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Abstract
Brain science, one of the most advanced subjects in the field of cognitive
throughout this century, which was listed in the National Developing and Planning
Strategies Research in some developed countries. Such as The Decade of the Brain in
the US and The Scientific Era of Brain in Japan, etc.. The author tries to testify
different learning methods affect vitally different on the structures and functions in the
brain. Getting to know those neuromechanism on acquisition and cognitive disorders
provides us more efficient expectation for teaching and learning.
This thesis is an experimental research on English vocabulary acquisition based
on the theories of cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology. The hypothesis is
that the multiple memory systems--the semantic memories, the procedural memories,
the episodic memories and the emotional memories can help students with the
vocabulary acquisition. Meanwhile, some memory strategies were mentioned. With
the pre-test questionnaire, the experimental procedure was carried out in the form of
drawing mind-mapping by the students themselves, and in the latter part, the
reflection journals were collected for more feedback. Mastering more knowledge on
cognitive neuroscience, such as the levels of processing, methods of connections
among neurons for getting more information stored in the hippocampus, and the
factors impact on memory, and so on, the teachers can improve their teaching skills.
Key Words: multiple memory systems, strategies on vocabulary acquisition,
mind-mapping
i
摘 要
脑科学是本世纪认知领域中最活跃的前沿课题之一，世界发达国家已将其研
究纳入国家重点科学发展战略规划，如美国的“脑的十年”计划和日本的“脑科
学时代”计划等。本文试图解决的问题是：不同的学习方式对人脑结构与功能可
塑性的重要作用，深入认识各种学习和认知障碍的神经机制，提供科学的原理与
方法，为学生和教师提高学与教的效率。
本论文是基于认知神经科学和认知心理学的理论对记忆策略和英语单词记
忆的实验研究。实验假设通过多重记忆通路，即：语义记忆，程序性记忆，情景
记忆和情绪记忆，使学生能有效地记忆单词，并提出一些建议性词汇习得策略。
实验过程以学生自主绘制思维导图为例，并结合前期问卷调查及后期反思日志形
式，全面获取学生的反馈信息。教师通过掌握认知神经科学方面的知识，例如大
脑的信息加工过程，如何增加神经元之间的连结，获取储存在负责记忆的海马区
域的信息,影响记忆的因素等,提高教学质量。
关键词：多重记忆通路；词汇习得策略；思维导图
Contents
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................i
Abstract in English.......................................................................................................ii
Abstract in Chinese.....................................................................................................iii
Chapter 1 Introduction.............................................................................................1
1.1 The Purpose of the Study.................................................................................1
1.2 Background of Vocabulary Acquisition...........................................................3
1.3 Organization of the Thesis...............................................................................4
Chapter 2 Literature Review....................................................................................6
2.1 Related Theories on Cognitive Neuroscience.................................................6
2.1.1 The Working Procedure of Brain.......................................................6
2.1.2 The Importance of Hippocampus.......................................................9
2.1.3 Evaluation of Short-term Memory and Long-term Memory............10
2.1.4 Schemata..........................................................................................15
2.1.5
Levels of Processing........................................................................18
2.2 Vocabulary Acquisition.................................................................................19
2.2.1 The Previous Studies on Vocabulary Acquisition............................19
2.2.2 The Difference between Acquisition and Learning..........................21
2.2.3 Method for Vocabulary Acquisition: Mind-mapping.......................22
2.3 Memory Strategies ........................................................................................26
2.3.1 Multiple Memory Systems in the Brain...........................................26
2.3.2 Mnemonic Devices...........................................................................30
Chapter 3 The Study of Mind-mapping in Vocabulary Acquisition...................37
3.1
Introduction of Research Background.........................................................37
3.2 The Present Study........................................................................................38
3.2.1 Research Questions..........................................................................38
3.2.2 Subjects............................................................................................38
3.2.3 Methodology....................................................................................39
3.2.4 Experimental Procedure...................................................................41
3.3
Implications for Vocabulary Acquisition.....................................................42
Chapter 4 The Application of Mind-mapping and Discussion............................43
4.1 The Application of Mind-mapping..............................................................43
4.1.1 Graphic Mind-mapping....................................................................43
4.1.2 Grade Mind-mapping.......................................................................44
4.1.3 Chain Mind-mapping.......................................................................45
4.1.4 Free Association Mind-mapping......................................................46
4.2 Discussion...................................................................................................47
4.2.1 The Relation Between Mind-mapping and Memory........................47
4.2.2 Other Factors Impact on Memory....................................................49
Chapter 5 Conclusion.............................................................................................56
5.1 Major Findings............................................................................................56
5.1.1
Implications for Learning.................................................................57
5.1.2
Implications for Teaching.................................................................57
5.2
Limitations..................................................................................................60
References...................................................................................................................62
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 The Purpose of the Study
There have been an increasing number of studies on the issues of the long-term
memory test and short-term memory test, and vocabulary teaching and learning both
at home and abroad since the end of last century. As for the memory test, it derived
from Hermann Ebbinghaus, and the concept of association which Ebbinghaus used to
explain memory was involved. He verified the intuitions that repetition facilitated
memory, and also that memory declined as time went by. Thereafter, researchers in the
teaching field began to seek for the methods of vocabulary acquisition.
Before Hermann Ebbinghaus’s period, Toth in Egypt, Mnemosyne in Greece
and Minerva in Rome were considered goddess of wisdom and memory. It was said
that early researchers focused on how to improve the operation of memory. Many
years ago, William James claimed that attention was the key to better memory.
Assuming that attention were the allocation of processing capacity through rehearsal
or semantic elaboration, James’ suggestion had considerable merit for improving
memory of recent events.
Memory for recent experiences can be quite fragile. We seem to get only a small
proportion of this sort of related resources. And those resources were just remembered
for a very short period of time. Observations such as those deducted the concept of
short-term memory. Later on, some researchers considred it as a system which
separates from long-term memory. The distinction between short-term memory and
1
long-term memory systems implicated that different working procedures in the brain
differ the results of memory. Therefore, we can conclude that different systems store
the different levels of processing of the information even though the precondition is
alike.
The current view of short-term memory is that it is much like a separate storage
system that distincts from long-term memory, and it is more like a series of processes
that allocates us to work with information stored in long-term memory. This point of
view is based on the concept of working memory and also can be inferred from the
neurological evidence.
One of the most profound discoveries in the memory field is that it hardly
matters how hard we attempt to learn something; what matters is how well we
organize and process the information. Bower (1972) clarified this ideas with his
experiment. During the test he required every participants to make a mental image for
the pairs of words listed on the paper. In one of the group, the participants were asked
to use the image to memorize the pairs of words, the process of intending to learn
something is called intentional learning. In the other group of the test, the participants
were required to merely remember the vivid images, but with no consideration of the
pairs of words, and the process of learning something without intention is called
incidental learning. The subtle results showed that the participants in the so-called
intentional learning group had the same effect of memorizing pairs of the words as the
participants which was called the incidental group. Therefore, we can concluded that
it is useful for the learners, particularly the language learners to organize an image
beforehand when memorizing the new words.
In the thesis, the purpose is to dig out the relation between short-term memory
and long-term memory, as well as the link which shifts from short-term memory to
long-term memory from a neuroscientific perspective, that is to say, the multiple
memory systems are important ways of vocabulary acquisition, which include the
semantic memories, the procedural memories, the declarative memories, the episodic
memories and the emotional memories, so does from a cognitive perspective.
1.2 Background of Vocabulary Acquisition
Language consists of three factors: intonation, lexicon, and grammar. There will
be no communication without words, also, the extent of vocabulary is the significant
standard for a man’s language level. According to the current education system in our
country, the English grammar for compulsory education has been conducted. One of
the goals for students in university supposed to be the vocabulary enlarging. The
standard for vocabulary in CET 4 (College English Test-Level 4) is that student
should master 4,200 words, while obviously, a highly educated American masters
50,000~70,000 words, which is far beyond the standard that we expected. Therefore,
how to improve the capacity of memorizing for the Chinese students becomes a tough
but serious problem.
Some believed that English is not innate, only by reciting words after words can
they enlarge the vocabulary. However, people seldom realize that they will acquire
some knowledge naturally while they are reading and listening the information time
and times again. And the evidence showed that the input method like listening had
better effect on learning than the method of seeing. Unfortunately, in the current
situation, the Chinese students don’t have much opportunity to read broadly, so they
have less choices on books, the only connection to the outside world is the textbooks.
For one reason, their parent forbid them searching on-line or by other media in case of
some negative resources and indulgence on them, and which leads them to the
limitation on vocabulary acquisition. For another, the tragic students have albatross as
long as they are not access to the university.
In China, repeating words mechanically still takes an overriding place. Though
this kind of teaching method is criticized by many scholars, teachers are keeping the
rails for lacking of certain memory strategies. Methods like mind-mapping, word
formation (spelling, derivation, compounding, blending, clipping), contextual
reminding, key-word method, etc.. All the methods above were very popular in
western countries, but not quite prevailing in China.
