Do you forget to remember?

What are you learning, or teaching, this week? Whatever it is, there’s a good chance that a large part of the process involves simply trying to memorise something. So, whether it was words and expressions in a language you’re learning, or terminology for plants, machines or rocks, or writing exams, how can you make what you’re trying to learn memorable? 

Let’s start with a version of Kim’s game. Have a look at the words below for 30 seconds, and then turn away from your computer and write down as many of the words as you can remember, without looking.

potato         pancakes         door         camping        isiXhosa          biltong         kedi; breakfast; bacon; right hand; proscrastinate

So, now, have a look at your list. Which did you write down first? Which did you forget completely? What was it that made some of them more memorable than others for you? Did you use any techniques to help you remember them?

In his book Memory Activities for Language Learning , Nick Bilbrough discusses a number of techniques that we can use to make words feel at home in the brain – to commit them to your long-term memory. These principles apply to anything you’re trying to remember, and this list is based loosely on his ideas.

UNDERSTANDING

Committing something to memory is really a question of making enough connections in your brain so that you can find the way there again when you want to retrieve the memory. It therefore goes without saying that the first step is to make sure you understand whatever it is you’re learning. It’s much easier – and more useful – to learn ‘kedi’ if you know that it means ‘cat’ in Turkish.

REPETITION

Did you repeat the words in Kim’s game a few times to yourself? We know about the value of repetition subconsciously, and from when we are babies we repeat the same action or sound or word again and again to help us remember. As we get older we need more variety to keep us interested, and so we need to build change and challenge into the repetition. Kids naturally have a better memory, but repetition is also necessary, e.g. learning Times Tables can be done by using flash cards with the answers on the back. These can be practised in the car or while waiting for other siblings to finish activities. Another very effective way of using repetition to memorise is for your child to summarise or explain a concept they have just learned to you.

PERSONALISATION

Words and concepts are far more memorable to us if we can relate them to ourselves in some way and, ideally, talk about it all with someone. Maybe the words you remembered in Kim’s game were important to you personally in some way and that helped you to remember? You can help your child by explaining a difficult concept using something that is familiar or connected to his or her interests. If your daughter wants to paint a wall in her room, measure and calculate the area of the wall and calculate what the paint would cost.

EMOTIONS

Part of what makes personalisation so powerful is that it links what you’re learning to your emotions. If you can make these affective links stronger, then it will make what you’re learning more memorable. Working with a partner or group can make what you’re learning more memorable, and this is partly because you’ll be creating emotive links, with perhaps some humour. Linked to this is the fact that we learn best when we are relaxed and happy, not anxious. So as a teacher it’s important to create an anxiety-free environment so that learning can take place. Your child may also benefit from making a 'study group' with one or two friends.

PHYSICALITY

This is about making what you’re learning physical, and linking it to your senses. If you’re learning the names of plants, it will really help if you can take an actual plant apart and see, feel, smell the different parts. Involving your hands and senses in the process will make connections in your brain that will help forge a long term memory. If you want to remember that “svetuka” (sheTUka) means “jump” in Shona, then jump up high as you say it. This is why visiting the aquarium and seeing and holding a real starfish is much more memorable for a child than looking at a picture of a starfish on the computer, or just being told about starfish. And it’s why it’s so much easier to learn Maths using concrete materials, e.g. learning the properties of 3-D or solid shapes by using actual cubes, pyramids and prisms are far better than learning from paper.

CONTEXT AND ASSOCIATION

Our brain is more like a spider’s web than like a rows of postboxes – we don’t remember things in isolation, but in relation to all those things we already know. So if you’re learning a new word, it helps enormously to see it in context (reading is a great way to improve your vocabulary in any language for this reason), because this helps you to understand, and because it will forge more connections in your brain. This, of course, is why linking what you learn to your emotions, to yourself, and to your senses (discussed above), is so powerful.

MAKE DECISIONS

Making decisions about what you’re learning engages a different part of your brain, too, and will help to forge connections in your long-term memory. Make a connection to the facts that you have to memorise, whether it is a rhyme or an image to ensure that it engages your long-term memory.

MOTIVATION

This an essential ingredient for remembering. If you can choose what to learn, choose what’s actually useful for you, and what you will use. If you can’t choose, find a way to make it useful. Because if it’s not useful, and you don’t use it, it’s going to be that much harder for it to find a place in your long-term memory.

And of course, the best thing you can do to improve your memory is to simply exercise it as much as you can. Unfortunately, when studying for a test or an exam there will be information that you have no connection with and which frankly, does not interest you. The best solution for this is time in front of your books!