I've been working on my paper about mnemonic device for almost a year now. My paper is about mnemonic devices in learning grammar rules on question formation. The result of my research proved that the use of mnemonic devices has a positive effect on learning grammar rules.
Many studies have proven its effectiveness and usefulness to the students' academic performances and achievements. As a living proof, I used mnemonic devices years back when I had to memorize long list of concepts especially when I became a part of a long-years of memorization contest. As a learner, it was effective on me.
Nothing to lose if I pass this strategy to my students if the purpose is make them remember information and improve their academic performance.
In our Literature class, I have to make my students remember the 22 figures of speech within time constraint. Though there are 31 Figures of Speech in other references but we would just have 22. Learning the concepts quickly would help us save time and would make them aware about the idea that learning could be quick and manageable. It just takes a strategy.
22 Types of Figurative Language
- Simile
- Metaphor
- Personification
- Onomatopoeia
- Oxymoron
- Hyperbole
- Allusion
- Idiom
- Imagery
- Symbolism
- Alliteration
- Assonance
- Consonance
- Metonymy
- Synecdoche
- Irony
- Sarcasm
- Litotes
- Pun
- Anaphora
- Tautology
- Understatement
One no-brainer type of mnemonic device which can be generated from the long list in no time is they keyword mnemonic device. Putting all the first letters together, I arrived with...
SMPOOHAIISAACMSISLPATU
Next thing is arranging the letters to form meaningful ideas. So I arranged the letters and came up with...
SM
POOH AI ISAAC MSIS LPATU
because meanings must be in the context of the learners...
I came up with the story - In SM there's Pooh, Ai (delas Alas) Isaac & Misis Lipatu (whoever she is)
The result were scores higher than those who were taught without the use of mnemonic device.
It was simple yet meaningful and useful.
Students reacted that the devices helped them organize their thoughts and allowed them to answer the quiz within time constraint and with success.
