五 基于记忆理论的词汇学习策略在大学英语教学中的应用

(一) 介绍和培养基于记忆理论的词汇学习策略

在英语学习过程中, 学习者往往要记忆大量的词汇。在初、中级阶段, 英语教师一般强调要多多地进行重复练习, 增加词汇重现的频率。但通过这种方法记忆的词汇在头脑中保持的时间不会太长, 不经常重复就会遗忘, 而且遗忘率极高。“英语太难学, 英语单词太难记了”。学生们总是提出这样的抱怨。学英语、记单词是否有捷径?为什么学生总有这样的苦衷?经了解, 问题结症是学生们在学习和记忆上没有掌握好方法, 死记硬背较为普遍。针对这一情况, 笔者在教学中注意运用记忆理论, 介绍和培养基于记忆理论的词汇学习策略, 引导学生学习和记忆, 取得了一定的效果, 笔者谈谈自己的做法。

Vocabulary Learning Strategy based on memory Theory

In the process of learning English, learners usually need to remember a large number of words. In their initial and intermediate stages, English teachers often emphasized that they should repeatedly practice and increase the frequency of vocabulary reproduction. However, this method does not enable vocabulary to stay  long in their mind, which is forgotten by students sooner or later, and its rate of forgetting is extremely high. "English is too difficult to learn, English words are too hard to remember." Students always make such complaints. Is there a short cut to learning English vocabulary? Why do students always have such difficulties? After research, I found the problem is that students do not grasp a better way to vocabulary learning and memory, and the method of rote memorization is more common in their English learning. In view of this situation, the paper introduced  the vocabulary learning strategy of the medium in memory theory as follows.

1、语言记忆策略

语言记忆策略主要有栓法和关键词法。

(1) Association Method

Words can be  is remembered by associating extraneous items (such as words in the vocabulary) . These word associations are various which can even include rhyming words or numbers.For example: one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six are sticks, seven is heaven, eight is a gate, nine is a line, ten is a hen, that is a group of well-known "word association". To remember a group of words, the memory of the first word forms a composite picture of the word with other sequence words bun. For example: If the first word is cat, imagine that a cat is eating a piece of bread. The memory strategy of the second word is to form a composite picture of the word with the second  shoe, and the rest is analogized.

(2) Keyword Memory Method

Among the many memory methods, the keyword memory method may be one of the most memory methods studied by scholars. The method of keyword memory is that we can connect a certain foreign language word with a certain near-sound word in the native language and create an effective association in the mind, and then connect the two words through a sentence. It consists of three steps: (i) Select a word, from the native language or second language, which its pronounciation is similar to the target language word to be memorized as a keyword. (ii) Establish a strong association between target words and keywords so that when you see or hear the target words, you can quickly think of keywords. (iii) Constructing a visual connection between target words and keywords, usually a bizarre link, to enhance memory. For example, when a English native-speaker learner is studying the word “book”, he can associate it with Chinese “bu” and imagine in his mind: book.

This method seems a little absurd because it runs counter to the theory of  second language acquisition. However, its success is even more remarkable. The feature of this method is that it is easy and effective to make associations with real words. The keywords can be given by the students themselves, or provided by the teacher. It is valuable for both beginners and advanced learners, and is conducive to the acquisition of vocabulary.

Atkinson first investigated the effectiveness of the keyword memory method. He found that the experimental group using the keyword memory method outperformed the control group in word memory. Since then, Levin, Pressley, Moore & Surger, Ellis & Beaton and others have done a lot of research in this area. At present, language learners in China rarely use the keyword memory method, so it is necessary to popularize this method.

