Introduction

Why this book?

There is no learning without remembering. And language learning – perhaps
more than most other forms of learning – places huge demands on memory.
As language teachers, whatever our teaching context, or the age, goals
or learning style of our learners, or the materials we use or the methods
we favour, in the end our aim is to optimize our learners’ memory for
language – to help them remember the sounds, words, chunks, structures
and textual conventions of the target language. Whether we do this through
an explicit focus on form, through rich and varied exposure, through
plentiful opportunities to use the language in meaningful ways, or through
a combination of all three, the cognitive processes of memory are central to
everything we do.
We may be the most dedicated professionals, working in well-equipped
classrooms, setting up enjoyable activities for highly motivated learners,
but without also engaging the memory skills of the people we work with –
their abilities to recognize, to notice, to process, to store, to retrieve and to
reactivate language – very little can be achieved.
So if we want language to be remembered, and if we want our learners to
become more proficient in remembering – both in class and independently –
we need a bank of activities that can facilitate these processes. It is with this
purpose in mind that this book has been written.

The role of memory in language learning

Memory underpins every aspect of successful language learning. It is the
glue that binds us to the world of language around us and within us. As
consumers and producers of language, we depend on our memories both
to interpret spoken and written texts, and to speak and write effectively.
Without memory, we also have no means of developing in these skills.
Most linguists would endorse this: Skehan (ı998), for instance, maintains
that having a good memory is a key component of language aptitude (the
other components being auditory ability and pattern recognition). In many
parts of the world, there has always been a strong focus on memory in

1
Memory Activities for Language Learning

educational settings, and the memorization of word lists, dialogues and even
entire texts has remained a very popular tool for the language classroom.
But memorizing as a language-learning activity has not always been viewed
favourably by language-teaching methodologists and materials writers. This
scepticism can be at least partially traced to Noam Chomsky’s (ı959) critique
of behaviourism, and his emphasis on the creative nature of language. If, as
he claimed, much of what we write and say is totally unique in form, what
purpose might there be in memorizing the borrowed words of others?
Thus, from the ı960s onwards, in North America and Western Europe in
particular, the discrediting of behaviourist theory as an effective language-
teaching methodology led to the widely shared view that memorization was
a dry and meaningless activity, in conflict with a learner’s natural ability to
create unique and original utterances. And since then the debate has raged. Is
language production an entirely creative process, or do we also depend on a
bank of pre-fabricated language items stored in our mental lexicons?
Dwight Bolinger, among others, has argued that the role of memory in
retrieving stored language items from long-term memory is as important – if
not more so – than being able to piece these items together to make coherent
utterances: ‘Speakers do as much remembering as they do putting together’
(Bolinger, ı96ı). Or as another linguist has put it: ‘Language is … to be
viewed as a kind of pastiche, pasted together in an improvised way out of
ready-made elements’ (Hopper, ı998).
More recently, the work of Michael Lewis and Dave Willis in particular
(who were in turn influenced by the findings of corpus linguistics) has been
representative of the increased interest in the viewpoint that language is
‘grammaticised lexis’ (Lewis, ı993). According to this view, fluency in a
language is the result of having a stored bank (or ‘phrasicon’) of memorized
chunks. This allows the speaker to assemble utterances in real time, without
the need to generate each utterance from scratch, using an internalized
grammar. Perhaps, as Lewis (ı997) observes, ‘we are much less original in
using language than we like to believe’.
Wray (2008) has coined the term Morpheme Equivalent Unit (MEU) to
refer to a word string or chunk of language that is processed like a morpheme,
i.e. without the need to process the meaning of its component parts. So an
expression like at the end of the day can be both stored and reproduced
without any explicit focus on the individual words that it contains.
Other scholars, including Nick Ellis, have argued that these formulaic
chunks may contain the ‘seeds’ of subsequent grammatical knowledge. In
other words, these chunks ‘release’ their grammar over time. In practical

2
 Introduction

terms, this means, for instance, that a learner can develop an understanding
of how the present perfect is used by first noticing, and subsequently
memorizing, some chunks of language in which it occurs. This is contrary
to the widely held belief that a structure must first be learnt before it can be
used to generate utterances by slotting in appropriate vocabulary items.
If it is not only individual words and grammar that need to be
remembered, but also the vast number of chunks that are required for fluent
communication, then the demands on our memories are far greater than was
previously thought. If all of these items are to be stored successfully, then a
focus on both making language as memorable as possible and using explicit
memorization activities would seem to make sense.

Memory and texts

Memory also plays three key roles in the interpretation of spoken and
written texts. First, there is the need to be able to retrieve the meanings of
the individual words and chunks that make up the text. Some researchers,
such as Paul Nation, have estimated that we need to understand at least 95%
of the words in a text in order to be able to predict accurately the meaning
of the remaining 5%. Except when processing the most simple texts, this
95% ‘tipping point’ represents a large passive vocabulary – of at least 3,000
items, by some calculations, and possibly a lot more. In some skills-based
approaches to reading and listening – which have instead emphasized the
top-down skills of predicting, guessing from context, and skimming and
scanning, for example – the need to have a critical mass of word knowledge
to enable understanding has been somewhat undervalued.
Secondly, there is the role of working memory in processing each new
element that we read or listen to, and in linking these to the elements that
have already been interpreted. Research has shown that fast, proficient
readers tend to have high working-memory spans, and because of this
they are able to focus simultaneously on a higher number of complex and
sometimes unrelated ideas. Thirdly, without long-term memory – in the
form of mental representations of how texts are organized, as well as our
knowledge of the world – we would not be able to bring our experience to
bear in making sense of texts at all.
Similarly, when we speak or write, memory allows us to retrieve words,
chunks and grammatical forms from our mental lexicons for active use as
they are required. The more effectively we do this, the more able we are to
produce language that communicates our intended messages smoothly and

3
Memory Activities for Language Learning

concisely, and the more effectively we can organize texts in ways that make
them intelligible to others. In writing this paragraph, I am aware that I am
going through a process of scanning my own mental lexicon for appropriate
language items to use, evaluating each option in working memory as it is
retrieved, and discarding words that fail to express my intended meaning.
A good memory also enables us to produce text that is cohesive. Through
my ability to retain the content of previously mentioned ideas in my working
memory, I am able to provide links back to them with discourse markers
and back referencing (such as the use of also near the beginning of the last
sentence). And because I can also hold on to the form of what I have said, I
am able to avoid the overuse of particular words.
Lastly, memory contributes to the overall coherence of a text by enabling
its author to keep the purpose and the audience of the communication
constantly in mind. I hope that mine is not letting me down too much here!

How does a memory for language work?

