The Effectiveness of Mnemonic Devices for ESL Vocabulary Retention

Abstract

The overall purpose of this study is to explore and understand how students acquire and apply new information (in particular, vocabulary) and how we as instructors can aid in this process. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as a whole tends to prioritize implicit learning but it is my belief that certain content can be understood more profoundly when presented in an explicit manner. This research seeks to determine the role of various mnemonic devices in the learning process and how effective they are for helping university students retain information in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Results collected from this experiment conclude that mnemonic devices can indeed improve a student’s vocabulary retention and that Chinese EFL students prefer mnemonic techniques which bridge the linguistic gap between their native language and target language. In application, EFL instructors can utilize the findings of this research to raise a student’s awareness of language learning techniques via explicit instruction and increase the volume of their vocabulary retention.