We have been learning English all our lives, we know the rules, but we still cannot answer a foreigner correctly and watch the series in the original without pain. Why is that?
We decided to understand this injustice and found a way to better learn foreign words. There is a universal memorization formula proposed by the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. And it works.
Why do we forget
The brain protects us from overload and constantly gets rid of unnecessary information. This is why all the new words we learn first end up in short-term memory rather than long-term memory. If they are not repeated and used, they are forgotten.
The Ebbinghaus “Forgetting Curve” shows that within 1 hour of learning, we forget more than half of the information. And after a week we remember only 20%.
How to remember everything
To keep new words in your head, you need to try to “put” them into long-term memory. Memorization in this case is ineffective, since the brain does not have time to quickly comprehend the information and build strong associative connections. To remember longer, it is better to stretch the memorization process over several days, or even weeks. In this case, repeating it once is enough.
You can practice spaced repetition using homemade flashcards or special applications like: Anki (Android, iOS) and SuperMemo (Android, iOS)
12 more secrets for memorizing new words
- Teach mindfully. Meaningful material is remembered 9 times faster.
- Decide on a list of words you need to keep the conversation going. There are only about 300–400 of them. Remember them first.
- Please note that Words at the beginning and end of a list are remembered better(“edge effect”).
- Switch your attention from the chosen topic to another. Know that similar memories mix(interference principle) and turn into “porridge”.
- Teach the opposite. If you remember day, then consider night. Antonyms are remembered faster and easier.
- Build your “memory halls”. The essence of the method is that you need to associate the words you are learning with a specific place. For example, while walking around the room, associate new words with individual details in the interior. Repeat several times and leave the room. Afterwards, recall the room and at the same time the words you learned with its prompts.
- Use the "word-nails" technique. The essence of the method is to add the word being learned to an already known word for memorization. This way, when you think of “nail,” you may be able to think of another word. For example, in the counting rhyme: “One, two, three, four, let’s count the holes in the cheese,” the words “four” and “in the cheese” are connected with each other.
- Associate new words with ones you already know. For example, the word heel (heel) can be remembered by remembering Achilles and his Achilles heel. And you can learn the word look if you remember how difficult it is to look when cutting an onion.
- Write stories. If you need to remember words in a certain order, try organizing them into an impromptu story. It is important that all words are related to each other according to the plot.
- Use a voice recorder. Say the words while recording, and then listen to them several times. This method is especially suitable for those who perceive information better by ear.
- Bring it to life and visualize it. Use facial expressions when learning about emotions. Get moving as you learn sports-themed words. This way you also use muscle memory.
- Don't learn the language from a dictionary or school textbooks. If you love Game of Thrones, try learning words from this series. It's much more interesting this way.
CHAPTER 0. For the lazy
I strongly recommend reading the entire article - it contains a lot of useful tips, examples, and techniques for learning both English and any foreign words. But if you don’t have the time or willpower (then your desire to learn a foreign language is called into question), then briefly about the highlight of all that is described below.
The cornerstone in learning foreign words is mnemonic association method. It consists of the following sequence of actions: first come up with a sound association in Russian for an English word, then come up with a scene, a plot, a story, a phrase with this association and the correct translation, and remember this story. Repeat 4 times within 2 days - remember along the chain:
eng. word => sound association => story=> translation.
If a person knows for sure that he came up with a sound association for a given word or spotted a sound association in our database, then it will not be difficult for him to reproduce this pattern. After 4 repetitions there will be no need for the chain, because pair " eng. word => translation" will directly move to the long-term memory area of your brain (the translation itself, during the very first repetitions, lived for only half an hour in the quick memory of the brain). Until this moment, only a story could get into the long-term memory, especially if it is vivid and emotional. Sound association during repetition was invented in a new way, the story with her participation was remembered, and the correct translation was already found in the story.
1. There is an English word slave (slave, subordinate) and you need to learn it.
2. You come up with a Russian word that is consonant with English, for example, glory.
3. You come up with a short story or phrase in which both the association word and the translation appear: “Glory to the slaves - the builders of the Egyptian pyramids!”
4. You remember the story (not necessarily by heart, but the meaning with key words), which is easier for our brain than remembering a direct translation.
And a chain of associations has formed in your brain" slave=> glory => Glory to the slaves, the builders of the Egyptian pyramids! => slave ". More precisely: you try to remember only the story (if it is bright and emotional, then it’s easy), and the sound association itself will pop up in your head when you need to translate the word, through the sound association you will remember the story, and through it - translation.
The method also works in the opposite direction. That is, if you need to remember how to say “slave” in English, then, knowing that you have a story with the word “slave”, you will quickly remember it, take from it the sound association “glory”, which will lead to English the word slave.
CHAPTER 1. Installation on technology
While potential polyglots do not know anything about the technique other than its purpose, they show considerable interest in it and demonstrate their readiness to begin an assault on a foreign language tomorrow. But as soon as our story begins to present the essence of the most important principle, the mystery instantly evaporates, and they disappointingly declare that they have known this way of memorizing words for a long time without us (this statement is made by 90 of the 100 who want to learn the language using this method). Therefore, at the very first meeting, we always emphasize and outline that the success of language learning does not depend on the novelty of the principle, but on the ability to use it correctly.
To learn a language, you need to know not only the principle, but also the detailed TECHNOLOGY of its application.
The presentation of the principle itself will take several lines. The rest of the work is devoted to describing the technology. In our opinion, if domestic pedagogical science paid more attention not to a meticulous search in the works of classics for evidence of the truth of its methods, but was engaged in the careful development of technologies, then all other methods of learning foreign languages (learning in a dream, sublimation methods of memorization, rhythmic memorization, etc.) d.) would be, if not better, then at least as effective as our method. By this we want to emphasize that the method on which you decided to spend a pathologically inconvertible currency, time, does not lie on the sidelines of psychological science. It differs only in proven technology.
CHAPTER 2. Why language is easier for children
The question of why children remember both their native and foreign languages well has not yet been unanimously resolved. The only thing that unites psychologists is recognition illogical thinking of children. Only at the age of three can we say that the sun is hiding behind a cloud because we are very tired. At school we would probably get two points for such a statement. We begin to think in cliches, hackneyed phrases and stereotypes. The evil spirit of illogical thinking is purposefully driven out of us. And after all this, we try to learn a foreign language and are amazed why our cluttered head works worse than in childhood.
Imagine a two-year-old child who needs to remember a word he heard for the first time in his native language, for example, pencil, and a similar word from a quasi-foreign language, for example, “abdrapapupa” (in fact, this word was invented by a computer). For a child, it makes absolutely no difference which one he remembers. He is ready to imprint in his memory even both words at once, since memorization occurs as a result of the formation of a conditional connection between these new words and old ones that the child has already learned: “pencil - paper”, “pencil - table”, etc., " abdrapapupa - paper", "abdrapapupa - table", etc. These two connections compete because they have the same age, and therefore strength; they don't erase each other. However, there is no rational explanation for these connections. The child does not strive to form a logical chain between old and new, he simply puts them side by side.
Now let's go back to our childhood and try to remember a list of foreign words. We usually do this in two ways. Either through a rational or mechanical connection. In the first method, we begin to consciously or unconsciously explain to ourselves that “abdrapapupa” is what is drawn on paper, trying in this way to form a rational connection between abdrapapupa and paper. But how do such attempts end in most cases? If we do not have a unique natural memory, then the most common forgetting occurs. At the same time, we work with a steam locomotive efficiency of 20%. The fact is that the connection abdrapapupa - paper, which we are trying to form, is easily replaced by the old, and therefore stronger connection in the native language pencil - paper. This is the service our adult, serious logical thinking provides us. If we try to mechanically memorize a translation, that is, force our memory to form a connection abdrapapupa - pencil (we learn from a list like in school), then due to the limited volume of our short-term memory, which can store from 2 to 26 units of information, it occurs rapid saturation, which leads to cessation of memorization, fatigue and aversion to a foreign language. In addition, old connections continue to have a repressive effect. Thus, logical methods of memorization are more likely to lead to the emergence of a negative attitude towards languages than to mastering them.