With memory being such a key skill in language learning (some have
suggested that it is the fifth skill, alongside listening, speaking, reading and
writing), it is surprising that comparatively little has been written about
how the processes involved in remembering items in a second language may
work. One explanation for this is that, as with much research into the brain’s
functions, little can be deduced with absolute certainty.
Below is a list of commonly used terms relating to memory that may
be involved in the remembering of language. Though most writers about
memory mention these terms, not everyone agrees on exactly how these
different elements interact in the storage of new language.
• Working memory: Our senses are the first port of call for everything that
we pay attention to around us. Working memory allows us to hold on
to this data for a brief period of time so that we are able to manipulate
it and process it consciously. So is this merely a more modern term for
what was traditionally known as short-term memory? Not exactly.
The concept of working memory, unlike that of short-term memory,
implies a state in which things happen, rather than being merely a place
through which language passes. It is limited not only by time, but also by
capacity: only a small amount of data (five to nine pieces of information)
can be maintained and processed in working memory at any given time.
For more on the components that make up working memory, see the
introduction to Chapter ı.
4
 Introduction

• Long-term memory: The storage of information in long-term memory –

unlike in working memory – is a largely subconscious process and is
apparently not constrained by either time or capacity. Material can be
stored in long-term memory for anything between a few days and a
lifetime, depending on the richness of links that were made with existing
material in the initial encoding, and on the regularity of opportunities
to retrieve and reactivate it. For more on what factors may help with
the storage of information in long-term memory, see the introduction to
Chapter 2.
• Declarative memory: Everything in long-term memory that we are
able to access consciously can be referred to as declarative memory.
This, in turn, may be broken down into semantic memory – knowledge
about the meaning of a word, facts and figures about the world, etc. –
and episodic memory – personal memories that relate to past events
in our lives. Language classes all over the world focus extensively on
remembering information about the language being learnt, and this
data may be stored as declarative memories. For instance, learners may
be taught and may remember that the past tense of go is went, that
prepositions are followed by -ing forms of verbs, or that the English for
the Arabic is ‘don’t mention it’. Of course, being able to
retrieve this information when asked does not necessarily mean that the
learners will be able to use these same areas of language when required
to in spontaneous communication.
• Procedural memory: Long-term memory also includes some memories
that may be difficult, or even impossible, to consciously access. Their
existence is nevertheless evident in our ability to perform certain tasks,
such as tying our shoelaces, swimming or driving. No attention is
generally necessary in order to access our memory of how to do these
things, and if we consciously try to retrieve exactly what is happening, we
may even struggle to do so. I recently tried to explain to my ı4-year-old
son how to make bread using the bread machine in our house, something
that I do nearly every day of my life, but I found I was able to recall exact
quantities only by actually putting the ingredients into the machine
myself, and forcing myself to focus on what I was doing. In language-
learning terms, there are links here with the concept of automaticity and
flow. The more fluent we are as speakers, the more able we are to produce
language with limited or no effort on the part of working memory at
all. That is, we can express ourselves effectively without paying much
conscious attention to what we are saying.

5
Memory Activities for Language Learning

A model of memory
There are essentially three processes involved in remembering language:
encoding, storage and retrieval. Encoding is how we make sense of data that
we hear or read by linking it to existing knowledge; storage is putting this
data into long-term memory; and retrieval refers to the way in which data is
brought back from memory in order to be used.
Of the vast amount of spoken and written language that we are exposed to
through our senses, we pay attention to only a small proportion, and a part
of this enters our working memories. Only a very limited amount of what
has entered working memory will in turn get stored in long-term memory
and eventually be available for meaningful output in speech or writing.
So how may this relate to what happens in the language classroom? As
teachers we provide plenty of input to the learners, in the form of reading
and listening material, explanations about language, and writing on the
board; we maximize the potential for processing this exposure in working
memory by setting up activities like drills, gap-fills and other practice
activities; and when the learner speaks or writes in freer activities, the
teacher can see how much language has actually been retained in long-term
memory and can provide further input to address any gaps.
But there is more to remembering language than pouring water from
a jug into a series of empty and leaky vessels, and hoping that some of it
will stay there! Knowledge is not just a commodity that is passed from one
place to another without any form of interaction with the existing contents.
Learners also bring a vast amount of prior knowledge and experience to the
proceedings and use this in creative ways in the storage of new language.
Most memory researchers now acknowledge that what is already stored in
long-term memory actually plays a huge part in the acquisition of new data,
and that there is a two-way process of interaction between working memory
and long-term memory that is essential both in storage and in working-
memory processing. This can be seen in the following diagram adapted from
Earl Stevick, Memory, Meaning and Method, Second edition (Boston: Heinle
and Heinle, ı996).

6
 Introduction

Input

WORKING MEMORY

Output

LONG-TERM MEMORY

When new language data enters working memory, it immediately activates

areas of existing knowledge in long-term memory and searches for links
between them. Bryant (ı990) has suggested that items in long-term memory
are stored in ‘dynamic networks’ in which activation of one area leads to
subconscious and rapid connections throughout the whole of long-term
memory, which in turn can relay back new information to be processed in
working memory. There may also be significant interaction between working
memory and long-term memory in language production. When we speak
fluently, we may be drawing directly from long-term memory, but when
talking in a second language, there will often also be substantial working-
memory involvement as we consciously plan, evaluate alternatives and
restructure what is to be said.
Storing language in long-term memory, then, involves some complex
and multifaceted interaction between working memory and long-term
memory. It depends upon an ability to link new information with existing
knowledge and to reflect upon these links. As already discussed, many
linguists are now less inclined to regard the production of language as an
entirely creative activity, recognizing that we rely to a greater extent than
formerly believed on the retrieval and recycling of previously stored chunks
and formulaic language. But learning a language, like teaching a language,
is unquestionably still a creative process. Perhaps the element of creativity,
however, lies as much in the process by which we store new language in
long-term memory as in that of activating language from it.

7
Memory Activities for Language Learning

What makes material memorable?

This link between creativity and memory can also play its part in the
choice of materials that teachers and materials designers present to
learners. In my twenty years as a language teacher, I have used a wide range
of different teaching materials in many diverse contexts. One coursebook
activity that sticks out in my mind as being particularly memorable is the
reading maze in Language in Use: Intermediate, Student’s Book 1 by A. Doff
and C. Jones (Cambridge University Press, ı994), which includes the short
text below.

A year ago, you were driving your cab when you saw a couple fighting in
the street. The woman shouted ‘He’s going to kill me!’ and jumped into
your cab. She turned out to be a Hollywood movie star – she gave you a
large tip and asked for your address. Last month she died, leaving you
£500,000 in her will, ‘To the taxi driver who saved my life’. Add that to
your savings, plus £10,000 from driving your taxi.
A friend back home is starting a business designing children’s toys and
has invited you to join her – it might be a good way to invest all that
money. Or you could celebrate by going on a trip around the world …

Go into the toy business ➤ 3 (p. 23)

Go round the world ➤ 17 (p. 115)

In this activity, learners read a series of scenarios like this, and after each
one, they have to make a decision, in pairs, about how to proceed. When
they have agreed, they then go on to read the next text that they have chosen.
Their objective is to make as much money as possible. It is an activity that my
learners have enjoyed immensely and that I have always got a lot out of too;
it has invariably promoted some motivated reading and processing of the
text, as well as a lot of animated discussion.
If an activity like this is memorable for those who engage with it, then the
time spent processing it may be increased and enriched, and consequently
the potential for learning from it also improves. For educational
psychologists Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2008), this ‘memorability factor’
is the key issue to address in deciding on the format in which to present
material to be learnt. They have spent a great deal of their professional lives
researching this area and have identified six criteria to facilitate the process

8
 Introduction

of making material memorable. These are simplicity, unexpectedness,

concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories, the first letter of which form
the easily remembered acronym SUCCES. These criteria may be outlined as
follows:

