In the current world, in the age of technology and the spread of information, foreign languages have become an integral part of our lives. It has become vital to learn and command at least one foreign language, English being probably the most spread one. Based on various studies and knowledge sharing sessions, we have come to learn that foreign language acquisition presents several barriers for the learners; the structural differences of the mother tongue, the cultural barrier and the general ‘mental block’ in apprehending the gist of the language, its structures and varieties.

Among the methods and techniques existing in helping the learners get hold of the foreign language, the audio-lingual method is to be singled out, as it is the one suggesting the use of text memorization in foreign language acquisition. Text memorization is also known as ‘habit formation’ when learners are developing habits of language, structural, lexical, pronunciation patterns.

Main Beliefs

View 1

There are practically 2 views on using text memorization in learning a foreign language. One of them suggests that through numerous repetition and habit formation it is possible to acquire a foreign language and to use those well-versed chunks of speech in real-life communication. In other words, one needs to learn and memorize an extensive amount of words, phrases, grammatical structures, etc. and remember to use them when a chance is presented. Advocates of this view believe that habit formation is truly an effective way of language learning, especially with young learners, who learn and memorize everything very fast and apply it without understanding the process the brain goes through. A good example here can be one of the children watching cartoons in a foreign language and then using some phrases in the speech from those cartoons quite appropriately.

If we look closely, a lot of tasks that we are introducing in class have a lot to do with this habit formation. Grammar tasks and exercises are mostly based on it. The chunk goes as follows:

  1. We introduce/elicit a new grammar structure.
  2. We ask the students to complete some exercises (gap-fill most of the time).
  3. We put the structure in practice by asking the students to use it to talk about a situation (e.g.past simple-talk about your last holiday). 

What is this if not a repetition or a habit formation of a target structure. Saying this, we can see that it has some positive effect on developing foreign language competency among the learners.

View 2

Others, however, think that learning should be done through association and reflection, through linking new knowledge to the existing one, hence, mere memorization is not enough to sustain knowledge, help the learners develop a linguistic feeling and understanding of the language patterns. The advocates of this view believe that one should create connections between the presented material and be able to connect it with the knowledge they already had. This will ensure a long-term result in language acquisition.

Personal experience

In my experience, text memorization has been both successful and not so. In my university years, it was quite acceptable to learn texts by heart to develop vocabulary and structure. This has been very useful for me. I managed to learn a lot of new phrases and structures which I was able to recall and use in different situations until they became part of my active vocabulary. The book we were using to learn texts from was “For and Against” by L.G. Alexander.

However, this was not a very successful way of learning for everyone. Some people had difficulty in memorizing the exact structures, they confused words and phrases and confessed of never being able to recall and use the phrases when needed. My guess is that memorization can work well with visual learners and people who are good at scanning and remembering information.

This being said, we should bear in mind that as it is with all types of learning and activities, text memorization should also be considered effective for a type of learners. Hence, whether choosing to use it or not, we should be able to identify the learner types and the methods that work the best for them.

Personally, I do not like using this method with adult learners, as:

  1. They are not very good at memorising things which they think they are not interested in (e.g. a text about globalization).
  2. They prefer to find logical connections between patterns (this is true especially for people with a technical background).
  3. You do not want to load them with extensive information.

Hence, forming associations and building on the learners’ prior knowledge has been effective for me in enhancing their foreign language retention.

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