It sums up, teachers should not merely give the repetition assignment to the
students and endless rote learning tasks, but instruct them effectively combining with
some learning strategies on vocabulary acquisition, as well as certain mnemonics.
1.3 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction, which
provides the purpose of the study, problems in vocabulary acquisition and also the
organization of the thesis.
Chapter two presents literature review and theoretical framework, including the
related theories in cognitive neuroscience, that are, the working procedure of brain,
the importance of hippocampus, and evaluation of short-term memory and long-term
memory, theories like schemata, levels of processing, as well, vocabulary acquisition,
which includes the difference between acquisition and learning, and, methods for
vocabulary acquisition. And the writer illustrates the multiple memory systems in the
brain, that are, the semantic memories, the procedural memories, the episodic
memories, and the emotional memories. Besides, mnemonic devices like methods of
loci, the peg words method are discussed.
Chapter three introduces the study of mind-mapping. Part one is the
introduction, showing the research background; the second part is the procedure of the
present study, including research question and hypotheses, the subjects, methodology,
and experimental procedure; part three is the data collection.
Chapter four provides the application of mind-mapping and discussion. Many
samples made by the students are listed and discussions on the application of
mind-mapping and its relation between memory. Also, other factors that may impact
on memory are mentioned.
Chapter five states the limitations of the thesis, future research tendency, and
the implications both for language learning and teaching.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Related Theories on Cognitive Neuroscience
In the last two decades, researches on the neural basis of cognitive processes
had dramatically increased. As a matter of fact, the pioneers unprecedentedly
focused on the relation between mind and brain in the last twenty years than ever we
could imagine. Then we would wondering why it was in such a rapid rate though
there existed countless factors. The two dominant factors accounting for the success
of cognitive neuroscience are the development of sophisticated technologies like
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, abbreviated by fMRI for observing the tiny
changes in the brain when it performs certain cognitive tasks, so that we can better
explain the working procedure in our brain. And the second contribution in the neural
science was the increasingly concrete explanations for neural anatomy.
We can not deny the mental process starts with stimuli and response, and later
triggers a series of performances in the brain, but we eventually underscore the part
that processes and stores the information. In this chapter, the working procedure of
brain and the importance of hippocampus, which has tense relation with memory are
discussed in details. Meanwhile, the fundamental roles of schemata that play in
people’s cognition and recognition, and levels of processing are also mentioned in the
study.
2.1.1 The Working Procedure of Brain
The brain, a delicate and subtle creature, and also a psychological organ, mainly
responsible for our mental processes such as emotions in daily lives, the recognition
of surrounded objects, problem solving and reasoning, our perception of the outside
world and our awareness of its meaning.
A brain without mental process is what fish without water, of course, it can not
be called the most sophisticated creature that God gives to us. For better
understanding of how does the brain work, the first thing we should figure out is how
does the brain react to the outside world, and by which tunnel the brain receives its
input and send out its output.
As neural scientists illustrated, all the mental activities are involved with the
workings of brain cells, or the term called neurons. There are three types of neurons.
First type is sensory neurons that in charge of the response from the senses like what
we see, what we feel, what we hear, and what we smell; the second type called motor
neurons that in charge of sending signals to muscles for body control; the third type of
neuron called inter-neurons, which connect the other two types of neurons mentioned
above.
Before we birth 250,000 neurons are produced per minute. In the procedure of
brain development, if some neurons cannot be used appropriately, the connections
between them will disappear afterwards. This procedure is called neural pruning.
When a neuron receives enough stimulation from other neurons, some of the
channels in the cell membrane open, making a series of complicated charge changes
of ions in axon, including the positive ions like Na(+), K(+), Ca(++) and other
negative ions. This exchange affects straight to the end of axon, and consequently
causing the terminal buttons to open, releasing certain chemicals we known as
neuron-transmitters, in which in turns affact other neurons. And then the neurons give
rise to fire. The change in charge that moves from the cell membrane to the terminal
button in the axon is known as an action potential. The communication between
neurons occurs in the synapse, leading the movements of impulses. The
neuron-transmitters flow across the synaptic cleft, where they bind to receptors and
trigger events in the receiving neuron.
The brain sends and receives information from the sense organs through the
twelve cranial nerves, where they link the brain through tiny holes in the cranium.
The cranium is the part of the skull that encloses the brain. If this part of the brain was
damaged, it probably cause the disconnection both from the inputs and outputs.
Macroscopically, there are four major lobes in each hemisphere. They are the
occipital lobe, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the frontal lobe. The occipital
lobe is responsible for the visual inputs. The visual stimuli sent out from thalamus to
the occipital lobe, forming the recognition of the seeing objects. The temporal lobe is
involved in language comprehension, hearing, storing new memories, and some
aspects of consciousness. The upper area is called Wernicke’s area. The parietal lobe
is responsible for size and location in space, and is also involved in consciousness.
The frontal lobe is involved in critical thinking, speech production, searching for
memories, problem solving, planning, and decision making. Each lobe is duplicated,
one on the left hemisphere and the other is on the right hemisphere. The left
hemisphere in charge of language and analysing the music and partial information.
The right hemisphere plays a larger role than the left in recognizing overall
information and some nonverbal functions, and appreciation of music.
During brain development, the environment will affect the brain structure
among neurons, and the same with its function by cutting off the connections that are
not well-functioned, which also causes the brain to form new connections in response
to increased activity.
2.1.2 The Importance of Hippocampus
The hippocampus plays a major role in human brains, which belongs to the
limbic system. Its functions are to consolidate the information from the short-term
memory to long-term memory, and to navigate the spatial circumstances. Mammals,
particularly, humans owns two hippocampuses in each hemisphere. They lie in the
middle of the temporal lobes.
Not all the information will be stored in this area. Some will be categaried by
the hippocampus before sent to the long-term memory units, and consequently stored
in the brain.
The damage to the hippocampus would cause the oxygen starvation. What’s the
worse, if someone is hurt in both side of hippocampus, he will suffer the syndrome
called amnesia, which is characterized by the disfunction of forming and keeping new
memories. However, it still works out in some types of memories, such as cognitive
skill, including solving a problem, doing a puzzle, or playing a musical instrument,
and so on. Thanks to the bilateral symmetry of the hippocampus, if one hemisphere is
damaged, it will not affect the overall area, leaving the other hemisphere intact. If two
hemispheres are damaged, it will cause the situations mention above. Therefore, the
researchers discovered that there would exist multiple memory systems functioning
different memory procedures, and each region in the brain is responsible for different
memory systems. These findings will be discussed in chapter three.
The long-term potentiation (hereafter named LTP), has been universally
acknowledged as one of the major neural mechanisms. The theories reckoned that the
information was learned time and time again as it passed by. In that case, it will fasten
the speed of learning process.
Psychologists and neuroscientists reached an agreement on that hippocampus
forms new information on the matter one had experienced, here we can call it episodic
memory. Though there is undoubtedly assumption that hippocampus plays a profound
role in the working process of memory, it still remains the question that what the real
function and essence of the hippocampus will be.
2.1.3 Evaluation of Short-term Memory and Long-term Memory
PICTURE 2.1 The Procedure of Memory
(From Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology by R. R. Hunt & H. C. Ellis. 2006,
Beijing: Post & Telecom Press.)
Psychologists begin their answers to the question by making a distinction
between short-term and long-term memory. But these terms are just labels that
describe the fact that some information is retained for a short time, while other
information is retained for a long time. The real question is, what are the
psychological processes that cause this difference in retention?
James (1890) first made an distinction between the short-term memory and
long-term memory. He defined the primary memory as short-term memory, which
was described as the spontaneous moment that would fade away and it was supposed
to be the content of the consciousness; and secondary memory as long-term memory,
which was described as a inactive state, once the things you thought about but
currently you were not. According to James’ description, short-term memory was an
active state of memory while long-term memory was an inactive state of memory.
Another assumption emerged as scholars shifted their eyes on the approach
named levels of processing. They totally believed that short-term memory and
long-term memory were stored in different memory systems. They declared that those
memories were located in different areas in the brain. But it had many variable
affecting its storage results.
Recent researches focused on the retention and manipulation of the information
of stored in brain. It was described much like a set of storage systems, and each of
them differ in operating seperate functions. One of the sayings was that the short-term
memory triggered the work with information stored in the long-term memory. This
point of view introduced the concept of working memory and we can also get the
evidence in the field of neuroscience.
The three-stage model theory was initiated by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968,
1971) and Waugh and Norman (1965). This model not only illustrated different types
of memory stores, but clarified the how was information processed. Later research
show that information get access to long-term memory without passing through
short-term memory. And it claimed that rehearsal just helps memorization if people
think about the information. Undoubtedly, it did represent some fundamental theories
for the subsequent studies.
Sensory memory (SM) is responsible for most of the perceptual inputs,
including hearing, seeing, smelling, etc., for a short time (typically less than a second).