• Simplicity: It is difficult to remember anything that is too complex

to understand or that is cloaked in too much unnecessary waffle. In
the reading maze, the text is written at a level that is accessible for an
intermediate-level learner, while not being so simple that there is no
challenge in terms of new vocabulary. The reader is given just enough
information to enable them to understand what the situation is, and to be
able to make an informed decision, based on what has been read.
• Unexpectedness: People are more likely to pay attention to something,
and consequently remember it, if it goes against what is expected.
Reading a text about yourself, in which you are the one who is making
the decisions, is quite a novel way of doing things and will be a new
experience for most people. The maze also arouses curiosity about
what will happen next, which is a great way of maintaining interest and
motivating the reader to carry on.
• Concreteness: Visualization is central to the storage of new information
in long-term memory, but it is far more difficult to visualize abstract
material than that which is clear and concrete. The maze describes events
that have happened, that are happening and that are going to a happen, in
a way that faciliates the creation of such images by the reader.
• Credibility: We quickly lose interest in ideas that are outlandish and
unbelievable. In the reading maze, a number of exciting and dramatic
events unfold, but still the maze is rooted in the day-to-day struggles
of human existence. The challenge to make the right decisions in life in
order to be successful is something that most people can identify with
very strongly.
• Emotions: There is a powerful link between emotion and memory.
Advertisers around the world have made extensive use of this fact by
creating adverts that deliberately amuse, arouse or even annoy us. The
reading maze is something of an emotional rollercoaster, involving
dramatic themes such as reward, bankruptcy, fame and kidnapping. The
fact that these events are happening to the reader, rather than to a third
party, makes the degree of emotional involvement even more powerful.

9
Memory Activities for Language Learning

• Stories: We remember the information contained in a story far more

easily than if it were presented as a list of facts. Just think how many
stories, in some format or other, we tell and listen to during the course of
a day. The stories we hear often serve as a sort of mental rehearsal for our
own lives, so it is as if we are programmed to hold on to things that come
to us in this way. A very strong narrative element runs through the entire
maze, and this helps us to immerse ourselves in the events and retain
information almost without effort.
As language teachers, these are important issues to consider when deciding
on the kinds of material we present to our learners, and on the types of
activities to adopt. But memory is also a factor to consider when reflecting on
our everyday classroom routines.

Incorporating memory activities into classroom routines

Building a focus on memory into the regular routines of the classroom
is another way of increasing memorability. Not only can it help learners
appreciate exactly what they are learning and provide a strong sense of
achievement, but it may also raise awareness about what has not been
remembered and may therefore require further work. Here are some ways
of incorporating memory activities into a range of situations that commonly
occur in the language classroom.

Presenting language
The board, be it black, white or interactive, is still the most widely
used resource available to teachers. It is a fantastic way of drawing
learners’ attention to an area of language and helping everyone to focus
simultaneously on forms and meanings. When teachers use it to present
language, often the learners immediately copy down what is written into
their notebooks. However, if we want learners to focus, and consequently to
build stronger memory traces, discouraging copying during presentations
(which can be distracting) and instead allowing time for the learners to copy
afterwards may be more beneficial. In this way, and provided the presentation
itself is made memorable by, for example, the use of graphics, images, humour
and drama, there is a greater chance that the learners will remember the useful
information about the language that the teacher is sharing.
Traditionally, language-presentation stages may include a focus on
meaning, spelling, pronunciation, context and collocations. A focus on

10
 Introduction

mnemonics – a kind of ‘trick’ to help make the language more memorable –

is also something worth including, where appropriate. This could involve
linking a new word to other words that sound similar, using an acronym to
help remember the various parts of a sentence, or building the language into
a chant. See Chapter 5 for more details and further ideas.

Language on the board

By the end of a class, a teacher’s board may be filled with the language
that has been focused on during the course of the lesson. It could contain
individual words (sometimes showing phonemic transcripts or stress
patterns), chunks and expressions, or example sentences to illustrate a
particular area of grammar. Some teachers’ board work is highly planned
and organized, while others use the board as a sort of notepad, writing up
language items randomly as they come up in class. Either way, this is a very
useful resource that can be exploited when incorporating memory activities.
If working with an interactive whiteboard, there is, of course, the option
of saving the entire screen so that the language can easily be returned to in
another class, or used to plan retrieval exercises. Some teachers without
interactive whiteboards take a photo of the board at the end of each lesson
with the same purpose in mind.
It is also worth spending a few minutes at the end of class just trying to get
learners to retrieve the language that is on the board. One way of doing this
is for learners to position themselves in pairs or small groups so that only one
person can see it. The people who cannot see have to try and recall, aloud,
what is written there. The person who can see the board tells them if they are
right and supplies prompts, in the form of definitions, descriptions or mimes,
where necessary.
Prompts can also be used by the teacher as a way to retrieve the board
work. The teacher rubs out everything but the first letter of each word.
Learners then work in pairs and try to recall everything that was written
there, using the first letters as a memory trigger.
Another way of doing this is with the whole class working together.
Everyone has a chance to try to remember what is written on the board
before it is cleaned completely. As a group they then have to rewrite
everything that was there, as accurately and as quickly as possible. Several
people can write, or one person can be appointed as the scribe while the
others call things out. If the teacher can remember anything that the class did
not, the teacher wins – otherwise the class wins.

11
Memory Activities for Language Learning

Gap-fill exercises
The gap-fill exercises typically found in coursebooks, where learners need
to write in a missing word, are a good way to check the class’s ability to
use a particular area of language. When working with large, mixed-ability
classes, however, the time needed to complete such an exercise will often
vary immensely between different learners. What can the teacher do in this
situation? If you stop the activity when the quicker learners have finished,
the others will be deprived of the learning opportunity that the activity
provides. On the other hand, if you wait until everyone has completed the
exercise, how do you stop the fast finishers getting bored? One solution is to
provide an extra memory challenge for those who have finished. Learners
can be asked to try to remember as many of the sentences as possible
before testing each other in pairs. Alternatively, one learner can read out
the sentence, saying ‘buzz’ where the gaps are, and the other learner has to
supply the missing word.

Reading and listening material

When I first trained to be a teacher, one of the things that was impressed on
me during the course was the importance of incorporating pair work as soon
as possible after the learners had engaged with a reading and listening text,
and definitely before learners could be expected to provide feedback on what
they had understood to the rest of the class. This advice is something that
has stood the test of time for me and is still generally part of the way I teach
today. Not only does it allow learners to build confidence before having
to speak in front of a large group, but it also provides the opportunity for
immediate activation of some of the language contained in the text, before
it is lost from working memory. If we want learners to retain the items of
language in a reading and listening text, then encouraging them to process
it as much as possible, ideally through speech, can help to achieve this. One
of the most effective tasks to accompany any kind of text is simply to ask
learners to discuss in pairs everything they can remember about it.
This reactivation of language also applies to the extensive reading and
listening that learners may do outside the class, of course. Allocating learners
some class time for discussing the material they are accessing in their own
time can help to facilitate this.

Speaking and writing activities

Many teachers now adopt a process approach to developing writing skills
where learners are encouraged to plan, draft, edit and redraft their work.

12
 Introduction

Not only does this invariably lead to a more polished finished product, it also
leads to more processing of the language the learners are using in their texts,
and consequently to more remembering.
Building in an extra stage to a speaking activity where learners recall and
reflect on what was said is another way of encouraging deeper processing
of language and raising self-awareness about the learners’ strengths and
weaknesses. At the end of a mingling activity, for instance where learners
walk around class interviewing different people, it may be useful to ask
everyone to talk to the person next to them about who they spoke to
and what was said. When learners are engaged in a speaking activity in
small groups, it is often useful to incorporate a stage at the end where a
spokesperson from each group reports back to the whole class on what they
have been discussing. Not only does this let other groups know what they
have been doing and promote some recycling of the language they have
used, but it can also encourage a greater focus on accuracy and improve
performance levels.
Another way of doing this is to appoint a ‘listener’ in each group. This
person’s task is to listen to the conversation without taking an active role.
At various points in the discussion, the listener intervenes and summarizes,
by giving feedback on who has said what, based on what he or she can
remember. If there is a difference in level between the person who is listening
and those who are speaking, then some very useful recasting of utterances
can occur with this activity. See Chapter 4 for more activities like these which
work with the recycling and reactivation of texts.