Now, after a detailed description of the two dead-end situations, our task becomes infinitely simpler. We can only find in the tangled labyrinth of all possible methods of memorization a method that would be distinguished by the absence of the usual logic, but since the main task of the authors is to convince discerning readers not of the novelty of the method, but of the need for strict adherence to certain rules, then on the long path to the basic principle of memorization they put Another obstacle is the chapter on memory.
CHAPTER 3. Memory
We would be happy to drop this chapter. However, everyone is so tired of unfounded statements about the excellent qualities of this or that phenomenon of our life that now for every pound of obvious fact we certainly demand a fat makeweight from an objective theory. That is why, for fear of seeming unsubstantiated to lovers of foreign languages, we present theoretical and empirical data identified by domestic and foreign psychologists in the field of memory.
At one time, psychology divided human memory into three blocks: sensory register, short-term and long-term memory.
The main function of the sensory register is to prolong the duration of a short-term signal for its successful processing by the brain. For example, a needle prick on a finger lasts much longer than the direct impact of a needle. The sensory register is capable of remembering very large amounts of information, much more than a person can analyze, that is, this type of memory does not have selectivity. Therefore, it is not of great interest to us.
The next block is much more important for us - short term memory. It is she who takes the blows that pupils and students are exposed to in foreign language classes. It is she who is raped by a person, trying to mechanically remember huge amounts of information.
In 1954, Lloyd and Margaret Peterson conducted a very simple experiment that, however, yielded surprising results. They asked subjects to remember only 3 letters, and after 18 seconds to reproduce them. This experiment seems completely insignificant.
Meanwhile, it turned out that the subjects were unable to remember these 3 letters. What's the matter? It's very simple: during these 18 seconds, the subjects were engaged in mental work: they had to quickly count down in threes. When counting backwards in threes, the subject begins with an arbitrarily named three-digit number, for example 487. Then he must loudly name the numbers obtained by subtracting 3 from the previous number, 487, 484, 481, 478, etc. But even this, in general, simple work prevented them from remembering three letters. This simple experiment illustrates the main property of short-term memory: it has a very small capacity (from 2 to 26 units, according to other experiments) and a very short life (from 20 to 30 seconds). But at the same time, it is little sensitive to the length of the unit. We can remember 7 letters or even 7 phrases with equal ease.
The described experiments lead us to the conclusion that:
1. The amount of information memorized at one time must be strictly limited. Even a slight increase in it leads to partial or complete forgetting.
2. After the process of assimilation of information, there must be a pause, during which it is necessary to relieve the brain as much as possible from mental work.
3. It is necessary to make a unit of information as long as possible; word-by-word memorization is an uneconomical use of our memory.
There are at least a dozen theories that explain the positive the effect of a pause on remembering information. The most successful, in our opinion, justification by Müller and Pilzecker (1900) is that during a pause, unconscious repetition of material occurs. If the repetition period is more than 20-30 seconds, that is, there is too much information, then after a while some of it is erased. It is the presence of such a process as unconscious repetition that significantly increases the lifetime of information in short-term memory (up to 24-30 hours). It is this process that prevents us from realizing the extremely small power of this type of memory, as a result of which we mercilessly overload it.
Remember! Unconscious repetition occurs only when the brain is no longer loaded with any information.
This process is disrupted even if you continue to repeat newly learned words for the supposedly noble purpose of further strengthening them in your memory. No further consolidation occurs, since you are not able, with all your desire, to consciously repeat for some time 10-15 words in 20 seconds - the lifetime of short-term memory. By repeating, you interrupt the natural cycle of memorization.
A completely logical question arises: what are the boundaries of the pause, during which it is undesirable to perceive any information with its subsequent processing. At the same time, we repeat, it is undesirable to perceive even learned words!
In 1913, Pieron answered this question. He asked subjects to memorize a series of 18 nonsense syllables (to eliminate the influence of past experience). He then examined how many times the subjects had to repeat the same series at various intervals in order to restore the forgotten syllables to their short-term memory. We present its data in the following table:
As you can see, if you start repeating a series of syllables 30 seconds after the first memorization, then you have 14! refer to its contents once before they are remembered again. But if repetitions are resumed after 10 minutes, during which we do not receive any information, then their number will be only 4 (it should be noted that these numbers refer to meaningless material; when learning words that have meaning, the absolute number of their repetitions is less , but the proportions are approximately preserved).
In the period of time from 10 minutes to 24 hours, processes stabilize and information in short-term memory ceases to depend on external factors. Consequently, during this period it is possible to both study new information and repeat old information. After 24 hours, the number of required repetitions begins to increase and reaches 8 after 48 hours. This means that mnemonic processes begin to lose their energy. Therefore, every 24 hours it is necessary to repeat previously learned words (which, however, is known even without experiments).
Let's make some brief conclusions:
1. After memorizing the next portion of words, you need to pause for at least 10 minutes, during which your thoughts will not be burdened by serious mental work.
2. After 10 minutes, the words can be repeated again, and after 24 hours, the words must be repeated. Otherwise, you will have to make twice as much effort to remember them again.
We, of course, understand that everything written here and below is known to most readers. But to our great regret, such knowledge does not at all interfere with teachers of foreign languages in schools and universities. They act according to the principle that our education system obliges us to follow: albeit poorly, but according to the program. As a result, we leave educational institutions programmed to the ends of our hair, and if foreign languages do not yet cause nervous attacks in us, we begin to learn them on our own using the same methods that we adopted from our older comrades.
Therefore, we have a big request: be sure to read this chapter to the end, so that in the future our technology does not seem absurd to you.
Pieron's experiments show how long we should rest, that is, with what frequency we should repeat words. But they tell us absolutely nothing about how many such repetitions there should be that would allow us to transfer words from short-term to long-term memory. Yost's experiments in 1987 show that with rote learning the number of such repetitions reaches 20-30 times. In our case, the number of repetitions distributed in a special way for the average person is 4 times.
Now let's look at another phenomenon of short-term memory, perfectly understood and known by everyone, but nevertheless ignored by the majority with Asian tenacity.
Everyone knows perfectly well that the more the elements of the memorized material are similar to each other, the more effort must be made to memorize them, the more homogeneous the elements, the more difficult they are to digest. So why do we all compile lists of words, albeit different in meaning, but homogeneous in form, and teach, teach! What comes to your mind first when you remember the translation of a word written in the list? Naturally, the location of this word is on a piece of paper. There is no need to be proud of this, it does not at all speak about the positive features of your memory. It just doesn’t have the opportunity to catch on to anything more significant, more characteristic of a given word. The list of words is too homogeneous. This leads to a global conclusion, like all the previous ones:
Each word must have a clearly distinctive set of labels. It is necessary to deprive all the words of the list of monotony and then they will begin to be remembered involuntarily, without our participation. How to achieve this? We do not claim that we were able to achieve the ideal in our method, but we, perhaps, managed to get closer to this requirement.
Now let's move on to long-term memory. Despite the fact that the phenomenon of memory is studied in all domestic and foreign areas of psychology (psychotypes of activity, cognitive psychology, behaviorism, etc., etc.), a plausible explanation for the transition of information from short-term memory to long-term memory has not yet been proposed. The situation with knowledge of this mechanism is even worse among foreign language lovers, since most of them are familiar with only one of the factors of such a transition - periodic, tireless repetition. Although we are sure that you personally do not belong to this majority, we nevertheless risk holding your attention a little longer on some phenomena of long-term memory.
1. In 1973, Standing published the results of his generally simple experiments. The subjects were shown 11,000 slides, a month later they were presented mixed with others and asked to identify them. The subjects remembered the slides and gave correct answers 73% of the time! This suggests that the slide images entered long-term memory from the first presentation. Consequently, when memorizing words, you need to use not only repetition, but also bright, colorful, interesting, plot-based pictures, which are best cut out from the Krokodil magazine. (Again, we understand that such a conclusion is not a revelation to anyone. But if you met at least one person who consciously used this principle when learning a language, we would be very surprised.
