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