Memory and vocabulary

G’day,

To continue our exploration of vocabulary learning today I will look at memory and vocabulary. Obviously the memory is the place where vocabulary is lodged, but the challenge is to get it into what is called the long term memory. Most students are good at keeping new vocabulary chunks in the short term memory but this is not the most desirable thing if you are a language learner and need them three months later.

There are a number of strategies which can help our children and students to put vocabulary into the long term memory.

• Repetition is the most obvious. However it needs to be a repetition of the hearing and use of the word in context. In other words just repeating the word means only that we remember how to spell it. We need to use it repeatedly for a purpose.

• Spacing. This means going back to the vocabulary item over a period of days. Doing this is much more effective than twenty repetitions in the first ten minutes and then no more for the next ten days. We need to revisit the item again from time to time also. One might write the word in a sentence with a little picture to illustrate it straight away andthen over the next few days do the same but in a different sentence each time.

• Use. Using the new chunk in some interesting way is one of the best strategies. Use it or lose it!

• Cognitive depth. When we have to think about our choice of a word, and think hard about our decision to use it the word is remembered more successfully. We need to use the chunk in new and creative ways.

• Imaging. Connecting the new vocabulary with mental pictures or an emotional response is a powerful memory tool, especially when the student creates their own mental “hook”. This may be why swear words are so easily learnt!

• Attention. When we make a conscious effort to learn vocabulary we improve the ability to recall that vocabulary. Accidental learning is less successful.

• Metacognition. (thinking about thinking!) When we deliberately combine the last three and also think deeply about how the new item works, how it is similar in meaning to other words we know, how it is different, its various forms, (passive, past tense, noun, verb etc)where it fits in our web of words and so on, we are working at top efficiency.

`To combine all these strategies one might write the new item in a sentence with a little picture to illustrate it straight away and then over the next few days do the same but in different sentences, using the chunk in different ways, with different tenses etc each time. All the time consciously looking for opportunities to use the chunk in conversation. Strangely enough my experience is that when one does this one then hears the new word/chunk all over the place even though it was apparently never heard before.

All of these are learning skills that can be taught to our children through modelling, getting them to do them and discussion about how learn vocabulary works.

Reference: How to Teach Vocabulary. Thornbury, S.(2002). Pearson Longman, UK.

Good luck!

Chris

Ways in which we store and retrieve vocabulary

Ngā mihi nui

Recently I was asked about learning and teaching vocabulary which led to a discussion about the ways in which we store and retrieve vocabulary. For the purpose of this discussion we accept that vocabulary is taken to mean both single words and chunks of words which combine to communicate a meaning. For example, a single word might be something like bicycle, and a chunk might be something like raining cats and dogs, or falling rain.

The difficulty in thinking about vocabulary is that words only rarely have a single meaning. A bicycle is always a bicycle, but a dog is not always a four legs and a tail dog.

Consider these phrases:

• Raining cats and dogs
• My car is a real dog
• She keeps on dogging my footsteps
• She is a dogged competitor
• Dirty Dogs (sunglasses)

All of these have some idea which links the different uses of dog but the meaning communicated is dependent on the context and the surrounding words.

When we store the word dog we create a schema, a web of interrelated meanings and experiences related to dog. The schema diagram might look like this:

Recent research is indicating that these sorts of webs of meaning
are the way in which we store vocabulary, and when we come
across a new item we will plug it in to the appropriate web.
However these webs do not exist independently of each other
but are linked to other webs. The web for dog is linked to webs
for cars, other animals, weather etc.

And so on

As parents and teachers we need to keep in mind the way in which we store vocabulary and help our students to create the webs for themselves, remembering also that for our bilingual students the webs will contain words from both languages.

Kia ora ra,

Chris.

The different purposes of language

Talofa lava.

