Mnemonics—an Efficient Way to Remember English Words

李麗

【摘要】論文論述中學生記憶單詞的有效方法。在中學的英語學習中，單詞是重要的組成部分。對許多學生來說，如何有效地掌握英語詞匯在某種程度上已經(jīng)成為學習英語的瓶頸。通過自問自答，原因分析，蘇格拉底對話和集思廣益四種方法的分析，項目設計了為期三周的研究試驗——每星期運用一種記憶術教學生有效地記憶單詞。實驗的對象為高中一年級的學生；結果表明運用記憶術記單詞不僅能讓學生們對記單詞感興趣而且還能記得牢固。

【關鍵詞】背單詞 記憶術 實驗 有效

【Abstract】This paper talks about the efficient way of remembering English words. Vocabulary is the foundation of English and remembering words is a very important work for students to do. However， the results from questionnaire method and listening class show that most of teachers do not pay attention to word remembering. Four methods are used in my research， and they are analytic method， cause analysis， Socratic dialogue， and brainstorming activation. And it is verified by a three—week practice of well - organized activities. Each week one mnemonics is used. These activities claim that the efficiency of remembering words can be improved through reasonable and scientific mnemonics.

【Key words】remembering English words； mnemonics； research； efficient

1. Introduction

Mnemonics is a good way for students to remember English words through project research. Nowadays， almost all of the students still use traditional way to remember words and most of students do not like remembering words in senior middle school.

A piece of one lesson usually consists of words， conversation and article. The words are the foundation of whole context. So there is no doubt that the importance of memorizing words is obvious. But students are often worried about remembering the words. They always forget the English words though they memorize again and again and there is imbalance between the time spent and results of memorizing.

2. Problem Identification and Analysis

During my research， I found three main reasons that accounted for students low efficiency of memorizing English words.

First， some students felt memorizing English words is a boring task. They thought it is a difficult work that only top students can finish smoothly. Furthermore， most students did not have an effective way to memorize the words. They always adopted traditional methods： read English words first； then read the Chinese meanings. Moreover， most students felt tired because of harder homework assignments. After a long time of research， I was determined to find a solution to the problem. Four methods were used to analyze data in my study.

3. Problem Analysis

Analytic methods

Through analysis， I was led to a series of questions. First I found nearly all of students do not like memorizing English words， and I wanted to know why it should be the case and whether they thought it important and necessary to memorize words or not？ If they thought it important and necessary， why do they perform so poorly？ The problem is not only caused by students but also caused by teachers. The reason is I did not tell them some suitable and effective ways to memorize words.

Cause analysis

In this situation， I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them.

Socratic dialogue

（1）They do not find effective ways to remember English words.

（2）What are effective ways？ Remember group of words that related to each other. And remember words from context.

（3）What does remember mean？ Know its words meaning and pronunciation and how to use them correctly.

（4）What do effective ways mean？ Not difficult and not needing much physical or mental efforts to remember English words.

Brainstorming

I communicate with my students and my colleagues on this difficult question. Fortunately， however， they give me so many good advices and help that I can research this project carefully.

4. Problem Objectives and Hypothesis

My research objective is to improve my students efficiency in remembering English words. It is hypothesized that students efficiency to memorize words can be improved by using mnemonics. Teacher will teach students to use word field to remember English words efficiently. This is often more effective than studying unrelated individual words. The first is arranging words on a cline， or degree of the same quality.

Grouping words around a headword. （Appendix 2）

5. Project Design

In the project， I decide to improve my mnemonics in three ways： in the first place， I train student to learn and memorize words by using association and imagination. Next， I would teach them to put the relative words in a group and train them to memorize words by using this way. Finally， I would ask them to recall words through word categories.3 activities have been designed to tried out in three weeks （unit3-5 of Senior English for china， book）

Week1 Activity 1 Guide students to use their imagination and association

Week2 Activity Guide students to use word field-cline

Week3 Activity3 Guide students to use word categories

6. Results and Discussion

This graph shows that there is a drastic improvement in this regard. The subjects who rank themselves in scale “have made progress” amount to 74%， while 16% of them have retrogressed. The graph shows only 10% remain the same as the first one after the implementation. As the objective of our research is to improve my students efficiency by using mnemonics， such a result is very encouraging. It proves that our implementation of the solutions is fruitful and effective.

This graph shows that there is great improvement in this respect. After the second test， 8 of 31 students made no wrong answer compared to 4 in the first implementation. In the first test， 15 students mistakes are more than 3 while there are only 3 in the second one. It is five times of the first one. Looking at the “more than 5”， we saw it clearly that most of the students mistakes are below five before implementation， while after implementation almost all students mistakes are below 3.

Problem solved and unsolved

My hypothesis has been validated.

7. Conclusion

The present study is chiefly based on the project that I proceeded from September 2015 to January 2016， which aimed to improve my students' efficiency by using mnemonics. Six weeks ago， I determined to work on the crucial problem that most of my students had not done the practice I assigned them to do after school. In my study I used the analytic method， cause analysis， Socratic dialogue and brainstorming activation， formulated a specific research objective and a research hypothesis. And then I worked out five possible solutions to help implement my project. Much improvement was done in four aspects and my students were organized to do the tasks. After implementing the three-week project， I did a questionnaire survey to see the result. From the data， the methods used in problem analysis are suitable， the problem objective is realistic， the hypothesis is provable， and the project has a sound basis. Now I can be very happy to state that my problem has been successfully solved. This research helps me cultivate awareness of the dynamic mechanism in my English teaching， and enables me to acquire unceasing professional development. From the action research， I have gained a lot of benefits. Although I have learned a lot and improved a lot， action research starts me on another cycle of reflection， since I have basically solved one problem and identified another. I will go on with the spiral cycle of reflection that will lead me to the endless process striving for perfect teaching.

References：

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