To Break Through The Barrier Of Vocabulary Among Chinese Non-English Major College Students By Skillful Use Of Memory Strategies

In the process of language learning, vocabulary is very important. It is the carrier and conveyor of meaning. However, we find vocabulary has tended to be a Cinderella in relation to sentence construction and the grammatical categories relevant to sentence-construction. From the 1960s, vocabulary has rapidly changed its status from a neglected part to an area of high emphasis. Especially in the area of cognitive psychology, great contributions have been made.Learning cannot be separated from memory and this is particularly true in China, where memory has neither been fully recognized nor been made active use of. Craik and Lockhart (1972) constructed the model of the information-processing system; in this model, they believed that memory depends upon what learners do as they encode new information. That is, the depth of processing makes a difference in how well we remember it. In particular, the way we rehearse information influences the quality of our memory. The materials involving deep processing are more memorable than those, which involve shallow processing.During the six years'college English teaching, the author has found some students pay little attention to the memorization of vocabulary; some other students who have realized the importance of memorizing vocabulary have no effective memory strategies and can only use rote memorization, so the efficiency is rather low. Gradually, students have lost their confidence and interests in learning English; small vocabulary will also be the biggest problem and affect their reading, writing, listening, etc. Therefore, the results of national CET-4 are quite unsatisfactory.The thesis aims at elaborating the importance of memory in vocabulary learning and exploring the role of memory in the major aspects of vocabulary teaching and learning. The author wants to call for the effective use of memory strategies among Chinese non-English majors to ensure efficiency. The author also would like to help students understand that memorizing words is not a simple mechanical process, but a dynamic mental process dealing with the deep working process of memory. Furthermore, students can choose appropriate method to improve their learning interest and efficiency instead of using the inflexible way to memorize words. At the same time, teachers cannot leave the task of memorizing words to students alone, instead, they must teach students the knowledge about vocabulary, the cognitive psychology, and give some suggestions about memory strategies to help the students broaden their vocabulary and improve their memory.