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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · GENERAL ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

MEMORY
TRICKS
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1 Warm up

Look at this list. Take two minutes to memorise as many items as you can and in the correct order.

• Washington
• Adams
• Jefferson
• Madison
• Monroe
• Quincy Adams
• Jackson
• Van Buren
• Harrison
• Tyler

When the two minutes is up, cover the above list and write down as many of them as you can from
memory. How many did you remember?

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Now discuss the following questions in pairs.

picture A

1. How easy or difficult was the task?

2. What method did you use to memorise this list? Is that what you usually do?
3. Do you know any special methods you can use to memorise?
4. Why do you think there is a picture of a banana in a hotdog (picture A)? How could this be
connected to the topic of memory?

2 Listening

Listen to the following lecture, which describes a memory technique called the ’Linking Method’.
After listening, discuss the following questions in pairs.

1. Were you able to recall the names more easily after hearing the story?
2. Do you think you could use this for other information you need to remember?

3 Vocabulary

Part A: Match the vocabulary with the correct definitions.

1. spaced (adj.) a. a series of letters where each letter stands for a word

2. peg (n) b. a piece of wood or metal which you can use to hang something
with or on
3. rereading (v) c. reinforce something and make it stronger

4. acronym (n) d. something arranged with space between

5. solidify (v) e. doing something again

6. interval (n) f. a period of time or space in between things

7. retrieval (n) g. an aid to help remember something

8. repetition (n) h. getting something back from some place

9. mnemonic (n) i. reading something you have already read another time

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Part B: Complete the gaps in the following sentences with the vocabulary above. Note that you may
need to change the form.

1. Many organisations are known by their . For example, the FBI, CIA,
NASA and NATO.

2. I use to remember how to spell some words I find difficult. My

favourite is: ‘’there is a rat in separate”.

3. The appointments were three weeks apart.

4. Librarians learn about storage and of information.

5. I’m currently Charlotte’s Web for the eighth time. It’s my favourite
book.

6. The success of the business deal her reputation as an excellent

negotiator.

7. is essential when learning. You cannot expect to remember something

after seeing it only once.

8. Please hang your coat on the in the hallway.

9. The bus runs at 10 minute .

4 Reading: prediction task

You are going to do a reading called "Memory Methods". First, have a look at the sub-headings of the
reading and answer the following questions.

• Acronyms and acrostics

• Learn in spaced intervals
• Practice memory retrieval - test yourself
• Create a memory palace
• The Peg System

1. Do you know anything about any of these?

2. If you don’t know any of them, can you guess what they might be about?

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Memory Methods
There’s no way to have a perfect memory, but it is a skill you can improve with practice. Here are just
a few methods you can try.

A. Acronyms and acrostics
These are mnemonics (memory devices) that help
you remember information more easily. You probably
know some already. For example, to remember
the great lakes of North America you can use the
acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie,
Superior).
Another common mnemonic is a kind of sentence
known as an acrostic. For example, "My Very
Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles." can help
you remember the planets in order from the Sun:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune.
B. Learn in spaced intervals
In the 1880s, a psychologist named Hermann
Ebbinghaus memorised nonsense syllables in order
to track his ability to remember them. He used
his analysis to create the Forgetting Curve, a graph
which shows how quickly we forget something we
have learnt. He demonstrated that after learning
something new most people will have forgotten
around 70% within 24 hours.
But he also found that if you review material in
spaced-out intervals you will reduce the rate of
forgetting dramatically. You will remember more,
even if you spend fewer actual hours studying. This
is known as Spaced Repetition.
C. Practice memory retrieval - test yourself
A passive rereading of material will only give you the
illusion of knowing the material, according to Barbara
Oakley, instructor of the Coursera course Learning
How to Learn. Instead, it is far more effective
to attempt to actively recall the information. Test
yourself regularly. Regular retrieval practice helps
solidify your memories.
For example, this can be used when learning new
vocabulary in your target language. Memory athlete
Nelson Dellis recommends the images should be
‘’over-the-top and bizarre”.
For example, imagine you want to learn the word
‘celo’ in Czech, which means forehead in English.
Because it sounds like a cello, a musical instrument,
you could imagine a cello is stuck to your forehead,
and you cannot walk through doors.
E. Create a memory palace
A memory palace is a place you know well in your
mind which you then use to link pieces of information
to. For example, you could use the house that you live
in. Let’s say you had to remember a shopping list of
milk, eggs, and bread. Picture your home and then
imagine the following:
1) Your front door is covered with disgusting raw
eggs. It gets on your hands as you open it.
2) Inside the hallway a giant slice of bread falls on your
head from the ceiling.
3) Finally, you walk into the kitchen where you find a
cow making a strawberry milkshake.
F. The Peg System
This system is commonly used by memory athletes
(who do memory competitions) to remember packs
of cards or long numbers. It uses an association
between a concrete item and the thing you want to
remember.
For example, for numbers one, two and three you
can use bun (one), shoe (two) and tree (three). Then,
when you are trying to remember a number, you can
associate these in your mind visually. So, for the
number 312, you can imagine a tree which starts

