Editorial
This article was first published in Modern English Teacher, Vol 20/3, July 2011

Mnemonics for Learning Grammar

Simon Mumford, Turkey

Simon Mumford teaches EAP at Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. He has written on using stories, visuals, drilling, reading aloud, and is especially interested in the creative teaching of grammar. He is a regular conference and workshop presenter. E-mail: simon.mumford@ieu.edu.tr

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Both
Adjectives
Articles
In, at, on
Uncountable nouns
Countable/uncountable nouns
If
Conditionals 1, 2, 3 and mixed conditionals
Reported speech check list
Stative verbs
Time clauses
Conclusion
Reference

Students have a great deal of grammatical information to remember. In spite of this, memory techniques have been relatively neglected in mainstream language teaching, perhaps because of their association with rote learning and the audio-lingual method. However, there seems to be a renewed interest in the role of memory, and even the role of repetition and learning by heart. This relatively recent rediscovery by the centre of the language teaching world does not alter the the fact that, for many cultures and countries on the periphery, memorisation as a language learning tool never went away, and has been a continuing part of the educational culture. For those interested, Bilbrough (2011) gives a full discussion of current thinking on the role of memory in language learning, and many innovative activities. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how mnemonics involving diagrams, rhymes, formulas, acrostics, and word play can be used to help students retain specific grammatical information.

Both

Explanation: The determiner both can be used in two ways, here refered to as types 1 and 2. The structures are represented by the formulas, where parentheses ( ) means both and the plus sign (+) means and.

Teaching suggestion:

1. Write the formulas on the board: type 1. (1+1) x1 =2, type 2. 1 x (1+1) =2
2. Write prompts for both types on the board, in a random order.
   Teacher/clever/funny, Einstein/Russell/brilliant, cats/like/meat/milk, France/Germany/in Europe, you/me/unlucky, Saturday/Sunday/wonderful, Carter/Clinton/US presidents, Winter/cold/wet, Pilots/brave/quick-thinking, Football/fast/exciting
3. Point to the prompts and the appropriate formula to elicit sentences
   Type 1.
   Both Einstein and Russell were brilliant.
   Both France and Germany are in Europe.
   Both Carter and Clinton were US presidents.
   Type 2.
   Our teacher is both clever and funny.
   Winter is both wet and cold.
   Football is both fast and exciting.
4. Clean the board and give a prompt verbally. Students try to recreate the sentence from the prompts.

Adjectives

Advanced, Desireable, Joyful, English, Comic, Tiring, International, Vicious, Endless, Soapy.

Explanation: These are all adjectives, and the first letters spell the word adjectives. They represent the ten most common adjective endings: -ed, -able, -ful , -ish ,-ic, -ing, -al, -ous, -less, -y. Therefore students remembering these words will have an understanding of adjective endings.

Teaching suggestion:

1. Write the adjectives on the board and explain any unknown words, eg vicious, desireable, joyful
2. Drill them.
3. Erase the endings. Call out the beginnings of words and get students to say the whole word. egz
   T desire- Ss. desireable T. Joy- Ss. Joyful
4. Get the students to practise in pairs/groups.
5. Practise spelling the word adjectives out loud: A-D-J-E-C-T-I-V-E-S.
6. Erase the all the words on the board. Ask students to recall the list round the class, encourage other students to help by supplying the first letter if a student gets stuck, as in the example below:

S1 advanced
S2 advance, desireable S3 advanced, desireable, joyful
S4 advanced, desireable, joyful, er...
Ss E
S4 English etc.

Articles

There are three articles: the, a/an and no article (zero article).

1. I’d like the cake at the front (one particular cake)
2. I’d like a cake (any cake)
3. I like cakes (in general, zero article)

Explanation. In 1 I can see the cake. In 2 I cannot see it, but I have a good idea of the cake I want, perhaps I can see it in my mind. In 3 I have no particular cake in sight or mind. Therefore, the longer the article, the more specific it is.

