Receptive and Productive Recall with the Keyword Mnemonics in Bilingual Students

Abstract

The efficacy of keyword mnemonics in the learning of the non-dominant language in bilingual students was assessed. Of a total of 237 Compulsory Secondary Education students who participated in the study, 102 students used keyword mnemonics and 100 students used the rote method to learn the Spanish meaning of a list of 20 Galician words (the remaining 35 students generated the keywords to be used in the study). Moreover, each participant’s image control was assessed. The recall of the meaning of words was greater in the keyword mnemonics group than in the rote learning group both in terms of receptive and productive recall. Moreover, participants with high image control had better recall than those with low image control ability.