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Mnemonic Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Non-Heritage Korean Language Students
Mnemonic Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Non-Heritage Korean Language Students
LANGUAGE STUDENTS
Author(s): Mary Shin Kim
Source: The Korean Language in America , 2000, Vol. 5, Papers from the Fifth National
Conference on Korean Language Education (2000), pp. 303-316
Published by: Penn State University Press
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to The Korean Language in America
Method
Subjects
The subjects were 25 university students learning Korean as a foreign language
at UCLA (22 undergraduate students, 3 graduate students). They were enrolled
in the first-year elementary Korean class during the 1999-2000 academic year.
Many had diverse backgrounds in languages such as Chinese, English, Japanese,
and Vietnamese. The students had little or no Korean language background.
Data Analysis
Mnemonic Approaches
Mnemonic approaches refer to approaches that learners adopt to facilitate their
retention of new words or phrases. The learners transform to-be-learned
materials into a form that makes them easier to remember (Bellezza, 1981).
Mere repetition of the words was not considered as a mnemonic approach.
Sound Associations
The most frequently used approaches were based on sound similarities. An
acoustic link (Cohen & Aphek, 1980), a native-language word which has
similar sound in part or all of the foreign language word, was often used.
Students associated the pronunciation of the Korean word with an English word
which had a similar sound such as pokcaphata (to be crowded) with porkchop ,
kenkang (health) with gun, Icvevhovk (schedule) with schedule , and cenhwa-kelta
(to make a phone call) with the verb to call. Students with Chinese and Japanese
language backgrounds made similar sound associations between Chinese and
Japanese words with Korean words such as moca (a hat), tungsan (hiking),
saykkkal (color), and kenkang (health).
Students also remembered the pronunciation of a new Korean word by
associating the new word with a previous learned word, such as pvalkahta (to be
red) with ppalli (fast), and kyelhon (marriage) with kvewul (winter) and honca
(alone). Some students remembered words by combining the English and
Korean pronunciation. For the word kipwun-i-cohta (to feel good), a student
associated ki with English glee and pwun with another Korean word pwun which
means person, and then remembered the word by connecting it in a sentence - a
gleeful person feels good. Some students also easily remembered new Korean
words with peculiar pronunciations such as ccikta (to take picture). The students
associated the word with the sound of the click of a camera.
Morphological Association
The students also used many morphological associations. For the Korean word
wuntonghwa (sneakers) they linked the word with wuntong (exercise). For the
word sakata (to go with a purchased item), they linked the two word sata (to
buy) and kata (to go). Many students remembered the word hyuil (holiday) by
connecting it with a previously learned word il (day). Some students found
morphological connections in color terms such as ppalkahta (to be red), nolahta
(to be yellow), phalahta . (to be blue), and kkamahta (to be black). Although the
students were not informed of the agglutinative character of these words, they
managed to make morphological associations.
Word Grouping
Word grouping (Oxford & Scarcella, 1994) strategies were also utilized by the
students. For the Korean word moca (a hat), students linked the word with meli
(a head) because a hat sits on a head. For the Korean word tungsan (hiking),
some students associated tung (to climb up) with another Korean word with the
same spelling and pronunciation but a different meaning (one's back), and then
further linked tungsan and backpacking to remember the word hiking. This
strategy involves linking words with other words which have a co-relationship
with topics, parts of speech, language functions, or semantic features.
Keyword Technique
A few students used a mnemonic approach called keyword technique , which is
based on a combination of visual and aural imagery (Atkinson and Raugh, 1975;
Nation, 1983). A foreign word is associated with an English word or other
language word which has similar sound in part or all, then a mental image of the
two words is formed. For the Malay word pintu (door), learners can remember
the English word pin and then imagine a pin stuck into a door (Nation, 1983). In
this Korean vocabulary study, one student first associated the Korean word
ccikta (to take a picture) with the English word cheek , and then visualized a
person taking a picture of someone's cheek. For the Korean word tungsan
(hiking), a student associated the word with the English word sun, and imagined
going hiking on a sunny day.
sound system unlike English and other European languages. However, utilizing
images can be a useful tool for word acquisition.
Pedagogical Implication
language function, and synonyms and antonyms (Oxford &Scarcella, 1994). The
teacher will collect the flashcards regularly to make sure the student is learning
the words correctly. The students may also share their flashcards and compare
them with those of other students.
