Lecture 6: Going beyond Dictionary Meanings

Going beyond Dictionary Meanings

Lecture 6

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t this point in the course, we’ve learned a number of interesting

target words, such as factitious, insidious, and GRQQ\EURRN. We’ve

also discovered some principles for effective vocabulary learning:

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connections, exploring morphology, and making use of semantic chunking.

In this lecture, we’ll look at some additional strategies for maintaining and

deepening your knowledge of the vocabulary words you’ve already learned

to ensure that you don’t forget them in a week or a month. We’ll also explore

some engaging, effective ways to reinforce your vocabulary knowledge in

just a few minutes each day.

Mnemonics: The Word-Part Connection Strategy

z Mnemonic strategies and devices are useful for remembering all

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words. Mnemonic is an adjective meaning “intended to assist

the memory.”

ż All mnemonics are based on the same learning principle:

associating something you already know or something that’s

easy to remember, such as an acronym, phrase, or rhyme, with

something new that you’re learning.

ż You may not realize it, but you have probably used mnemonics

throughout your life. For example, many people remember the

order of operations in mathematics—powers, multiplication,

division, addition, subtraction—with the phrase Please My

Dear Aunt Sally. The acronym ROY G. BIV is useful for

recalling the sequence of colors in a rainbow: red, orange,

yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.