How to find your way around this book

If you are looking for an activity involving memory to use with a class,
then dipping into the first three chapters of this book is a good place to
start. The activities here focus on the three basic memory processes of
encoding, storage and retrieval. Chapter ı, Mental stretching, looks at the
role of working memory in language processing and explores some ways of
challenging learners to push their personal boundaries regarding how much
language their own working memories can deal with. Chapter 2, Making
language memorable, is about language storage and offers some ideas on
how language can best be presented to learners so that it is linked with
previous knowledge and becomes more memorable. Chapter 3, Retrieving,
looks at some motivating and dynamic ways of getting learners to go back to
what has been focused on in previous lessons.

13
Memory Activities for Language Learning

In Chapter 4, Repeating and reactivating, we take a more long-term view

of these processes and emphasize the importance of revisiting material. The
activities in this chapter explore some ways of structuring exposure- and
output-based classes so that the memory potential is maximized.
Sometimes teachers need to be proactive in encouraging active
memorization of material, and the activities in the next two chapters
help teachers to focus on this area. Chapter 5, Memory techniques and
mnemonics, demonstrates a range of ‘tricks’ which have been used in
many different fields for remembering things exactly and illustrates some
ways of adapting them to language teaching. Chapter 6, Learning by heart,
highlights some effective techniques and strategies for committing entire
texts to memory.
Finally, Chapter 7, Memory games, examines some ways in which
different memory processes may be activated using a game format.
Many of the activities in this book require very little in the way of
materials or preparation. However, the support materials presented in the
book are also available as PDF files on the CD-ROM accompanying this
book. These can be projected in the classroom, or printed out and handed
to your learners. For teachers who are interested in exploring further any of
the ideas presented in Memory Activities for Language Learning, at the end
of the book I have included short lists of reference works and websites that I
have found especially helpful.
As already noted, there is a strong link between emotion and
memorability, and many of the activities in this book are deliberately
structured to engage the emotions of the language learners who will use
them. For some learners, however, in certain situations, such activities may
be inappropriate. It is important therefore that teachers are mindful of
cultural sensitivities and exercise due discretion when choosing activities to
use in class.

14
 1 Mental stretching

As we have seen in the Introduction, many psychologists would

now tend to focus less on the view of short-term memory as a place which
language passes through on its way to long-term memory, or even as the
process by which this happens, but instead as the state in which our brains
may be temporarily, but actively and consciously, engaged with auditory,
visual or spatial data. To emphasize the active role that it plays, the term
working memory is now often preferred.
Much of what is currently believed about working memory originates
with the multi-component model developed and made popular by the
psychologist Alan Baddeley. It consists of a central executive, controlling
three systems – the phonological loop, the visual-spatial sketchpad and the
episodic buffer – which are called into play depending on the type of data
being processed.

The phonological loop

If a person who is talking suddenly stops and asks us to repeat what they
have been saying, the chances are that, even if we have not been paying close
attention, we will be able to repeat the last few words of their utterance. This
is known as echoic memory, and we use it by playing back to ourselves in
our minds the words that we have just heard. Since echoic memory lasts for
only a few seconds and has a very limited capacity, the amount of language
processing that can happen is negligible. This may be the kind of memory
that is employed by language learners when a short utterance of up to
around six known words is drilled in class by the teacher. Of course, if some
or all of the words in the utterance are unfamiliar to the learners, then the
power of echoic memory is even more limited and the chances of accurate
repetition are decreased.
This type of memory can be extended, however, by what is known as the
phonological loop. Unlike echoic memory which is a largely subconscious
activity, this system is more conscious and acts as a sort of inner internal
conversation, where utterances are constantly repeated to oneself to avoid
decay. We can observe this process happening when we say a phone number
to ourselves over and over again until we manage to find a pen to write it

15
Memory Activities for Language Learning

down! The phonological loop allows for more language processing than
echoic memory, and consequently we may be able to notice aspects of form
and meaning, and create links with what is already retained in long-term
memory.
Interestingly, the phonological loop is also employed as a mechanism
to deal with written material. When we read a text, or indeed write one,
recoding the visual input as auditory data and replaying it within the
phonological loop allow us to understand the links between different ideas
in what we are reading and, when we write, to produce text that is logically
connected and coherent.
Many of the activities in this section will challenge learners to engage with
this process.

The visual-spatial sketchpad

There is another way in which we can process visual data in working
memory. In the same way that echoic memory allows immediate repetition of
very short stretches of auditory data, iconic memory enables brief retention
of visual material. Again, since it lasts for such a short period of time – less
than a second in this case – processing of the image in any way is very limited.
It is extended, however, through the visual-spatial sketchpad, which creates
a sort of virtual world in the mind, temporarily generating images and
allowing them to be manipulated and reflected on. This is the system we use
when we have to think consciously about the route between two different
places, or when we produce a drawing. The implications of this system for
language learning may be less immediately obvious, but if it is combined
with auditory material – when we try to explain the route to another person,
for example, or, as in Activity ı.7: Delayed TPR (Total Physical Response)
below, when we link an action with its name – the linguistic memory traces
may be made stronger by its deployment.

The episodic buffer

Another form of multi-sensory processing of data may also occur in
the episodic buffer. Here visual, auditory and spatial information is
combined with information about chronological order into single episodic
representations. It may be employed when we recall a scene from a film
we have just seen, or the events of a story we have heard, as in Activity ı.ı2:
Reordered story and Activity ı.ı3: Co-constructed storytelling at the end

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 Mental stretching

of this chapter. Recent evidence suggests that this kind of multi-sensory

processing of information can leave longer-lasting memory traces, and
indeed, the episodic buffer is thought to have very strong links with long-
term memory.
An important point to remember about all of these systems is that they are
severely limited by both time and capacity. External factors can also greatly
diminish our working-memory abilities. Just think how difficult it can be to
try to remember something or read while someone is asking you a question
at the same time. Things are further complicated by the fact that we often
overestimate how much of what is temporarily held in working memory will
be retained later. There have been numerous occasions during the writing of
this book when I have struggled to recall ideas I had had earlier, which, at the
time, I was convinced I would remember without writing them down.
The capacity of working memory can be somewhat increased, however,
through the process of chunking. If we take a telephone number such as
035689256, we can retain it more easily in working memory if we break it
down into three units, 035–689–256, than if we attempt to remember each
digit individually. This principle can also be applied to words, so a person
who recognizes the chunks of language within the last sentence (telephone
number, more easily, working memory, break it down, etc.) would have
fewer difficulties retaining it than someone who did not.
There is also recent evidence to suggest that through training and practice,
improvements in working memory can be made. Tracey Alloway’s (20ı0)
research would indicate not only that this is the case, but also that high
working-memory levels in the young may be a better predicator of future
academic success than traditional IQ tests. Thus, the activities in this chapter
work with two ideas in mind. First, that encouraging learners to process
language through their working memories is a useful step on the way to
moving some of that language into long-term memory, and secondly that
a well-trained working memory can help learners to develop in fluency,
listening, reading, speaking and writing.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.1 Flash!
Memory focus Processing an image in working memory and using language to
talk about it.
Level Any
Time ı0 minutes plus
Preparation Find some interesting images that contain a fair amount of detail,
such as a street scene (see an example in Box ı.ıa) or the interior of
a house (see an example in Box ı.ıb). Prepare to display them with
a projector or make them large enough so that they can be seen
by the whole class. With a small class, it may be possible for each
person to be given their own picture to work with.

