Learning by word association

There are several techniques that can help you learn and remember vocabulary in the language you are learning.  In this post, we will explore techniques that help you remember what a word means by associating it with an image in your mind.  Association links new information with old information stored in your memory.  If you link a word with an image, it can be linked with other information already stored in your memory and so you will remember it better.  For example, to remember a person’s name, you can relate it to a feature of their appearance.  Here are a few more examples of using images to help you remember vocabulary.

Linkword Technique

The Linkword mnemonic (memory-aid) technique, developed by Michael Gruneberg, uses an image to link a word in one language with a word in another language. Here are some examples from French vocabulary for English speakers: the word for “rug” or “carpet” in French is “tapis”.  To remember this, the Linkword technique says you should imagine an image of an oriental rug with the picture of a tap woven into it in chrome thread.  “Tap” is found at the beginning of “tapis” so should help you remember the word when you visualise a rug.  Next, the word for “grumpy” is “grognon”, so you should imagine a grumpy man groaning – “groan” sounds like “grognon” so should help you remember it.  Other examples from German and Spanish are: to remember “Raupe” (German for “caterpillar”), you should imagine a caterpillar with a rope around its middle.  To remember the Spanish word for cat, “gato”, you can imagine a cat eating a chocolate cake, or “gateau”.

Visualisation Technique

It is not always necessary to think of words in your own language in the visualisation.  It is also possible to learn vocabulary by associating the word with an image.  This technique uses the idea that when you hear a word, you visualise things that are associated with it in your mind.  For example, when you hear “bird”, you think of what a bird looks like.  When you hear “sweet”, you think of things that taste or smell sweet such as desserts or flowers.  This is how we understand the word’s meaning, according to this technique.

Teachers teaching languages can show students a picture representing the meaning of a word they are trying to teach them.  Otherwise, they can act out the meaning.  They can ask students to think of things that are associated with the word, such as food if the word is “tasty” or a successful or hardworking person if the word is “ambitious” (and abstract concept).  If you are learning by yourself, you can draw pictures of the words you are learning or think about images that the word conjures up.

This visualisation technique can also help you learn connotations of words (ideas or feelings that a word invokes beyond its literal meaning).

The Town Language Mnemonic

An extended example of the visualisation technique is the town language mnemonic developed by Dominic O’Brien.   It is based on the idea that the core vocabulary of a language relates to everyday things – which can typically be found in a town or village. To use this technique, you should choose a town you are familiar with and use objects there as cues to recall images that link to words in your new language.  Here are some examples:

Nouns in the town

Nouns should be associated with locations where you might find them: the word for “book” should be associated with an image in your mind of a book on a shelf in the library. The word for “bread” should be associated with an image of a loaf in a bakery.  Words for vegetables should be associated with a greengrocer’s shop. If there is a farm outside the town it can help you remember the names of animals.

Adjectives in the park

Adjectives should be associated with a park in the town: words like “green”, “small”, “cold”.  People in the park can help you remember adjectives for different characteristics or hair colour or

Verbs in the gym

Verbs can be associated with a gym or playing field. This allows you to make associations for “lift”, “run”, “walk”, “hit”, “eat”, “swim”, “drive”, etc.

Try It Yourself

As well as being powerful tools for learning and memorising vocabulary, these techniques can be fun and can keep you interested in learning new words.  Lists of words can be useful too but images can help jog your memory.  You may remember the words better if you write them on a whiteboard too – you are active and moving around when you do this so your brain is stimulated more than when you are sitting at a desk.  We hope you find these tips useful.  Let us know if they work for you!

Written by Suzannah Young

A word association game is a game in which a word is given to a student and then that student must say an associated word or phrase. Word association games are a fantastic way to help students practice using their existing vocabulary and to learn new English words.

While playing word association games, students are likely to encounter words that they have not heard before. These words are associated with the vocabulary they already know, and so it is very easy for students to guess the meanings of these new words. This makes word association games fantastic for learning new words.

Let’s look at some different ways in which you can play word association games with your students.