2. Probably all of us, language lovers, are tirelessly looking for a method in which words would be remembered by themselves. One of the authors, at one time experiencing the enormous influence of such an illusory dream, hung in his office about 10 sheets of paper with large words written in the hope that they would constantly fall into the field of view and (after all, a drop chisels a stone) involuntarily remembered. Although the idea turned out to be hopelessly unpromising, the natural desire to make my life easier when learning a language remained. So, is it possible to give the memorization process a share of involuntariness and, therefore, make it easier and faster? Try to remember, if you have experience learning a language on your own, cases when some words were remembered without any effort on your part. Have you analyzed these situations? After all, if we could identify something common to them, we could very effectively manage the processes of memorization, or at least not make mistakes like the one described above.
Involuntary remembering means that there is some force that makes our brain work regardless of our desire. What generates this force? Is it possible to create it artificially? The answer to these questions was found by Soviet psychologists A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko.
In 1945, Smirnov conducted a very simple study. He asked several subjects, two hours after the start of the working day, to recall their path from home to work. Let us give one such description as an example. “I remember first of all the moment of leaving the metro. What exactly? How I thought that I needed to get out of the car so that I could quickly take the right position and go quickly, since I was late. I was traveling, I remember, in the last car. Therefore, I couldn’t jump out anywhere . I had to enter the crowd. Previously, the public, leaving, walked along the entire width of the platform. Now, to ensure passage for those entering, people were stationed to turn the crowd away from the edge of the platform. The further path falls out. I remember absolutely nothing. There is only a vague memory of how I reached the gates of the university "I didn't notice anything. I don't remember what I was thinking about. When I entered the gate, I noticed someone standing. I don't remember who exactly: a man or a woman. I don't remember anything else."
What is characteristic of this story and others like it? First of all, the subject's memories relate much more to what he did than to what he thought. Even in those cases when thoughts are remembered, they are still associated with the actions of the subject. But subjects perform many actions. Which of them is associated with involuntary memorization? With those that contribute to or hinder the achievement of the goal facing the subject. In 1945, everyone had one most important goal - to come to work on time, so they involuntarily remembered only what influenced the speed of progress along the street. It would seem that this extremely simple conclusion should in itself form the basis for learning a foreign language! But this doesn't happen. What goal did the teacher set for us during the lessons? Remember the word. But that's the goal! How will the word be involuntarily remembered in this case, if memorization itself is the goal?! The more we focus our efforts on memorizing words, the less involuntary, the more volitional efforts, the more violence we commit against our memory.
Memorizing words should not be the goal in learning a foreign language.
Memorization should only be an action leading to the achievement of some goal.
Two questions immediately arise:
What should this goal be?
What actions should be taken?
We will answer the first question in the chapter on memory technology. The second question was answered by the experiments of the Soviet psychologist P.I. Zienko. In his experiments, distinguished like all others by their apparent simplicity, the subjects were divided into two groups. The first of them was given pictures depicting various objects and asked to classify them according to the first letters of their names (for example, I put together pictures with the letter A, then B, etc.). The second group received the same pictures, but classified them according to the meaning of the objects depicted (for example, they put together first pictures with furniture, then with animals, etc.).
After the experiment, both groups had to remember the pictures they had worked with. As you may have guessed, the second group showed better results. This happened because in the first case, the meaning of the picture, despite the fact that it was understood and passed through consciousness by the subjects (after all, they had to highlight the first letter), was not included directly in the goal - in the classification. In the second case, the subjects were also clearly aware of both the sound composition of the name and the meaning of the picture, but only the meaning was directly included in the goal. This leads us to the idea that the goal should directly include both the meaning of the word and its sound.
To achieve the goal, which we will formulate a little later, it is necessary to manipulate both the meaning and pronunciation. This will lead to the fact that a foreign word will be remembered with a large degree of involuntariness.
Unfortunately, in schools and universities this principle is violated like traffic rules - by everyone and everywhere. Learning a language turns into painful, focused cramming.
3. Anyone who has encountered psychology is familiar with the concept installations(not to be confused with party guidelines). This term refers to a person’s willingness to act in a very specific way. For example, graduates develop an attitude toward continuing their studies or an attitude towards work; you have a very strong attitude towards a foreign language, etc. Installations make our life easier. Thanks to them, we perform most of our actions automatically and do not waste time thinking. For example, in the morning we decided to wash ourselves: the corresponding installation, developed throughout our life, is activated, and all actions begin to be performed automatically (we are little aware of them). As soon as washing is completed, the installation turns off and you make a new decision - have breakfast. Another installation is turned on and the actions are performed automatically again (provided that the refrigerator has everything necessary to complete this act).
If you had a plan for morning exercises, then the latter would not put you in a gloomy mood in the evening, but would be performed automatically, like washing your face.
How are installations created? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is unknown when it will appear. Therefore, we cannot give detailed explanations, despite the thick volumes written by psychologists. But in order to somehow mitigate the current situation, we will describe an experiment that will allow us to understand a very useful phenomenon for learning a foreign language.
The subjects, as in the previous experiment, were divided into two groups. They were read the same text, but the first group was told that they would test their knowledge the next day, and the other group was told that they would do the same in a week. In fact, the test of text knowledge was carried out only after two weeks in both groups. The subjects of the second group showed better results. In this experiment we can clearly see the action and influence of the attitude created in the subjects by the experimental situation.
Therefore, when you sit down to study the next portion of words, try to convince yourself and sincerely believe that you are learning the language in order to remember it all your life. The command “I remember these words for a long time,” given to yourself before starting classes, may seem insignificant even after describing the experiment with the installation. We fully admit this and do not insist that it will ensure you one hundred percent success. But we would like to remind you that previously the function of tuning into any activity (including school lessons) was performed by prayer. Warriors prayed before battle not at all because the dominant ideology obliged them to do so. Prayer set them up for heroic deeds. “Our Father,” read before lunch or a lesson, calmed, pushed away all worries, and contributed to better assimilation of food and knowledge. Perhaps you shouldn’t read such a tuning prayer before studying a dozen or two words. But when it comes to thousands, a small thing turns into a significant factor. If creating an appropriate installation allows you to remember at least one more word for every ten words, then for every thousand you will make a profit of a hundred words. Don't miss out on the benefits.
4. We have yet to become acquainted with one more, fairly well-known fact, and then nothing else will prevent us from finding out how and in what method we can simultaneously take into account all the above requirements and observations.
This last fact is that our brain is not able to perceive static. Try to look carefully at some object without moving your eyes or head. This simple task will become impossible after 2-3 minutes - the object will begin to “dissolve”, leave your field of vision, and you will stop seeing it. The same thing happens with monotonous sound (for example, the noise of the forest, the noise of cars, etc.). But if we cannot perceive non-dynamic phenomena, then what can we say about our memory, which is connected with the outside world through perception and sensations! Everything that is not capable of movement or is not associatively associated with movement is instantly erased from our memory. To prove this fact, we, of course, have in stock the results of a very simple experiment. On a movie screen, the subjects were shown faces of another nationality, filmed from the front (as is known, without the appropriate habit, representatives of another nation at first all seem to have the same face). If the image was dynamic, that is, the person smiled, frowned, moved his eyes, sniffed, etc., then subsequently his photograph was easily recognized by the subjects among others. If the person’s face was motionless, then the number of correct answers dropped sharply. This suggests that a static, motionless image very quickly “disappears” from memory. From this we will draw the last, but no less important than all the previous, conclusion: all images used to memorize foreign words must be dynamic!
There must be movement in everything.
This concludes the chapter on the features of our memory. We are fully aware that the memory model, consisting of the 3 described systems, is not the best and only possible (we could build on the levels model, the sign theory of memory by L.S. Vygotsky, etc.), but compared to others, it is the most developed and technologically advanced.
