Mnemonics - The Art of Remembering Vocabulary

 One of the problems for students studying a new language is remembering all the vocabulary. If you don't have enough vocabulary you can't really speak the language. It's pretty essential.

One of my students in the Diploma is trying to also get a good score in the TOEFL. At my suggestion she has started building her vocabulary using flash cards. She cuts out the cards and on one side writes the vocabulary word or phrase in English and on the other side writes the translation in Thai. You can start with about ten words or phrases a day.

On your first morning look at the English language side of each card once. If you know what it means set it down on your right. If you don't know what it means set it down on your left. In the afternoon look at the cards that were in the left hand pile (the ones you didn't know), and if you know them put them on the right again. The cards you know you will look at again after 2 days, 4 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months. The cards you don't know - the left pile - you keep following the same procedure, adding to them every day. Look at them in the morning and then the afternoon. Keep a record and build up the number of cards you use. Never think or worry if you don't know a word. Just move on from pile to pile.

The other way to remember vocabulary is to think of a sound and a picture in your head. The funnier and crazier they are the better. Look at the word and think of words that have similar sounds in your own language and then think of a crazy picture that can link the two. For example I met a Chinese teacher with a strange name. Her name was Machoo. What I did was divide the name into two: ma and choo. I then imagined my mother (ma) eating (chewing) a sandwich. And I placed my mother on Machoo's nose, just above her glasses, swinging her legs like a little girl. Having done that I never forgot Machoo's face or name again.