Procedure
ı Organize the class into pairs. Show them the picture and ask the learners
to talk to each other about what they can see. Be available to deal with
vocabulary queries as they arise, and encourage dictionary use. For lower
levels, you may want to remind them of how the structure there is / there
are works. Now tell them that they need to try to remember as much as
they can about the detail of the picture.
2 After about 30 seconds to a minute, ask one person in each pair to turn so
that he or she can no longer see the picture.
3 The ‘seeing’ person in the pair now asks questions to see what their
partner can remember. These questions will vary according to the level of
the learners. For the picture in Box ı.ıa, these could include: How many
people are in the picture? What is the old lady doing?, etc.
4 Change roles and use another picture.

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 Mental stretching

Box 1.1a: Flash!

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Box 1.1b: Flash!

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Variations
ı Show just one image for 30 seconds. Now dictate a series of true and
untrue statements about the picture. If the statement is true, the learners
write it down as it is. If it is not true, they need to adapt it to make it true,
and then write it down. This idea is based on an activity in Images by
Jamie Keddie, Oxford University Press, 2009.
2 Show the learners a short video (maximum one minute) from a video-
sharing website such as You Tube™ (http://www.youtube.com). Both learners
in each pair watch the video. One learner tries to remember as much
detail as possible, while the other thinks of questions to ask the other (e.g.
What colour was the man’s shirt?). After they have asked and answered
the questions, they watch the video again to check.
3 Instead of using a picture, display a grammar table (like the one for an
elementary group in Box ı.ıc) for a short time. Make sure no one is writing
anything down. Now take the table away and ask them to work in pairs
to write down as many correct sentences as they can, just using words
from the table. (There are ı9 possible questions from the table below.)

Box 1.1c: Flash!

How long did you stay last night?

How much eat
When go
What get here
How do
Why go home

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 Mental stretching

4 Display a short text or dialogue for a short period of time. Take it away
and then ask the learners to write what they can from memory. Now
ask them to work with a partner and to pool what they have written to
produce their best version of the text together.

Drilling
Drilling in its basic format involves the teacher saying a word, phrase or
sentence in the form to be practised, and the learners repeating it. This
can be done chorally, with the whole class together, or individually, by
the teacher choosing the person to repeat. If the utterance is longer than
around seven or eight words, then working memory, as opposed to echoic
memory, will be employed to a certain extent, but simply repeating still
does not provide much in the way of cognitive challenge for learners. Here
are some variations on drilling which may help to make the process more
stimulating and meaningful, and consequently make the language being
practised more memorable.

Dramatic drilling
Changing the way in which the learners say the words may help to make the
language they are repeating more memorable. For instance, they could say
the items very slowly, quickly, quietly or loudly. They could also repeat them
in a way that reveals how they feel about the words: if the teacher is drilling
a list of food items, for example, they repeat the word in an enthusiastic
way if they like the foods, and in an unenthusiastic way if they do not.

Physical drilling
The teacher says the words while performing a physical action to make the
meaning clear. The learners repeat both the words and the physical action.
This works particularly well with a short story containing lots of action.

Who repeated?
The teacher stands with his or her back to the class and says a sentence in
the form to be practised. Someone in the class repeats the sentence. The
teacher tries to guess who it was who said it. If this is achieved, the person
who spoke now has a turn at being the person at the front and says another
sentence using the form.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.2 Reversed drilling

Memory focus Encouraging learners to process reformulated versions of their
own utterances in working memory.
Level Any
Time 5–ı5 minutes
Preparation None

Procedure
ı When the learners are engaged in a freer speaking activity, listen in
unobtrusively and make a note of some of the things that they are saying
that could be improved upon.
2 Now write each utterance up on the board in a reformulated version,
which makes it more accurate and/or uses more complex or clearer
language. This should be done at a level which is not too far above the
level of the learners. Give each utterance a number.
3 Bring everyone together and draw the learners’ attention to the
reformulated utterances on the board. Deal with any issues about
meaning.
4 Now ask a learner to pick one of the utterances on the board. This could
be either a reformulation of the learner’s own utterance or the utterance
of another learner. Ask him or her to say the utterance out loud. You
now repeat the utterance in as natural a way as possible. The learner can
now repeat the utterance as many times as desired. After each repetition,
provide the learner with a natural model immediately.

Note
The idea for this activity comes from Counseling-Learning: A Whole-Person
Model for Education by Charles A. Curran, New York: Grune and Stratton,
ı972. Curran is the creator of community language learning (CLL) and
coined the phrase ‘Human Computer™’ to refer to this approach to drilling.

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 Mental stretching

1.3 The broken telephone

Memory focus Providing practice in retaining long stretches of language in
working memory.
Level Elementary and above
Time 5–20 minutes (depending on the text)
Preparation Choose a very short story or joke, suitable for the level of the
group. Cut the text up into sections of one or two (if short)
sentences. See the example in Box ı.3 for an intermediate group.

Procedure
ı Organize the class into groups of five to seven. Each group needs one set
of the story sentences. These should be placed face down in order on the
table next to the first person.
2 The first person in each group turns over the first piece of paper and
whispers what it says to the next person in the group. The second person
then whispers it to the next person, and so on. The last person, at the end
of the line, writes down the sentence that he or she hears.
3 As soon as the first sentence has moved on from the second person, the
first person can start whispering the second sentence to him or her, and so
on. This way everyone is kept actively involved throughout the activity.
When all of the sentences have passed down the line, the last person will
end up with a complete version of the whole text.
4 Now ask each group to go through this version together, checking it for
accuracy. Finally, they compare it with the original text and reflect on
how any differences that they find occurred.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Box 1.3: The broken telephone

a) The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British
or Americans.
✂
b) On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart
attacks than the British or Americans.
✂
c) The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the
British or the Americans.
✂
d) On the other hand the Italians drink lots of red wine and also suffer fewer heart
attacks than the British or Americans.
✂
e) The conclusion is ‘Eat and drink what you like. It’s speaking English that kills
you!’

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Variation
The first person whispers the sentences to the second person in English. The
second person then mentally translates this sentence into the mother tongue
and says the sentence in the mother tongue to the next person. The third
person then translates back to English, etc. Of course, this version is only
possible in a monolingual group.

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 Mental stretching

1.4 Sentence swapping

Memory focus Challenging learners to process a list of grammatically similar
sentences in working memory.
Level Elementary and above
Time ı5 minutes
Preparation Create or find ı0 example sentences which use an area of language
that you would like your class to focus on. Make enough copies of
these so that there are enough for one per learner. See Box ı.4 for
some examples using the ‘double the + comparative’ structure for
an intermediate group.