Now we would like to express our gratitude to everyone for their patience and move on to presenting the technology for learning a foreign language, which will allow you to learn 20-30 (and if you really want to, much more) words per hour. True, this does not mean that you will learn 480-600 words in a day. Therefore, during the day it is advisable to learn (of course, if you have a lot of free time) no more than 100 words. In addition, we do not recommend suddenly switching to this method immediately. First, try to learn the language using the method that is familiar to you, partially using ours as an aid when memorizing particularly difficult words. Such a smooth transition will allow you to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of the method and more successfully adapt the technology for yourself.
CHAPTER 4. Technology structure
In this chapter we will describe the structure of accelerated word learning technology. But it will seem unconvincing to you if you have not read the previous chapter. Before we try to collect all the requirements and observations described above in one method, let's remember them.
1. Success in learning languages does not depend on knowledge of a special method, but on the ability to use the technology developed on its basis.
2. Don’t torture your memory, don’t learn the language mechanically.
3. Our memory is capable of accepting from 2 to 26 pieces of information in one sitting.
4. When learning a language, you should not rely on habit, generally accepted logic, or standard perception of the world.
5. Short-term memory lasts no more than 30 seconds.
6. Information is stored in short-term memory for much longer than 30 seconds due to circulation that we are not aware of.
7. After studying a portion of words, a 10-minute break is necessary.
8. You need to learn words only before the first playback (when you can repeat the entire list at least once). Don't waste time on unnecessary repetition.
9. You need to repeat the words once in the interval from 10 minutes to 24-30 hours.
10. The unit of memorized information should be as long as possible (a block of words or a phrase). Those who teach or force to learn single words must be punished for wasting time and memory on an especially large scale.
11. To deprive the list of words of monotony, it is necessary to give each word some kind of bright mark.
12. The word is transferred to long-term memory not so much through repetition, but with the help of plot pictures.
13. We easily do what happens involuntarily, apart from our participation. Words will be remembered involuntarily if memorization is not the goal of our activity. Mental operations with the meaning and pronunciation of a word must be directly included in the goal.
14. Before memorizing, you need to get ready for the lesson. Our psyche has inertia. She cannot switch from cooking cutlets to learning a language in an instant.
15. The information to be remembered must contain or be associated with dynamic elements. Otherwise, it will be erased without a trace.
Now that we have everything before our eyes, we can think intently about the thesis" Memorization shouldn't be the goal.". In some methods, this requirement is met. For example, in the rhythmic method, the main goal is not to remember the word, but to repeat it in a certain rhythm to the melody (remember, especially those who are fond of foreign groups, how easily the words of songs are remembered even if they are completely misunderstood). In the sublimation method, in which a person is influenced with a supra-threshold speed of perception, the goal is also not memorization, but the ability to concentrate on reproduction, etc. (all these and other methods can be found in the specialized literature).But these methods are disadvantageous -but they are distinguished by the complexity of equipment and technology, which cannot yet be used independently at home (We hope that in the near future our academic science and practice will finally pay serious attention to them.) Memorization as a goal is also absent in the method based on imitation any activity. For example, students are given the task of setting the table and given a dictionary of the necessary words. Appropriate imitation that arises under the influence of the goal makes it possible to memorize words very effectively. But this method requires high pedagogical skill of the teacher and his rich imagination. In addition, this method does not have a rigid structure.
We propose mental manipulation of words as a goal: to match a foreign word with a Russian one that sounds similar. For example: sleeve (sleeve, English) - plum, etc. But in this case we operate only with the sound of the word, and its meaning and translation should be directly included in the goal. To fulfill this requirement, let’s add another translation to the formed pair of words:
sleeve - plum - sleeve
tongue - dance - tongue
and let’s think about how we can now formulate the goal so that it does not coincide with memorizing words. Remember the experiment that proves that an image (picture) is located in long-term memory in most cases? So we need to work with images. But our images only have words of our native language. The meaning of a foreign word receives an image only through its analogue in Russian (or in your native) language. This leads us to the idea that when memorizing, you need to use only the words of your native language, that is, plum - sleeve, tsunami - language. As a goal, we will choose to solve the problem of finding a possible relationship between words in each pair. But before solving this problem, let us remember two more requirements: the absence of generally accepted logic and the presence of dynamics in the elements of information. This suggests that the relationship between the words of the pair should be unusual, illogical, firstly, and dynamic, that is, contain movement, secondly. In our case, this is very easy to do. We imagine how a saleswoman in a store, having weighed the plums, transfers them to an empty sleeve. Notice the word "introducing". The attitude needs not just to be spoken out (at later stages, speaking becomes unnecessary altogether), but rather represented, since this allows you to bypass short-term unreliable memory and work immediately in long-term memory.
Pronunciation, according to some experimental data from cognitive psychology, is primarily associated with short-term memory, so we use it only in the initial stages, if imaginative thinking is not sufficiently developed.
In addition, pay attention once again to the dynamics: the saleswoman weighs and pours. You need to imagine how the plums roll into the sleeve, how you take it from the hands of the saleswoman, etc. It would be a big mistake to try to limit ourselves to imagining plums lying motionless in the hand. With the formation of several thousand similar non-dynamic structures, our static one will disappear like smoke.
An unusual relationship between words is a very strong, emotionally charged sign. Each word in the list becomes individual, different from the others.
Although dynamic structure is stored in memory almost indefinitely, we need it like a hammer when driving a nail into a painting. We hammered a nail into the wall (remembered the association of two words) and put the hammer aside. Now let’s do what we did all this work for (in the future, association as your skills develop will take you no more than 3-5 seconds). We tried to remember the word sleev. Thanks to the similar sound, we quickly move from this word to the Russian “plum”. This connection is stored in short-term memory, and it is this connection that constitutes the weakest link in the chain. The number of precisely these connections as units of information should not exceed 26 units in a portion of words (the number of structures can be unlimited; this discrepancy is subsequently taken into account in the technology). The word "plum", thanks to the rigidity of the invented structure, will lead us to the translation - "sleeve". Thus, our main efforts are focused not on memorizing words, but on creating structure. You can see for yourself how effectively involuntary memorization begins to work in our case.
As classes conducted with foreign language learners have shown, all such operations cause difficulties in the first stages, aggravated by seeming far-fetchedness, frivolity, etc. During the process of association, many begin to experience discomfort from the fact that those around them are listening attentively to their “nonsense.” In fact, the ability to quickly come up with such “stupidity” speaks of your unconventional, creative mind. The good thing about this method is that even if you fail to learn a language with it (which is unlikely), your creative thinking will significantly improve. You will begin to see things in a new light. Many subjects become sarcastic and sarcastic because they suddenly discover the ambiguity of our speech. This method is especially useful for inventors and scientists (as well as suppliers) as an exercise in flexible thinking.
Association is a creative process. That's why we really insisted on pre-setting. Unfortunately, most people understand tuning as the formation of an order (it’s not for nothing that M.M. Zhvatsetsky said that our life is also a soldier’s life). In fact, it is better to start with phrases of the following form:
“I really want to learn the language. I will try. I will try very hard. I want to remember the words. My thinking is very flexible...” etc.
And it is better not to use command phrases such as “I must learn the language” and others. Our entire psyche is already exhausted by demands and orders. It immediately creates resistance that we are not aware of. This is especially important to remember if you are setting up students or schoolchildren who, even without your instructions, have long been discouraged from learning foreign languages. It would be very useful to start associating in the same environment, with the same actions. Try to create some unobtrusive traditions. Remember how in pre-revolutionary school children read prayer often during lessons. There is no need to deny their experience. It wasn't all bad then.
So, we came up with a structure for the foreign word. They made it unusual, dynamic, imaginative. But when studying, especially at first, figurative representation alone is usually not enough. We were taught more to control our speech than our images. (Remember the contemptuous “Dreamers!”). Therefore, after some time, which is clearly not enough for the structure to fulfill its function and only then disappear, the images begin to merge, be erased, and become dirty. This happens because the image of a particular word, as a rule, does not have any connection. The word can be used with different connotations, in different contexts. It is influenced by other words and changes its meaning depending on the environment. Therefore, at first words are best combined into groups of 7-10 pieces in each based on one content Pictures with concentrated meaning. We can also find pictures in school textbooks. But all of them do not have a concentrated meaning. For example, a pioneer stands in front of a school. This picture does not have a specific, clearly defined, memorable meaning. Therefore, she easily blends in with others like her. It is best to take pictures from humor magazines. If there are words under the picture (the speech of the participants or the title), then they must be left with the picture in order to maintain a single meaning and meaning.
