Enhancing memory and using mnemonics (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Enhancing memory and using mnemonics
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Cainntear
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Message 9 of 10

13 July 2009 at 11:10am | IP Logged

Bao wrote:

Humbert, Cainntear - what about all the words and derivations and sentence patterns that follow a pattern that still is to strange for a fairly new learner of the language to grasp it? (I am reluctant to use the word logic in such a context.)
Personally, I don't mind forgetting phrases that make little sense to me at that time, because I enjoy the moments when suddenly a long-ignored bit of information falls into place - but how many people have the freedom to willfully forget or ignore information they were presented with?

That's why I'm very much against phrase-based learning -- phrases are difficult for a beginner to remember precisely because they don't understand the individual linguistic units that the phrase is composed of. If you start by teaching these units (meaningfully) then you will be able to spontaneously generate many of the stock phrases found in standard course texts; but even if you can't, you'll be able to deconstruct the phrase and learn the logic behind the idiom.
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Sennin
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Message 10 of 10

13 July 2009 at 11:26am | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

Le dacquois wrote:

Humbert, you're probably right. That way you could learn a great deal of other similar words based on the root. However, that's not what mnemonics is.

Exactly, which is why mnemonics should be avoided at all costs. If you learn the internal logic of a language, it can be reused, reordered and reformulated at will -- if you memorise individual words using a logic external to the language, it will not help you in the long run.

That's true but sometimes there is no logic and things are the way they are just for historical reasons.

Edited by Sennin on 13 July 2009 at 11:27am
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