This document discusses the online vocabulary learning tool Memrise. Memrise allows users to create personalized vocabulary courses and learn words through spaced retrieval and a game-like format. Users can add words and create associations to aid memorization. The creator has found Memrise useful to add vocabulary from language courses and review words on mobile devices. While participation can be a problem without requirements, the tool encourages learning through collaboration, competition via leaderboards, and regularly reviewing words to strengthen memory over time.

1. VOCABULARY AND PHRASE
LEARNING ONLINE
CALL Workshop Nov 16, 2013
Haidee Thomson
www.haidee.thomson.com
haidee.thomson@gmail.com
Fuji Women’s University

2. OUTLINE
•What is memrise?
•How does it work?
•How do I use it?
•What I’ve found
•How can you use it

3. HOW CAN I REMEMBER NEW VOCABULARY?
•Word cards - look at the L1 word and recall the L2 word
•Say it and self-check
•Remind yourself revise them
•Mix them up when practicing to avoid sequential learning
•Eventually you end up with a lot of cards…what do you do with
them?

4. ONLINE VOCABULARY LEARNING
www.memrise.com

5. WHAT IS MEMRISE?
•www.memrise.com
•Online learning community
•Crowd sourced
•Free
•Over 6,000 courses (200+languages, vocabulary, history,
geography, trivia etc.)

6. HOW DOES IT WORK?
•Mems (memory aids)
•Spaced retrieval (optimum intervals to maintain memory)
•Game-like environment
•Personalised (you can make a course to meet your needs)
•Learning cycle – presentation to production

7. MEMS (ELABORATE ASSOCIATIONS)
Connect the new word
with existing knowledge
so that retrieval
becomes easier (see
Levin, Levin, Glasman,
& Nordwall, 1992)
“…the mnemonic
increases the
availability of
multiple retrieval
routes, involving both
imagery and verbal
associations” (Paivio
& Desrochers, 1981,
p. 788)

8. SPACED RETRIEVAL: REMINDER EMAIL
Refresh memories at
spaced intervals for
maximum retrieval and
retention (c.f. Hulstijn, 2001,
p. 286).
Imagery for motivation
 Plant a seed
(memory)
 Water the memory
 It grows into a flower

9. GAME LIKE ENVIRONMENT
Leaderboard for
competition

10. PERSONALISED: CREATE YOUR OWN COURSE

11. PRESENTATION

12. ADD MNEMONICS OR IMAGES (MEMS)

13. MULTI-CHOICE (RECEPTIVE KNOWLEDGE)

14. WRITE THE WORD (PRODUCTIVE KNOWLEDGE)

15. PROGRESS FEEDBACK

16. HOW I USE IT
•Add Japanese words or phrases as I go
•Revise using computer or phone (on subway, waiting in lines etc.)
•Add English phrases for students from coursebook etc.

17. WHAT I’VE FOUND
•Problem: lack of participation (not compulsory)
•Leaderboard: those that participate stand out (potentially
demotivating)
•Solution: set minimum monthly scores
•Need to water memories regularly to grow them and keep them
(just like plants)

18. WHAT I’VE FOUND
•You can choose to use mems made by others
•But making your own mems is most effective/memorable
•However it requires understanding and practise
Try:
Words that sound similar (shouten) focus and shop
Keyword (word that sounds similar and interacts with target word)
Something that you associate with that word

19. DATABASE OF IMAGES TO CHOOSE FROM

20. HOW YOU COULD USE IT
•Create a list of the words or phrases you want learners to learn for
each unit
•Upload these lists to create your own course
•Make the course ‘unlisted’ to keep it private (only your learners)
•Encourage learners to make their own mems
Alternatively
• Ask learners to build the course collaboratively (function to allow other
contributors) A different group could add the words each week, or each
person could add one word each week…

21. PHRASE LEARNING: PRESENTATION

22. PHRASE LEARNING: MULTI-CHOICE

23. PHRASE LEARNING: ORDER THE WORDS

25. REFERENCES
Hulstijn, J. (2001). Intentional and incidental second language vocabulary learning: A
reappraisal of elaboration, rehearsal, and automaticity. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and
Second Language Instruction (pp. 258–286). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, M. S., Levin, M. E., Levin, J. R., & Beitzel, B. D. (2000). Can vocabulary-learning
strategies and pair-learning formats be profitably combined? Journal of Educational
Psychology, 92(2), 256–262.
Levin, J. R., Levin, M. E., Glasman, L. D., & Nordwall, M. B. (1992). Mnemonic vocabulary
instruction: Additional effectiveness evidence. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 17(2),
156–174. doi:10.1016/0361-476X(92)90056-5
Paivio, A., & Desrochers, A. (1981). Mnemonic techniques in second-language learning. Journal
of Educational Psychology, 73(6), 780–795.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/10.1037/0022-0663.73.6.780

26. THANK YOU!
Website
www.haidee.thomson.com
Email
haidee.thomson@gmail.com
Slideshow link
http://www.slideshare.net/haideeric
h/vocabulary-and-phrase-learningonline-nov-16-2013