As sensory memory retains the information by the random occasions for just one
seconds, while the short-term memory (STM) holds information for several seconds;
for instance, if people keep saying the object time and time again, they will retain the
information in STM (typically for about 30 seconds). STM stores the information in
the form of separate pieces. It is easy to be forgotten because of decay of the trace as
its capacity for storage is limited.
What is the capacity of short-term memory? When will it reach the maximum?
Miller (1965) argued that the capacity for short-term memory was about 7 plus or
minus 2 chunks at once, but more recent research suggests that the number could be
more like 4 chunks. The definition of a chunk is not precise as the amount of
information changes according to different sorts of materials or personal perception or
understanding of background information. We have only one chunk when we were at
the age of three, then the capacity increased every two years till it reached the amount
of seven. Subsequent researches showed that adults have priority for more chunks
when at the mental age of 15. The number possibly changes as one’s interest and
background information altered. And duration of short-term memory is 15 to 30
seconds.
The way that shift from short-term memory to long-term memory (LTM) is
rehearsal. The capacity for LTM is far more than that short-term have, till now there
was no reports declared it had an exact limit. LTM stores the information combining
with vivid pictures, meaningful words, and emotional actions that you experienced in
the past. Each part of long-term memory owns different functions in detail.
Evidence for the distinction between short-term memory and long-term memory
has been shown in a number of studies. A hundred years ago, Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909), a German philosopher and pioneer in the memory field,
undertook a
couple of experiments to testify his ideas on memory. Proudly, Ebbinghaus’s findings
were the first solid evidence that showed short-term memory distinct from long-term
memory in different operations ways. His experimental procedure went like this: at
the first period of time, he listed several digits and nonsense syllables, such as cac, rit,
and the like, those words made by himself were not existing ones in the dictionary but
could be pronounced. Ebbinghaus wrote out a set of these stimuli, and every word
was wrote on the listed card, then he recited one of them at a time. After a period of
time, he checked each of words learned by memorizing. Ebbinghaus found the same
results as many other researchers did, claiming that the first word and the last word in
the list of nonsense syllables were easier to be remembered than those in the middle of
the list, because their position were easily to be noticed than other words as they were
repeated more times than other ones. The more time we spend on noticing the
information we intend to remember, the more chances of possibility for us to make it
easier to store it effectively in LTM.
Another distinction between short-term memory and long-term memory is the
kind of information that stored in the memory traces. It assumes that long-term
memory stores the information in the form of its meaning, while short-term memory
stores information by means of sound patterns. Therefore, long-term memory storage
is based on a semantic code, whereas short-term memory is based on the phonetical
code.
Technically, rote repetition can not lead the short-term memory to the long-term
memory. The brain cut off those meaningless or not well organized information for
efficient storage.
2.1.4 Schemata
Frederic Bartlett, a British psychologist, initially introduced the concept of
schemata into psychology and education. This theory held the idea that organized
knowledge, which was described as an elaborate network of abstract mental structures
that precisely reflect one’s understanding of the outside world. While the schema
theory was developed by the educational psychologist R. C. Anderson. And Jean
Piaget introduced the term schema in 1926. Thus it was not an entirely new concept.
Anderson, however, expanded the meaning.
A schema (pl. schemata or schemas), is a concept mentioned in psychology and
cognitive science, which is described as an organized pattern of thought or behaviour,
a mental structure that reficts some aspects of the outside world, some concrete
knowledge or cognitive representation, mental framework on a specific theme that
helps us to rebuild social information, or certain structures combing our knowledge
and assumptions about something, serving as a tool for interpreting and processing
information confronting our daily lives.
The theories of Frederic Bartlett on memory look back on study of retention
with consciousness. Ebbinghaus emphasized on the probability of recall, while
Frederic Bartlett paid no attention on it. Instead, he defined the recall as the effort
after meaning, and he described it as a mental process that included initially searching
and consequently rebuilding the information.
Frederic Bartlett definitely against the idea on using the nonsense syllabus as
the learning materials. He confirmed there would be certain losses in the process of
memory when avoiding some background information that connected the new
information.
The main strategy was reconstruction. A very famous research was undertook in
South Africa on the recall of the Indian folks. The grammar and structure was totally
different, comparing the background information that the British participants were
familiar with. Particularly, the story had less explicit association, and some reader
encountered many vivid dramatic images and supernatural incidences. Nevertheless,
those factors were avoided in Ebbinghaus’s experiment. What Frederic Bartlett
concerned most about were the content and structure of the information during the
research.
It can be concluded from the experiment that recall is not merely a process
involving with a simple rebuilding or forgetting of a matter. It is much more like a
process of reconstruction as time changes. People use schemata to reconstruct the old
information for providing a new mental framework of the current events. Schemata
affects our daily lives as we find things are familiar with our own experiences. We
explore it, and we rebuild it.
Thereafter, people believed that memory was not merely disappear and appear
at random as Ebbinghaus described. Those materials that the participant seemed to be
unfamiliar with, at the same time, had less connections with their daily lives prone to
disappear consequently. And that phenomenon exactly coincide with the participants’
experiences.
Based on these results, Frederic Bartlett introduced the schemata theory. It is
the positive organization of the past experiences. The individuals altered the content
and order of the memory by reconstruction and conduction. Therefore, he proposed an
idea that recall is a process of reconstruction, but not merely repetition as Ebbinghaus
described. In the terms Frederic Bartlett mentioned, recall requires such an ability like:
the individual is supposed to alter to the personal schemata by searching logical orders
according to the acquisition with consciousness, and reconstruct them, making sure
they congruent with his own experiences.
It is reported that moods accounts for the construction of schemata. People in a
dominant, typical emotional state will affect their understanding of the information
and framework building. Thus, a sad person tents to construct a negative schema
based on his own experiences, and reconstruct negative schema in the later period of
time in his life. He interprets everything from a negative perspective. A sad schema
predispose a person to encode things with negative events more readily than positive
events, it also directs a person’s retrieval to certain memories, which are related with
sad content.
The idea of a negative schema is part of general cognitive theories of depression.
The researcher Aaron Beck presented the idea that specific stressful situations where
the cause of depression. Related approach was proposed by Hediund Rude in 1995,
who found evidence for latent depressive schemas in remitted depressed patients who
recalled a series of negative words and showed more negative interpretative
perspectives than the control group who were not depression prevailing participants.
Nevertheless, the status of the schema concept has been taking more prevailing
position in recent years, and it is a clearly useful and important concept for human
beings to know better about how the brain works.
2.1.5 Levels of Processing
Different from working memory, levels of processing is regarded as a process
of short-term memory retention and long-term memory retention. It provides the idea
that the brain has separate storage systems, but takes eyes on the types of processes
which associated with different levels of retention.
There are two assumptions for levels of processing. The first assumption is that
the memory trace is a by-product of perception and comprehension. The things we
remember are the things we paid more attention to. For instance, if we are introduced
to someone else, we paid too much attention to his appearance such as the person’s
clothes, or his facial expressions; finally, we probably cannot remember the person’s
name. Another important implication of the first assumption accounts for the role of
intent to remember. The implication is that intent to remember is not crucial. We
seldom pay our attention to things as they happen to us, however, we do try to look
back on the experiences we have. On the contrary, rehearsal consciously is the key
factor in the theories of short-term and working memory. For levels of processing,
memory is the by-product of perception and comprehension of the related events,
instead of intending to remember things.
The second assumption of levels of processing is that retention has close
relation with the processing of meaning. Semantic processing in memory is more
likely to make better recall than nonsemantic processing in the learning process. It
emphasizes that the more we are familiar with the materials and encoding them with
what we understand it, the more likely we tend to remember the information than we
expected. Semantic processing is assumed to be deep level of processing and
nonsemantic processing categorized as shallow. Therefore, the term “levels of
processing” was proposed. According to the explanation Craik and Lockhart, the
reason why would semantic processing produce better memory than nonsemantic
processing is that semantic traces last longer than nonsemantic traces.
2.2 Vocabulary Acquisition
2.2.1 The Previous Studies on Vocabulary Acquisition
Vocabulary can be divided into hearing vocabulary, speaking vocabulary,
reading vocabulary, and writing vocabulary. Many researchers of those studies have
separately been focusing on the vocabulary teaching methods, the rules and functions
of words, as well as the principles of vocabulary teaching, linguistic theories and
vocabulary teaching, culture and vocabulary teaching, etc.. Surprisingly, they seldom
mentioned the mnemonic techniques and neuroscientific researches on vocabulary
acquisition, that is the purpose of doing the study, and it is believed that the
significance of it lies in the following aspects.
There have been different perspectives in the development of English language
teaching and learning. Some believes that English learning is based upon syntax and
text structures completely, therefore, learning vocabulary seemed to be useless, thus,
some schools insist on grammar is the best policy, vocabulary plays a less important
role in language teaching. While some insist that the process of learning English is
actually the process of learning English vocabulary and grammar, and they believe
that adequate English vocabulary and grammar will be a great help in the learning
process. In the late 1970s, communicative approach was taking a prevailing position,
it emphasized on communication, and language learners would absorb new
vocabulary naturally through their conversations instead of starring at the word list
every day.
