ERIC Number: ED096841
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1974-Oct-4
Pages: 44
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
An Application of the Mnemonic Keyword Method to the Acquisition of a Russian Vocabulary. Psychology and Education Series, Technical Report No. 237.
Atkinson, Richard C.; Raugh, Michael R.
An experiment is reported evaluating the effectiveness of a mnemonic procedure, called the keyword method, for learning a foreign language vocabulary. The method divides the study of a vocabulary item into two stages. The first stage requires S to associate the spoken foreign word to an English word (the keyword) that sounds like some part of the foreign word; the second stage requires S to form a mental image or picture of the keyword "interacting" with the English translation. Thus, the keyword method can be described as a chain of two links connecting a foreign word to its English translation through the mediation of a keyword: the foreign word is linked to a keyword by a similarity in sound (acoustic link), and the keyword is linked to the English translation by a mental image (imagery link). The experiment reported here compared the keyword method with an unconstrained control procedure using Russian vocabulary. On all measures the keyword method proved to be highly effective, yielding for the most critical test a score of 72 percent correct for the keyword group compared to 46 percent for the control group. (Author)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
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Sponsor: Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), Washington, DC.; Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA. Personnel and Training Research Programs Office.
Authoring Institution: Stanford Univ., CA. Inst. for Mathematical Studies in Social Science.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: For related document, see FL 005 914