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Memorization Techniques | ||
Tags: Memory | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6239 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 1 of 13 07 November 2011 at 6:54pm | IP Logged |
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I've come across some pages on the Internet like this and this where they describe various techniques to memorize information such as associating information with images. Naturally, being a language learner I immediately thought of vocabulary learning but I have a hard time applying these techniques to my German learning.
For instance, I can easily come up with images for some words like schrecklich => Shrek but this is rare. Usually, I just associate with some other words I already know in a very conceptual an abstract way, like verdächtig = ver + dächtig, and dächte is the subjunctive of denken ("would think") so verdächtig is something about thinking and uncertainty, and from there it's a small step to "suspicious". But then how do I remember the prefix ver-? All these prefixes in German make matters even more complicated. Usually, the meanings of various verbs with prefixes are related and the prefixes themselves can be predicted, but sometimes they're completely unrelated, like for example aufhören, gehören, erfahren. How would you deal with such words? Would you just learn them as completely independent units or try to associate them somehow? And how exactly do you use images to learn the gender of nouns? Sometimes it's easy like Bart => Bart Simpson => masculine, but these kinds of words are exceptions. The situation is also complicated by the fact that I already speak other languages that have different genders for some nouns. Is anyone using these kinds of association techniques to learn vocabulary and if yes how do you do it exactly? I usually just pound words into my brain using Anki until they stick, but perhaps there are more efficient methods. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6844 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 13 07 November 2011 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
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Some related threads:
Prefix ver- German words German vocabulary Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 07 November 2011 at 11:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4800 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 13 08 November 2011 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
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The method that works best for me is repetition. I like to associate new words with something, but I prefer to associate words with their natural habitat; context. I put the words into a short phrase or sentence and add it to my list of short sentences to memorize.
Constant repetition is good for fluency too. When I was first learning to tell time in Spanish every time I looked at a clock or watch I would say the time in Spanish. When I was first learning numbers, every number I saw, on street signs, house addresses, license plates, ISBN numbers at the bookstore, everything, I would say the number aloud in Spanish. The same with dates. When I read a newspaper or news on the web and saw that some famous person was born on Aug. 12, 1954 I would say it out loud in Spanish "nació doce de agosto de mil novecientos cincuenta y cuatro." In about ten days I went from zero knowledge of Spanish numbers, times and dates to being able to say a date, time, or number of any size without having to give it a second thought. The words were just there when I needed them. Glance at a license plate and rattle off the number in Spanish. Automatically. No thinking required. But that was ten days of constant drill and repetition on times, dates, and numbers. I see similar results with new words. A list of a hundred words, worked on for a week or so of drill and repetition and those words are mine. Then I only need to review them occasionally to be sure they don't fade. (On edit: and because I've drilled them in context, they are mine to USE, not just merely to recognize when I hear them or read them.) I personally don't believe that gimmicks work as well as plain old boring repetition, in context. And I believe that the "in context" part is vital, too. Edited by fiziwig on 08 November 2011 at 3:22am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5816 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 13 08 November 2011 at 5:49am | IP Logged |
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There aren't any tricks to learning a new language. This site is one big repetition of people trying to come up with some new "method" or "strategy". Something that will take the work out it and speed up the process.
If you're trying to associate something with the word then you're translating in your head and not thinking in the language. This is normal in the beginning but requires a lot of dedication and work to surpass. If you want vocabulary to stick, read books that are entertaining. Stories that you enjoy reading. As words constantly repeat they will stick. The added bonus is that the grammar will also start sticking and this will help you when you speak. Read out loud as much as possible. Reading silently lets you be lazy and doesn't help with your pronunciation or rythm of speech. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jean-luc Senior Member France Joined 4895 days ago 100 posts - 150 votes Speaks: French* Studies: German | Message 5 of 13 08 November 2011 at 9:39am | IP Logged |
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anyone using these kinds of association techniques to learn vocabulary and if yes how do you do it exactly?
