiranja značenja fraznih glagola te na temu pozitivnih učinaka slika u procesu. Međutim, ne postoji mnogo istraživanja koja proučavaju sam sadržaj individualnih vizualnih prikaza te vezu istih sa značenjem. Individualne vizualne reprezentacije pružaju uvid u suradnju drugih kognitivnih procesa i kognitivne motivacije u procesu konstruiranja značenja. Stoga, zanimalo nas je što će biti prikazano u vizualnim prikazima fraznih glagola. Uzorak se sastojao od 4 razreda srednjoškolaca u dobi od 15 do 18 godina (N = 92). Instrument se sastojao od 24 engleska frazna glagola, ali samo je 16 glagola analizirano u ovom radu. Sudionici su uz svaki frazni glagol imali dano značenje, te zadatak crtanja navedenog značenja. Iz rezultata su proizašli zanimljivi zaključci. Veliki dio (74.04%) crteža ispitanika odgovarao je figurativnim značenjima fraznih glagola koji su dani u upitniku. Dio crteža ispitanika (22.07%) uključivao je značenje jedne ili obje komponente fraznog glagola, što znači da su podaci pružali dokaze o konceptualnoj integraciji značenja. Osim toga, nova otkrića uključuju podatke koji pružaju uvid u uporabu konvencionalnih simbola i gesta u zadatku vizualne reprezentacije značenja.