Ways to employ association strategy

Abstract：Association strategy serves self-learning. The learner is equipped with ways or techniques that provide them with advice， information and exercises that enable them not only to master the vocabulary contained in the material but to acquire skill in learning any item of vocabulary that he wishes through association strategy. In this section， three way of employing association strategy are discussed.

Key words：association strategy；words generation；sentences generation；imagery

1. Words generation

The effective learning of new words requires knowledge of other words. This involves connecting the new vocabulary item with words that are already known.

With each word to be learned， learners can generate a list of words. They are stimulated to categorize the word within its lexical set and develop and expand associations between the words to be learned and words already known， and look for features that are similar or different. The formal links and semantic links are most likely to be established in words generation. For example， a word can be provided by its cognates or the word of similar form. The semantic links could be homophones， synonyms， antonyms， hyponyms， and so on. Words sets and word associations are generally considered to be effective in retention and recall.

Take health symptoms for another example. This semantic field includes words and expressions like： headache， backache， stomachache， toothache， earache， sore throat， cough， temperature， ill， faint， dizzy， etc. Remembering words by morphological association is very helpful as well. For instance， if one sees the word friend， she/he may try， by association， to make a list like： friendly， friendliness， friendless， unfriendly， friendship， etc. Words generation is widely applied in researches. According to Johnson and Steele （1996）， teachers firstly pick out a word and present it visually so that all students can see it. Then， students are encouraged to take down a list of words or phrases related to the core concept. After brainstorming and generating lists of words or phrases associated with the word， students are asked to compare their lists with their peers. Then students are required to explain relationships between each word on the list by connecting the words or phrases together with lines. In this way， words are dealt with beyond the surface level.

2. Sentences generation

Association strategy also suggests that learners combine words or items into a short sentence or text， in which earlier items are rehearsed but where the focus is on the new items to be learned. There are many ways of doing this， such as by rhyme， alliteration， making up an unusual， amusing， therefore memorable sentence. Students in the sentence generation condition made up their own sentence to relate two words in a sensible way. For example， English language learners usually confuse the word adopt with another word adapt. The two words sound similarly but have different meanings. With phonological and semantic association， learners can distinguish the two words through linking them in a sentence： the adopted child adapted to his new life. When we learn the word broom， we can make a sentence with a rhyme like this： take a broom to sweep the room. At the same time， we can also create an image of someone is sweeping the floor with a broom. Another example is the word victim. Learners may have one other commonly used word that begins with the same first syllable， i.e. victory. It will help learners to remember the two words if they can combine them into a short sentence， e.g. there is no victory in war without victims.

Kelly （1985） found that learning was much better when the student was asked to make up his or her own sentence mediator in learning word pairs. Thus putting the new vocabulary into a memorable sentence can help us to retrieve the item next time and in this way new vocabulary can enter the long-term memory and not easily slip away.

3. Imagery

Vivid， active， unusual， detailed images are best remembered （Richardson， 1980）. Images could be generated to represent words. The idea is mapping the new item onto the learners existing world knowledge.

Paivio （1975） has demonstrated how the formation of mental images can lead to far superior retention than other， particularly rote， list-learning practices. For example， in the case of belch and belgian， learners can imagine a typical Belgian eating his chips and drinking his beer， then emitting a loud belch. It is often objected that such a method is useful for remembering concrete but not abstract items. As Paivio （1975） has clearly demonstrated， it is not the concreteness of an item that is important but its imageability； for example， a good deed， a coincidence （imagine two ladies turning up at a wedding wearing the same dress！）. There are many abstract words that are highly imageable： justice， jealousy， nation， depression， state， thoughtlessness， ambition， state， etc.

Therefore， in the second language vocabulary learning， teachers are supposed to describe the meaning of the target word to the learner until the meaning is clear and learners are encouraged to form specific images based on teachers description. The use of imaginable nouns made visual elaboration possible. For example， a person who stored both the word cat and the image of a cat can remember the item better than the one who has never known the animal. The more vivid the image， the better.

【References】

[1] Johnson， D. & Steele， V. Helping college ESL learners acquire vocabulary-building strategies[J]. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy， 1996：348-357.

[2] Kelly， P. A Dual Approach to FL Vocabulary Learning ： The Conjoining of Listening Comprehension and Mnemonic Practices[M]. The Modern Language Journal， 1985：440-464.

[3] Paivio， A. Learning concrete and abstract foreign words by experienced and inexperienced Learners[M]. Language Learning， 1975：507-546.

【作者簡介】

严爽（1988—），女，汉族，湖北黄冈人，英语语言文学硕士，南昌工学院讲师，研究方向：二语习得。