MAKING MEMORY THEORY OPERATIONAL IN SLA by Sandra Milena Marín Ríos

 

As you know, I am only a common English teacher who is trying to do her best in these fields.  Maybe this is not a “theory” like the ones proposed by Vigotsky, Krashen, Skinner among others, but I tried to take some important aspects from some of them that could help me to “support” my own  “theory”.

     First of all I am going to show you the definition and some important aspects of the human memory. “Memory is the mental processes that are used to acquire, store, retain and later retrieve information.  The information can be obtained from our 5 senses before they are processed by the brain. There are three major processes involved in memory, namely Processing, Storage and Retrieval.

Processing

     New information or experiences make their way to the brain through the 5 senses where they are processed by the neurons in the brain.  The key to having your brain successfully processing the information into your memory is paying careful attention to the information or experience.  For example, if you are explaining a topic and your student is daydreaming, chances are, your student will not remember what you explained.

Storage

     If you have paid enough attention to the new information, your hippocampus, or that part of your brain vital in the information processing, will send a signal to save the information into the long-term memory.  This process can be enhanced if you use some memory techniques.

Retrieval

    When the time comes to retrieve the information, your brain will stimulate the same pattern of nerve cells that was used to store it.  The more you recall and use that information, the better you get at recalling it as the same pathways are strengthened.

How is long term memory compared to short term memory?

     Short-term memory, also known as working memory, is the information we are aware of or think about  at the present moment. For example, when you look up the phone number of a store you need to call to check on the availability of an item. The store’s phone number is held in short term memory. Short term memory is fragile and usually parts or all of it can be forgotten in a short period of time.  Because most times, the information, like the telephone number, is only needed for that moment.  Unless of course, you need to call up the store a few times a day every day for a week, then it will be lodged in your brain for a much longer period of time.

     Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information. It  involves the effort (conscious or unconscious) you make around a piece of information in order to retain it for a longer period of time, because it is personally important or meaningful to you (for example, your wife’s birthday); you need it (such as job procedures or material you’re studying for an exam); or it made an emotional impact (a place you had an accident, the restaurant where you were proposed for marriage or the first time you drove a car).   As long-term memory is subject to being faded out or parts or the whole of the event being forgotten, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years, it is dependent also on the depth of processing. Individual retrievals can take place in increasing intervals in accordance with the principle of carefully spaced repetition”.  ( http://www.articlesbase.com)

     Taking into account all these important aspects, let´s try to identify which theories can fit within this “new theory”.

     Beginning with the processing aspect of memory, we have Krashen and his Affective filter in which when students feel comfortable during the development of a class activity the acquisition can be reached easily. Also, with the input hypothesis, since if the student is exposed to the target language he could acquire it and understand the message. If you as a teacher use the appropriate strategies like visual images or TPR commands your students will store the vocabulary in their long term memory and they will start acquiring vocabulary  easily because the activities you did in the classroom were significant for them. They will remember the words or the structures as soon as they need them.   

     After this, we have the retrieval aspect, which could be related to the output hypothesis, from Merril Swain who states that, sometimes,   under some conditions output facilitates language learning, and enhance input due to the mental process connected with the production  of  language. Activities such as role plays, exchanging letters, can be done in this process.

      According to all this, I think that memory plays an important part in acquisition and learning. The long term memory is one of the cognitive factors our students develop the less. We should stimulate and propose to our students the most creative and amazing activities and tasks to show them the big potential they have in their heads.

REFERENCES

LIming,Yu.The comprehensible output hypothesis and self-directed learning: A learner’s perspective.1945.

 Krashen, Stephen. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergammon Press, 1982.

Mak, Martin (oct, 9 2009) ten ways to improve long term memory. Extraido el 2 de diciembrede 2012 desde http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/10-ways-to-improve-long-term-memory-1320077.html

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