Activities can be more effective than mere instruction for teaching and
learning language. To have students successfully learn vocabulary, follow-up
word activities should be incorporated. Forming a vocabulary network may be a
useful activity (Redman & Ellis, 1989). A vocabulary network may be used to
expand a student's vocabulary through the forming of a network of new and old
words that are related. For instance, when a student is learning vocabulary
related to a topic, such as a house, the student will be given an uncompleted
vocabulary network exercise related to a house. The vocabulary network
exercise will have some words which students are familiar with. The students
will fill in the spaces with the closely related new words from the word list
(Appendix A).
This activity can be assigned as homework or can be practiced as a pair
activity during class. To organize this pair activity, students should be divided
into groups that collaborate to expand the vocabulary. For instance, if students
are learning words related to occupation, they can discuss new words related to
this topic, such as the place of work, duties, pay, and the special features of the
occupation (Redman & Ellis, 1989). After each group finishes the activity, they
will exchange their word groupings with another group and compare their ideas.
If they find any differences, they will discuss how they are different and why
they are different (Appendix B). This vocabulary network can be useful not only
for vocabulary learning, but also as a brainstorming activity before writing
essays or journals to review words they can use in their writings.
Another possible activity is a morphological vocabulary exercise for
the students. Teachers can make vocabulary exercises based on morphological
rules such as compounding, derivation, and abbreviation. The students will learn
how the words are formed, and they will then further expand their vocabulary by
applying these rules to words that they already know. For instances, they will
learn some compound verbs by connecting two separate verbs that can be
transformed into one compound verb. (Appendix C).
Conclusion
shows that students are capable of creating their own associations, actively
manipulate new words, use elaborate word memory processes, and personalize
words based on their previous knowledge, experience, or imagination. The
students who actively adopted mnemonic approaches paid special attention on
the words and the process of learning them.
The mnemonic approach that students adopted were usually based on
sound association, morphological association, word grouping method, and
keyword technique. The first three approaches were especially effective for
students to retain new words and their meanings. For non-heritage Korean
language learners, sound association may be an effective word retention device
because the similar sounding words in their native language inspired their
cognitive intuition to remember the new Korean words well. Morphological
association may be effective because the students are already familiar with the
word structure, and the morphological association is systematic and time-
efficient way of learning new words. Forming a vocabulary network may be
helpful for students because it helps group new words and previously learned
words by topic, parts of speech, and language function. Keyword technique may
also be helpful for some students because the imagery they create may leave a
strong visual impression in their minds.
This study further suggests that students who do not use mnemonic
strategies may have the potential to score higher on vocabulary tests by adopting
mnemonic approaches. Students need to develop their own effective mnemonic
vocabulary learning strategies, therefore they need to be aware of the many
mnemonic approaches they can adopt in retaining new words. Non-heritage
Korean language learners need to further develop mnemonic vocabulary
learning strategies in order to go through "depth of processing," which is crucial
in word acquisition (Craik &Lockhart, 1972).
References
Appendix A
1. Complete the following vocabulary network by adding the words from the
box. Add appropriate objects for each room.
cd - ~~
cd c 5c5 oSz>
2. Answer the following questions in Korean.
(1) o]z)*' JSL-f. #ô]
(2) oļīļAļ a.* žH|H?
(3) oļcļ7ļ- *i]<ä
(3) WH iL*
(4) J¿*
(Adap
Appendix B
Occupation
_n±
c>ļ-'?' -ìì^r
2. Discuss
estimated sa
Occupation
Aļ-^Aļ- ~
71
JĶ±
<>>? ^ I I
Appendix C
1. Combine the following two separate verbs into one compound verb. Then,
analyze the compound verb and write definitions for each.
I 7}tļ- I 2. 4 I
Aļ-cļ- Aļ-_2.c(- ÑA
to buy
1-4 s.o>cļ.uļcļ.
to turn (to return) (
Lļ-Cj-
( ) ( ) (to wander
1-4 NA
(2) Verb s
I W I ^ ~
3-4 Bj-ÕLÍE}-
toride
°J cļ-
to wear (to go wearing ( ) ( )
3. Answer th