It is best to paste the cut-out picture onto a punched card or into a notebook. Next to it write triads of words (foreign - similar in sound - translation). Images and structure are easy to remember, so they should not be recorded in writing. Images, provided that they have a clear, extraordinary meaning, immediately penetrate in most cases into long-term memory. Thanks to this, even several years later we can mentally examine it with all the details and remember those 7-10 words that we learned with its help. This block memorization system allows you to avoid?swimming? words in different contexts. In addition, the block of words contained in the picture represents one unit of information. Consequently, in one sitting (in one lesson) it is possible to assimilate from 2 to 26 pictures without damage to memory, as a result of which we condense information by 7-10 times, that is, we increase the natural capabilities of our memory by 7-10 times! In the future, when the basis of a foreign language has been studied, words can be studied directly from the dictionary. You open the first page, take a word, form a structure, make a mark with a pencil (write down a word that sounds similar; this is necessary to be on the safe side, since there is little hope for short-term memory) and the word remains in your head for the rest of your life. However, with this method, the density of information decreases and you will be able to remember no more than 25 words in one lesson. But this disadvantage can be compensated for by increasing the number of lessons, which should follow each other with a break of at least 10-15 minutes.
Learning a language with the help of pictures is also advantageous in that you don’t have to waste time on repetition, since you can do it on the way to work or home, in line, on the bus, etc. It is enough just to remember the picture and “select” all the words with structures from it. Agree that this is absolutely impossible if the words are formatted as a list. You will furrow your forehead intensely and remember which word you were supposed to remember, but you will never do it until you look at the list. There is only one way out - teach with the help of pictures!
When studying the first 3-4 thousand words, you will be forced to repeat them several times in order to consolidate them in long-term memory and free yourself from the structure that served its function. At the fifth thousand, as a rule, a special feeling arises - confidence in your memory, and using this method the word begins to be remembered from the first presentation. But do not despair if this does not happen in the sixth or tenth thousand, this is not related to intellectual abilities. At first repetition It's better to organize it like this:
The first time - 10-20 minutes (but it is quite acceptable after two to three hours or even 12 hours) after the mental creation of structures; in this case, you need to look either at the Russian translation or at a foreign word and reproduce the entire structure, even if it seems to you that you can already do without it; in the future, you can omit the first repetition and move directly to the second after 24 hours.
The second time - the next day after 24-30 hours; if it was not possible to reproduce all the structures created by you or the teacher, then they are repeated again the next day; When repeating, it is better to look only at the picture, looking for the necessary words on it.
If it was not possible to remember and repeat all the structures the third time, they should be postponed until the final repetition of all the structures of a given portion of words, which is carried out after 1-5 months (optimally 2-3 months). There is no need to be afraid of such a deadline. You will be able to remember the words after one or two years, even if you have never encountered them during this period. This is one of the significant advantages of the method: when studying a language, we can not be afraid that it will be completely forgotten due to long-term disuse.
The last repetition is the main and decisive one. All your great work will be in vain if you don't take this last step. In most cases, after 1-6 months, students remember the structures very vaguely if they have not been exposed to the corresponding stems during this period. This occurs due to the interference of structures, due to the natural processes of forgetting, aggravated by non-compliance with the described technology even in small things (dynamism, illogicality, imagery, periods of rest and memorization, settings, etc.). Therefore, it is better to divide the last repetition into two parts: the first day - we remember the structure from our notes; on the second day - we repeat them, looking only at the pictures (and if according to the dictionary, we look only at the translation or foreign word).
If during the last repetition you immediately remembered the translation of the word, then there is no need to restore the entire structure. It fulfilled its function and died. In general, you should have a new sensation when, from the depths of your consciousness, even against your will, in response to a word in your native language, its translation will “pop up”. This is accompanied by a feeling of slight confusion, confusion, and uncertainty. But after you make sure that only the right word “pops up” and not a random one, it will pass.
If quite a lot of time has passed between learning a language (7-8 thousand words are enough for this) and its active use (from one year to 3-4 years), then the words can be forgotten again. But this forgetting is fundamentally different from forgetting during mechanical (school) memorization, when words are erased without a trace. In our case, words do not disappear from memory forever, but seem to pass into the subconscious (“canned”), from which we can very quickly extract them by looking at the notes. For such repetition, it takes about a day (including breaks) for every thousand words without much effort. Agree that there is hardly any other method that allows you to restore knowledge at such a speed.
On average, at the initial stage, for all operations to memorize one word, including all repetitions, creating a structure, searching for equivalents, writing in a dictionary or notebook, etc. it takes 2-3 minutes. In the future (especially when learning a second language) the time will be reduced to 30-60 seconds. If you have a teacher who knows a foreign language and this method well, then the speed easily increases to 100 words per hour (all numbers have been tested experimentally). The optimal composition of a group with a teacher is 10-12 people.
If you have a mistrust of these numbers, then before throwing the technique aside, conduct an experiment: learn 10-20 words in this way and draw final conclusions no earlier than in a month.
CHAPTER 5. Examples
Here we will give examples and features of the technology discovered in practice.
Let's try to learn three words in English:
chess - (scratch) - chess
beard - (berdanka) - beard
nose - (sock) - nose
1. chess. Imagine chess pieces the size of fleas running quickly across your body. It's natural that you start itching. You need to imagine this situation in as much detail as possible (at first it is better to close your eyes; if you are teaching schoolchildren, it is recommended to give them the command: “Close your eyes and imagine that...”). Note. The resulting structure is dynamic and does not coincide with our previous experience. At first glance, one could come up with the following structure: you take a chess piece and scratch with it the place, for example, of a bite. But this situation does not contradict our experience at all. Therefore, if there are several dozen more similar structures, it will be erased.
2. beard. Imagine a Berdan system gun with a thick black beard instead of a butt fluttering in the wind (and not just sticking out!!!).
3. nose. Very often there are words that sound similar to the translation. You should not hope that such a coincidence will allow you to remember effectively. In most cases, the fact that it sounds similar disappears from your mind and you are left without a clue. It is necessary to choose an intermediate word. In our case, “sock”. Imagine that someone you know suddenly starts to grow a dirty, unpleasant-smelling sock instead of a nose. 99 times out of 100 you will probably remember this structure.
We must strive to ensure that each object used in the structure receives as many epithets and colorful characteristics as possible. This will once again make the structure different from others. This also avoids the “horse name” effect. The point is that we understand the meaning of a thing through generalization, reduction to a more general one.
For example, what is a jacket? We can say that these are sleeves, pockets, lapels, etc. But such an understanding will be similar to the blind feeling an elephant, i.e., it will be fragmentary and far from the truth. Therefore, in our thinking, a jacket is reduced to several classes: men's clothing, light clothing, business clothing, etc., that is, the concept of a jacket is generalized. This leads to the fact that a word that does not have clear characteristics can be unconsciously replaced by a broader class; our brain, against our will, will carry out a generalization operation. Many students, having not worked through the image enough, remember very well that, for example, some type of clothing grows instead of a nose, but they absolutely cannot remember which one. This leads us to the conclusion that in the structure you should use not the first word that comes across (meaning a word that sounds similar), but the one that you understand well, which you often use, the shades of which you know. Unfortunately, only concrete nouns (and not all of them) and some verbs (for example, scratch, bite, draw, etc.) have this property. Abstract nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. In most cases they do not have a figurative representation. At the first stages, this causes difficulties, which often lead to disappointment in the technique. You can avoid this by creatively using the techniques described below.
