Int.J.Eng.Lang.Lit&Trans.

Studies
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL (ISSN:2349-9451/2395-2628)
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Vol. 4.LITERATURE
Issue.3, 2017 (July-Sept)
AND TRANSLATION STUDIES (IJELR)
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Vol. 4. Issue.3., 2017 (July-Sept.)

EFFECTIVE MNEMONIC INSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TO THE RURAL PUPIL

Dr. R.C. REDDY K

Communicational English & Soft Skills Trainer, Psychotherapist,
Associate Member of APCPA. Faculty in School Education Dept. AP

ABSTRACT
English language is packed with inconsistencies to have a firm grasp for every word.
It comprises full of abstract, hard-to-remember concepts like verb conjugation
patterns, sounds and spellings, vocabulary, etc. The rural pupil baffle to speak
English and they derive little comfort in exerting it weirdly- spelled words. This
Dr. R.C. REDDY K
paper provides a critical outlook in the exertion of Mnemonic strategies in English
communication, learning of verbs, vocabulary, sound, etc. It also focuses on the
Mnemonic approach in remembering and recalling using English in communication.
Most of the rural pupil commit mistakes in memorizing English words, vocabulary,
sounds, etc., with the semantic learning but introduces the significance of mnemonic
strategies to go about deepening the retrieval command of English learning. Albeit
mnemonic strategies have been used for centuries back, the study and use of it has
just taken place during the last two or three decades. (Bellezza, Paivo & Desrochers,
Presseley, Levin & Delaney). The form of mental activity creating imageries
contributes the formation of relevant connections that improve retrievability.
Mnemonic strategy instruction has emerged one of the most powerful techniques in
promoting the acquisition of academic content (Mastropieri & Scruggs,1989 &
1990).
Key words: English Language, Mnemonic instruction, rural pupil, innovative
strategies.

INTRODUCTION
Everybody cognizes how today English has amassed the status as an International and a platform for
employment. English can be communicated accurately if one confiscates knowledge in Vocabulary,
Construction of Sentences (syntax) and pronunciation. Most of the students especially the rural have basic
English skills but are inadequate to cater the changing arena. Moreover, by emphasizing on their subject skills,
the knowledge of English has been downplayed and the fear of speaking has been increasing. In my study, the
problems of English Communication have been explored in shifting their mother tongue to English. An attempt
has been made lucidly through the mnemonic instruction to enhance the input of knowledge and to churn out
the required output.

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The Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development has called for altering the curriculum as per the
required abilities of the present scenario. The skills which I mention in this paper evinced an interest, influences
and shapes the present skills. The present ‘ terminology’ like syntax, semantics, morpheme, phonology and
different types of names like alveolar, bilabial, velar, etc., has become strenuous to learn. My paper motivates
the students to absorb the knowledge of English effectively and serves as an important input in the context of
teaching / learning English Communication. An attempt has also been made in this paper to explore the
essence of mnemonic instruction and projects of learning like conjugation of verbs, vocabulary, and
pronunciation.
The English Educationist Dr. Ogden says that one can’t exceed 200 professional words in his daily
communication. Even the Cambridge Dictionary has also given of approximate 400 irregular verbs for the daily
use. So, one grabs the verbs can speak better. My study underlines “Mnemonic Learning Method ‘ which
manages the available resources, coordinates in self-concept, mastery over it, gain confidence in interacting in
English. It is observed that most of the students feel hard-won in exerting the verbs accurately as they could
not pay heed because of confusion and confined to rote learning, fear of number of verbs in myriads,
terminology and the other academic constraints. It has become a challenge that demands both the teacher and
the students’ participation for the accomplishment of targeted language. So, it’s time indeed to weave the
Mnemonic system of learning into our curriculum.
MNEMONIC METHOD TO LEARN CONJUGATION OF VERBS
Mnemonic, a greek word ‘mnemon ‘or mindful is a memory tool, rhyme or mental image that helps
remembering something. According to Tony Buzan, an Educational Psychologist expresses that the more
sensory organs in which mental representation is stored, the more the students memorize through the
cognitive pegs. The Mnemonic system of verbs should become an integral part of education from the
conventional / traditional of teaching / learning to enhance the students’ comprehension.
METHODOLOGY AND PROJECTS
The methodology of teaching/learning process in English has significantly changed and innovative
modes have emerged to proliferate the proficiency of learning English in their communication.
Project Model (SOME PARENTS AND MORE CHILDREN)
It’s not exaggeration to express that irregular verbs are found more in number but their parental
group is very less. So, one verb brings out number of similar verbs to be conjugated lucidly and clearly. This
method focuses and highlights on the necessary skills for English Communication and compatible with the
teacher/learner centered in educational arena.
TRANSFORMATIONAL CLASS ROOM STRATEGIES
 Give well-structured description and explanations instead unfamiliar information for different verbs.
 Heed on conjugating and responding to queries.
 Speak and describe audibly and clearly in increasing commands of various verbs.
 Allow the opportunities in expressing the students’ hypothesizing and exploring ideas.
 Easy accessibility and monitor the interest of the students
 Consider and evaluate different viewpoints and contributions of students.
 Explicit attribution instruction with the mnemonic strategic instruction.
 Exceptional verbs beyond this group should be mentioned for clear understanding.
 Spur to be given to create own imagery for long retrieval of it.
 Instructors should consider that mnemonics are memory strategies not comprehensive one.
The widely known conjugation of verbs i.e., present, past and past participle is sterilized with
mnemonics, etymology and verb-link tricks to make the verbs memory-worthy to make the pupil busy to build
the verb-bridges as given here. The conjugation of the verb " sleep" may become 'slept' in past tense by just
deducting 'e' and inserting 't'.( Sleep-slept) The past participle form remains the same when verbs ends with
"ed or t.. If the student acquired one Verb, can accumulate many of similar sans tension or phobia. This
applies to verbs like keep, weep, sleep, feel, oversleep, sweep, leaf, creep etc.

