Helping learners to remember words and phrases

After having established the meanings of new words or phrases, teachers can take diverse steps to make them more memorable for language learners. In this workshop we will explore various steps, especially ones that raise learners’ awareness of non-arbitrary properties—the whys and wherefores—of vocabulary. Such non-arbitrary properties include polysemy (and associated mechanisms like metaphor), language-culture connections, catchy phonological patterns, and sound symbolism. We will also review some of the research supporting these proposed ways of making words and phrases memorable.