D. Learn with mental pictures growing buns instead of fruit, and then one of the
buns falls into a huge pink high heel shoe.
Creating a visual association with the thing you
want to learn will help you remember it better. Sources: CNBC, Psych Central, Wikipedia, mindtool.com

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Now, cover the reading, go back to sub-headings (page four) and test yourself or each other in pairs.
What do you remember about each technique?

5 Discussion questions
Discuss the following questions.

1. Do you feel like you have a good memory?

2. What is easy/hard for you to remember?
3. Have you heard of any of these methods from the reading before?
4. Have you tried any of these or any other memory methods?
5. Do you know any other acronyms or acrostics?
6. Now go back to the list of vocabulary in section three and choose one word from the vocabulary
list that was new for you. Try to create a visual image to help you remember the word.

6 Language point: making lists

Part A: Go through the notes in the boxes about the use of commas, colons and semi-colons when
writing a list in a sentence.

A simple list: use commas

• Use commas when you write a list in a sentence, for example:

I like milk, bread, potatoes and carrots.

• If there is any ambiguity about the last two, you can use an Oxford comma (an additional
comma before the last ‘and’). For example, in the following sentence it is not clear if the
person likes pineapple and pizza eaten together or separately:

I really like milk, bread, pineapple and pizza.

• In this case, if the person likes the two things separately, an Oxford comma will make this
clear:

I really like milk, bread, pineapple, and pizza.

• Note that the Oxford comma is considered optional in British English. You can choose to
use it when it makes sense in order to avoid ambiguity. In American English it is generally
mandatory.

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A complex list: use semi-colons

• You can use semi-colons to divide the items of a list if the items are long or contain other
commas. In these cases, the semi-colons help readers keep track of the divisions between
the items. In the following sentence, the list is simple. There are three names and so you
need only commas.

I have invited my friends Sean, Moira, and Tom to the party.

But let’s say we now want to add more details to the list, as follows:
• Sean, my friend from work
• Moira, Sarah’s sister
• Tom, the doctor

• So, to put this information into a sentence we now need semi-colons, eg:

I have invited my friends Sean, my friend from work;

Moira, Sarah’s sister; and Tom, the doctor; to the party.

• You can see the semi-colons help to make the separation between the list items clear.

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Introduce a list: use colons

• Another way of introducing a list is a colon. It sets the list apart. Use it when the first
part of the sentence is a complete sentence, eg:

To make my banana smoothie you only need a few key

ingredients: bananas, milk, honey, and cinnamon.

• You can see the first part is a whole sentence by itself:

To make a banana smoothie you only need a few key ingredients.

• This is when you need a colon.

• If the first part is not a complete sentence then use only commas eg:

To make a banana smoothie you need bananas, milk, honey, and cinnamon.

• To make a banana smoothie is not a whole sentence by itself.

Part B: Add the correct punctuation to the following sentences.

1. I tried some different foods while I was in Canada. I tried poutine bannock butter-tarts and
beavertails.

2. I have visited many places in Canada Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

3. I have visited three provinces of Canada Quebec Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

4. I have visited Quebec Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

5. My favourite places in Canada are Quebec City where they speak French Toronto which is the
biggest city and of course Montreal which is also mostly French-speaking.

(Note that Newfoundland and Labrador are the name of one province)

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7 Optional extension/homework

1) Choose three new English words you would like to remember. Use one of the techniques described
in the lesson to memorise them. Report on your experience next lesson.

2) Memorise the list of countries which border Germany in the following order: Denmark, Poland,
Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands(Hint: you could try
using the linking method or making up an acrostic)

3) Look up other memorisation methods. Describe one of them in the next lesson.

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