Teaching suggestion:

1. Point out the first two sentences are requests, the speaker would like (ie wants) something. The final is a general statement about what the speaker likes and is not a request.
2. Explain that the last item should be plural, because it refers to the item in general, and not a specific example of the item.
3. Brainstorm other possibilities with the class and write on the board eg
   The blue car, a blue car, blue cars
   The chocolate with nuts inside, a chocolate, dark chocolate
   The cottage over there, a cottage, country cottages.
   The new Nokia, a new Nokia, Nokia phones
   The black horse, a black horse, black horses
4. Drill with the following gestures:
   I’d like the black horse. (pointing to a picture of a horse, or an imaginary horse)
   I’d like a black horse. (look upwards, as if imagining a horse*)
   I like black horses. (throw hands outward to denote in general)
5. Continue with the other examples.

*Note that people often look upwards when imagining or visualising something.

In, at, on

Tourist Information Office: go in the office door, speak to a member of staff at an information point. The member of staff puts the information on the counter.

Explanation: When you need information, you go in(to) the tourism information office. You stand at an information point and the member of staff puts your leaflets on brochures on the counter. The word information contains in, at and on, so this can help students remember in a building, at a point, on a surface.

Teaching suggestion

1. Write the word information on the board.
2. Ask students where people go to get information when they are on holiday. Elicit Tourist Information Office.
3. Draw a Tourist Information Office. Draw someone walking towards the door (a stick figure is good enough). Underline in in the word information. Say to the class: you go in the door
4. Draw the information point inside the centre. Draw a man waiting at the point. Say to the class you wait at the information point. Underline at in the word information.
5. Draw a member of staff putting a map/brochure on the counter. Say the member of staff puts information on the counter. Underline at in the word information.
6. Put students in groups and let them repeat the three stages to each other, using the drawing on the board as a guide.

Uncountable nouns

WEATHER AFTER NEWS=

Water, Electricity, Advice, Tea, Happiness, Equipment, Rain
Accommodation, Furniture, Travel, Evidence, Rice
News*, Entertainment, Work, Snow

Explanation: The first letters of the words spell weather after news. The weather forecast comes after the news on television. The nouns are all uncountable. This phrase can help students remember these nouns, which are not generally used in plural form in English. Also, both weather and news themselves are uncountable. * News looks plural but is always uncountable and singular.

Countable/uncountable nouns

Many pennies (c)
Much money (u)
A few spoons (c)
A little cutlery (u)
Some glasses (c)
Some beer
(u)
A lot of suitcases (c)
A lot of underwear (u)

Explanation: This rhyme covers countable and uncountable forms and related determiners. Pennies, meaning small coins, are plural, they can be counted, so we use many. Money is uncountable, so we use much. Spoons are countable, so we say a few, but cutlery is an uncountable noun meaning knives, forks and spoons, therefore we use a little. A lot of and some can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are plural after these words (eg suitcases), but uncountable (eg underwear) are always singular.

Teaching suggestion:

1. Write the rhyme on the board and recite it to the class, pointing out words that begin with the same letter (eg much money), rhyme (eg glasses, cases) and words that have the same sound in the middle of the word, (eg a few spoons). Give any further explanations you think necessary regarding countable/uncountable nouns.
2. Ask students as a class to repeat the rhyme after you.
3. Erase the last word from each line, and ask individual students to read and remember.
4. Erase the poem completely. Call out the determiners: A few/some/a lot of/much/many/ a little at random and ask students to supply the appropriate word from the rhyme.
5. Let the students continue this in groups.
6. As a round up, ask if anyone in the class can say the whole rhyme from memory (provide prompts as necessary).

If

Explanation: Conditionals very often start with if. Think of if as a warning exclamation mark, !, followed by F for false, like a danger sign by the side of the road. Each condition has a false part: first conditional (If I go to London) is present, but actually refers to the future , the second conditional (If I went to London) looks like past but refers to the future, and the third conditional (If I had gone to London) looks like past perfect but refers to the past.

In a sense, the second and third conditionals are also false in meaning. The second conditional is false because it is not likely, and the third conditional is false because it did not happen.

Teaching suggestion:

It is better to use this exercise with second and third conditionals since these are the unreal or false meanings, in contrast to the first conditional, which represents a real possibility.

Second conditional

1. Write some example sentences on the board:
   If I went to London, I’d be happy
   If I saw a ghost, I’d scream etc.
2. Point to sentence 1 and say I’ll go to London.
3. Encourage students to contradict you. False! You probably won’t go to London!
4. Continue with other exampes.