2, Vocabulary memory Strategy of Reading Reproduction

It is one of the best ways to remember English words by memorizing them in reading. With the help of contextual context and example sentences, students' memory is meaningful. However, when students use this method, there are some points we need to notice. Some linguists point out that words in our brains can be divided into active or productive vocabulary and passive or receptive vocabulary. The former refers to words that need to be correctly understood and used and often appear in spoken or writing, while the latter refers to words that are only known and recognized and often appear in reading or listening. This distinction is not absolute, but the significance of the distinction is that positive words are more important and more commonly used than negative words. Therefore, we do not have to treat all words equally, we should focus on a more comprehensive understanding of the specific use of positive words, while understanding them, so as to be able to use them correctly. Many students often pay less attention to the positive vocabulary and confuse it with the negative vocabulary when they memorize the English vocabulary through the method of reading repetition. The result is that when it needs to be used correctly, for example, the writing is overstretched, either collocation is wrong, or it cannot be used as a passive verb in a passive voice.

For the method of reproducing English vocabulary in reading, the teacher can teach the students clearly according to the requirements of the syllabus, which are positive words, which must be understood and mastered correctly, which are negative words, only the general understanding and understanding, and the positive vocabulary is divided. In order to strengthen the students' attention to vocabulary, it is possible to make the students look up their own dictionary so that they can thoroughly understand the collocation of positive words and their usage and so on. In this way, students can reduce the blindness of their memory in English vocabulary. They can be treated separately by positive words and negative words, with some emphasis on them.

3、分类词汇记忆策略

A number of studies have shown that taxonomy helps to improve memory. Learners seem to naturally classify words in terms of subjects, synonyms, antonyms, in the process of vocabulary learning. For example, learners can use the word "envelope" with other words that belong to the same topic meaning, such as "letter", "writing paper", "stamp" and other memories together. Some synonyms, especially different levels of adjectives, such as "enormous", "huge", "big" and so on, can be arranged in accordance with the different grades (enormous/huge/big) they represent.

Some words can naturally be strung together in a sentence, or even in a story. The research show that the method of recording cues is effective for English learners, and the number of words memorized is six to seven times that of rote memorization. Supposed that learner wants to learn the words artist, paint, brush, painting, picture, in addition to attributing them to the same subject for memory, they can also be strung together in a humorous story to further consolidate these words. The story is: an artist went to the country for a holiday, and stayed with a farmer.Everyday he went out with his paints and his brushes and painted from morning to evening, and when it got dark, he went back to the farm and had a good dinner before he went to bed.At the end of his holiday, he wanted to pay the farmer, but The farmer said, ", I do not want money-but give me one of your pictures.what is moneyn a week it will all be finished, but your painting will still be here." the artist was very pleased and thanked the farmer for saying such kind things about his paintings.The farmer smiled and answered, "it is not that. My sonwants to become an artist.When he comes here next month, I Will show him your picture, and then he will not want to be an artist any more, I think. " It will take a long time to make up the story, but it will be worth it in the end, because words can be remembered in this way

4、构词法词汇记忆策略

The use of word-formation refers to use roots and affixes to help memorize English vocabulary. I think this is one of the best ways to memorize English vocabulary. Because this method not only enables students to remember vocabulary, but also help them to understand the original meaning of words. Students can guess the meaning of a new word by its formation without knowing the exact meaning of that word, and then removing some obstacles of new words to improve the speed of reading. However, many students also have some problems when they use word-formation to memorize English vocabulary. For example, most students are familiar with prefixes and suffixes, but they may be unfamiliar with roots.