Procedure
ı Give one sentence to each learner in the class. Make sure everyone
understands what their sentence says.
2 Ask everyone to stand up so that they can move around freely. Everyone
finds a partner and shares their sentences by saying them to each other.
They now practise their partner’s sentence until they can remember it
exactly.
3 When they are both sure that they can do this, they move off and find
a new partner. They now repeat the process, but this time using the
sentence that they remembered from the previous partner.
4 The learners keep swapping partners and remembering new sentences
until you feel that everyone has heard most of the sentences at least once.
Of course, they may hear some of the sentences more than once. This
doesn’t matter – if this happens they still pass the sentence on to the next
person they work with in the usual way.
5 Everyone sits down and writes down all of the sentences that they can
remember. Now ask them to work in pairs and to correct and add to each
other’s lists.
6 Show the class the original list of sentences so that they can compare
it with what they have written. They now go through the list in pairs,
discussing which of the sentences they agree with and why.
Tip: It is important when setting this activity up to make it very clear that
learners need to remember their partner’s sentence each time they work with
a new person. This is best done by demonstrating at the beginning with a few
learners in front of the class.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Variations
ı For an extra challenge, ask learners to remember each new sentence that
they hear as well all the other ones they have heard. Each time they meet a
new person they repeat all of the sentences they can remember.
2 Find a short text of five to eight sentences. Give each learner in the class
one of the sentences from the text. The activity works as above, but at the
final stage they are trying to construct a complete text rather than a list of
sentences.

Box 1.4: Sentence swapping

The more coffee you drink, the more tired you feel.

✂
The more you talk about your feelings, the better your relationships are.

✂
The more you learn other languages, the more open-minded you become.

✂
The more exercise you get, the more energy you seem to have.

✂
The more possessions you have, the more you want.

✂
The later you have children, the more difficult it becomes to adapt.

✂
The more freedom you give children, the more they start to behave badly.

✂
The more mistakes you make, the more your English improves.

✂
The more weapons a country has, the more likely it is to be involved in a war.

✂
The smaller the class size, the more we can learn.

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 Mental stretching

1.5 Working-memory challenge

Memory focus Challenging learners to hold multiple new language items in
working memory.
Level Any
Time 5–ı5 minutes
Preparation None

Procedure
ı Ask everyone to write down a list of six language items that they have
learnt recently, or are struggling to learn or would like to learn. This could
be single words, chunks or example sentences for an area of grammar.
Allow plenty of time for this and encourage dictionary access, or help out
by reformulating and correcting what they have written where necessary.
2 Now ask everyone to work with a partner and to swap lists.
3 Learner A now reads out two items from Learner B’s list. Learner
B repeats the items back in reverse order (i.e. repeating the second item
and then the first). Learner A now repeats this process with three items,
etc. What is the maximum number of items that Learner B can remember
in reverse order?
4 Ask the learners to swap roles within their pairs and to give each other
feedback, both on their ability to do the task and on the usefulness of the
activity.

Variations
ı Make a list of sentences using a particular structure which get
progressively longer (see the example below in Box ı.5). Learners work
in pairs. Learner A looks at the sheet and reads out the sentences in order.
Learner B listens and tries to repeat exactly the sentence that Learner A
says. How far down the list can they get before it becomes too much to
retain in working memory and they start making mistakes?
2 With a small class this activity can also be done as a competition. Divide
the class into two groups. The teacher reads out the sentences in order
and the members of each group take it in turns to repeat the sentences.
Points are awarded according to how accurate the repetition was.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Box 1.5: Working memory challenge

I went to the shops. (5 words)

I bought a packet of rice. (6 words)

I had a shower in the morning. (7 words)

I played the guitar for a few hours. (8 words)

I listened to some music while I had breakfast. (9 words)

I made a cheese and tomato sandwich for my lunch. (10 words)

I watched a great football match on television in the evening. (11 words)

I wanted to swim in the sea but it was too cold. (12 words)

I cooked a really nice meal for everyone who lives in my house. (13 words)

I did some work in the garden and then came inside to have lunch. (14 words)

I tried to do some exercises in my grammar book, but they were very difficult.
(15 words)

I went for a drink in a café with my brother and some of his friends. (16 words)

I had a delicious bowl of soup in a restaurant and then read some of my book.
(17 words)

I took my little sister to school by car and then drove to my cousin’s house for
breakfast. (18 words)

I was really hungry, so I made lots of delicious pancakes and ate them all before
everybody came home. (19 words)

I cleaned my house for three hours on Monday because it was very dirty after the
party at the weekend. (20 words)

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 Mental stretching

1.6 Waiters
Memory focus Storing an increasingly lengthy list of food items in working
memory and linking them to members of the class.
Level Elementary and above
Time 5–20 minutes
Preparation None

Procedure
ı Explain that you are a waiter and choose one of your learners to be your
customer. Tell them that your customer is going to order a plate of food
and a drink from you.
2 Go over to the customer and ask him what he would like to order. This
could be anything he likes (within reason). Your task is to remember what
he says.
Customer: I’d like chicken and chips and a large glass of lemonade,
please.
Waiter: Would you like peas with that?
Customer: Yes, please.
Waiter: Ice in the lemonade?
Customer: No, thanks.
3 Now walk right out of the room and immediately come back in again. Go
back up to the customer and ‘deliver’ his food.
Waiter: Here you are, sir. Chicken, chips and peas and a large
glass of lemonade with no ice.
Customer: Thanks very much.
4 Now hand the activity over to the learners and choose somebody to be
the waiter. This time the waiter is going to repeat what you did, but this
time with two customers. This is not a competition, however, and the task
of the customer is not to try to make the waiter fail. Remember that the
more dialogue that happens in each conversation (Would you like sugar?,
etc.), the more likely the waiter is to succeed.
5 Keep changing the person who is the waiter and keep increasing the
number of customer orders he or she has to remember each time. What is
the maximum number of customer orders that anyone can remember?

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.7 Delayed TPR

Memory focus Holding a list of instructions in working memory.
Level Any
Time 5–ı5 minutes
Preparation None

Procedure
ı Check that learners understand the vocabulary needed for the
instructions that will be used (pick up, carry, put down, etc.) by asking
individuals in the class to perform different actions (pick up your pen,
etc.).
2 Give a list of instructions for a learner to follow, making sure that he
or she starts to do the actions only after the list is complete. Start with
only a few initially, but then build it up to see how many instructions
learners can retain in memory at a time. Here are some examples for an
elementary group:
Go over to the whiteboard.
Pick up the whiteboard marker.
Draw a man on the board.
Put the marker down in front of X.
Take Y’s pen.
Give it to Z.
Pull W out of her seat.
Sit in her seat.
Put her book on your head.
Turn round.
3 Ask learners to do the same activity in pairs.

Follow-up
At the end of each sequence at Step 2, ask the other learners to recall the
instructions that were followed. This is a natural way of activating past verb
forms.

Note
There may be a marked difference in the number of instructions different
learners can retain. For this reason it is better not to put learners on the spot
too much in the whole-class format.

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 Mental stretching

1.8 What did you say again?

Memory focus Processing an area of grammar in working memory.
Level Any
Time 5–ı5 minutes
Preparation Plan some sentences about yourself that contain lots of examples
of the structure to be focused on. See Box ı.8 for example sentences
for beginner and upper intermediate groups.

Procedure
ı Read out the sentences at least once. The learners listen and try to
remember as much information as possible. They should not make notes.
2 Ask the learners to work in pairs and tell each other as much as they can
remember from what was said. They need to change the sentences from
first to third person.
3 One learner tells the class what he or she can remember. The others
and/or the teacher fill in any missing details.
4 The learners then do the same activity in pairs. Learner A tells Learner B
lots of sentences about him- or herself using the forms. (They may need
time and help to plan these first.) Learner B listens, tries to remember and
then at the end repeats back everything he or she can recall. Learner B
needs to change the sentences from first to second person.
5 Learners A and B then swap roles and repeat the process.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Box 1.8: What did you say again?

