Chunking en Francais, an experiment...

Learning Blog #1

Objective: Learn simple phrases using the cognitive "chunking" method of learning to transfer new words into long-term memory.

Methods: Select French words/phrases already in my long-term memory (thank you 7th grade French class) and pair them up, or "chunk" with new words/phrases to help foster the ability to keep the new information in my working memory.   

*See end of post for this week's report on my experiment with "chunking" French.

Bonjour mes amis, this week I have been experimenting with the cognitive theory of chunking to learn some basic French.  I took French in the 7th grade and I recall my teacher NOT chunking the information at all.  Man, that would have been so much more helpful!  As I recall, there was a lot of memorizing vocabulary words and learning how to conjugate blah, blah, blah.  Do I remember French?  Un peu, tres un peu (a little, very little)!

This time around, I'm going to approach my learning of basic French over the next huit (8) weeks differently.  What's going to make the difference? Learning theory:  I'm turning myself over to the research - I'm a lab rat.  Let the fete commence (fun begin)!

Comment puis-je (how can I) chunk Francais?  I'm not totally sure, but I think learning basic phrases is the start. What I need to do is keep some phrases in my working memory long enough so they go into my long term memory.  The hard part (for moi especially) is retrieval. I struggle so much with that! I must keep this tres simple at first.

My plan is once I've learned a phrase and can chunk some of the phrase so it has a higher probability of making it into my long term memory, I will unpack some of the "chunked" meanings so they can transfer into other phrases.  Here is a cool idea from the web:

http://hackmystudy.com/how-to-memorize-things-quickly-and-effectively/#chunking

1. Categorize a list into chunks that are meaningful to you
2. Memorize the first chunk, memorize the next chunk, review them together, then repeat this process.

So I'm going to make a "chunk" of items that are already in my long-term memory so when I see them in a phrase, I can ignore (not worry about using them in my working memory) them and work with the new stuff.

GROUP #1 (Words already in Long-Term Memory)

Je - I 

Tu - You

Elle - She

Il - He

Vous - You

Nous - We 

Ils or Elles - They

GROUP #2 ( New Vocabulary)

Mange - Eat

Faim - Hungry

Petit Dejeuner - Breakfast

Dejeuner - Lunch 

Diner - Dinner

Group #3 (80% New Vocabulary)

Allez au lit - Go to Bed

Allons-y: Let's Go! 

Bon Nuit - Good Night

Mon Amor - My Love

Group #4 (New Vocabulary)

J'ai lu - I Read

J'ecris - I Write

J'etudie - I Study

*Results:  The first couple of days I had to keep referring to my google translate to remind me what the new vocabulary words were.  I decided to to write my "chunks" on a piece of paper and tape it to the part of my house in which I would be more likely to say the phrase.  For example, the eating phrases were taped to the kitchen, the goodnight phrases were taped at the top of the stairs and the study phrases were taped in my office.

This was very helpful in keeping the phrases in my working memory throughout the week.  Eventually I took the papers down because the phrases have become pretty effortless.  Success, oui, oui!