To continue the discussion of the cultural component of language and the way this impacts on the learner I would like to take a quick look at the different purposes of language, what we might call genre. Genre here refers to text purposes such as narration (story telling), recount (telling a personal experience), giving directions etc, rather than the “science fiction”, “historical novel,” “chick flick” meaning of genre.

Every culture has its own concept of the purpose of a particular genre, and how it should be done. For example in New Zealand we would most likely think that a report should be written in the third person, giving the impression of objectivity by not using the words I, me, you, we, us. It should have an opening paragraph outlining the report, and a closing section in summary. Some cultures however expect to find the summary first, and others give reports in a story form. All of these are valid and require our language student to gain an understanding of how the language being learnt performs that task.

Another example is the purpose behind telling a story. Western cultures tend to tell stories as single stand - alone items. In my experience the stories we hear nowadays are primarily intended to entertain. In earlier times in the Western world stories were used to teach lessons about behaviour, remember the moral stories from Victorian times.

It seems to me that the Maori stories I know are commonly intended to transmit information about genealogy, tribal history and proper behaviour and are part of a longer narrative. In this way the story of how Motutapu got its name is connected to the Tainui canoe, the grave that the tree from which Tainui was carved grew, and Maui’s sister’s stillborn baby, after her first husband was turned into a dog. These are characteristics found less today often in English language stories, except perhaps for the Harry Potter books and similar series.

The implications of this for our programmes is that firstly we need to teach our students authentic genre not just a version of the English genre translated into the target language. We also need to be aware that when we put a text in front of a student, they may not understand the deeper meaning because they have the wrong expectation about that genre. If they expect that the story is meant to entertain, and are given a story intended to explain a historical relationship between two tribes, they will struggle to maintain interest and gather deeper meanings.

Ia manuia lou aso.

Chris

The backstory behind bilingualism

Ngā mihi nui ki a tatou i tēnei tauhou, Greetings to all and a happy New Year.

To start off this year’s contributions, I would like to share with you some thoughts about the backstory behind bilingualism.

It is common to hear that gaining a second language gives insights into other ways of thinking, and that culture and language are inextricably linked. In New Zealand there is prevalent view that we can learn Māori culture without learning the language. It is probable that this is an idea shaped by the misconception that culture is only song and dance.

For the purpose of this discussion though I would like us to consider culture as the system of customs, beliefs and values held by a people.

Learning the haka Ka Mate Ka Mate implies more than just knowing the words. A full understanding of the haka requires knowledge of the literal meaning of the words and the message it intends to convey. To do this one would need to understand the value system and customs of the author and the significance to him of the circumstances which instigated the haka.

To demonstrate the vastly different ways in which people interpret the world, consider the concept of time. “…going forward” is a commonly heard phrase, as is, “don’t dwell on the past.”

A Martian visiting us would think that looking forward into the unknown (the future) is an important feature of Western thinking, and the past is less important and relegated to some place on the back shelf.

In Māori the word for past in time is “mua” which is also means in front of and “muri” means future and behind. Clearly Māori have a different perspective. You might say that figuratively one faces the past and the future is behind us where we can’t see it.

Interestingly in Māori, time seems to travel in a vertical direction. ‘Te ra kei te heke mai’ is a way of expressing “next day”, heke meaning descending. Yesterday is expressed as, “te ra kua taha ake”, ake indicates an upward movement away from the speaker. So in this view tomorrow drops in on us and when it becomes yesterday, it returns to the heavens. I feel as if English considers time as something which moves horizontally but I can’t presently put my finger on how I get that idea. Any ideas?

To finish this little discussion I will leave you with a brainteaser. In Māori numbers take the form of verbs. So the number rua can be preceded by any one of a number of tense markers, eg, “Ka tahi, ka rua, ka toru, ka wha.” So in Māori a number is a verb.

What would that look like in English or French?

Because the concept is so foreign to most of us it is almost impossible to conceive of numbers being verbs and how they would work.

Through learning another language one gains deep insights into the culture which is expressed by that language.

Noho ora mai ra,

Chris Lowman