Selective Memorization As An Effective Approach In College English Teaching--An Experiment-based Study

Foreign Language learning is no easy job. Teaching professionals across the world have been exploring methods to help students make this job easier and more effective. However, whatever method is adopted no teacher can totally ignore the method of memorization. Memorization, a traditional but by no means obsolete practice, is necessary in any language program—vocabulary, grammatical forms, phrases, whole conversations, paradigms,tone rules, etc.In current college English teaching, on the one hand teaching practitioners regard memorization practice as rote and lack of effectiveness, on the other hand, however, students depend heavily on particularly vocabulary memorization to study English. In view of this, the author proposes a flexible memorization practice referred to as 'selective memorization', which is supposed to be effective in vocabulary mastery and expression improvement. Theoretically, this thesis highlights bases for the proposed memorization activity—lexical meaning, contextualism and up-to-date brain-based research. In addition, a brief review of how memorization activities have been used by other professionals is also made. Meanwhile, a relevant comparative experiment about 'selective memorization' is also conducted on two groups of non-English majors. Based on data collected from translation tests, questionnaires and written assignments, the effectiveness of this method is proved both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the end, the thesis concludes that with the effectiveness in improving students' language proficiency and some operational advantages, selective memorization can be implemented during college English teaching as an important element in the teacher's instruction package.