To some extent, it draws a conclusion that vocabulary learning plays a crucial
role in the learning process. Thus, how to find an effective method becomes a
question ahead of time. In this thesis, mind-mapping is one of the overriding means of
vocabulary learning, which belongs to the semantic memory of the multiple memory
systems.
For the majority of the human mental works are involved with the process of
memorizing, for instance, a simple action, an imagination of something, knowledge
acquiring and so on. It is the center of human intellectual functioning and, finally, is
involved with all works from cognition to recognition. Ellis (1987) illustrates the
point of view that memory is like a static bin of fact, by which letting you to imagine
the life without memory. And also he notes a vitally important implication of memory
loss, which you usually take it for granted but positioned in the central part of
memory in the human behavior. With no memory for the past, you would probably
have no basis for predicting for the future lives. Thus, memory is one of the
supplement factors in the process of knowing the outer space and it is an
indispensable tool in recognition and solution confronting in our daily lives.
2.2.2 The Difference Between Acquisition and Learning
In the study of second language acquisition, researchers defined the words
acquisition and learning from multiple perspectives.
First, researchers like Krashen in 1981 distinguished between “acquisition” and
“learning”. The former refers to the subconscious process of “picking up” a
language through exposure and the latter to the conscious process of studying it.
According to this view, it has great possibility for learners to “acquire” or to
“learn” rules independently and at separate times. Although such a distinction
can have strong face validity, particularly for teachers, it is problematic, not
least because of the difficulty of demonstrating whether the knowledge learners
possess is of the “acquired” or “learnt” kind. Second, researchers disagree
about what kind of performance they think provides the best evidence of
acquisition. We have already noted that some researchers work with production
data, some study learners’ intuitions about the second language, while others
access learners’ introspections. Also, some researchers like Bickerton in 1981
considers a feature has been acquire when it appears for the first time, while
others like Dulay and Burt in 1980 require the learner to use it to some
predetermined criterion level of accuracy, usually 90 percents. Thus, a
distinction can be made between acquisition as “emergence” or “onset” and
acquisition as “accurate use”. (Ellis, 1999, pp. 14)
Clearly “acquisition” can mean different sorts of things, which makes it
very difficult to compare the results of one study with those of another.
Conflicting results can be obtained depending on whether the data used consists
of the learners’ productions, introspections, or intuitions, or whether emergence
or accuracy serves as the criterion of acquisition. That is why it is important to
examine carefully the nature of the data used and the way in which acquisition
has been measured, when reading reports of actual studies. (ibid., p.15)
2.2.3 Methods for Vocabulary Acquisition: Mind-mapping
Like the other creatures in universe, vocabulary had gone through a long period
of time shifting from the simple structure to much more complicated structure in the
right track. Words are formed by a bunch of meaningless letters, every single letter
does not make any sense unless they combine with each other. That is to say, words
could have meaning when they are combined. And this just meets the concept of
mind-mapping, thus, we combine these two things together for vocabulary acquisition.
Words have similarity in pronunciation, structure, and meaning, therefore, we can
memorize words either by the previous ones, things around us, or idioms learnt
before.
Tricks for improving memory typically require elaborative encoding and often
involve either visualizing objects interacting with other objects or forming organized
units where none previously existed. The essential element is that you organize the
material so that you integrate it, making connections between what you want to
remember and what you already know.
2.2.3.1 Mind-mapping
Mind-mapping was firstly proposed by the British scholar Tony Buzan, a
worldwide famous study specialist, claiming that students could draw a well
organized graph by colors, lines, signals, lexicons, and pictures, which shifted the
dreary information to a colorful, easy-to-remember graph. It could be done by a single
person, or a group. The central part of the mind-mapping was a concept or a graph, all
the main ideas spreaded to all directions but connected to the center. Every main idea
spreaded again to make sub-main ideas, and the rest could be done in the same
manner.
It turned out to be a more sufficient strategy ever in vocabulary acquisition than
mechanical repetition. The deeper the brain processes the information, the more
chance of remembering would occur. People remember things according to
association, by which means the association is the bridge connects the new and the old
information. Students experienced the brain storm in mind-mapping, and formed their
own cognitive framework in mind.
Cognitive psychologists believed that the capacity of people’s short-term
memory is 7 plus or minus 2 chunks. Memorizing words separately would be a
limitation for vocabulary acquisition. Nowadays, most of the words are isolated in the
learning process for college students, not to mention that they could form them in
word network. In fact, words to some extent have similarity both in structure and
meaning, on this point, we can combine words according to these two characters,
and order the reticular structure to form a new network, which is the so-called
mind-mapping. Different colors and graphics in mind-mapping provides a visual
mental framework and knowledge structure for better understanding of the words,
meanwhile, demonstrates the connections and diversities among themselves.
During the process of drawing mind-mapping, students selected and
summarized the information systematically by observing the word structure and
analyzed the meaning of the word. Learning a new word is the reviewing of the
related previous words. Consequently, it combined all the words in the network. Once
the student could not remember a word, he or she would associate it with its
synonyms, and antonyms learnt before, which was an efficient way of comprehension
and recognition for vocabulary acquisition.
2.2.3.2 Other Strategies for Vocabulary Acquisition
English, unlike French, Germany, Russian words that every word matches its
spelling and its pronunciation; it hinders students from recognizing and acquiring.
However, if we abandon it as a tool of reciting, it will be a great loss.
The difference between pronunciation and spelling are as follows: first, there
are 26 letters in English, but 48 morphemes, inevitably, it means that a letter must be
read for a couple of sounds; second, it maintains many other languages, nevertheless,
the pronunciation of those words did not change too much. Those reasons and
countless tiny differences made English it is today. Even though, the American did a
research in the 70s of 20th century, pointed out 84% of the English words in 17,000
words were regularly match its spelling rules. For instance, “ai” pronounces /ei / and
/i/, thus, we infer the pronunciations like the words “bargain”, “train”, etc..
The second method is that we recognize words by derivation, compounding,
blending, clipping. Usually, a word consists of prefix, suffix and root. In detail, we
can recite vocabularies by remembering the meaning of them. And I’ll clarify them in
the following paragraphs.
Derivation is a common method for memorizing words, which is divided into
prefix and suffix. As we all know, “un-”, “dis-”, “non-”, etc., they mean the opposite
when they occurs in front of some words. “fore-“, “post-”, “re-”, “pre-”, they indicate
the time and order. “anti-”, “pro-”, “counter-”, they indicate direction and attitude
about something. “-er”, “-ant”, “-ist”, they infer the position or work for someone.
“-ful”, “-ish”, “-less”, “-ive”, they are suffixes followed by the adjectives. “-en”, “-fy”,
“-ize”, they followed by the verbs.
Compounding is made by two or more words, and the word can be nous, verbs,
such as “moonlight”, “sunglasses”, “golden-hearted”, “wooden-made”, “green hand”,
“homesick”, “eyesight”, etc..
Blending is the combination of two words, and each of them is shortened by a
part and makes a new word. For instance, motel (motor + hotel), brunch (breakfast +
lunch), Chunnel (channel + tunnel), sitcom (situation + comedy), workfare ( work +
fare), Medicare (medical + care), etc..
Clipping refers to a word is cut off by some part, the front part or the latter, but
does not make its meaning changed. The purpose of this kind of method is to make it
clear and easy to be remembered, usually, the clipped words are shorter than the
original one. Let’s take an example, “ad” is the short form of “advertisement”, “buz”
is shortened form for “business”, “rep” for “representative”, “pro” for “propose”,
“fridge” for “refrigerator”, “phone” for “telephone”, “flu” is short for “influenza”, and
“zoo” is the short form for “zoological garden”, etc..
Acronyms are also a sort of practical memory strategy. For example,
H.O.M.E.S is the short form for the five lakes in the United States; they are Lake
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
2.3 Memory Strategies
2.3.1 Multiple Memory Systems in the Brain
Memory is a multi-functional unit, which includes many different systems for
processing particular functions. Every system is a separate unit functioning particular
sort of information, and each sector handles different resources based on its neural
areas.
The origin of the systems approach was firstly proposed by Tulving, in whose
theory mentioned the distinction between episodic memory and semantic memory.
The episodic memory in charge of personal experiences, and the information stored in
this area responsible for one’s particular prior experiences. Semantic memory
corresponds to stored general knowledge and most of the teaching procedures have
related to this sort of memory system. Thus, the two systems handle different sorts of
information, and process them based on particular rules.
2.3.1.1 The Semantic Memories
Semantic memories are memories of the meanings of the words, concepts, and
general facts about the world. The working procedure is a little complicated. First, the
hippocampus provides short-term information to the temporary storing area in the
lobe waiting for checking, supposing the information is associated with the former
stored information thus they are send to the working memory in the frontal lobes; then
working memory recheck and recategorize those old and new information; according
to the prior knowledge and interests, those information are connected to each other, so
that they can shift more into long-term information, but the procedure needs more
times to remain stable.
