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Read part 1 of this article.
 General principles to aid memory
- Create interest: find a purpose, 'This will be useful for ...'
- Understand it: it's impossible to learn what you don't understand.
- Positive thinking and confidence: often we fail to learn because we are convinced we can't do it.
- Intend to attend to it!: be determined to learn - avoid distractions.
- Organise information into sensible chunks and rehearse. Do not try to learn too much at one time - remember your short term memory can only hold seven items. Plan what you are going to learn.
- Create associations: it's much easier to learn something new if you link it to something you already know.
- Look for meaning and compare with what you already know: comparative grammar is not a waste of time - most languages have countable and uncountable nouns!
- Remember the unusual: some aspects of English grammar and usage will appear bizarre to the students. Learn them like the information about trees in the Amazon rain forest (see part one).
- Develop a system of memory triggers for each item you wish to remember. A 'souvenir' will trigger your memory of a holiday.
- Use a multisensory approach: employ a combination of audio, visual and physical strategies to use your audio, visual and motor memories.
- Be relaxed: play non-lyrical music to help your brain's Alpha waves buzz.
- Doodle, highlight, cartoon, underline: decorate your notes with colour and pictures to make them more memorable.
- Involve your emotions: feel happy and reward yourself when your memory works well. Develop an emotional relationship with the information you are learning!
- Use concrete materials: make a model or game to represent the information you need to remember.
- You remember best the information you receive at the beginning or end of a work session: Try having a short change in the middle of a work session so you have two beginnings and two endings.
 Training your students to have better memories
- Make memory training a significant element of the course.
- Encourage students to think carefully about how their memories work.
- Start each lesson by asking students to recount the sequence of events and ideas in the previous lesson.
- Encourage the students to experiment with memory techniques. Eliminate their fear of investigating their mental processes. Many techniques will seem strange or silly but students will find they work!
- Words die in lists - encourage students to contextualise, visualise and personalise their vocabulary.
- Build self-confidence by teaching students to begin each lesson by repeating three times 'Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.'
- Teach your students to use diaries or calendars to keep records of their 'review cycle'. This should be based on One hour, One day, One week, One month. So a lesson is reviewed after one hour, then the next day and so on.
- Test students' memories regularly so they can see their memories improving!
So how will you remember all the information in this article?
The ideas in this article come from many sources including:
Longman Brain Trainer ~ Jonathan O'Brien - Longman 1999
The Good Study Guide ~ Andrew Northledge - Open University 1990
The Human Brain ~ Susan Greenfield - Phoenix 1997
Memory, Meaning and Method ~ Earl Stevick Newbury House 1976
In your hands ~ Jane Revell & Susan Norman - Safire Press 1996
Wordflo ~ Steve and Jacqueline Smith - Longman 1997
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