Keyword Mnemonic Essay

Brown and Perry (1991) identified three main types of mnemonic strategies: (1) keyword, (2) semantic, and (3) keyword-semantic. According to Ellis (1997), the core of a keyword method is to create a form and semantic connection between the target word and its translation. A semantic strategy attempts to evoke an association between the target word and the learners’ existing semantic systems. A keyword-semantic strategy involves a combination of the aforementioned strategies.

Research has shown that keyword mnemonics are an effective device in accelerating learning speed and in boosting immediate recall of second-language vocabulary. However, other research (van Hall & Candia Mahn, 1997) indicates that a greater degree of forgetting is associated with the keyword mnemonic strategy relative to a non-mnemonic strategy (e.g., rote learning). Thus, a discussion of the feasibility of keyword mnemonics in learning foreign language vocabulary must consider the various factors affecting the efficacy of the keyword mnemonic strategy in relation to a non-mnemonic learning strategy.

(2010) found that most students with learning disabilities involved in the keyword condition reported that they believed the keyword strategy was helpful and rated it to be more helpful than did the non-keyword group members, and they found that students not only find the keyword method helpful in learning, but also easier to use than other methods and report that they would use the strategy again. While the most obvious curriculum use for the keyword method is in vocabulary acquisition of both first language vocabulary and second language vocabulary, there are other adaptations to the keyword method, especially in teaching and learning science and social studies concepts and terminology as well as prose learning tasks (Mastropieri, Scruggs, & Levin,