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It’s a beneficiary to the students to learn a few and earned the most by simplifying the conjugation. The other
verbs that changes in in the past tense by adding ‘o’ and just inducts 'n' to the past participle. For instance
bear-bore-born. Similar verbs are swear, tear, wear, etc. The verbs which came from Middle English changes
its sense of past tense with ‘ound ’ and continue the same for the past participle with ‘ound’ only. They are
find, bind, grind, wind, etc. The verb like sell, tell, etc., are from Old English ‘sellan’ which again changes as
‘sell’ in Middle English requires ‘old’ to change into past tense and past participle. The verbs like bring, buy,
teach, catch, seek, think, etc., which were existed from German changes as ‘ought’ in past and past participle.
Eg.: teach-taught-taught. The conjugation of the verb in the past form is different but the past participle is the
same as origin of the present tense verb. The verbs are come, run, etc. Though the conjugation of the verbs
are complicated but the mnemonic mode succors to foster the verbs at ease. Contrary to this, some verbs
require ‘o’ to the past form and then needs to add ‘n’ to the present verb. Those are drive, ride, rise, write,
shake, take, etc. There are just fifteen modes of conjugating for more than 500 verbs.
VOCABULARY THROUGH MNEMONICS
Mnemonics has a key effect in achieving teaching/learning English vocabulary. The aim of this method
is to transform the knowledge of vocabulary from short time memory to long time memory. Mnemonic device
is a tool to enhance the instructional strategy that involves the students to link new information to the
information that the students had already known. Even Oxford (1990) identifies the strategies namely mental
linkage and applying images. Levin points out that the memory become stronger by incorporating any of our
other senses into the imagined scene while encountering a new word. Many students embarrass in learning
vocabulary but mnemonic method helps the pupil build faster in proficiency of vocabulary. It’s a vastly superior
to rote learning and exercising task work that usually tend to use in schools. German teacher Peter Heinrich
reports exhibited the positive and the best result for the pupil to learn vocabulary through mnemonics. He also
found that the retention rate of remembering is 47% among the students who do not use mnemonics whereas
82% retention rate of remembering is registered among the pupil who use mnemonics. So, mnemonic
strategies have had a particular success in the learning of vocabulary. The key reason why more students do
not use mnemonics in boosting up vocabulary is that the text books are not provided with associative-imagery
to encode the words. 90% of the students have made a mistake in explaining the difference of the words diary
and dairy, cast and caste, -fiancé and fiancée, etc. Using of mnemonics quickly pour itself into long term
memory by incorporating associative imageries. This concept supercharges the memory and accelerates the
learning. The one mnemonic strategy investigates extensively by the students to fish out the imageries with the
key word of a vocabulary. The visual mnemonics are as memorable as verbal mnemonics. For instance, the
pupil often confuse the words for advice and advise. The proper self visual imagery for the’ advice ‘ (noun) and
the advise(verb) helps them in depth of it. Mastropieri and Scruggs,1999) comments that by using mnemonic
strategies, pupil can relate themselves from stored information to the imagery ones . Thompson (1987)
similarly states that these strategies help the pupil learn faster and recall the integration of new material into
existing cognitive units and by providing retrieval cues. Mnemonic strategies are apt and effective for all ages.
They are however, more useful for low level students because mostly in activities requiring them to remember
and recall information (Levin 1993). Among the classification of Mnemonics for remembering and recalling
vocabulary are in various modes like peg word method, key word method, loci method, spatial, pictures, etc.
The students can organize materials under separate and each group and retrieve it easily to recall. If the words
bus, milk, bike, sofa, tv, black board, ground, train, chocolate, etc., are to be remembered, the students exert
as semantic organization in each group like eatables, vehicles, household articles, etc. According to Georger,
Mnemonic strategies are more effective to make the pupil themselves get motivated to create an interesting
classroom.
In my survey to the rural pupil, I compared the retrieved rate of vocabulary after imparting them 50
vocabulary words. The mnemonic method proved as highly effective and yielded 85% correct in recalling and
just 22% has been registered for all other control procedures of learning. So, the instruction should focus on
mnemonic strategies and also be asked to explore their different self-imagery mnemonic strategies for
effective learning.