The semantic memories are much more likely activated by association,
comparison and analogy. When the semantic memories cannot be processed by
multiple learning methods, it is impossible for the brain to build neural connections.
The following methods are helpful in the teaching process; hopefully, they are best
ways for teachers who are still in the confusions.
Firstly and highly recommended strgaategy: graphic organizers. They are
considered to be the most effective methods for the semantic memories, such as
mind-mapping or webbing, some researchers named it as power pictures. The second
part of this chapter has more details about this method.
Peer teaching is also an ideal method for the semantic memories, which
provides access to personal communication skills and reviewing. Every two student
are divide into a group, and they are required to teacher what they learned with each
other in turns. The process provides opportunities for evaluations and analysis.
And other methods such as questioning strategies, summarizing, role-playing,
debates, outlining, time line, practice tests, paraphrasing, mnemonic devices, music,
etc.. They are all supplementary teaching methods in language learning.
2.3.1.2 The Episodic Memories
Episodic memories sometimes are called contextual memories or spatial
memories. They are memories of events that connected with a particular time, place,
circumstance, that is to say, it provides a context for learners in the learning process.
The entrance for episodic memories is in the hippocampus, and its important
component is somewhat called invisible information. For instance, the walls, the
windows, and the desks in the classroom are hints when remembering something you
learned before, if you are taking an English exam in this classroom, and you can’t
remember the word in your mind, then you would think about just in this classroom
you learned it, even the clothes of the teacher that day you get to know it little by little,
finally, you can recite exactly the word.
2.3.1.3 The Procedural Memories
The procedural memories are also called “muscle memories”, which are
responsible for the storage and use of skills. These motor and memory-related skills
are stored in epencephalon. As they cause the work of two different areas in the brain,
thus there is no need to worry about the energy or spatial conflicts.
All those repeating action procedures such as tying the shoelaces, riding
bicycles and so on, are stored in the procedural memories. Another good example of
the procedural memories was practiced in our teaching strategy class, the foreign
teacher Ms Ruskin asked one of us to demonstrate a series of actions, with every
action applied with a pair of phrase, like “turn on the water, take the soap, wash the
hands, turn off the water, take a towel...”, all those actions are automatic without the
involvement of consciousness.
Those action acquired in the action can be recollected in the same state. As
teachers, we can also inspire students in the following methods:
First, ask the students to repeat what they learned till they can remember them,
and making sure they are stored in the memory system automatically.
Alternatively, teachers can design some actions served as the tool for memorizing.
That is because then an action is repeated over and over again, the brain will store it in
the epencephalon for starting the procedure.
Everything related to action helps to strengthen the procedural memories.
Or, when a teacher is teaching some materials, one of the students is asked to
stand up and walk along the classroom, when come to some point, the student is
supposed to do some actions to show whether he can understand. If he understands
one point he jump, if he understands them all, then he clap his hands.
2.3.1.4 The Emotional Memories
The emotional memories are stored in the frontal lobe, the area of amygdala,
near the hippocampus. These memories are activated by other memory systems, thus
interrupts the logical thinking in the brain.
Hippocampus is the last mature organ in the forebrain till when we are three
years old, which is the reason why cannot we remember the matter before three.
Whereas the amygdala grows well in the brain.
People may have some emotional memories, but, they have no strong evidence
to show its validity. As time goes by, those memories are not reliable enough for them
to prove the past affires.
Both positive and negative emotions cause the brain to release particular neural
transmitters, which strengthen the memory. Debates and role play effectively activated
students’ emotions. As for teachers, if they show great passion on the topic or the
activity, the students will be moved by the contagious environment; if they are willing
to share the feelings about what you are teaching, the students seem to feel the same
way.
The dendrates in the brain seeking for the new information all the time,
nevertheless, they are not from books, at this time, teachers should analyse those
information into understandable codes by multiple memory systems. Initially, begin
with the episodic memories, then try the procedural memories. Besides, add more
celebrations in the beginning and the end of the unit for strengthening better memory.
2.3.2 Mnemonic Devices
The word mnemonic is derived from the Greek word, meaning memory. Tricks
for improving memory typically need elaborative encoding and often either
visualizing objects interacting with other objects or forming organized units where
there is no previously existing ones. The core for the material you organized is that
once you integrate it and what you’ve known before. As we all know, those memory
tricks depend on a good organization and integration.
2.3.2.1 Method of Loci: Getting Things in Their Right Places
Probably the most effective mnemonic device is to use the interactive image.
The key to mnemonics is to figure out a way to organize the information that people
can link something new with something that had already stay in your mind.
The method was discovered by the ancient Greek orator Simonides, and the
word loci, the plural form of locus, is derived from a Latin word which means place.
The story went like that, he was attending a banquet on evening, then he was called
out the house to get a message from someone. After he went out of the room,
unfortunately, the ceiling began to shake and it collapsed, mangling the guests’ body,
which was hardly to recognize. When asked who had before the party, Simonides
realized that he could easily remember all the faces of the guest if he visualized every
guest sitting at the table. This inspired him to create method of mnemonic technique
now was called method of loci. To use this sort of method, first you should memorize
a couple of locations, and visualize each of to-be-remembered objects in a different
location as you mentally walk through the house，later you repeat that mental walk
and to recall or to see what is in each location.
For example, imagine that you are in your room, then you walk through the
door, and come to the table, then the dining room, and same the like. Second, take out
a shopping list that lists all the objects you want to buy. Third, try to mentally walk to
the door and put an umbrella (the object on the shopping list) next to the door, and a
ball on the table, and a watermelon in the dinning room, and you might visualize all
the objects in your mind. The fourth step is to recall, you walk through those locations,
finally, you get them all.
And it is also one of the reasons why people are more likely to remember things
when taking an exam in the same classroom that once we were having classes, of
course, it is as well related to the episodic memory. People recite the same
environment, the same experience, and they get more chances to recall what they had
learned. The Italian priest Matteo Ricci had also mentioned this sort of method called
memory palace.
2.3.2.2
Peg Word System: Making a Clue
The peg word system is similar to the method of loci, except that you remember
a couple of locations instead of a couple of ordered objects. For example, you might
memorize a list of rhymes, such as “One is a car, two is a shoe, three is a door, four is
a tree, five is a pen”, etc.. Then you can regard the memorized objects (car, shoe, door,
tree, pen) in the same way as the method of location. You can associate the first object
as the item in your shopping list. In that case, when you want to memorize them on
the list, try to remember the peg word (car, shoe, door, etc.) to figure out what is
associated with.
The method of loci, interactive imagery, and peg word method was considered
to be the most effective mnemonics according to the investigation in the 1980s.
However, there are many types of memories, and people differ in how well they can
use these techniques. Find some suitable and more efficient ones for yourself is the
key for memory training.
Previously, this chapter introduced the related theories in cognitive
neuroscience, working procedure in the brain involves the connections between
neurons, along with the floating ions like Na and K causing action potential, making
more increasing number of dendrites, which is assumed to have close relations with
learning, particularly, hippocampus is view as a crucial role in human memory.
Researches showed that long-term memory storage is larger beyond what people can
imagine.
Learning occurs in the period of connections between neurons. As the
connections between neurons increased, dendrites appear one after another, synapse is
strengthened as well. The more connections among those neurons through learning
and review old information time after time, the more effective it will be in the process
of connection. Besides, social communication, sports, challenge are positive factors
for the increasing number of dendrites.
It is said that there are 1,000 to the power of five neurons in the brain. Simply,
take a needle as an example, the space contains 30,000 neurons is just like a needle in
the daily life, and each of them could make a connection with 5,000 to 10,000 neurons
at the same time. Thus people could imagine tens of thousands of neurons
astonishingly exist in our brain. What a number !
And those neurons spread in the upper part of the brain called neocortex.
Usually, kids build their schemata through making connections between neurons. For
instance, a kid easily associated the sparrow with butterfly or airplane, which is called
neural network. The more consequently appears between connections in the neural
network, the more possibility of consolidating the information. And the synapse will
be strengthened. As the neurons are activated more consequently, the more chances of
possibility for dendrites and axons to get used to this kind of connection. As the neural
network operates efficiently, the information is passed more smoothly.
In the theory of schemata, memory can be thought of as a mental process of
reconstruction, rather than a structural system that contains traces. The negative
schemata to a great extent affect one’s cognition of the outside world and constantly
in the reconstruction in later life time.
Levels of processing is based on two fundamental assumptions. The first is that
the memory trace is a by-product of perception and comprehension. The second
assumption of levels of processing is that retention has close relation with the
processing of meaning. Semantic processing in memory is more likely to make better
recall than nonsemantic processing in the learning process. Semantic processing is
assumed to be deep level of processing and nonsemantic processing categorized as
shallow.
Then the author discussed many methods for vocabulary acquisition, such as
affixes, suffixes, derivation, compounding, blending, and clipping. Particularly, one of
the most effective and practical way for vocabulary acquisition was discussed, that is,
mind-mapping, and it will be explained in more details in the latter chapters.