Simple Word Association

The simplest way to play word association games in class is to simply give one student a word and ask that student to say the first thing that comes to mind. For example, if you say the word “drink” a student might say the word “juice”. Then, the next student should say the first word which comes to their mind, for example, “orange”.

If you’re playing this game with kids, then to make it even more fun you could get them to pass a ball as they play. When a student has the ball it is their turn, and once they have said their word they should pass the ball to the next player.

However, if you are playing word association games while social distancing in the classroom, then it is probably best not to pass a ball around. Instead, you could ask your students to stand up from their desks when it is their turn.

Word Association Topics

Another fun way to play word association games in class is to choose a particular topic and ask students to say words associated with that topic. Usually, when playing word association games, students would start at one word, and after a few turns, the words might become completely unrelated to the original topic.

But when playing a word association game with a particular topic, all words must be related to the main topic. For example, if you choose the topic ‘food’ then every word must be a kind of food. If a student says ‘milk’ for example, then that student would be out as it is a drink and not a food.

Here are some topics you could use for your next word association game:

• Types Of Food
• Types Of Drinks
• Countries
• Hobbies
• Sports
• Superheroes
• Colors
• Furniture in a house
• School Subjects
• Types Of Weather

Guess The Secret Word

A really fun way to get your students thinking while playing a word association game is to have them try and guess a secret word. Rather than have students say any associated word that comes to mind, instead think of a secret word and tell them some words associated with that.

Then students should try to guess what the secret word is. To make it more fun you could even ask students to guess other words which might be associated to the secret word.

For example, if the secret word was ‘yellow’ you could say the word “banana” to your students. Then they might guess something like “apple” and you can tell them it is not related. But when they say something like “lemon” you can tell them that it is associated with it.

After some time students will be able to guess the secret word. This way of playing a word association game is a fantastic way to get students to practice their thinking skills while learning new vocabulary.

Ryhming Words

This way of playing word association games can lead to some hilarious answers. Simply give students a word and ask them to come up with a word which rhymes. In this game, the words don’t necessarily have to be related. They just need to rhyme.

For example, you might say the word “cold” and students might say “old”, “mold”, “bold”, “told”, etc. The first student who can’t come up with a rhyming word is out.

Chain Game

This last word association style game is one you have probably played at some point in your life. In this game a student would say one word and then the next student must say a word which starts with the last letter of the previous word.

For example, if the word was ‘pizza’ then the next student must say a word beginning with ‘a’. Then, the next student might say “apple” and so the next student must say a word beginning with ‘e’. And so, on. The first student who cannot say a word is out.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found some inspiration for your next word association game.

Before you go, don’t forget to check out our free lesson materials, including ESL Games, PowerPoint Games, ESL Worksheets, ESL PowerPoints, and ESL Printables.

One of the best ways to learn a foreign language is learning by association, which means using things that are already familiar to you to help you remember new words and phrases.

There are several ways to do this. The first, and simplest, is to find a word in your own language that sounds similar to the one you are learning and use that as a reminder. This is actually something which tends to happen naturally without you even trying. Although it is an easy way to memorise vocabulary, you do need to be careful if the pronunciation is not exactly the same. This could lead to confusion later on!

Another way to make new words stick is to create a picture of them in your mind. For example, you want to remember that the English word for a formal dance is “ball”. You already know that a ball is a round thing that you can throw, so to remember the new meaning of the word, you could imagine people dancing inside a giant football. This may seem silly, but actually the stranger these mental images are, the better. They are the ones that stay in your mind the longest.

A good way of learning how to spell difficult new words is by using a mnemonic. A mnemonic is a way of remembering things in a certain order, for example the days of the week, the months of the year, or the letters of a word. A classic example is the word “because”. People often find this word tricky to spell and to learn it they use the first letters of each word in the following sentence:

“Big Elephants Can Always Upset Small Elephants”

Again, it’s a funny and silly idea that sticks in your mind. You can use any sentence you like to remember any word. Just as long as it’s something memorable to you.

The key to learning by association is to use your imagination and come up with things that will stick in your mind so that you can recall them easily when the time comes.

About the Author

Natalie Saunders is a former EFL educator based in China. She currently works as a writer and translator with a special focus on Traditional Chinese Medicine and health.