About
Hi, I'm Shane Dunkle
I've spent 25 years in language classrooms, working with English learners from every proficiency level and dozens of different first languages. Phrasal Master is the tool I wish I'd had on day one of every class I ever taught.
After 25 years and thousands of students, I kept watching the same moment happen in my classrooms. A student would be discussing a research paper or giving a presentation in fluent, sophisticated English, and then someone would say "let's wrap this up" or "I'll get back to you on that" and I'd see their eyes go blank. Not because their English wasn't good. Because no one had ever taught them that the language Americans actually use is held together by phrasal verbs that textbooks barely mention. Phrasal Master is built to close that exact gap.
What 25 years in the classroom taught me
Phrasal verbs are not vocabulary
I used to teach them like vocabulary. They didn't stick. After years of watching students forget 'put up with' the week after a quiz, I learned that phrasal verbs are patterns of use, not items to memorize. The whole product is built on that distinction.
The textbook list is too short
Most ESL textbooks introduce 30 to 50 phrasal verbs total. I counted phrasal verbs in a single one-hour staff meeting once and got past 60. The gap between what students learn and what they need to hear is enormous. We close it.
Context matters more than translation
I've seen brilliant students translate 'come across' correctly and still misuse it for years, because the dictionary definition leaves out the context, the tone, the kind of speaker who would say it. Every example here is contextual on purpose.
American English has its own rhythm
I've taught learners who studied British English for a decade and still felt lost in an American workplace. The phrasal verb inventory is genuinely different. This product focuses on American English because that's the variety most of my students actually need.
Spaced exposure over cramming
Phrasal verbs slip out of memory faster than single-word vocabulary because their meanings are non-compositional. I watched it happen for years. The spaced repetition system here is tuned to that specific problem.
The student is the center
Every feature of this product was designed by asking one question first. What would have helped my students in the moment they got stuck? If the answer wasn't clear, the feature didn't ship.
Pragmatics first. A phrasal verb isn't just a meaning. It's a register, a context, and a relationship between speakers. Phrasal Master always shows you not just what a phrasal verb means but where and with whom it belongs.
Real input over invented examples. Every example sentence is something an American actually says. If you've ever wondered why textbook English doesn't sound like real English, this is the reason.
Spaced exposure over cramming. Phrasal verbs slip out of memory faster than other vocabulary because their meanings are non-compositional. The repetition schedule here is tuned to that fact specifically.
Phrasal verbs are the connective tissue of spoken American English. They are used constantly, they are almost never taught thoroughly, and they are the reason fluent students still feel lost in real conversations.
Phrasal verbs appear in nearly every minute of natural American speech
commonly used phrasal verbs in American English
Consistently ranked among the hardest features of English for advanced learners