YEAR TWO Second Language Acquisition ACADEMIC YEAR 2011-2012
#14: Memory
1. Defining memory
In very general terms, memory can be defined as the mental capacity to store and retrieve
information that is acquired through senses. According to Wade and Tavris (1990: 247), this
concept also refers to "the mental structure or structures that account for this capacity and
to the material that is retained". Thus, the ambiguous understanding of memory embraces
both the dynamic process of memorizing and remembering and the static repository of
accumulated knowledge (Puppel 1996: 94).
2. Types of memory
Since the 1960s, there have been a lot of studies concerning the functions of various areas
of the left and the right hemisphere, as well as the workings of memory. As a result of these
studies, a distinction based on the length of information storage has been made and three
types of memory have been distinguished:
żð Sensory memory registers in-coming information very rapidly and feeds directly into
short-term memory. In other words, it lasts for a second or less and thus fades almost
immediately after it has occurred (Anderson 1995: 160).
żð Short-term memory (STM), also referred to as working memory, immediate memory or
active memory, is that part of the memory system where received information is stored
for a short period of time while it is being analysed and interpreted. STM is further
subdivided into the following components:
o iconic memory, used for storing visual information before it is categorized and committed to LTM; it
appears to have large capacity but is ephemeral
o echoic memory, i.e. acoustic based auditory memory, used for holding in unanalyzed form "perhaps
the last two-seconds' worth of speech input" (Cooper and Robbins 1988: 53)
o verbal memory, which is employed when processing verbal sequences or silently rehearsing words or
phrases
Thus, STM can be said to be a system of limited capacity and limited duration, in which
verbal stimuli are retained for up to 30 seconds. Once the information in an utterance is
understood, the data may become part of permanent memory (i.e. LTM). The utterance
itself is now no longer needed and may fade from STM (Richards & Schmidt 2010: 175).
Ever since the publication of the seminal work by George Miller (1956) the capacity of
STM has been believed to range from 5 to 9 items, the average being 7. However, if an
item is to be retained in LTM, it has to be rehearsed and memorized. Child (1986: 118)
explains it as follows: "recall or rehearsal of information in the short-term store is
thought to occur by passing the information through the limited-capacity channel and
re-entering it in the short-term store (& ) The more this cycle is repeated, the more likely
it is that information will pass into the long-term store".
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żð Long-term memory (LTM) is that part of the memory system where information is stored
more permanently, lasting from a minute to weeks, months or even dozens of years. A
characteristic feature of LTM is that information may not be stored in the same form in
which it is received. For example, a listener may hear a sentence The pneumatic drill
Fiona left by the side of the road was flattened by a passing steam roller and, using STM,
he may be able to repeat it accurately immediately upon hearing it. However, on trying to
recall the sentence a few days later the listener may produce it as Fiona's pneumatic drill
was run over by a steam roller, using information in LTM which is in a different form
from the original message (Richards & Schmidt 2010: 175). Researchers have
subcategorised LTM thus:
o procedural memory, responsible for storing information on learned skills and
procedures - also employed in creating mind associations, conditioned reflexes,
addictions and fears; data stored in this type of memory is apparently never
forgotten
o declarative memory, which enables an individual to consciously remember
knowledge about people, places and events; the fading of declarative memory
traces is caused by mere passing of time, but it may also be due to drugs or
injuries. Researchers distinguish two subtypes of declarative memory, which
seem to be critical for leading a life without disturbing memory problems:
Ä…ð semantic memory, characteristic only for human beings. It is made up
predominantly of "memories that constitute the general knowledge of our
personal history, including attitudes and feelings" (Puff 1982: 445), but
because it is that part of the memory system in which words are organized
according to semantic groups or classes, it also contributes to the processing
of verbal messages. However, its efficiency is largely dependent on how well-
read and educated an individual is. Words are believed to be stored in LTM
according to their semantic properties (e.g. canary is linked in memory to
bird, while rose to flower; Richards & Schmidt 2010: 95). Semantic memory is
believed to still develop until the age of 60.
Ä…ð episodic memory, which refers to the record of one's experiences and the
knowledge about the world and is therefore organized in terms of personal
experiences and episodes. It starts to fade around 35.
Summing up, LTM is a relatively permanent memory system that holds huge amounts of
data for a long period of time. Information can be retrieved even decades after it was
stored, while the capacity of LTM is probably unlimited.
3. The mental lexicon
Every foreign language learner must cope with a large number of words which have to be
stored in the mind, and so it should be a matter of concern for language teachers to
understand how this information is organised and stored. Thornbury (2002: 16) observes, " .
. . the mind seems to store words neither randomly nor in the form of a list, but in a highly
organised and interconnected fashion  in what is often called the mental lexicon." This
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means that words enter into complex relations with other words forming a system. This, in
turn, accounts for the ease with which native speakers recognise and produce lexical items.
The development of L1 mental lexicon is different from that of L2 mental lexicon. Native
speakers acquire their vocabulary in a chronological and rather predictable way. Besides,
unlike foreign language learners, native speakers have many years when their lexicon
develops and becomes more and more comprehensive. In the mental lexicon of adult L2
learners "the level of meaning seems to be organized in semantic fields in which co-
ordination and collocation appear to be the strongest links" (Piasecka 2001: 27). Apart from
meaning, the mental lexicon is also organized according to word-structure and the
phonological shape of words.
