The Code-Word System proposed by Atkinson (1975) is an exhausting but most effective technique which especially was developed for learning vocabulary items. Using this technique a foreign word is connected acoustically and visually with a code-word.
How to process a vocabulary item:
- As a code-word choose a word of your mothers tongue, which rhymes with the foreign word or sounds similarly.
- Connect the code-word by a pictorial idea with the meaning of the vocabulary item.
Example:
- Pato, the spanish word for duck, sounds similarly like the english word pot. Pot therefore is the code-word for pato.
- You can imagine a duck which swims in a pot or runs around with a little pot on the head.
Although the Code-Word System is superior to other mnemonics, occasionally there were doubts that it promotes a basic understanding. Perhaps you should reserve this technique for the words which refuse most obstinately being learned by you.
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