I do. I use image links only for the first memorization, after that I mainly use Anki. I also work almost exclusively with sentences. And how exactly do you use images to learn the gender of nouns For remembering the gender, I introduce a man, a woman or an animal (a lion in my case) in the mental picture I create. But then how do I remember the prefix ver-? If the meaning is obvious, or for some reason stick in my mind, I don't bother to create images. I cannot help you directly, but as an example, for ver- I usually put in my picture either steel (fer in french) which has a pronunciation close of the German ver- or the color green (vert in french) This mental pictures are only a simple memory hook: - they allow me concentrate more easily on the words than just by trying to remember them - I use them only at the beginning. With repetition, I start quickly to remember the word first then the image which eventually fade away. I don't try to keep them in memory. - they don't have to be precise and scientific, just memorable. I can use the pronunciation or the spelling, split the word logically (prefix - root) or not, use them only for a part of the word, mix mental picture with signification of known words, mix french, English, and German... All the memorization work is done after that by repetition (with Anki) As a warning I'm progressing slowly but it has more to do with my dedication than with the techniques I use. Edited by jean-luc on 08 November 2011 at 9:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6239 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 6 of 13 08 November 2011 at 9:53am | IP Logged |
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@hypersport:
Well, it's not like I'm new to this language learning business (see my profile) and if you follow the 6WC you'll find it hard to claim that I'm not putting in the effort. And this is precisely what brought me to ask this question in the first place. At this point I'm already studying several hours per day and I can't really increase that so the only way to make the learning more effective is to improve my methods. I'm not looking for cheap tricks or gimmicks. I was just wondering whether anyone had used any memorization techniques like the ones described in the links that I gave above. @jean-luc: Thanks! That's exactly what I was after. Indeed, the images don't really have to make sense. Actually, the sillier the better because silly images are more memorable and more vivid. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6638 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 13 08 November 2011 at 12:38pm | IP Logged |
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I don't do much conscious memorization of new words or expressions while reading or listening extensively - then I'm more focussed on keeping a steady flow of input without too many interrupsions and blackouts, and I focus on the content. Of course I try to remember things when I read about them, but then it is the subject which is the object, and the specific terms will hopefully follow. For instance I could read about African birds, and then I do try to memorize a lot of species - but I learn the names in conjunction with other information about those birds: aspect, distribution, frequency etc.
When I study texts intensively as part of my language studies I look words and expressions up, but keep a list for later instead of doing a lot of memorization on the spot. And it is only when I use these lists for wordlists that I use the concrete methods mentioned in the links above. I rarely use pictures as such, except when they in themselves have some associative load - for instance because I have seen the specific thing abroad whose name I try to remember. Silly stories are too cumbersome and slow. Maybe they would work if you trained for it, but I don't do that - I don't have time. So my main associations are linguistical, and very often they don't represent the whole word. The first task here is to break down long words into their parts. The next is to look for etymologies or parallels in other languages. And the third technique is to search for relevant associations based on sound or letters. For example I saw the Latin word "nutricius" earlier today when I wrote something for another thread. It means 'tutor', and I might associate from "nutri-" to the English expression "soul food" - a tutor would be a provider for that. Maybe I would also see a Roman soulfeeder for my inner eye, but it would be quite peripheral to the memorization of this word and only support the verbal pun. In spite of this I do use visual clues. One reason that I prefer writing my wordlists by hand is that I use the physical aspect of the words as a memory hook - I look up and imagine the word in front of me (as a supplement to repeating the word in my mind). As for morphological information I do in some cases include it into my wordlists (with graphic signs for gender in Russian and German and one letter to hint at the crucial aorist consonant in Greek), but wordlists are not the optimal place to put a lot of morphological information. Instead I rely on getting this information afterwards when I meet the words again in concrete contexts. Ideally I should make it a habit to look for morphological markers whenever I read something, but mostly my interest in the subjects takes precedence. Edited by Iversen on 09 November 2011 at 3:20pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| minka1 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4694 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 8 of 13 18 November 2011 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
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Check out linkwordlanguages.com
Fast,easy and fun way to learn a new language for English speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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