Memory helping students to remember

Handout How many of us think we have good memories? Whatever your answer theres no doubt that learning a language requires one to remember large numbers of words and phrases. But is this a skill we are born with or can we employ techniques that make the process of memorisation easier? This session looks at the problems of overload and explores vocabulary learning from the point of view of collocation and chunking, providing practical techniques to help your students remember the lexis you teach them. Aphasia But words give me a fright. Words are bullies. Sneaky things.They gabble and lie. Sometimes trying to understand them makes me cry. Words hurt. Words are all over the place. They get shoved in my face. I dont know why but words make me cry. I wish words were things you could hug. Or that they smelt nice. I wish they came in bottles like fizzy-drinks, or melted

like ice-cream. But they dont. Words are mean. They bully me. Lock me away From what I want to say. I cant even ask for help, and Im only seven (and a bit). Words spread nasty gossip. They must. Otherwise why would people think Im thick? Words, they make me sick inside. from Storm Damage by Brian Patten

How do we remember?

How much do we remember?

How much do we forget?

Vocabulary
How do we forget? Where does it go?

Oxford University Press 2009

Memory helping students to remember

How much do we remember? Cognitive psychologist, George Miller (1956) stated in his Magical Number 7-Plus or Minus 2 Theory that the working memory of young adults (short term memory) could hold about 7 elements or chunks, at a time, plus or minus 2. Later research specified it to be 7 for digits, 6 for letters, 5 for words. None of this has been conclusively proven yet, and still passes for urban legend, but the rule of thumb in current ELT Methodology is to present new lexis in groups of 5-9 words at one time. How much do we forget? On average, 80% in 24 hours Where does it go? There are various theories, but no definitive answers as yet. One excellent theory says that we have 1) a Shopping List Memory (short term memory) on the left side of the brain, where we temporarily store lists of memorised short-term items (when going shopping, packing a suitcase for a holiday or before an exam) and 2) a long term memory on the right side of the brain, where information is stored from birth together with visual images and colours, sounds, rhythm and music, tastes and smells, feelings and emotions. Hence the importance of the 5 senses for potentially helping learrners remember long-term. The absence of them in a lot of teaching may also explain the relative short-term memories of most of our teenage learners, where they forget what they have learned as soon as the exam is over! As to where exactly it goes after that is unknown. One theory says it degenerates, another says it floats around aimlessly like astronauts in space or fish in a pond until found by chance. Long-term memory stores items in groups (alphabetically, Syllabically,Topically, with the 5 senses etc) and far more systematically, therefore making items more easily retrievable/remembered.

The Lexical Approach

What is lexis? Standard view of language Vocabulary LEXIS Grammar Chunks combined to Produce continuous Coherent text

Oxford University Press 2009

Memory helping students to remember

The four basic types of chunks Single words They stand alone but constitute a complete meaningful chunk of text e.g Open Closed Certainly! But.....dont forget that not all single words can stand alone! Delexicalised words such as: have, get and make need to be paired up with other words such as have breakfast in order to make their meaning clear. Semi-fixed expressions Could you pass the pepper, please I havent seen you for ages! Fixed expressions Many happy returns of the day. Happy New Year! same to you.

Collocations These chunks can be described as the lexical company a word keeps The following patterns are highly likely to co-occur: Adj+ Noun A strong accent, great fun, loud music Verb+Noun Catch a bus, make a film, join a club, do a degree Adverb+ Adj Happily married, incredibly easy Lexical activities

Lexical Staircases

Lexical Spidergrams

DO
Beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, very attractive

Bubbles
gr am m e
Reality TV Qu iz so ap sports s The new

play

Spaghetti
the internet

music
surf

computer games Listen to

pr o

Oxford University Press 2009

Memory helping students to remember

Memory How we forget Lists Overload Impersonal Boring No recycling Left-brained Passive How we remember In groups/networks Graphic organisers Lexical notebooks Limited Personal Unusual/funny Recycled VAKOG/right-brained Active

References Morgan J and M Rinvolucri Vocabulary 2004 OUP Thornbury S Natural Grammar 2004 OUP www.oup.com/elt/teachersclub/teenage/?cc=global http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two http://www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/ www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations.htm www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx

Oxford University Press 2009