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Listening and watching 11 form

How to memorize anything faster

Level: Upper Intermediate.

Type of the lesson: Skills. Watching and listening. Training for ZNO.

Objectives:

• To refresh techniques for successful performance at the test. Part I: listening.
• To teach useful vocabulary
• To give psychological advice on improving memory
• To teach students consolidate knowledge on the topic

Materials and equipment:

• Video from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBezq1fFUEA
• Leaflets with sample  tasks

The procedure:

1. Greeting. Presenting the plan of the lesson

T: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today we practice listening.

2. Warm-up. Speech practice

T:  It’s not a secret for you, that we are in for a tough period in our lives – soon we have the ZNO exam in English.

Practice proves that listening is the most challenging part of the latter. But don’t be afraid. We’ll  try  to work out the perfect strategy to overcome our fear of failing the first paper of the exam. The video we are going to watch ( it is free on YouTube, by the way) is chosen on purpose, as it gives your some tips of advice on improving your memory. Have you ever thought of the ways to make memorizing easier? Can you share your experience?

S1: Well, I tried hanging out colourful stickers with mathematical formulas. I placed them in the frequently used places: on the refrigerator, in the bathroom, next to the organizer. That was helpful.

S2: As for me, I have heard of eating tasty things while cramming up for exams: that gives you energy and makes the learning process more pleasant. The problem is I have put on some weight.

S3: I used listening to my favourite music while memorizing dates for my History exam. Scientists say classic music is the best option, but I hate it. I listened to techno – that helped to remember some numbers connected with WW II.

3. Pre-listening tasks. Introducing useful vocabulary. Vocabulary exercises.

T: That’s wonderful pieces of advice. But I want to demonstrate you some more scientific techniques for improving your memory.

First, have a look at the useful vocabulary. The words you may need to understand the video : retention, perceptional cues ,memorize ,acoustically, visualize,  boost, cognitive, participants, impact ,facilitate, neurons, booster , distractor, focused ,mnemonics ,conjunctions, handy, meaningful, memory trees.

Try to classify them according to the part of speech they belong to: if one word goes to several boxes, write them everywhere you can use it.

<Ss do the task>

T: What helped you to decide whether a word is a noun or a verb?

S1: Mostly suffixes.

T: That’s right! If you know the meaning of, say a verb  (e.g., ‘distract’) and the meaning that suffix –er adds to a verb , you can guess what the word ‘distractor’ means.

Such technique is extremely helpful when doing the task of filling in the gaps or completing a close test.

4.  Studying the tasks .Choose T(true) or F(false)

T: Now let’s watch for the first time and do T(true) or F(false) section. First, look through the questions attentively. It’s probable, that you can answer some of them even before listening, because the statements are a piece of common knowledge. So, an appropriate strategy before listening is studying the questions and trying to predict the correct answer.

5. Watching and listening. Doing the True –False tasks.

T: Read the following sentences, watch and listen to the record. Decide whether the sentences are true or false. Write T (true) or F (false) next to the sentences. If it is not said in the tape script, write DS (doesn’t say)

6. Watching for the second time. Doing the tasks of filling in the gaps.

T: Let us try another task.

Fill in the gaps with missing information .Use up to four words.

7. Matching sentences halves.

T: Try one more task.

Match the sentences’ halves .Write letters next to the numbers, like in the example: 1-a)

Keys: 1-A, 2 –f, 3 –g, 4-d, 5- b, 6- k, 7- l, 8- c, 9- e, 10 – h, 11- I, 12- j.

8. Giving marks

T: Thanks for your work. I believe you learnt a lot during today’s lesson. You will get excellent marks.

9. Giving Home task.

T: Your home-task will be to find information about tips “How to get prepared to the exam in a short time” and make a quiz (10  15 questions) and present it to your classmates at the next lesson.

10. Saying Good-bye.

T: Bye! Take care !

Appendix

Tape script (adapted)

Do you want to memorize words 10 times faster?

Memory trees – means that  memorization is more than just retaining words. While remembering things  try to  tackle  a balance between retention and speed.

Perhaps,you want to memorize something quickly and also stick it in your memory.

Memory works best when it has some meaning to offer.

‘The term Amigdala’  is better memorized when you imagine it is scary. In such way, it handles memory and emotion. It’s the reason you get scared. Memory trees help you to retain information by highlighting information where terms come from and why they matter. They work especially well    because they mimic the way your memory works.

 2. Create perceptional cues

Your brain  stores information   from all 5 of your senses. It retains everything - from bitter tastes to most enchanting sounds that you’ve ever heard . When you need to memorize something quickly, try to take advantage of your entire perceptual range. Imagine you need to memorize   a phone number.  To stare at the piece of paper and say aloud the numbers in your head/ But you are only using one type of memory.

Visually you can assign  them in different colours and images.

Acoustically, you can turn that number into a  song, giving it a catchy melody. You can use taste to parrot it with some sweet, like  a brownie. Each time you add a new perceptional element. A week later someone asks you what the telephone number was. You may not be able to remember that number on its own but you can still visualize the images or sing a song you invented. So don’t waste time repeating the word for hours . Be creative to speed up the learning process.

3. Nutritional memory boosters.

In 2018  scientists conducted a research . They looked into 28000 diets. It proved that   fruits and vegetables really improved people’s memories.  Have been floating around for a long time.  Diet and exercise have always been important for health of your brain. You can really boost your cognitive skills:  someone who eats 4 servings of vegetables a day performs better than someone who eats only  one. It isn’t just a myth. Participants who ate   most fruit and vegetables ranked to the top of the charts , while those who ate one ranked  the least. And this was not just one time . The study measured participants over 20 years,   and the gap only went bigger over time, they were all the way down to the bottom.

Why does your diet has such a great impact on your memory? Fruit and vegetables are full of vitamins that do two important things. Firstly, they  facilitate communication in the brain. The more connections the neurons can make, the faster you can think, learn and retain information. The second important thing is that vitamins help reduce cognitive decline.  That means they slow down aging process.

 But fruit and vegetables are just a long-term booster. A proper diet can cause immediate recall.

The ideal diet includes, vitamins, anti-oxidants and proteins.

Besides, you should eat something portable. Sitting down for a big meal can be more  of a distractor  than anything else.

So, go for a hand-held snack  instead of a substantial meal. Snacking  while you study releases nervous energy, too. It is like tapping.  It gives your body something to do, so your brain can stay focused.

4.Points of interest  This technique means personal interest plays a major role in memorizing. You might remember something for decades just because you thought it was interesting.

If you don’t want to memorize something, catch your emotions involved.

11. Various mnemonics.

In 1967 a professor, Gerald R. Miller by name, introduced the term ‘mnemonics’. Mnemonic rules   significantly improve recalling.

Mnemonics are patterns we create to encode information in a unique way. They serve one purpose: they give something more meaning, One type of mnemonics is creating a phrase using the first letters of the word we need to remember.For example, the word FANBOYS  stands for coordinate conjunctions in English.

12. Selective memorization.

Surprisingly enough, you can improve your memory by memorizing less.

Trying to memorize everything is like filling your bedroom with everything you’ve ever bought.

If you have to remember simple, but unimportant facts, like your schedule, use lists and organisers. Calendars will come handy. And you  will have time to enjoy yourself and relax!