1. How to include an abstract noun, for example, the word "gamble" in the structure? The problem is that it does not evoke specific images for most students. As an intermediate word (similar in sound) we use the word “Hamlet” (the first 3 and last 2 letters match). In the word “adventure”, highlight the first 4 letters “avan” and add “s”. It turns out to be an "advance". This word already has a very definite image: a queue near the cash register, the rustle of money (recently printed), the accountant’s voice: “Sign here,” and so on. Therefore, our memory can fully cope with such a simple task as composing and remembering the structure of two words “Hamlet” and “advance”. You probably already have it. Imagine Hamlet, who received an advance payment of 70 Soviet rubles for reading his monologue “To be or not to be...” on stage.
When we are presented with the word gamble, our memory will automatically associate it with “Hamlet”, and it, in turn, with “advance”, which will lead us to “adventure”. There is no need to be afraid of this apparent bulkiness. You don't know your brain. He is able to quickly learn more complex operations.
Thus, the technique consists in the transition from an abstract word to a concrete one on a phonetic basis.2. Another way to move to a concrete word from an abstract one is to try to replace one or two letters in it. For example, swindle is a scam. We know very well what a scam is, but it is difficult to imagine its specific image. Let's replace the first letter "a" with "c". You will get a "sphere". Swindle resembles “pig” (4 letters match, that’s enough). Imagine placing small glass spheres in a pig's feeder, which she "cracks" with great appetite. The word "swindle" could also be replaced with the word "windsurfing". Try to create structures from this word and “sphere” yourself.
3. If the described techniques did not help, then we can mentally compose a plot picture that does not coincide with our experience. For example: disgrace - disgrace.
Disgrace resembles the combination of two words at once: “disc” and “grace”. So that these two words do not disintegrate in our memory, imagine a gramophone on which a black disk is spinning quickly. A breathless Leontyev runs along the disk in the direction of the opposite rotation and gaspingly shouts: “Signorita Grazia!”
Most likely, you do not have a specific image of “ugliness” (although the entire world around you may act as one). Imagine this picture: a large red carrot with long tops says to a small carrot with tops cut in the latest fashion standing in front of it and looking down: “Disgrace!” Play this scene in your mind several times. Put yourself in the shoes of one or the other, and you will strongly associate the word “disgrace” with the word “carrot.”
Now imagine that Leontiev not only runs along the disk, but also jumps over barriers formed by large carrots.
We would again like to ask you not to fall into despair from the “impenetrable stupidity” that you may perceive here. Despite all the frivolity, this method works. In addition, learning a language on your own or in a class turns into an entertaining process. There is usually constant laughter in a class or student group, which in itself promotes memorization.4. In English (and other) languages, verbs with postverb particles are common. A limited small number of these particles form a huge number of meanings of the same verb. This leads to monotony and confusion in the head.
To avoid this, each particle is assigned a specific word that sounds similar.
For example:out - spiderLet's imagine that we need to remember the verb bring uр - to educate. Вring resembles a brigantine. All verbs are translated into corresponding nouns if possible. “Educate” will turn into “educator,” which probably has a specific image for everyone. This is a man with a stern face who threatens everyone with his finger.
up - trap
to - ax
Now let's build the structure. Imagine a brigantine sailing from the pier, with a huge trap hanging instead of a snow-white sail. Between the teeth of the trap, with the last of his strength, clenching his jaws like an Atlas, stands the teacher. He continues to wag his finger at you.5. Similarly, adjectives and adverbs are translated into nouns. If this cannot be done, then you can try to use stereotypical phrases. For example: convincing - convincing.
Convincing resembles two words: “horse” and “wine”. To prevent the words from falling apart, let's connect them in a structure. Imagine a horse with wine bottles sticking out for ears, and he moves them when flies fall on them.
“Convincing” is rigidly included in the phrase “convincing example.” Now imagine how a horse stands at the blackboard, solves an example and scratches its hoof behind its bottle ear.6. In the previous example, another example was used at the same time - a play on words. An example can be understood in two ways - as a behavior and as a mathematical problem. Use the game as often as possible. To do this, you can use an explanatory dictionary, which indicates all possible meanings of words in various contexts.
However, there is another version of the play on words. For example: tire - to get bored. The word tire resembles "dash". The verb “bored” can be understood not only in the generally accepted sense, but also as “to collect something in a heap”, “to pile something up”, etc. Therefore, it can be easily translated into the noun "heap", which has an image. Imagine how you collect scattered dashes from the field (short sticks that fell out of the lines of a book when you took it carelessly from the shelf) and fold or sweep them into a pile.
We have described to you only a small part of the techniques. When you start learning a language on your own, you can easily expand their list and choose the most effective ones in your opinion.
In conclusion, we would like to dwell on the time factor. With large volumes of information being remembered, every second saved becomes significant. Significant amounts of time can be gained by eliminating unnecessary repetitions. Remember that repetition of words started immediately after memorizing them (after 30-60 seconds) leads to deterioration in memorization and unnecessary waste of time. You can also save time at the stage of creating the structure. Some students cannot concentrate, adjust themselves and spend ten minutes thinking about finding the right word and connection. This greatly inhibits the creative process and erases previously learned words, since the unconscious cycle of short-term memory is interrupted. The lesson is a sprint distance, it cannot be run with breaks and heavy thoughts. First, try to come up with structures in a competition situation: which of the two or more people who have decided to study the language with you can come up with the most such structures in the same time. Downtime must be avoided at all costs.
If you still have an insurmountable difficulty, then it is better to skip the word and return to it a little later (in one to two days).
As a rule, in this case the necessary words are found immediately. Before starting classes, it is useful to tune in with a few phrases: “I don’t have much time. I want to think very quickly. Finding the right words and associations will not cause me any difficulties.” Another setting option is that the person you are holding is waiting for you in the next room. But you can talk to him only after you have learned the planned lesson. Try this and see that this contrived situation actually makes you work harder. It is also useful to time your mental activities. Make sure that one word out of 20 on the list takes on average no more than 3 minutes, including all types of repetition. Strive to continually compress this time. If you are a teacher, then getting students, that is, another person, to work quickly is much more difficult than yourself. In this case, it is useful to force future polyglots to do some quick work before the lesson, for example, squat quickly (but this can get tiring) or quickly copy the teacher’s actions, which are not physically difficult. A simulator consisting of 10 light bulbs, which the teacher lights in random order at a fast pace, is very useful for this. The task of the students is to have time to touch the lighted bulb. Fast movements that do not cause fatigue bring our entire body, at the physiological and mental level, to a state where all operations begin to be performed at increased speed. You can intensify activity during the setup process with the help of another exercise that directly works on memorizing words. Students are placed in a competition situation: they are asked to name the translation of the word proposed by the teacher as quickly as possible (whoever is faster). However, this exercise does not lead to physical activity.
Another effective way to save time is to simultaneously study all the synonyms of a given word in a foreign language.
For example: recruit - recruit, enlist
Let's turn "recruit" into the word "willow".
Recruit resembles “recreation”, enlist - “broom, leaf”.
Imagine that the entrance to the recreation area is littered with willow branches. You take a broom made of sheets of paper, wave it, and the willow branches fly away.
The number of synonyms, naturally, can significantly exceed the number two. The more synonyms of a foreign language you include in one structure, the higher the density of information, the greater the amount of memory provided, the greater the likelihood that none of them will be forgotten, the higher the speed of memorization.
This concludes the presentation of the methodology. We would like to emphasize once again that we do not seek to take credit for the authorship of this method. You've probably heard and read about him. The only thing we see as our merit is a detailed presentation of the technology and an attempt to convince you that it is quite possible to learn a language in a few months, even in the complete absence of relevant abilities. We wish us successful studies!
ANNEX 1
0 things you should remember when learning a foreign language using the structured method:
1. Remember that only dynamic structure is remembered well.
2. The main objects in the structure must be in a connection that does not coincide with your past experience.
3. The main objects of the structure, as well as the connection between them, should have a colorful, rich image in contrast to other, secondary objects of this structure.
4. Remember that our memory capabilities are limited: at one time (one lesson) you can learn no more than 20-25 words, and when condensing information, no more than 100 words. The number of lessons per day is limited by the necessary periods of rest for our memory.
