Revisiting the Practice of Keyword-Semantic Mnemonics in L2 Chinese Vocabulary Instruction from the Cognitive Perspective

以認知觀點重新檢視字彙聯想法在第二語華語字彙教學之施作

劉宇挺(Yeu-Ting LIU)

《華語文教學研究》 15卷4期 (2018/12) Pp. 1-34

摘要

This paper reviews and discusses relevant cognitive research with the hope that L2 Chinese teachers will learn more about the bilingual mental lexicon and to further reflect on their current vocabulary teaching practice. Considered in light of how the bilingual mental lexicon evolves, the practice of Keyword-Semantic Mnemonics (KSM)- a technique frequently used in L2 foreign vocabulary teaching-is reviewed and discussed in hope of providing pedagogical guidelines for the implementation of KSM, such as the advisable language (L1 vs. L2) used in mnemonics and the prescribed type of mnemonics (teacher-initiated vs. student-initiated). Furthermore, considering that activation and inhibition (control) mechanisms are both key to an efficient bilingual mental lexicon, this paper draws on relevant lexical processing research and recommends that KSM should be implemented in contextually-constrained contexts. Based on the discussion of relevant cognitive literature, ways to implement KSM for L2 (Chinese) vocabulary instruction are provided.

關鍵字

keyword-semantic mnemonics ； bilingual mental lexicon ； second language vocabulary teaching

並列摘要

本報告探討「字彙聯想記憶法」(Keyword-Semantic Mnemonics)應用在華語文字彙教學之議題。為此，本報告參酌相關認知與心理字彙表徵(mental lexicon)研究，協助教師更熟悉學生心理認知之運作，並據此去精進他們在實施字彙聯想教學時的技巧。字彙聯想法在第二語及外語教室中常被語言教師廣泛地運用，其目的在幫助學生利用待學字彙的相關形、音、意資訊來加深他們對這些目標語中未習得字彙的印象。參酌相關認知與第二語言習得文獻，本報告希望提供教師在運用此教學法時的具體施行方針。例如，在針對待學字彙聯想時，教師到底要提供哪一個語系的資訊（母語、目標語、或是混用）來幫助學生聯想？在做聯想時到底是要由「教師主導」(teacher-initiated)還是由「教師誘導，學生提供」(student-initiated)？本報告參酌相關文獻探討以上議題，建議華語教師在使用「字彙聯想記憶法」時，僅以目標語（華語）語料當成聯想內容，並避免教師主導方式來進行，並把聯想情境限制在有豐富前後文的語境中，來增進此教學法的最大效益。

並列關鍵字

字彙聯想法 ； 雙語字彙心裡表徵 ； 第二語字彙教學

參考文獻

van Hell, Janet G., and Andrea Candia Mahn. 1997. Keyword mnemonics versus rote rehearsal: Learning concrete and abstract foreign words by experienced and inexperienced learners. Language Learning 47.3: 507-546

van Hell, Janet G., and Annette M.B. de Groot. 2008. Sentence context modulates visual word recognition and translation in bilinguals. Acta Psychologica 128: 431-451

Wang, Alvin, and Margaret Thomas. 1995. Effect of keywords on long-long retention: Help or hindrance? Journal of Educational Psychology 87.3: 468-475

Ye, Yun, and Cynthia M. Connine. 1999. Processing spoken Chinese: The role of tone information. Language and Cognitive Processes 14.5/6: 609-630

Altarriba, Jeanette. 1992. The representation of translation equivalents in bilingual memory. Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals, ed. by Richard J. Harris, 157-174. Amsterdam: Elsevier.