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Viewing Yes! Context-Oriented Language Study Beats Rote MemorizationYes! Context-Oriented Language Study Beats Rote Memorization
By Kathy Steinemann
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Most subjects require a certain degree of memorization by students. However, learning by rote can be slow, inefficient, and laborious. This article demonstrates how context-based recall is superior, especially when acquiring a foreign language. Most subjects require a certain degree of memorization by students. However, acquiring facts by rote can be s-s-s-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-w-w-w and laborious. This article illustrates how context-based recall is vastly superior, especially when acquiring a foreign language. Are you tired of endless vocabulary lists and verb conjugation tables? Do you want to eliminate some of the drudgery - and instead dive into the fun of learning a foreign language? Grab a stopwatch or timer, and read on. Please do not peek at the rest of the article until you have your timer at hand. Now get ready for a couple of one-minute exercises. There are two sections below, labeled 'Section 1' and 'Section 2'. Start with the first one. Set your timer and give yourself 60 seconds to memorize the definitions for the fake words. Reset your timer and proceed to the next section. Give yourself another 60 seconds for memorization of Section 2. Because the second section illustrates context-based learning, spend most of the 60 seconds repeating the first sentence, preferably aloud, while you envision the action in your mind. When finished, proceed to Section 3. (There is an answer section close to the end of this article.) If necessary, before you proceed to the timed exercises, go back and reread the previous paragraphs. You must understand the instructions completely before you begin. Are you ready? On your mark, get set - go! Section 1 - Memorize the Definitions: brellieran - to yellSection 2 - Memorize the Definitions: He prozzed, 'Narrnel Birthday!' to the soytole and it breozed. He yelled 'Happy Birthday!' to the baby and it smiled. Section 3: Cover the preceding sections (no peeking) and provide the definitions in English for the following words: brellieran ____________________How did you do? How many words did you remember from Section 1? How many from Section 2? If you are like most people, you probably remembered significantly more words from Section 2. What does this tell you? You should spend more time learning phrases or complete sentences. Your mind automatically categorizes words based on the way in which you use them. How often have you seen a word that seemed familiar, then rifled through the information in your mind until you remembered a previous sentence or phrase in which you used the word? Context-oriented learning works. You have just seen the proof! How efficiently are YOU learning? Maybe now is the time to make a change. Still not sure? Want to try another language vocabulary test? Go ahead. The results should be very similar to what you discovered here. If not convinced, try this language vocabulary test as well! Note: All of the fake words in this article produced zero matches in a Google search. I apologize in advance if I somehow managed to use a word that translates to something inappropriate in a foreign language! Answers: brellieran: to yell - Section 1 breozan: to smile - Section 2 narrnel: happy - Section 2 prozzan: to yell - Section 2 shrallzent: happy - Section 1 soytole: baby - Section 2 trummkey: baby - Section 1 zelltran: to smile - Section 1 (c) Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author's note below (with active links) are included. About the Author: Kathy enjoys writing foreign language articles for A Language Guide. She also writes German-English short stories and poems in parallel translation. Article Source: A Language Guide - http://www.a-language-guide.com More free articles: 1st Rate Articles - 1stRateArticles.com |
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