Does teaching mnemonics for vocabulary learning make a difference? Putting the keyword method and the word part technique to the test

Abstract

The present research tested the effectiveness of the word part technique in comparison with the keyword method and self-strategy learning. One hundred and twenty-one Chinese year-one university students were randomly assigned to one of the three learning conditions: word part, keyword or self-strategy learning condition. Half of the target words were high imageability words and the other half low imageability words. Learning was assessed immediately after the learning phase and after a 9-day delay using three different test formats: word-form recognition, meaning recognition and translation. Results showed that the keyword method was inferior to the word part technique and self-strategy learning on the translation test format. No significant difference was observed on the form recognition test between any two of the three learning conditions.