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MNEMONICS FOR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION (SOUND) AND SPELLING.

Many students feel onerous to pronounce the clumsy English word that they come across every time.
English language which has been borrowed from multiple places keeps in pretty confusion to the students.
Many words frazzle the students’ brain and they often complain that the sound of the word is often completely
different from what they could guess it. But Mnemonics helps them some tricky in remembering the sound
and spelling of English word and fill a glimmer of hope among the minds of the pupil. Mnemonic assists the
students to store their sensory information much better than the abstract one. For instance, if the students
are often in chaos in sound or spelling for family. The mnemonic for it may be used as ‘ father and mother; I
love you (family). Even for pronunciation, we use mnemonic strategy as ‘ red car becomes /rekka/.,,whenever d
follows c or k , d should be deleted. Good morning becomes /gub ma:ning./. as d follows with m becomes b..
like good marks is to be pronounced a / gub ma:ks./. etc. As said above, mnemonics brought the effective
result in imparting English for communication in the form of vocabulary, sound and spelling.
CONCLUSION
Mnemonics obviously work well in associating the clues for the complex data. Levin concluded that
sufficient research evidence now exists to suggest that even skilled learners can become more skilled through
mnemonic strategy acquisition and implementation. Albeit, some critically opines it as illogical, this sensible
task makes the students retrieve for long time. Many investigations validated that the students in the
mnemonic condition recalled substantially more content than more traditionally taught students.
REFERENCES
1. Essentials of Human memory , Psychology press Ltd., by Baddley A.D. (1999)
2. A comparison of three learning strategies for ESL vocabulary acquisition. TESOL Quarterly. (2012)
3. Higbee K.L. (1979) Recent research on visual mnemonics.
4. Dr. Sushma and Dr.C. Geetha , (2011) Practicing Mnemonics in School subjects.
5. Borkowski, Journal of Educational Psychology. (1999)
6. Mastropieri M.A. & Scruggs T.E. Effective instruction for special education.
7. Pressley, M.Lenin J.R. Kuiper and Michener. Mnemonic versus non mnemonic method of vocabulary
learning (1981)
8. Yates FA The art of Memory (1961) London Routeledge and Paul Google Scholar
AUTHOR’S PROFILE
Dr. R.C. Reddy K is a CEO of RC Reddy English Academy and has been rendering service as an English Faculty in
Govt. School of Education, Communication skills & Soft Skills Trainer besides Educational Motivator. He imparts
Psychotherapy classes and also practices as Psychotherapist. He ordains M.A. M.Phil, and Ph.D., in English and
M.Phil in Psychology and Masters of Education (M.Ed). He cleared off NELTS exam from EFL University,
Hyderabad and possessed PG Diploma in English Communication Skills by GITAM University, Soft Skills (UK)
Guidance and Counselling, Healing and Computers. He bagged the records of Teaching English Grammar with
Super Mnemonics and also got the title as an ‘Expert’ from Grammarly.com. He penned more than 10 books for
English to speak and two books for Motivation to students. He has been as a Guest Trainer for many reputed
Colleges in Bangalore and A.P. He does workshops in Communication and Hypnotherapy specially designed for
gushing talented Students.

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