VLASTWA: a vocabulary learning and strategy teaching web-app

This research study tends to evaluate the efficaciousness and usability of a Vocabulary Learning And Strategy Teaching Web-App (VLASTWA) – a customised and targeted web-app for (1) teaching the KeyWord Method (KWM) which is a widely investigated vocabulary learning strategy, and (2) facilitating new vocabulary learning via KWM. In this experimental study, with a between/within design, native Persian participants (n=160, age:18-60) learnt to use KWM, applied it in acquiring 22 new words, and tested this newly learnt vocabulary immediate (T1)/delayed (T2) recall. The effectiveness of the use of KWM taught within the web-app and the traditional Pen and Paper (P&P) in the experimental groups were compared with the control app and P&P groups via immediate/delayed recall of learnt vocabulary. The results suggest VLASTWA was efficient for learning new vocabulary while highlighting how meaningful and interactive it can be in accompanying and enriching Foreign Language (FL) vocabulary learning.

Keyword Mnemonics: Effects of Immediate Recall on Delayed Recall

One of the limitations of keyword mnemonics concerns its efficacy in delayed recall. The objective of this study was to analyse the impact of keyword mnemonics on delayed recall (at a one-week interval). A sample of 794 first and second-year Compulsory Secondary Education students of both genders were presented a list of 14 Basque words, the meanings of these words were to be learnt using keyword mnemonics (keyword selected by classmates, researchers, or by the participants themselves), or the rote learning method. Half of the sample were allowed immediate and delayed recall, and the remaining 50% of participants underwent delayed recall. Activation of immediate recall influenced delayed recall. The rote learning method was more effective than the keyword method when the keyword was supplied by the researcher, or when participants generated their own keywords themselves, but not as effective as the keyword method when the keyword was generated by the classmates of the participants in the study.

Investigating the Impact of Mnemonic-based Instruction on Saudi University Students’ Attitudes Towards Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary learning plays an essential role in foreign language learning. It is also central to language teaching and is of paramount importance to a language learner. Mnemonic is a technique that is used to instruct vocabulary and it helps learners remember better. The association of images and sounds with mnemonics can make it more powerful and effective to help language learners remember better and for a longer time, this can be achieved through applying a method called the keyword method. This study was designed to investigate university Saudi students’ attitudes towards the mnemonic keyword method. By employing a survey research design to discover the attitudes of the students enrolled in the preparatory year program at Taibah University. A questionnaire about ‘Students’ Attitudes towards Keyword Method (SAKM) having four Likert scales was used as an instrument for data collection from a sample of 40 students. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation.) and independent-sample t-test were exploited to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that Saudi students have positive attitudes towards the mnemonic keyword method that was used to instruct vocabulary.

The Poetic Word of Fernando de Herrera: An Approach Through Corpus And Computational Linguistics

Great advances in Corpus Linguistics have led to new approaches in Literary Studies. This paper applies these new tools to the analysis of Golden Age Spanish poetry written by Fernando de Herrera, the author of Anotaciones a Garcilaso de la Vega (1580) and one of the greatest poets of his time. Through a keyword method combined with lexical concordances, we will try to overview principal characteristics and differences between subgenres in Herrera’s poetry, dealing with the poems he published in life (known as H) and getting results which help in the academic debate about this poet’s works and style.

An Experimental Investigation of HAM, a Novel Mnemonic Technique for Learning L2 Homonyms and Homophones

Over the past 40 years, extensive research has examined the effectiveness of mnemonics for vocabulary learning. Much of this research has investigated the keyword method (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975), which involves linking an image related to a to-be-learned L2 word with an image related to a similar-sounding L1 word. Whereas most research has shown the keyword method to be effective (Webb & Nation, 2017) with impressive long-term retention rates (Beaton, Gruneberg, & Ellis, 1995), some have questioned its usefulness, particularly due to the quality of the resulting lexical representations and extended latencies associated with recall (Barcroft, Sommers, & Sunderman, 2011; Van Hell & Candia Mahn, 1997). Other drawbacks of the keyword technique are the equating of dissimilar L1 and L2 phonemes and the difficulty in creating associations for languages with markedly different phoneme inventories. The current study presents a novel approach called the Homonym/Homophone Association Method (HAM). It overcomes some of the drawbacks of the keyword method by associating meanings of L2 homonyms or homophones, one known by the learner and one unknown. Because the pronunciations of the L2 target words are identical (or nearly identical), learners only need to associate two distinct meanings. A quasi-experiment (N = 71) employing a within-subjects design compared the effectiveness of (1) HAM using researcher-generated associations and images, (2) HAM using self-generated associations, and (3) production practice that involved writing target words in sentences. Results on an unannounced posttest given 3 weeks after instruction suggest an advantage for HAM using researcher-generated associations.

Teaching New Vocabulary to Iranian Young FL Learners: Using Two Methods Total Physical Response and Keyword Method

Early language learning for children is increasingly common, and the majority of parents and the public do not see it as superfluous or overburdening children. Moreover, teaching a foreign language to very young children has been an increasingly dominant trend in most globalized societies. While there is abundant literature that supports teaching a foreign language at an early age through language immersion programs, little is known about the efficiency of strategies used to explicitly teach new vocabulary words in a foreign language to young learners. This empirical investigation aimed to assess and compare the efficiency of two mnemonics that have been traditionally used to explicitly teach new foreign language words: the Keyword Method (KWM) and the Total Physical Response (TPR). Results indicate that the KWM is more effective than TPR in teaching new vocabulary words in a foreign language to early elementary school children.

ENHANCING FOR VOCABULARY MASTERY THROUGH MNEMONICS KEYWORD METHOD TO THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This research is focused on mnemonic keyword method to enhance vocabulary mastery to the university students. Mnemonic refers to instructional or learning strategies designed specifically to enhance memory. One of the most powerful mnemonic strategies is the key word method. The keyword method is a useful mnemonic aid which can help broaden students’ vocabulary by means of speech and ultimately with reading and writing. Then keyword method effective way to provide a meaningful visual image upon which to base memory for a new word's meaning. This research involves twenty students at the first grade. The research instruments of this study are consisted of tests, observation checklist, and a questionnaire. This study was class action research. From the cycle 1 reflection result, some procedures and activities were revised. Different from the cycle 2, the researcher used mnemonic keyword method and there is no reflection. The enhancement of students’ vocabulary mastery shows with individual test and got mean score 67.75 in the cycle 1 and 79.75 in the cycle 2.In addition the enhancement of students’ vocabulary mastery in group test and got mean score 72.00 in the cycle 1 and increased to be 81.00 in the cycle 2. In this result, it shows there enhancement for vocabulary mastery through mnemonic keyword method in the first grade students at STKIP PGRI Blitar.

Phonetic Matching, Semanticized Phonetic Matching and Phono-Semantic Matching as Techniques in Keyword Selection

In foreign language vocabulary learning, the keyword method is among the most widely researched mnemonics and has been proved effective by numerous empirical studies. To use the keyword method, a keyword in the native language must be selected for the creation of an image or a sentence of the keyword “interacting” with the target word in the foreign language, thus facilitating retention and retrieval of the target word. In an attempt to contribute to successful application of the keyword method, this paper outlines three techniques in keyword selection, i.e., phonetic matching, semanticized phonetic matching, and phono-semantic matching, by mainly drawing on example pairs from Chinese and English. The phonetic and semantic links between keyword and target word pairs derived through each technique are analysed, and possible pitfalls are addressed as well.