The son is studying English at school for the second year. Recently I found out that his knowledge in this area is simply terrible. Problems were found even with the alphabet. It was necessary to do something.
The method of memorizing words with two-way cards in our situation for some reason did not work. Probably because of poor knowledge of the alphabet. About the different programs for the smartphone, I generally keep quiet: the motivation for learning the language from the child is not zero, but rather negative, so that these programs could interest him.
It was necessary, based on the experience of predecessors, to develop and run their own method. Well, personally supervise the learning process.
A bit of theory
The memory can be reduced to a cyclic process of three components:
- Perception.
- Reiteration.
- Testing.
When we want the child to remember the information, the task becomes more complicated: it is unclear how much he perceived it, how many times he repeated it, and testing the student leads to stress and negative emotions in case of a bad result.
Consider all three components of the memorization process and how they can be improved.
Perception
For qualitative perception it is desirable to use as many types of memory as possible: auditory, visual, motor. You can also add a variety such as verbal memory.
Reiteration
With the repetition of the material, strangely enough, an effective method was the multiple recording of the studied words with their simultaneous pronunciation.
I read about this method in the memoirs of a Soviet scout. He called this technique the most effective for increasing the vocabulary.
Explain the effectiveness of combining multiple rewriting of words with simultaneous pronunciation of words by the fact that all possible types of memory are involved in the process.
Rewriting allows you to automate the process of memorization, depersonalize it. In addition, the recorded words document the fact of repetition and allow you to find out which material is remembered better and which is worse.
Testing
When checking knowledge, it would be good to hide from the child the very fact of testing, but leave a reward when it successfully passed. That is, hide the whip, but in every way stick out the cake.
If the knowledge is confirmed, the cycle “perception – repetition – testing” is interrupted. If not, repeat. So there is an incentive to learn all the material faster.
At the same time, knowledge is obtained portion-by-section and is checked in portions, rather than as follows: “Sit down, now I will check how you learned what you were asked today.”
How the method works
Since the son did not know the alphabet well, we started with it. I found on the Internet the simplest recipe, similar to these:
First he got from the son a full association of the pronunciation of each letter with its writing: it will be very important in the future. After the alphabet went to the words. For this purpose I used and continue to use the usual student’s notebook in a ruler or sheets from such a notebook. In the margin I write Russian meanings of words (expressions), which are to be learned.
On the corresponding lines, you must write these words in English. Since each word is new, I authorize it for the first time to rewrite it from the textbook. Then the son writes the word as many times as fit in the line.
At the same time he not only writes, but also every time he utters a word out loud.
At the end of the sheet turns over, and there is a surprise! In the margin the same Russian words, and their English counterparts need to fill in all the lines, but without peeping into the textbook.
Three important points:
- I’m not yelling at the child, I do not reproach him for making mistakes.
- If he does not remember writing, then I spell it (that’s where a good knowledge of the alphabet is useful).
- If the child wrote and pronounced the word without prompts the first time, then between us there is an agreement that he does not repeat it on the entire line. In the future, the word from the list is withdrawn. It is believed that it is learned and the cycle “perception – repetition – testing” is over for him.
The process is repeated until all words from the original list are excluded. In the photo below about the fourth iteration.
In the same way, we used to teach the alphabet with my son. I wrote in the margin in Russian “hey”, “bi”, “si”, “di” and so on, and the son filled the lines with English capital and lowercase letters.
Pros and cons of the method
The method has several strengths. Practically all kinds of memory are involved: auditory, visual, verbal and motor. Training does without stress, the student’s self-esteem does not suffer.
The rules of the game are simple and honest. We can say that the method works automatically and the result appears as if by itself. A vivid demonstration of the dialectical principle of the transition of quantity to quality. The algorithm is applicable to the repetition of the forgotten material and is easily scaled for different volumes of words.
The method gives the student objective criteria for achieving the goal. There are real incentives to learn everything quickly and go for a walk.
The disadvantages of this method of training are also obvious: you need a lot of paper and an “overseer”.
Writing and pronunciation of English names of the days of the week the son learned in the evening. The next day I received five in the test work, the praise and surprise of the teacher. And this is not the only success.
It was also interesting to observe how the material is forgotten, if it is not repeated. First of all, the ability to write without errors disappears, then pronunciation begins to suffer, in the last place the sound of the word is forgotten. But the ability to recognize it in the text persists for a long time.
I do not think that the method is ideal, but using the described memory mechanisms, you can always invent something of your own.
