CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
B. Theoretical Framework
2. Mnemonics
a. Definition of Mnemonic
Mnemonic is a technique someone can use to help students improve their ability to remember and to better focus the brain. so, it is able to recall important information. Mnemonic is not limited to a certain group of students either and it should become more popular as a good in the teaching learning activities, as it has been proven by countless research projects to be effective. Mnemonic should be used as one of the best teaching practices.26
Mnemonic (pronounced “ne-mo-nik”) is memory. The word
“Mnemonic” comes from Greek, namely “Mnemosyne”, (remembrance
‘Ingatan’). Mnemonic is memorizing something with help. Such assistance can be in the form of abbreviations, conditionals with objects, or “linking”
mengingat sesuatu berdasarkan hubungan dengan suatu hal lain), besides that, Mnemonic is a technique to remember information that is very difficult to recall.
Mnemonic is a method used to help improving students’ ability to remember and it is able to recall information. It is a creative way in
25 Nia Lestari, The Use of Mnemonics Technique to Increase Students’ Vocabulary Mastery (A Classroom Action Research at the Eighth Grade Students of SMPN 2 Banyubiru in the Academic Year of 2016/2017), (Salatiga: E-Repository, 2016),
26 Erin Blackford, Mnemonic Devices: The Solution to Memory Failure, (Journal on Best Teaching Practice, 2015), 24-26.
helping students remember difficult facts and information. By implementing a mnemonic method into the teaching and learning activities, especially learning vocabulary should become every teacher’s goal. If more teachers used mnemonic, students would be more ready for having test where being ready for tests would create more confident and education-hungry students because many students in today’s school are scramble with the process of memorization and recall. Mnemonic can be more than a phrase used to remember specific information and it can also be used to better store and recall information.27 Mnemonic is a learning tool that can be used as a method of learning and memory.28
b. Types of Mnemonic
There are many types of mnemonic method. those are:29 1) Peg Word Mnemonic
Turkington says that peg-word is best method introduced by John Sambrook in England 1879.30 It uses components that have been mastered before and formatted in pair, example: merah-saga and panas-
27 Erin Blackford, Mnemonic Devices: The Solution to Memory Failure, (Journal on Best Teaching Practice, 2015), 24-26.
28 Claire F. Smith, The Twelve Cranial Nerves of Chrismas; mnemonics, Rhyme, and anatomy- seeing the Lighter Side. (:Anatomical Science Education, 2019), 673-677.
29 Margo A.Mastrpieri, & St.Louis R, Enhancing School Success with Mnemonic Strategies, (Intervention in School and Clinic, 1998), 201-208.
30 Fatima Risa S, The Effectiveness of Mnemonic Technique to Improve Students' English Vocabulary at the Eighth Grade of SMP Negeri 6 Parepare (Parepare: Doctoral dissertation, 2020), 16.
api. Those words used to remember words that have the same character, they are: lipstick and hell.31
2) Acronyms Mnemonic
Another popular type of mnemonic is acronyms. Acronyms is when the first letter of each word in a chain of words spells out another word.32 For example: To remember rainbow’s colours, the acronym of MEJIKUHIBINIU could be used: MErah, JIngga, KUning, HIjau, BIru, NIla, and Ungu. Another example is prophets who have epithet of Ulul Azmi; Muhammad SAW, Isa a.s, Musa a.s, Ibrohim a.s, and Nuh a.s become MIMIN, an easy word to remember.
3) Loci Mnemonic
Loci mnemonic uses the famous and special places as a way to put words or terms that have to be remembered by students. In this case, the names of heroes, cities, street, numbers and building can be used for placing word which relevant in the meaning and a similarity in character or situation. For example, the parts of body here are used for loci number 1 to 10, they are: one is head, two is eyes, three is nose, four is mouth, five is ears, six is neck, seven is breast, eight is stomach, nine is foot, and ten is hand.33
31 Ina Rosdiana, The Effectiveness of Mnemonic Devices in Vocabulary Learning Process (a Pre- Experimental Study at the Fifth Grade of SDN Babakan 1), (Jakarta: UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, 2010).
32 Erin Blackford, Mnemonic Devices: The Solution to Memory Failure, (Journal on Best Teaching Practice, 2015), 24-26.
33 Ayu Puspita Sari, Improving Students’ English Achievement through Mnemonic for the Fourth Grade Students of SDN 3 Karanganom Klaten in the First Semester of the Academic Year of 2012/2013 (Yogyakarta: State University of Yogyakarta, 2013), 33-38.
4) Keyword method
Keyword mnemonic is a tool for remembering the meaning of target word. Keyword mnemonic is usually formatted especially for learning foreign words. When using this method, the students learn a keyword that sound similar to the similar word. Here are some examples of keyword mnemonic;
Table 2.2
Example of Vocabulary in Keyword Mnemonic Type
Word Phonetic Code
(Keyword) Mnemonic)
Meaning
Accept ǝk’sept Asep Menerima
Adult ǝ’dÄlt Adul Orang Dewasa
Astute ǝ’stuwt Astuti Cerdik
Direct Dǝ’rekt Derek Langsung
Deny Di’nai Deni Menyangkal
Enact E’nǣkt Enak Memerankan
Enchant En’cǣn Encan Memikat
5) Song Mnemonic
Song mnemonic is very helpful to memorize something, as song gives them double the opportunity to remember. By remembering one word, it is likely they will be able to find the suitable word to finish the song. A simple little song can help students remember a complex order of events that most struggle to remember.34
34 Erin Blackford, Mnemonic Devices: The Solution to Memory Failure, Journal on Best Teaching Practice, 2015), 24-26.
One way to successfully encode the information into students’
brain is to use song mnemonic. A well-known example is the “A-BC”
song. There is no end to what students learn when it is set to music.
They learn the country, names of animal, flowers, noun, verbs, etc.
Besides, kindergarten students’ song consisting of morality messages as an example.
Song is a little part of music. By using the song mnemonic, teachers give their students a better chance of remembering important information and help students remember a complicated order of events that strain to remember.35
35 Erin Blackford, Mnemonic Devices: The Solution to Memory Failure, (Journal on Best Teaching Practice, 2015), 24-26.
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