Beginners

My father is 84 years old.

My mother is 66 years old.

My older sister lives in London.

My younger sister is a teacher.

My older brother lives in Spain.

My younger brother lives in Devon.

Upper intermediate

I wish I hadn’t given up playing rugby. If I hadn’t given up I could’ve got quite good.

I wish I hadn’t eaten so much last night. I feel really bloated this morning.

I wish I was more organized and didn’t leave things to the last minute.

I wish I was better at getting out of bed in the morning.

I wish I’d learnt to drive when I was younger.

I wish I was rich enough to buy a big house with a garden where my kids could run
around.

Note
This is a simple yet powerful language-recall activity. If the level of the
speaker is higher, then the listener is nicely challenged to process new
language. If the reverse is true, then the listener naturally reformulates what
was said when he or she feeds back, and in doing so provides a gentle push to
the speaker’s own level.

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 Mental stretching

1.9 The longest sentence

Memory focus Challenging learners to retain a long sentence in working memory.
Level Pre-intermediate and above
Time 5–ı5 minutes
Preparation None

Procedure
ı Put the learners into groups of five to eight and ask them to stand in
a circle or agree on an order between them. Their task is to create the
longest sentence that they can as a group, with each person saying only
one word at a time.
2 The first person in the group says one word. The next person now has to
repeat the first person’s word, and then say another which could follow it.
3 This process continues around the circle for as long as possible, with
each person repeating the sentence as it stands up to that point, and then
adding another word at the end.
4 If anyone feels that someone adds a word that is not possible, this should
be discussed in the group and, if necessary, an alternative suggested. You
need to be available to resolve any disagreements.
5 After about five minutes, ask each group to try to bring their sentence to a
close.
6 Finally, ask one person from each group to tell you their sentence
and write them up on the board. They can now be corrected if necessary
and the class can comment on which is the longest / most interesting
sentence, etc.

Note
I learnt this activity from Cecilia Orlandini, a teacher of teenagers in Italy.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.10 Dialogue reconstruction

Memory focus Holding sentences in working memory and then reconstructing
them into a coherent dialogue.
Level Any
Time ı0–ı5 minutes
Preparation Choose or write a six-line dialogue which is suitable for the level
of the class. If using a projector, write each line on a separate
PowerPoint® slide in a random order. Alternatively, write each
line on a separate piece of paper that is large enough to see when
held up in front of the class. See Box ı.ı0 for an example for an
elementary group.

Procedure
ı Put the learners into groups of six and give each person in the group a
number from ı to 6. If the number of learners in the class does not divide
into groups of six, two people in some of the groups can represent one
number. Check that everyone is clear about who they are by asking all the
‘ı’s to raise their hands, etc.
2 Ask everyone to close their eyes except the ‘ı’s. Make sure nobody is
cheating! Display one of the sentences (not the first one) and ask the ‘ı’s to
try to remember it exactly. They should do this by holding it in working
memory rather than by writing it down, of course! Remove the sentence.
Now ask the ‘2’s to open their eyes and everyone else to shut theirs.
Display another of the sentences and ask the ‘2’s to try to remember it
exactly. Repeat this process with all of the sentences.
3 Now ask each group to try to reconstruct the six-line dialogue using all of
the remembered sentences in the correct order.
4 Write the original dialogue on the board for them to compare with the
reconstructed dialogue.

34
 Mental stretching

Box 1.10: Dialogue reconstruction

Did you have a good journey?

✂
Not bad, but I’m a bit tired.

✂
I’m sure you are! How long was the flight?

✂
Eleven hours, and the food was terrible.

✂
Really? Shall we get something to eat?

✂
That would be great!

From Memory Activities for Language Learning

© Cambridge University Press 20ıı PHOTOCOPIABLE

Variation
Pin multiple copies of the lines of the dialogue randomly on the classroom
walls. Learners work in pairs. One learner goes up to one of the sentences
on the classroom wall, remembers it exactly, goes back to his or her partner
(who has remained seated) and dictates the sentence to them. When six
sentences have been collected in this way, each pair then tries to put all of the
sentences into the correct order.

Follow-up
ı Once the complete dialogue is up on the board, drill it both chorally and
individually, focusing on appropriate intonation. Now rub out some of
the words and ask the learners to repeat the dialogue again. Gradually
rub out more and more of the dialogue, until eventually the learners are
repeating the dialogue with just a blank board to look at.
2 Learners engage in spontaneous conversations starting with Did you
have a good weekend/evening/party/meal/holiday?, etc. They try to keep
the conversation going for as long as possible.

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.11 Learner-generated texts

Memory focus Encouraging learners to hold in working memory a text that has
been co-constructed with them.
Level Any
Time 20 minutes plus
Preparation Choose a topic that the class could say some things about. This
might be something that you know nothing about, such as a band
that everybody likes, or the place where everybody lives. Find a
picture of it if appropriate.

Procedure
ı Tell the class what the topic is and show the picture if you have one.
2 Ask for a volunteer from the class to say something about the topic.
With a low-level group, this could be in the mother tongue. Now
orally reformulate what was said to provide a more accurate or more
sophisticated model. For instance, if a learner says Near to here have
many beaches very beautiful, you could reformulate this as There are a
lot of really beautiful beaches nearby. Write one word of the sentence
on the board to stand as a memory aid for it, and then drill it around the
room.
3 Try to construct about ı0 different sentences with the learners. With each
sentence, repeat the process of reformulating it, writing a word on the
board to represent it, and then drilling it.
4 Keep reviewing everything by pointing at each word on the board, and
asking the learners to recall the sentence it represents.
5 Finally ask everyone to write down all of the sentences as far as they can
remember them. Do this yourself as well. The following sentences were
produced when working with a group in Angola.
Angola is rich in natural resources.
Angola is a big country.
Lots of different languages are spoken there.
Angola has lots of oil and diamonds.
Angola had a long civil war.
Angola is at peace now.
Angola is in South West Africa.
Angola has a variety of different cultures.

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6 Learners can now compare their sentences with each other’s, and
improve them where necessary.
7 Now ask one learner to write all of the sentences on the board. Can
they now rewrite everything so that the sentences are linked to form a
coherent text? Here is what one group in Angola produced from the
sentences above.
Angola is a big country in South West Africa. It is rich in natural
resources like oil and diamonds. Lots of languages are spoken here
and it has a variety of different cultures. It had a long civil war but is
now at peace.

Note
This activity is based on Earl Stevick’s ‘Islamabad technique’ (so called
because it was first used as a way of producing a student-generated text
about Islamabad). You can read about it in his seminal work, Teaching
Languages: A Way and Ways, Heinle and Heinle, ı980, or in its re-edited and
reissued format, Working with Teaching Methods: What’s at Stake?, Heinle
ELT, ı998. Instead of writing a word on the board for each utterance, you
could also draw a symbol or simple image, or stick up a coloured piece of
paper to represent it.

1.12 Reordered story

Memory focus Challenging learners to hold the gist of a story in working memory,
and to order it using their awareness of cohesive devices.
Level Intermediate and above
Time ı0–ı5 minutes
Preparation Choose a story that can be broken down into no more than ı0
short sections. Make a copy of the complete story for each learner
in the class and one extra copy which has been cut up into slips. See
Box ı.ı2 for an example for an intermediate group.

Procedure
ı Choose ı0 learners to come to the front of the class. Give each learner
randomly one of the slips from the story. Tell them the slips make up a
story, but that it is in the wrong order. Their task as a whole group is to
put the story in the correct order. No one may show their slip to anyone
else.