5、借助词典词汇记忆策略

An effective way to grasp the meaning of words is to use reference books, mainly dictionaries. The use of dictionaries constitutes an important part of vocabulary acquisition. Knight (1994) found in a study that American students who read two Spanish articles using dictionaries remembered more words than those who did not use dictionaries under the same conditions. Gu Yongqi (1996) studied the relationship between reading and dictionaries browsing. It is found that successful learners not only use dictionaries to learn the words they are looking for, but also associate words with adjacent words in the dictionary. So how do dictionaries help learners acquire vocabulary? First, dictionaries provide learners with the opportunity to contact a new word in other contexts. For example, by contact with different collocations and different compositions, students have opportunities to think about the relationship between the word and the passage  they read, and the information provided by the dictionary, so as to infer the meaning of the word in a certain context. Secondly, the definitions and examples in the dictionary provide sufficient context information for learners to understand the meaning of new words more easily. Dictionaries explain the concepts of new words by using more concise words or break them down into several components. Johnson-Laird believes that words and concepts are input into the learner's brain at the same time as the brain receives definitional knowledge. In addition, the synonym discrimination provided in the dictionary helps the reader to understand the article accurately. This is evident in the dictionary's usage notes. By attracting learners' attention to the nuances of synonyms, the memory of the word is further deepened.

How do learners use dictionaries? Despite the fact that the more frequent use of dictionaries has proved to be more  benefits to learners, learners must use dictionaries wisely. Bishop seriously points out that in order for students to shift the use of dictionaries from passive acceptance to active use. Therefore, it is necessary to train and guide the use of dictionaries more concretely. In the process of reading, English learners are often unable to continue reading because they encounter new words. If a new word has become an obstacle to understanding, it is important to encourage students to look it up in the dictionary. Only when the correct meaning of the word is found, can the learner continue to read. If the meaning of a new word can be inferred by context, then there is no need to look it up in the dictionary during the reading process. You can wait until after reading to confirm the pronunciation of the word.  Sometimes, learners are confused about synonyms and can also refer to dictionaries. Therefore, dictionaries are an important tool for students to understand and produce vocabulary.

For the use of dictionaries, in order to achieve the established teaching objectives, teachers should first help students choose the right dictionary. At present, there are many kinds of learning reference books in the market, the quality of which varies from high to low. Most students still lack the ability to distinguish the merits and demerits of these reference books, let alone choose what is suitable for them. As a result, they tend to be dazzled, and found taht books  they bought are not really useful. Moreover, the explanations of several dictionaries are different and even contrary, which make learners lose their learning enthusiasm. Instead of becoming a good guider of students, these reference books have become a stumbling block.

Secondly, teachers should teach students how to use the reference book, for example, to remind the students to pay attention to the word character, the semantic collocation in the phrase, to obtain the pragmatic information through the examples in the dictionary, and then to choose the appropriate meaning, etc. These reminding information is reproduced repeatedly and forms their deepen understanding of the words to achieve the purpose that they will final use  those new words correctly.

(二) 训练学生词汇习得的自我意识, 形成和发展其独立的基于记忆理论的词汇学习策略

In the process of teaching, teachers should consciously train students' self-awareness of vocabulary acquisition, introduce a variety of memory-based vocabulary learning strategies to students in the class, and help them develop their own independent learning ability. Learning strategies is very necessary. The author suggests that teachers can make efforts in the following aspects:

1. In daily  teaching activities, we should emphasize the importance of self-learning and make students realize  that language learning is a process of interaction between teaching and learning. Students should understand that they cannot rely solely on teachers' teaching and self-learning is the most important.

2.To help students discover and analyze their individual differences and to cultivate their own vocabulary learning strategies based on memory theory according to these differences.

3、In the process of teaching, we constantly create opportunities to cultivate students' good habit of learning by doing their own work. For example, in vocabulary teaching, students can use reference books to study the important words to be taught, and then give them necessary guidance. For the other words encountered in their study, they are not directly informed of the meaning, but are encouraged to first combine the context or word formation, grammatical structure and other existing information in the mind to guess, and then with the help of reference books to clarify its meaning, connotation and so on.

六 结语

The correct way of vocabulary learning strategies are the key to the success. While teaching students basic language knowledge, teachers should pay attention to cultivating students' acquisition ability of vocabulary learning strategies based on memory theory. It can guide students to master correct vocabulary learning strategies and effectively enlarge their vocabulary so as to make students more comfortable in actual language communication.