Ways of improving the odds of retaining information in memory include linking
visual images with text, that is called dual coding, and thinking through information,
that is to say, to widen the depth and breadth of processing; and studying in small
chunks while trying to integrate and organize the material, which means distributed
practice. Mnemonics can easily double the recall and are well worth the effort of
learning and trying. Using mnemonic devices not only helps stduents learn something
at the first place but, later on they forget it, it helps them be able to relearn it more
effectively.
Here are some principles for memory techniques:
Firstly, recall is better when someone mentally reinstates the environment in
which the information was learned. If someone wants to remember something, then
try to remember where he were and when did he learned it, and even the weather it
was that day, and how did he feel that day, all those details are the most valuable hint
for memory. As they are the best illustration for episodic memory and procedural
memory and emotional memory.
Secondly, focusing on the task. As searching for information in long-term
memory requires effort but, it is easily disrupted by other stimuli. Thus, if someone
need to remember well, focus on the task and shutting out the distractions.
Thirdly, keep trying. The more times people remember something, the more
likely he is eventually to retrieve it. This is based on the idea of levels of processing.
Things are likely to be remembered when people try to think of it and connect more
detailed information on it. Based on the neurological ideas that there exits more
connections among neurons, and each one of them is responsible for the information
from the outside world.
Fourthly, if someone indeed cannot remember something immediately, try to
think of the related information, such as, the characteristics, the category of the target.
Fisher and his colleagues, in their study in 1989 advised detectives that if a witness
could not remember a criminal’s face or name, they are suggested to remember its
syllable, ethnic origin, its length, such like that. These association are served as
retrieval cues, helping the witness to memorize something.
Chapter 3
The Study of Mind-mapping in Vocabulary Acquisition
3.1 Introduction of Research Background
The design of this chapter includes the following sections: the hypothesis of the
paper, that is, students can improve their memory by using the mind-mapping, which
belongs to the semantic memory system of the multiple memory system; the subjects
of the experiment, who are the freshmen of the English major in our school; the
experimental procedure and the data collected from this experiment; and detailed
discussion on mind-mapping in the process of learning.
As rote learning is still very popular in China and it have been considering most
effective way of reciting. Students follow the instructions undoubtedly, thus, repeating
isolated words day after day, year after year.
Mind-mapping initiated by the English scholar Tony Buzan, along with the idea
radiant thinking, which was first used to treat the handicapped and people who had
trouble with reading. It is a visual tool for the language learning. And it became
known across the country by improving the memory capability of British Prince
Charles.
The concept of mind-mapping is based on the cognitive psychological ideas that
the limited capacity for short-term memory is 7 minus or plus 2 chunks. The thinking
process in human brain is filled with images and association. With the help of
mind-mapping, it combines the left hemisphere responsible for logic, order and right
hemisphere in charge of images, color, dimension and so on, which makes the brain
works in a multiple dimensions like the radiant radar. Learning words separately leads
to the limited memory capacity. Word lists for freshmen usually do not have any
connection, thus, we use mind-mapping to connect words according to their characters,
and form an invisible network. Actually, it still works out in the other fields.
3.2 The Present Study
3.2.1 Research Questions
Question one Can mind-mapping help students with enlarging vocabulary?
Question two
Is mind-mapping an effective way of long-term memory
storage?
With the help of mind-mapping, students do enhance their memory ability in
the process of vocabulary acquisition, which makes sure that the learners can have the
tendency and consciousness of connecting between the old information and new ones
when absorbing new content.
3.2.2 Subjects
Considering the veracity of this experiment, freshmen majored in English,
which were from Class Ten in Shenyang Normal University had been selected as
subjects. and making sure that those students had the same level, the author checked
their English levels with the help of their class advisor, founding that each of them
passed the entrance examination with the average score 110, besides, the average age
were 18.9.
According to the descriptions of the class advisor, students in Class 10 were
very energetic and had the strong will of receiving new things, thus, it was a dominant
factor for doing this experiment in a smooth way. At this period, they had already
formed certain learning habits and possessed suitable self-thought methods, therefore,
mastering some other strategies of vocabulary acquisition became ahead of time. And
that was one of my reasons for choosing freshmen as my experimental objects. Before
they came to the university, they’ve accumulated a number of vocabulary, for that
reason, we draw the conclusion that previous accumulation was the basis of later
knowledge.
During the experiment, they received mails in the public mail box in the very
beginning of the semester, telling them how to learn words effectively, and many
memory strategies introduced by famous scholars, meanwhile, they were asked to
complete a pre-test questionnaire. And they were found eager to learn and energetic in
class. After a period of time, they got used to the method, in particular, mind-mapping
after the explanation during the extra hour, they were encouraged to draw maps on
their own, and it lasted for a few months. Throughout the semester, the author
collected the information about their improvement and confusion by asking them to
write reflection journals, so that the distinctions and connections between learners
could be found.
3.2.3 Methodology
3.2.3.1 Questionnaire
The pre-test questionnaire includes four parts: (1) motivation; (2) class
interaction; (3) learning strategy; (4) truth-telling. During the investigation, the writer
adopted an anonymous method to make sure the data more precise and real.
Part one The aim of this part is to collect students’ information about their
learning attitudes.
Part two The purpose of this part is to find the other factors that will affect
students’ learning, for instance, learning environment, personalities, teachers’ positive
encouragement, etc..
Part three The aim of this part is to investigate whether the students know
how to use certain strategies for vocabulary acquisition and knowledge acquisition.
Part four
The purpose of this part is to build an open and harmonious
environment for every students, so that they would tell their true feelings and
suggestions.
After the investigation, the author collected the information, founding that most
of them had positive tendency: they were intent to learn new things, they had clear
goal of study, and they proned to cooperate with the teachers. All these factors above
provide an ideal preposition of the experiment.
3.2.3.2 Reflection Journal
The post-test reflection journal includes feedback from the students who had
used mind-mapping, and other learning strategies given before.
After the application of mind-mapping, the collected information showed that
they at first did not know too much of mnemonics, as they sticked to the traditional
methods, but after the intervene of certain teaching methods, such as mind-mapping,
and related knowledge of working procedure in the brain. Only if the teacher and
students know the rules can they work effectively.
3.2.4 Experimental Procedure
This was a longitudinal experiment which last a whole semester of four months,
The materials were collected from the VOA news and text book. The teacher
conducted the lessons in class, and after class the students were required to review
what they’d learnt as usual, and they had assignment of drawing the mind-mapping
based on the materials (learning strategies, memory tricks, prefixes, compounding
words, etc.) given in the public mailbox after class.
3.2.4.1
Preparation
Before the experiment, the author regularly sent e-mails on mind-mapping and
other learning strategies to the public mailbox day by day, meanwhile, certain details
were explained to them before class. Students were required to draw their own
mind-mapping through their understanding, using the words they had learnt on class.
After checking all their assignments one by one, consequently, they got used to this
new method of memorzing.
3.2.4.2
Presentation.
They were required to draw a map using words they learned before, and list
them on the paper as many as possible, by different structures, colors, lines. But there
would be a central word which connected every of them, and finally, form a new
network made by words.
3.3 Implication for Vocabulary Acquisition
The key period of forming language is about from the birth to ten years old. The
neuron cannot make any connections if they grows to ten years old. The brain gets rid
of those useless synapses, which does not mean it won’t process any learning
activities, but keeps on learning and storing the information in the same speed.
Getting rid of the synapses is the way for brain to cut off those useless connections, in
that way, the brain will focus on more important connections or on some that have
already produced ones.
The essence of mind-mapping is to build connections in the form of words
presented on the paper, in fact, it builds neural connections with synapses in the brain.
And after a period of time, the students use their cognition to make connections
among words, which can be seen as the procedure of levels of processing. The
pictures on the paper serve as tools for remembering, and those repeated the words
afterwards make more connections in the schemata that stored in the long-term
memory.
Upon this point, learners are likely to think about the working memory
proposed by the British psychologist Alan Baddeley in 1974. It plays a critical part of
many important cognitive activities such as problem solving, reasoning, and
comprehension. As well, Baddeley (1990) assumed that working memory plays some
role in storing information in long-term memory.
Those separate stored memories attests to the theory that people acquire
knowledge by the multiple memory systems for more effective learning.
Chapter 4
The Application of Mind-mapping and Discussion
4.1 The Application of Mind-mapping
As mind-mapping has many forms, and every form has its different advantages
and disadvantages. Here are some typical pictures collected from the students, and
they will be illustrated on by one. The examples are as follows:
4.1.1 Graphic Mind-mapping
The first, comparatively simple one, is graphic mind-mapping. This sort of
mind-mapping is formed by a central picture or a word, and refined with more words,
which presents a vivid image.
PICTURE 4.1
Graphic Mind-mapping
The student lists the organs from head to toes, thus, they can directly see them
in pictures. Combing the theories that people are more likely to remember information
with concrete images, furthermore, learners are even more likely to remember things
that are related to their daily lives, it is indeed a good way for language learning.