5. Condense information: use pictures and blocks of synonyms.
6. Translate abstract nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives into concrete images.
7. Don't forget that 50% of success lies in the ability to set yourself up.
8. Remember that you should not load your head with any thoughts immediately after studying words.
9. Use a rational repetition system. Save time.
10. Don't rush into a gallop: start with five words a day.
11. Don't lose your notes, they will come in handy.
12. Use the structural method together with classical methods of memorization, this will allow you to identify its advantages and disadvantages for yourself.
13. Remember, the function of the method is to expand the capabilities of your memory, and not to create in you a lasting desire to learn a foreign language. Desire is your problem.
These and others mnemonic associations in our database. Add your own associations, use others!
Today we are talking about the method of spaced repetition, which allows you to memorize foreign words so that they will never leave your head again.
What kind of technology?
Spaced repetition is a mnemonic technique based on repeating words at intervals.The method was developed by American linguist Paul Pimsleur in 1967. Pimsleur noticed that the brain forgets words almost instantly after learning them. But if you repeat words before they are erased from memory, the time of “forgetting” will increase exponentially.
Prepare cards: phrase in English, translation and, if necessary, transcription. Write clearly and large.
Why phrases and not words?
Learning phrases is easier and more effective. And that's why:Phrases are easier to use in conversation;
- they already contain information that is usually searched for additionally: prepositions, articles, areas of use;
- a phrase is an image, it’s easier to remember.
How many repetitions does it take to learn?
Pimsleur advised repeating the phrase 11 times. You can make it simpler and get by with nine approaches: read, repeat after 30 minutes, then the next morning, then after three days, a week, a month, three months, six months and a year later.If you repeat a phrase for 10 seconds (two voiceovers of five seconds each), it will take one and a half minutes per year.
To avoid confusion, write down the date of the next repetition on the word card and put everything in folders or boxes.
I'm too lazy to write on paper, is there anything else?
Eat. For example, Seinfeld Calendar. It allows you to program goals, intervals, and track your progress.Instead of flashcards or stickers, try apps: Anki, Mnemosyne, Supermemo, Quizlet, you can write new words in them, set repetition intervals and create libraries. We have the services “Word Training” - for repeating words added to the dictionary, “Danette by Dictionary” - a game in which you see the translation of a word and choose whether it is correct or not, and “Exam Mode” for training a specific list of words.
How to support the result?
The method is based on regular repetition, so the main thing is a systematic approach and motivation. We have already talked about the systematic approach. And so that motivation does not fade away, it needs to be fed:Use new words in conversations or correspondence,
- record short stories in English with memorized phrases on a voice recorder, and then listen to them until you remember all the words covered,
- take notes of articles and lectures listened to in English,
- share your knowledge on social networks or start a Telegram channel for the words you have learned.
Practice in a pleasant and quiet environment. This makes it easier to perceive new information, and a stable positive association “learning is pleasant and easy” will appear in your head.
For those who want to improve their English
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“To speak another language means to own a second soul”
Charlemagne
The importance of knowing a foreign language in the modern world cannot be overestimated. In order to travel, you must know the language of the country you are going to, or at least English. There are many foreign language resources on the Internet, the key to which is knowledge of the language. Increasingly, when hiring, knowledge of one or even several foreign languages is required. And its study contributes to the formation of new neural connections in the brain.
The main difficulty in mastering a language is words. This article is designed to make this process much more interesting and easier.
If you are not yet familiar with the basic principles of mnemonics,...
Method phonetic associations
This method is based on the consonance of words of a foreign language and a native one. In order to remember a word, you must find a word that sounds similar in your native language.
For example: pillow [ˈpɪloʊ] translated from English is pillow. In pronunciation, this word is very similar to the Russian word “saw”. We imagine how a saw cuts a pillow from above, feathers begin to fall out, etc. (don't forget about the brightness of the image). Or the English word hang - to hang. It reminds me of the word "khan". We imagine how the khan hangs on the horizontal bar.
What to do with the word elephant? It’s difficult to find a consonant word for it. But you can divide it into parts and pick it up some words For example " Ele ktronika" (the one where the wolf catches eggs) and " forfeit ik". We imagine how an elephant with its trunk holds an “Electronics”, half wrapped in a candy wrapper.
Let's consider a more complex example: suggest - to suggest. We imagine Stalin holding a large open jar of jam over his head, a piece of cheese sticking out of it, and Joseph Vissarionovich actively offers buy this. We read the images in order (from top to bottom): sy R, je m, St alin. The result was something very reminiscent of suggest. We immediately remember the translation - to offer.
Important! When repeating words, be sure to pronounce the correct pronunciation of the word. Although you do not remember it exactly, but only approximately, you will still remember it with periodic repetition. You can repeat it as follows: first, read a word in a foreign language, remember the phonetic association and name the translation, and after some time you will no longer need to imagine Stalin selling jam every time, you will be able to name the translation straightaway. If you want to communicate verbally, and not just be able to read and write, then this is the effect you need to achieve. It's not that difficult. With regular reading, automaticity can come even without much effort on your part. But some words will not appear in the text so often, so they will have to be repeated separately (allow time for this in your schedule).
Word formation
Study the word formation of the chosen language. How can you turn a familiar word into the opposite meaning (happy, unhappy), how can you turn a noun into an adjective or adverb (success, successful, successfully, respectively). Pay attention to words with two roots (snowball – snow+ball – snowball or snowball). Be sure to understand formative prefixes and suffixes - this will make the process of learning the language much easier.
As you noticed, to memorize words it is not at all necessary to highlight supporting images. But if you wish, you can do this: create a memory palace with several corridors (one per part of speech) and place images in it. Then you will have a complete dictionary of the language you are learning in your head.
Bonus: remembering new words in your native language
A process similar to memorizing foreign words: we create a phonetic association, find an image for the semantic meaning of the word and connect it.
For example: an epigone is a follower of any artistic, scientific, etc. direction, devoid of creative originality and mechanically repeating someone else’s ideas. Phonetic associations: ep olets, Yoke ry N Ikolaev. We imagine Igor Nikolaev sitting at the table and copying something from one piece of paper to another. He has huge epaulets on his shoulders. Ready.
Now you don’t have to spend hours cramming a couple of dozen words. The rate at which your vocabulary increases will increase, and your desire to learn the language will increase, because rapid success in learning is very motivating. Don’t put it off for too long: learn 10-20 foreign words right now.
We learn many, many words. Beginners work through Gunnemark's Minilex, intermediate students work through various lists of irregular verbs, special vocabulary, etc.
We are faced with the task of mastering a fairly large volume of words in 7 days, and an even more important task is to find the most effective way to memorize words for each of the participants.
Step 1.
First you need to figure out exactly how you best perceive information. There is a small but very important checklist for this. If you are an auditory learner, then the “read a notebook” method will work much worse for you than the “listen to a list of words for a text” method. And you may not even think about it and look at this stupid notebook for a long time and persistently, until the bitter end and the feeling of your own worthlessness, and not understand why nothing is remembered!
All you need to do is figure out what works for you personally. The checklist will come to your email if you send your email to the cat (see the cat on the side :))
Step 2. Ways to remember words
Traditional methods
1. Yartsev method (visuals)
In fact, of course, this method appeared long before Vitaly Viktorovich, but it was thanks to V.V. Yartsev that it appeared in my life, and this is a very cool method for lazy people like me (visual people), so in this article I begin that's why I call him that :)
Let's take a notebook. We write down the word - translation - in 2 (3) columns. We give synonyms\antonyms\examples next to each other.
We read lists from time to time, just read, don’t cram anything.
I don’t know how it works, but I didn’t cram German from this teacher, I just read the notebook from time to time. He did not give dictations and never checked us against lists. And I still, many years later, remember a bunch of words.
Those. It turns out that you don’t strain yourself, you don’t try to cram 100 words into yourself in 30 minutes, you just systematically refresh the material from time to time. But you should immediately warn that these words should appear in textbooks, articles, i.e. you must, in addition to reading the notebook, somehow activate them.
