An Approach on English Prepositions

Abstract

Teaching prepositions is one of the most difficult issues in the language teaching field. I have conducted a study based on learning the most common prepositions in, at, on at Escola Oficial d’Idiomes from Castelló. First the students were offered a pre-test where they had to answer initial questions about how they study prepositions. Many of them said they study prepositions through learning by heart, studying expressions and phrasal verbs, uses of time and place, using the context and doing exercises, by reading or watching TV, etc. The main purpose of this Master Thesis is to provide another approach in order to learn prepositions taking other premises such as topological, force-dynamics, and functional sets of senses, plus a combination of them into consideration and focusing on semantic and cognitive views. The final results have shown that the students have learnt semantic and cognitive visions of in, at and on. They have improved and revised their use of English and have discovered a new learning methodology they were unaware of.