PICTURE 4.2 Graphic Mind-mapping
This pictures presents a visual image of earth. And it is easier to arouse students’
attention and provides an ideal learning expectation.
4.1.2 Grade Mind-mapping
Grade mind-mapping, a particular form, owns its character as there exists strict
ranking which lists words order from top levels to lower levels, and each of them can
not be changed randomly.
The advantage for this sort of map makes the viewers straightly know the
logical connections among words. The more learners distinct them, the easier they
will remember them in the network in brain. Combining the theories of levels of
processing that people are more likely to remember things that are deep-processed in
their mind. Therefore, student make distinctions between words to get better
memory.
PICTUER 4.3 Grade Mind-mapping
In picture 4.3, the central word is “love”, the closer circle is “father”, “mother”,
“children”, “brother”, etc.. The second branch includes “strong”, “beautiful”, “old”,
“handsome”, etc.. The student illustrates every components with certain adjectives in
a natural way.
4.1.3 Chain Mind-mapping
Usually, the characters of chain mind-mapping are: words are spreaded one by
one according to time and combination. In English, combined words are connected by
two words, some has relations, some do not.
PICTURE 4.4 Chain Mind-mapping
In picture 4.4, “sunglass” consists two words, that are, “sun” and “glass”, the
meaning for it is an object that prevent sunshine, usually worn on people’s face.
4.1.4
Free Association Mind-mapping
This sort of mind-mapping has no specific rules, and there is no similar
structure and no categories among them. Though it has no regularities, the students
make their own knowledge structure from multiple perspectives by creative thoughts.
PICTURE 4.5 Free Association Mind-mapping
The picture 4.5 above was created by a student, she made this mind-mapping
with no central word, but every word sticks to each other as her mind flashing those
objects. All these words and images helps her remembering the related information
once came across.
PICTURE 4.6
Free Association Mind-mapping
Picture 4.6 centered by the word “attorney”, the student associated with other
terms like “gown”, “solicitor”, “barrister”, “court”, etc.. Therefore, she had more
chances of acquiring knowledge.
4.2 Discussion
4.2.1 The Relation Between Mind-mapping and Memory
PICTURE 4.7 The Teaching Scene
Thank you so much to Professor Z, this picture was taken on her class, and
these lovely students were also the precious treasures during the study. Here are more
details about the mind-mapping both at home and abroad.
At abroad, mind-mapping, as a radiant thinking method takes a prevailing role
in the experimental subjects of the educational revolution. In England, Singapore,
mind-mapping has already been the compulsory course, and it appeared in many
modal teaching plans in some developed countries such as North Korea, Japan,
Germany, America. Recently, mind-mapping was successfully applied into the middle
schools and primary schools, the instruction for mind-mapping for kids were very
popular among young parents. Proudly, professors in Harvard University, Cambridge
and many excellent universities all over the world had been adapting to this new way
of thinking.
In the mainland, along with the stream of study revolution, mind-mapping was
firstly introduced into China in 1970s. From then on, scholar paid much attention to
the research and application of this new method. In 2005, Buzan visited China and
being a guest in FLTRP (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press), he started
the training, which was first introduced to the Chinese language learners.
4.2.2 Other Factors Impact on Memory
4.2.2.1 Gene
How do different genes affect different aspects of memory? One explanation
was proposed the study of knockout mice, it derived from the particular gene that has
been knockout.
Later on, subsequent researches on knockout mice discoved that certain genes
do influence memories, but they just effect on specific types of memories. Another
way to test the effects of genes on memory is to observe which proteins are produced
during a task. Specific genes release specific proteins, in that case, the researchers can
infer which genes were active by tracking their signature proteins. Cavallaro and
colleagues (2001) discovered that rabbits blink their eyes when they heard a tone. The
subtle findin was that the number of proteins descends for many genes during the
conditioning, leaving few selected ones activated.
4.2.2.2 Emotion
When people are stressed or in the negative mood, the brain sends signals to
your body, preparing for the response called fight-or-flight. After receiving the signals,
the body produces a chemical matter called cortisol, which converts protein and fats
into sugar, making sure the body is ready for fast movements. However, if a large
number of cortisol stays in the body in a long period, it will be harmful for health.
Spaolsky and his colleagues have shown that in rats and monkeys long-term exposure
to cortisol actually kills neurons in the hippocampus, and with the decreasing number
of hippocampal neurons, it finally has negative effects on memories.
Whereas social circumstances cause stress or negative emotions that trigger
events in the brain that disrupt memories, or lead to unconfident about one’s lives and
obstacles in communications. Fortunately, the effects of stress on the hippocampus
may be changed if the environment changes.
People cannot focus full attention on things they are doing or, even if they are
doing it, the results cannot be desirable in the condition of terrible mood or depressed
and upset. If they are praised by someone else, they cannot feel better the whole day
and everything goes smoothly; on the contrary, if they are criticized by the boss, they
are likely to make mistakes again and again, like they are haunted by the unknown
spirits when feeling really depressed. Another example, clinical observations of
depressed patients reveal that they frequently show memory deficits, and showing
great stress trauma, and consequently cause temporary or even prolonged amnesia.
Therefore, all these proofs in daily lives or in the clinical reports indicate that certain
moods do affect cognitive processes.
Ellis (2000) testifies that if individuals are in a negative mood, they are more
likely to make false recognitions. Here false recognition refers to “recognizing” some
items or events that you did not actually experienced. In his research, he listed a series
of words to the college students who were in a sad mood or were in a normal mood. In
the test, the students were again shown with those words, and more words that they
actually did not seen before were shown as well, finally, they were asked whether they
had seen them all. The group who were in a sad mood showed greater tendency to
recognize those unknown words.
The conclusion can be drawn from the test that if people are in a strong mood or
in an emotional state, they are more likely to make false recognitions, and the
decisions they’ve made are proved to be irrational.
To sum it up, emotional states play an important role in memory and cognition.
This research area was booming after the year 1975. There is strong evidence for
mood-congruent effects in memory, and it attested to the idea that memory reaches its
best effect who someone is in a comparatively stable and positive mood. On the
contrary, the evidence for mood-state-dependent memory is much more limited and
the results are not pleasant. In the former experiments, depressed subjects make more
accurate judgments of contingency but show greater tendency in false recognitions.
4.2.2.3
Forgetting
It is a quite normal phenomenon. Hundreds of years people keep wondering
why would they forget something as time goes by. When they receive the new
information in a natural way, the neurons in the brain can not make the connection
with the old neuron which can be called the former related information. Eventually ,
the new information cannot be stored in the long-term memory without the deep
processing, leaving it to the inactivated situation, as time goes by, then it fades away.
Therefore, it is very necessary for the learners to think about the information actively
before it is abandoned, making sure that it will be stored in the long-term memory.
Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve indicates that information becomes harder to
recall over time after time, but that most forgetting occurs relatively soon after
learning.
An encoding failure causes huge losses of information shortly after learning,
which may be one reason for the sharp descending at the beginning of the forgetting
curve. Even though the information is encoded, it will be lost to some extent later.
Some memory researchers argued the fate of information that was once stored but
then could be forgotten. One camp claimed that once the information firstly was
stored then faded forever. The memory decays just as the invisible ink, they disappear
forever until nothing is left. While one camp held the ideas that memories themselves
are intact but cannot be found. The ink hasn’t faded, but the message has been
misfiled. In fact, both camps had put their finger on the important aspects of
forgetting.
The invisible ink theory proposes that memories decay, that is to say, they
degrade with time. The relevant connections between neurons are lost. The evidence
that supports this theory is the sea slug named Aplysia, which has a relatively simple
nervous system, it has been possible to document that the strength of the connections
between neurons established by learning fades away over time. This argument was
proposed by Baily and Chen in 1989. If human neurons are similar, as seems likely,
memories may in fact decay over time. Actually, researchers have provided the
evidence that not only certain genes promote stronger connections among neurons,
but also that other genes prevent such are given rise to fire, they would cause the
decay that store memories.
Evidence refuting the decay theory seemed to come from the dramatic
foundlings proposed by Penfield in 1955. Before performing brain surgery,
neurosurgeons such as Penfield sometimes put small electrodes on the exposed cortex
of awake patients and stimulated the neurons electrically. A few patients reported
vivid images and memories of long-forgotten events. For example, on having a
particular area of the brain stimulated, one patient said, “Yes, sir, I think I heard a
mother calling her little boy somewhere. It seemed something that happened years
ago.” At least some of these reports may not have been memories but images created
on the spot. There is no strong evidence that all the memories stored forever, but in
fact, oft-cited occurred only for only a minority of patients, and latter work failed to
reveal compelling evidence that memories are stored forever.
The view that a mix-up in memory often explains forgetting has long been
supported by strong direct evidence. For example, if a student is in a new classroom,
if is likely for him to associated the new names with his former classmate, and
probably he call them the wrong name. Interference is the disruption of the ability to
remember one piece of information by the presence of the other information. There
are two types of interference: retroactive and proactive.