Third conditional

1. Use the same procedure with the following sentences:
   If I had been born in the USA, I’d speak good English.
   If my father had listened to my mother, we’d have been rich.etc
2. Point to sentence 1 and say I was born in the USA.
3. Encourage students to contradict you: False, you weren’t born in the USA!
4. Continue with other examples.

Conditionals 1, 2, 3 and mixed conditionals

Explanation: There are three main conditional types. These are represented by the numbers 1,4, and 9 in the table. However, there are two other possibilities, mixed conditionals, represented by 2x3 and 3x2 in this diagram. So the positions represented by the numbers 1,4,9 (grey) and 6 (light brown) are possible structures, but other combinations, 2x1,1x2, 3x1, and 1x3 (black) are impossible. Students can therefore easily see which combinations are possible.

Reported speech check list

Pr(e)-t-ti wo-(man)

Explanation: When changing direct speech questions into reported speech, there are four important things to remember.

• pronouns change, eg I changes to he/she
• tenses change, eg present to past
• time words change, eg yesterday becomes the day before
• in questions, word order changes, reported questions are not real questions, and therefore do not invert subject and auxiliary

Students can remember this with the mnemonic Pr(e)tti wo(man): Pr= pronoun, t=tense, ti= time expressions, wo=word order. Pretty woman is a famous film about an ordinary woman who changes into a very rich, beautiful woman. In reported speech questions, there are important changes.

Teaching suggestion:

1. Write pr(e)t-ti wo(man) on the board.
2. Next to it write ‘Where are you going tomorrow?’ John asked Bob.
3. Point to pr at the beginning of pr(e)tti and say pronoun: ‘you’ changes to ‘he’ . Change the pronoun: John asked Bob where is he going tomorrow.
4. Point to the first t (for tense) and say tense:‘is’ changes to ‘was’. Change the tense: John asked where was he going tomorrow.
5. Point to ti (for time) and say time: ‘tomorrow’ changes to ‘the next day’. Change the time: John asked Bob where was he going the next day.
6. Point to wo(man) and say word order: ‘was he’ changes to ‘he was’. Change the word order: John asked where he was going the next day. The transformation is now finished.
7. Write a new question, eg ‘What are you doing tonight’, Mary asked me. Ask a confident student to take over the teacher’s role. The final answer should be Mary asked me what I was doing that night.
8. Write some more examples on the board and let students continue in pairs/groups.

a) ‘Which car are you going to buy next year?’ Mr Smith asked me. b) Jane asked John and me, ‘Where were you last month?’ c) Ken asked her,‘How old will you be next week?

• Mr Smith asked me which car I was going to buy the following year.
• Jane asked John and me where we had been the previous month.
• Ken asked her how old she would be the following week.

Stative verbs

Want, Exist, Recognise, Expect
Need, Own,Think
Agree, Cost, Trust, Include, Owe, (K)Now, Suit
Mind, Appear, Dislike, Adore, Mean.
Explanation: Stative verb are usually states, not actions, and therefore not usually used in continuous tenses. The first letters of the verbs (all stative) spell the sentence We’re not actions, madam! Note: The K in (k)now is silent, N is the first letter that is pronounced.

Time clauses

A simple present* of beef or wine, after a spoon of wild lentils.

*simple present refers to the tense, but also means a small/inexpensive gift.

Explanation: This helps students remember words that are followed by simple present to refer to the future: Before, when, after, as soon as, while, until. The sound similarities are as follows:

Teaching suggestion:

1. Write the sentence on the board and drill it several times.
2. Erase one word at random after each repetition, until no words are left on the board
3. Give the list of time expressions below and ask students to write the words in the table below in the correct column (answers given)

Conclusion

Teachers will need to be careful while considering the use of mnemonics, since they may be seen as trivial and may not appeal to all students. However, because they present linguistic information in a novel and extremely memorable way, they may help students fix grammatical information in their memories. It is not recommended to use mnemonics as the main or only way of teaching grammar, or even as the initial approach to presenting information. Such techniques are more likely to be of use between the initial meeting of information and the long term retention of that information, in other words, as an intermediate stage in the learning process. Once the information is in students’ long term memory, the mnemonic will have fulfilled its task, and will probably be forgotten.

For those interested in learning more about mnemonics in general, an internet search will provide plenty of information, and reveal their extensive use in many disciplines.

Reference

Bilbrough, N. (2011) Memory activities in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press.

Please check the English for Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.