2. Card method
The second popular method. We take and cut up a bunch of cards or buy square blocks of note paper. On one side we write the word, on the other - the translation. For advanced users we provide examples. We pass the cards around, putting aside those that we know well. From time to time we repeat what we have covered in order to refresh ourselves.
The downside is that if there are a lot of words and little time, you will spend a lot of time creating the cards themselves.
For fun, you can put them in piles of 10 in different places in the apartment, stumble upon them from time to time and repeat.
Auditory learners should definitely add speaking out loud to this method.
Cards are great for children; this can be turned into an interesting game.
3. Prescription method
A classic of the genre:) You take a word and write it down many, many times. It works great for Chinese characters (I’ll tell you about how to learn characters more effectively below). Minus - green melancholy. But the method has been tested for centuries.
4. Half-page method
This is one of my favorite ways. You bend the sheet in half, write the word on one edge, and the translation on the other side. You can quickly check yourself. For me, as a visual learner, it works well, because... I easily remember in which part of the sheet a given word was written down.
The downside is that you get used to a certain word order. (but this is partly a plus :)
5. Method "Interior Designer"
If you are learning some specific vocabulary that surrounds you, you can make unique “labels” everywhere - stick stickers with the names of objects. Also, you can stick on the monitor the most disgusting words that do not want to be remembered. The advantage of this method is that it’s fun :) The disadvantage is that the brain may begin to ignore all these pieces of paper, and then they will hang somewhere for a long time.
Optimization methods
6. Method of grouping by grammatical features
If you have a large list of words, the worst thing you can do with it is to learn it haphazardly.
It can and should be processed and grouped.
For example, first you write down verbs, and you do not write them out in a row, but group them by type of ending, or you write down masculine nouns, then feminine.
Thus, because Most of our words are not exceptions (you group exceptions separately), you begin to see the logic of the language and remember words in conjunction with similar ones.
7. Method of grouping by meaning
You write down and remember the word and its synonym/antonym at once. This is true for both beginners and intermediates.
Now that you have learned the word “good”, find out right away what “bad” will be. And if you also remember “excellent, so-so, disgusting,” then you will greatly enrich your vocabulary.
8. Method of learning words with the same root (for fans)
We take words and group them around a root. Those. conditional “deed\do\done” and learn several parts of speech with the same root at once.
Be sure to watch Professor Argüelles’ lecture on the topic of word families, he tells you how much and what you need to know for complete happiness.
9. Etymological method: my favorite (another lazy method)
Works for those who have learned several languages :)
When you study multiple languages within the same language branch, you begin to see similar roots. This actually comes with experience, and the need disappears. again learn a huge number of words. At a certain stage, you just already know enough :) And if I understand that this word doesn’t tell me anything categorically, I look into the etymological dictionary and find out where it came from. While I do this, I remember it. (Well, it is remembered simply from the fact that it was not recognized and attracted attention)
The bonus of learning different languages is that each subsequent language learns faster, unless, of course, you take something completely unfamiliar.
10. Chains of words
You take a list of words that you need to learn and make up a story (even a crazy one) from them.
That. you learn not 30 words, but 5 sentences of 6 words each. If you approach this matter creatively, you can have a useful and fun time :)
Methods for those who don’t like old-fashioned methods :)
11. Spaced Repetition (spaced repetitions): a technique of retention in memory, which consists in repeating memorized educational material at certain, constantly increasing intervals.
Those. in fact, you install an application on your phone, and there the program will automatically show you words in the given order and with the required frequency. You can use ready-made word lists or create your own.
Pros: thoroughly etched in memory
Cons: it takes a lot of time. If you've already memorized a word, it will still pop up from time to time in some programs.
My personal attitude: I played, but didn’t get into it. But it's a useful thing. I definitely recommend it to fans of playing games on their phones, so at least you will spend your time usefully :)
The most popular program for this method is Anki
I personally liked Memrise more than Anki, simply because it is more fun and has a super rating! You can also choose ready-made word lists or create your own. If a word is absolutely not memorized, you can use special funny pictures that users create using mnemonic techniques, or upload your own.
Be sure to try both programs, choose the one you like better, and try Spaced Repetition. In fact, it’s a good thing and helps a lot of people.
And here you can create your own lists and generate different ways to test words (tests, choose the correct option, spell it, etc., etc.) A good way to test yourself in a playful way for fans of various tests.
"Magic" methods
Various marketers and language gurus love to use magical methods to lure people. Usually the essence of the methods lies in “secret techniques of the special services,” which, well, objectively, are described in a lot of literature. And they ask for ludicrous amounts of money for this.
Mnemonics is one of the most popular methods.
14. Mnemonics
The essence of the method is to come up with funny and absurd associations for a word that you can’t remember.
You take a word and come up with some kind of associative image, which should be very vivid. But in this image there must be a “key” to the memorized word.
Example (stolen from the Internet :)) “grief”:
“woe to the wounded tiger, (vultures) are circling over him”
Subjective: you need to practice and get used to it before it starts to work out. But those who use it achieve great success. A good example is our 16-year-old Alenka, who next month is going to take HSK6 (the highest level of the Chinese language). She uses it. She talks about how she works on the language, and you can look into her notes)
Alena recommends reading the book “Einstein Walks on the Moon” by Joshua Foer.
The Memrise app allows you to create your own “Mems” and use the associations of others. I highly recommend this option for those who cannot remember difficult words :)
15 - “stressed syllable” tactic (you can read more about it (in English), the essence of the method is that you come up with an association specifically for the stressed syllable in a word)
For auditory learners
Rule #1 for you is to always say out loud what you are learning. If you use flashcards, recite them. If you are reading a list, read it out loud. Listen to the words, this is the fastest way for you to remember them! Naturally, you will have to write them down, but things will go faster than if you just read them and write them silently.
16. Listening to words
You can play audio recordings of word lists and repeat after the announcer. Usually, good textbooks provide a well-read list of words for the lesson. This is your #1 tool.
Also, you can listen to high-quality podcasts that provide detailed analysis of dialogues. You can find our recommendations for podcasts in different languages in the section
Important tricks (for everyone!)
19. Learn words in context
Don't just learn the list. There’s Minilex, and it starts with the word “without.” Right after “without” comes “safe,” and then “worry” and “ticket.” If you look at the list of the most frequent words in Chinese, the particle 的, which is a syntactic function word and has no meaning of its own, will be in first place!
Always learn words in context, choose examples and phrases. Work with a dictionary!
20. Memorize dialogues
Learning small dialogues and texts with useful vocabulary by heart is one of the surest ways that you will remember at the right time and correctly use the word in the context you need.
Yes, it will take more effort and time, but in the long run you will have a set of ready-made structures in your head that you will be happy to use.
21. Ask someone to check on you
Take your husband/mother/child/friend and ask them to run you through the list. Of course, you won't be graded, but an element of control and discipline will appear.
22. Learn what is really necessary.
In one of my textbooks, the word “hoe” appeared in the vocabulary before the words “short and long” appeared. Don't learn hoes and all that unnecessary crap until you've learned some really relevant and pressing vocabulary.
How to determine relevance? There are many manuals and lists from the “1000 most common words” series. First we learn frequency, then hoes, not before. If you have not yet learned to count and do not know pronouns, it is too early for you to learn colors, no matter how much you would like to. First it’s important, then it’s interesting, then it’s complicated and necessary for some reason.
(Future translators, this does not apply to you, you need everything. I somehow found knowledge of the term “desk drawer” in Chinese useful, although who would have thought:) If you are a translator, you should know a lot of different vocabulary.
23. Be creative!
If everything infuriates you, words don’t come into your head and you want to quickly close these lists, experiment. Some people get help from drawings, some people walk around the apartment and recite out loud, some people talk to their cat. If you see something that interests you, don’t be lazy to look into the dictionary. Be interested in what interests you. Don't get hung up on methods that don't work. In general, be as creative as possible!
And everything will definitely work out :)