Retroactive interference is interference that disrupts memory for something
learned earlier. Like learning the new names of the new classmates can interfere with
the memory of the names of the previous ones. Proactive interference is interference
by something already learned that makes it difficult to learn something new. Having
learned the names of previous ones may interfere with learning the names on the new
class, particularly if some of the new names are similar to the old ones.
Why does interference occur? The capacity of long-term is not the problem.
People are not overloading a memory-for-people box in the brain; some politicians
can remember hundreds of thousands of people’s names with no or less difficulties.
Interference probably occurs because the retrieval cues for various memories are
similar, and thus a given cue may call up the wrong memory. The more similar and
known before head information you own, the more interference may occur.
The fact that memory is not a single capacity but including many separate units
for storage, this point of view becomes cristal clear when we look closely at how
different kinds of information are stored in the long-term memory. However, how do
different modalities of memories stored separately keep mysterious for decades till
researchers in the neural science found that damage to particular parts of the brain can
disrupt each of these types of long-term memory, as learners get to realize the inputs
including visual and auditory memories are separately functioned by the organs in the
brain, while leaving the others interact, and this attests to the theory that the
information is stored separately. Furthermore, neuroimaging studies have found that
when people recall visual versus auditory information from long-term memory and
store it temporarily in short-term memory before deep levels of processing, different
perceptual areas of the brain are activated according to fMRI. The fact that different
areas in the brain are used for the different memories is one form of evidence proves
that memories are stored when taking a cognitive task. Neuroimaging studies have
provided evidence that semantic and episodic memories function differently based on
their distinct perceptual procedures. The frontal lobe, for instance, plays an essential
role in seeking for stored information of cognitive tasks, the reports showed that the
left frontal lobe tends to be activated when we recall semantic memories.
In this chapter, we discussed there are many factors like gene and emotion
affect the memory procedure, and those are key points be taken into consideration.
Chapter 5
Conclusion
5.1 Major findings
5.1.1 Implications for Language Learning
In the cognitive learning, the previous studies discussed the working procedure
of the brain, knowing that information was firstly processed by the sensory input
registered in the brain, then examined by working memory, schemata stored in the
previous brain system try to match the new comer and put them in order, but with the
interference of Amygdala, which is responsible for the emotion control, the
information could be stocked on the way to the hippocampus, the area for memory
storage, that process is called the emotional memories. However, if it is possible to get
access to the hippocampus, the first step that shift from short-term to long-term
memory could be the retention. People retrieve the old information by seeing the
object they once came across, this procedure is called the episodic memories; then
what they did in the past remind them of doing it again, this process of reminding is
called the procedural memories; if the situation works out when people viewing some
pictures or the images they familiar with, the semantic memories make it. Meanwhile,
the deep processing of the information is one of the reason for shifting from
short-term memory to long-term memory, the more learners process something in
detail, the more chances of remembering something. Mnemonic strategies mentioned
in the previous chapter list many methods to improve memory, such as the method of
loci, the key for memeorizing something is that we connect the images ( it is reported
that it can be stored in the brain more than eight hours) with their daily surroundings.
Of course, keeping a good and stable emotion can be quite necessary.
After learning the principles and procedure of the brain, it is clearly known for
leaners how to act in daily lives, they know when to stop and get access to the most
effective result.
Consider a young child learning the alphabet. A B C and X Y Z are not a
problem for the child, but it will be harder for them to remember the middle letters.
Many children in the initial stages of alphabet learning even treat L M N O P Q as a
single letter. Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) testified this explanation of the serial position
curve with an experiment, and proposed that the primacy and recency effects can be
manipulated independently. Thus, those critical factors are taken as strong evidence
for the existence of separate memory stores.
Incoming information may be in the visual sensory register for up to 250
milliseconds after presentation, but converts to short-term memory on the condition of
attention. Information may remain in short-term memory for up to 30 seconds, but
with the involvement of rehearsal, which consequently moves the information to
long-term memory. As the retrieval occurs, the work speeds up. Thus, memory is
determined not only by the length of time after presentation of the material, but also
by the type of processing preformed on the material.
5.1.2 Implications for English Teaching
Good teachers are soul builders, they both teach students how to acquire
knowledge but pure their souls. They know how and when to encourage students, for
they observe each students’ desire and feelings.
As a language teacher, all these factors followed should be taken into
consideration when teaching.
Key One
From the macroscopic view, teachers, first of all, should know each
students’ characters, because each one of them has different family circumstance
which makes them behave in different manners. And the gene factors could influence
their memory as well as emotion. Teachers can not grade them according to their
scores actually. Known their characters, more attention should be paid to their feelings,
for instance, if a student does not focus on the learning, teachers probably should
think something happened to him or her, instead of blaming him or her bluntly. After
class, teachers can have a honest conversation and figure out the reasons. Later on,
both earn a win-win result. On the contrary, if a teacher blame him once, the student
will be discouraged by words and never be confident, or he lose the interest in this
subject. From the neuroscientific view, it works well in the brain because of the
release of dopamine if someone is happy. Researches also indicated that people in a
good mood would bring positive effect on the storage of memory.
Key Two
Focusing on the vocabulary acquisition, there are many strategies
introduced in the former chapters, in which chapter 2 presents the methods for better
memorization, such as affixes, suffixes, key word memory and so on. Mnemonic
strategies such like method of loci, peg word method. The most compelling teaching
method is the multiple memory systems, which include the semantic memories,
students remember words by using images, and mind-mapping considered to be
comparatively useful measure; on the episodic memories, students are easily
remember the words where they are learned in the same place during the exams; the
procedural memories, which is the best illustration was once on the foreign teacher
Ms Ruskin, a woman who had been teaching us on reading, speaking, listening,
writing strategies, she asked a group of students to bring some objects, and did actions
to make every word a sentence, like “turn on the water”, then “wash the hand”, and
then “take the soap”, etc., till now it is still remembered clearly, and the strategy she
used was the best illustration of the procedural memories.
Key Three Still talking about Ms Ruskin. She was a really smart woman to
arouse interest of the students during the class. She brought surprises in the majority
of the class, things like rhythm songs “Ana Banana”, tasting some mysterious food
leaves, circling together and telling stories, and students did have fun and gained on
her class. Besides, teaching methods like role play, continuing sentences in a logical
order are ideal and practical techniques as well. And, what’s more, music plays a
crucial role humans lives, smooth music particularly baroque style helps learners feel
at ease according to the research.
Key four Asking for the feelings of the students on certain topics, in this way,
teachers get the feedback immediately. And encourage students to decorate the
classroom for particular activities, as it is a ideal way to strengthen the procedural
memories and the emotional memories. Meanwhile, provides them with alternatives
in the learning process.
Key five Keep the students’ curiosity. Most children focusing time is their age
plus 2 minutes. The adult is 15 to 20 minutes. First, the new stuffs and emotional
stimuli arouse the attention; second, research showed that the available neural
transmitters are activate more easily in the morning than in the afternoon; third, if
student are mindless, teachers can stimulate him by saying “watch carefully”, then
certain structure in his brain will disrupt the other stimuli that was working, in this
way, he will again pay attention to the class.
Water and more food with protein like eggs, fish are helpful, but avoid to eat
more food with carbohydrate like snacks. The protein makes people awake. Besides,
80% of brain is made up of water, which consolidates the connections between
neurons. However, sugar makes people sleepy.
These tips are important factors for an excellent teacher.
5.2 Limitations
Frankly speaking, this thesis is based on the limited materials because the
researches on memory and vocabulary acquisition are quite rare, and some ideas or
data cannot be tested precisely, just like the scientific experiments in math or biology.
Mistakes and imprecise data are inevitable. Take mind-mapping as an example,
though previous collected materials showed that it was an effective method for
vocabulary acquisition, the subjects were limited, besides, this sort of method did not
introduced to other classes. Thus, it is a question should be taken into consideration.
And, the instruments were limited, few of them like questionnaires, interviews
were used to evaluate the efficiency for the application of the mind-mapping. The
variety of mind-mapping drawn by every student made it harder to justify which one
was better, and that was the point the author was seeking for. The experimental results
were unilateral because the limitation of time, the materials were just collected from
one semester, but it would be doubtful whether the latter result would remain the same.
Hopefully, the evaluation for mind-mapping turned out to be more scientific.
Technically, it is necessary for students but for teachers to know related theories
of cognitive neuronscience. In western countries, they are considered to be the basic
teaching techniques for every teacher, like the teaching psychology in our country.
Students majored in English teaching, should leave something valuable for the further
study in this field, of course, if someone thinks it is.
During the study on this field, there has always been a voice calling that
perseverance can achieve everything. When someone said that it was a tough nut to
crack, the only driving force was that the author knew what she wanted, and what she
was sticking to. And it was because all those barriers sometimes frightened someone
else but not her, could she go so far from the very beginning, and each step was the
proof of grown-up.
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