When learning L2 words, learners do not have to go through the stage of labelling, as in the
development of L1 mental lexicon. Nevertheless, they have to learn a new conceptual system
and construct a new vocabulary network. L1 and L2 do not distribute lexical items in exactly
the same way. What in L1 may be represented by one word, may take two or three different
words in L2, or the other way round. L2 learners should be instructed not to rely too much
on direct translation from L1. L2 words need to be presented in their typical contexts and
teachers should assign tasks that will help learners organise their mental lexicons by
building networks of associations.
A major difference between first and second language vocabulary learning is in the potential
size of the lexicon in either case. According to Thornbury (2002: 20), "an educated native
speaker will probably have a vocabulary of around 23,000 words . . . This is the result of
adding about a thousand words a year to the 5,000 he or she had acquired by the age of
five." Adult L2 learners may acquire up to 5,000 word families even after several years of
classroom exposure. Although a large vocabulary size is believed to be something valuable,
not all words are equally useful because of their different frequency of occurrence. A core
vocabulary that will serve in most situations is 2,000 high frequency words.
4. Learning and forgetting L2 vocabulary
Apart from explicit teaching, L2 learners pick up much of their vocabulary knowledge from
context. For this reason, contextualisation of vocabulary instruction is important in language
learning. An example of such incidental, or indirect, learning is through extensive reading
and listening. The teacher's and other learners' input is also an important source for
incidental learning which, in this case, takes place during problem-solving group work
activities or formal classroom activities where vocabulary is not the main focus. When our
sense organs pick up a signal from the environment, it is converted into a perceptual
representation. In order to identify what is being perceived and create a permanent
representation of it, this perceptual information has to be held long enough in various
sensory stores.
In order for an item to be retained it has to be repeated. "Recall or rehearsal of information
in the short-term store is thought to occur by passing the information through the limited-
capacity channel and re-entering it in the short-term store . . . The more this cycle is
repeated, the more likely it is that information will pass into the long-term store" (Child
1986: 118).
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The feature of LTM is that it has an enormous capacity and permanent content. Thus,
retention of information in long-term memory is unlimited. In order to ensure that lexical
material moves into permanent long-term memory, a few conditions have to be fulfilled:
" Repetition must take place over spaced intervals.
" As every piece of information becomes better learned, the intervals can gradually be
extended.
" Learners should be given the opportunity to pace their own rehearsal activities.
Another important feature of LTM is retrieval. For information to be recalled from LTM, STM
has to be activated  hence, it is also called working memory. In other words, in the process
of retrieval the information returns from LTM to STM. A cue is needed, either from an
external stimulus or from our own conscious attempt to find a link with information already
present in working memory.
The two most important techniques for retrieving material are recall and recognition. In the
former, the L2 learner looks for an answer in his/her memory relying only on the ability to
retrieve the necessary information. In the latter, the learner already has a clue owing to
which he/she can remember information learned on previous occasion.
The sad reality whereby L2 learners forget words despite teachers' best efforts simply has to
be accepted  no matter how frustrating it may be for vocabulary instruction. Forgetting
tends to be rapid at first, but then it levels out. Of the information one forgets, 80% is lost
within twenty-four hours of initial learning (Gairns & Redman 1986: 90). Two psychological
theories can perhaps explain why L2 words are easily forgotten. The first is interference
theory. Child (1986: 121) explains it as follows: "the interplay and possible confusion in the
build-up of memories interfere with retention. By this means, some memories may not
actually disappear altogether, but become obscured and overlaid with more recent
memories." This means that learners acquire and remember new lexical items at the cost of
forgetting old ones. The other approach, called decay theory, is based on the assumption
that information stored in memory falls into disuse, unless it is activated regularly. Hence, it
may be said that learners forget what they were taught due to insufficient recycling. Decay
theory seems more convincing than interference theory if we want to account for memory
failure over a long period of time.
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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Anderson, J. R. 1995. Learning and Memory: An Integrated Approach. New York: John Wiley.
Benjamin, A. S. & Ross, B.H. (Eds.), 2007. Skill and Strategy in Memory Use. Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
Child, D. 1986. Psychology and the Teacher. London: Cassell Educational Limited.
Cooper, P. J. & Robbins, T W. 1988. Psychology for Medicine. London: Edward Arnold.
Gairns, R. & S. Redman 1986. Working with Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller, G. A. 1956. "The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our
capacity for processing information". Psychological Review 63: 81-97.
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Morris, P. E. & Gruneberg, M. (Eds.), 1994. Theoretical Aspects of Memory. 2nd Edition.
London: Routledge.
Piasecka, L. 2001. Ways with Words. Strategies of Lexical Acquisition. Opole: Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Opolskiego.
Pincas, A. 1996. "Memory and foreign language learning". Modern English Teacher 5/1: 9-
19.
Puff, R. C. (Ed.), 1982. Handbook of Research Methods in Human Memory and Cognition.
New York: Academic Press.
Puppel, S. 1996. A Concise Guide to Psycholinguistics. Poznań: Bene Nati.
Randall, M. 2007. Memory, Psychology, and Second Language Learning. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. 2010. Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics and Language
Teaching. Fourth Edition. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Thornbury, S. 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Wade, C. & Tavris, C. 1990. Psychology. Harper & Row, Publishing Inc.
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