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2 Each person in turn reads out what is on their piece of paper in a

loud, clear voice. Anyone can ask questions about language, but try
to encourage the class to deal with these queries themselves, wherever
possible, without intervention from you.
3 Anyone can now make suggestions as to the order of the story. The
learners at the front move themselves according to the order suggested.
4 Keep encouraging them to tell the story from the beginning and to move
themselves around until everyone is happy with the order.
5 Learners work in pairs and retell the story as they remember it.
6 Finally give out the complete story to everyone.

Variation
Divide the class into groups of ı0 and give each group a set of the slips. They
try to put themselves in the correct order as quickly as possible, but again
without showing their slips to anyone else. With classes that will not divide
into ı0 exactly, sentence 5 can be taken out and/or two learners can share
the same slip. For more examples of texts that can be used in this way, see
‘Teacherless tasks’, in More Grammar Games by Paul Davis and Mario
Rinvolucri, Cambridge University Press, ı995.

Follow-up
Learners write an ending for the story.

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Box 1.12: Reordered story

Gunesh was furious to think that everything was over. That Ayo didn’t love her any
more and had found somebody else.

✂
As she packed up her things in the bedroom, her eyes fell upon the bed and an
idea came into her head.

✂
She went to the kitchen and took out a packet of frozen prawns from the freezer.

✂
Back in the bedroom she took off the four bed posts, poured the prawns inside,
and then replaced the posts again.

✂
She phoned Ayo on her mobile. ‘The flat is all yours,’ she said.

✂
Ayo and Lee moved in that afternoon. They were pleased to see that Gunesh
hadn’t taken the bed with her.

✂
Time passed, and they couldn’t help noticing a strange smell in the bedroom,
which seemed to be getting worse.

✂
After a few months it was unbearable, and neither of them could work out where it
was coming from.

✂
Eventually they decided they could stand it no longer. Ayo phoned Gunesh to say
they were moving out. Would she like to buy the flat from them at a reduced rate?

✂
Gunesh accepted and went round to get the keys. She smiled to herself as she
saw the removal men carefully lifting the bed into the removal van.

From Memory Activities for Language Learning

© Cambridge University Press 20ıı PHOTOCOPIABLE

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

1.13 Co-constructed storytelling

Memory focus Challenging learners to hold the spoken utterances of a story in
working memory.
Level Any
Time 5–20 minutes (depending on the story)
Preparation Choose a story that your class will find interesting and that has
a substantial dialogue content. Alternatively, use the example in
Box ı.ı3, which is pitched at a pre-intermediate group.

Procedure
ı Choose volunteers to play each of the characters in the story and invite
them to the front of the class. For the story in Box ı.ı3, you will need five
people to play the five characters of the man, the wolf, the tree, the young
woman and the wise old woman who lives at the end of the world. The
rest of the class simply watch the story.
2 Tell the story, adapting it to suit the level of the group you are working
with. Each time there is a line of dialogue, say what the character says,
and then indicate that the person playing that role should repeat the line.
Encourage them to do it as naturally as possible, adapting the level of the
lines to suit the learners. It also helps to break the dialogue up into short
manageable chunks before they repeat it. The actors should move around
the stage as the story demands it.

Follow-up
Give out the text of the story and ask the learners to do the same activity in
groups of six. One person in each group (a stronger learner) takes on the role
of storyteller.

Note
I learnt the idea of learners repeating and performing the dialogue content of
this story from the storyteller Michael Quinn, who has used it with mixed-
nationality groups of adults at the Totnes School of English.

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Box 1.13: Co-constructed storytelling

The unluckiest man in the world

Once upon a time the unluckiest man in the world was sitting on a bench. ‘Why
does everything I do go wrong?’ he asked himself. ‘I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my
girlfriend, I’ve lost my home – I’ve lost everything!’ Then he had an idea. ‘I’ll walk to
the end of the world and I’ll ask the wise old woman how to get some luck.’

So he started on his journey to the end of the world. After walking for a while, he
came to a forest and there he saw a wolf. The wolf looked very sad and very thin
and very hungry. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ said the man.

‘I don’t know what to do,’ said the wolf. ‘I feel so weak and tired and hungry all the
time and I don’t know why.’
‘Well,’ said the man, ‘I’m going to the end of the world to ask the wise old woman
how to get some luck. If you want I could ask her why you’re so hungry.’

‘I would be very grateful,’ said the wolf, and the man continued on his journey.

After a while he came to a tree. The tree looked very small and sad, and all of its
leaves were missing – even though it was the middle of summer.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ said the man.

‘I don’t know what to do,’ said the tree. ‘I can’t grow. All of the other trees get
bigger and bigger but I just stay the same.’

‘Well,’ said the man, ‘I’m going to the end of the world to ask the wise old woman
how to get some luck. If you want I could ask her why you can’t grow.’

‘Oh, thank you so much,’ said the tree, and the man continued on his journey.

When he was nearly at the end of the world, he came to a lovely house, and
standing at the front door was a very beautiful young woman. ‘Come inside!’ she
called to him. ‘You must be hungry after your journey,’ and she cooked him a
wonderful meal with delicious wine and they laughed and joked together. But then
the young woman suddenly started to cry.

‘What’s wrong?’ said the man.

‘I don’t know what to do,’ said the young woman. ‘I’m so sad and lonely living here
on my own, and I don’t know why.’

‘Well,’ said the man, ‘I’m going to the end of the world to ask the wise old woman
how to get some luck. If you want I could ask her why you are so sad and lonely.’
continued

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Memory Activities for Language Learning

Box 1.13: (cont.)

‘Oh, thank you,’ said the young woman. ‘You are so kind.’ And the man continued
on his journey.
And finally he got to the end of the world and there was the wise old woman sitting
on a cloud. ‘What do you want?’ asked the wise old woman.
‘I want to know where my luck is,’ replied the man.
‘It’s right in front of you,’ said the wise old woman. ‘You just have to recognize it.’
‘Oh, I see,’ said the man. ‘Thanks very much.’ And the man was just about to go
when he remembered the questions of his friends. He listened as the wise old
woman whispered the answers to him, and when she was finished he started to
walk home again.
He got to the house of the beautiful young woman. ‘The wise old woman said you
need to find a husband to live with you,’ he called to her. ‘Then you won’t be sad
and lonely.’
‘I see,’ said the young woman. ‘Would you like to be my husband? You could live
with me in this lovely house and I’ll cook for you every day and massage your feet.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said the man, ‘I have to go and find my luck. The wise old woman said
it’s right in front of me. I just have to recognize it. Sorry.’
And he continued on his journey. When he got to the forest, the tree said to him,
‘Did you find out what is wrong with me?’
‘Yes,’ said the man. ‘The wise old woman said there is a box of treasure under your
roots. You need to find somebody to dig it up so that your roots can grow again.’
‘Could you dig it up?’ said the tree. ‘You can keep the treasure.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said the man. ‘I have to go and find my luck. The wise old woman said
it’s right in front of me. I just have to open my eyes and see it. Sorry.’ And he
continued on his journey.
Soon he came to the wolf, lying on the ground, almost dead. ‘Did you ask the wise
old woman for me?’ said the wolf.
‘Yes,’ replied the man. ‘The wise old woman said you are hungry because you’re
not eating enough. To feel better you just have to eat the first stupid man who
comes your way!’
And that is exactly what he did!

From Memory Activities for Language Learning

© Cambridge University Press 20ıı PHOTOCOPIABLE

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