@Linguist_CIOL
FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 15
FEATURES
noun and/or adjective, but they did need to
consider a meaningful image, likely to help
them build new/strengthened schemata.
One student used a picture of the
Toblerone logo to depict the Matterhorn,
representing the Italian Alps. In the
standardised table, Die Alpen is given under
the header 'gender and noun'; italienischen
under 'adjective'; and Das Matterhorn liegt an
der Grenze der schweizen [schweizerischen]
und italienischen Alpen under the dual-
coded sentence header.
More than half of the participants found
that personalising the image helped them
remember the sentence agreement more
than a generic image, and a further third
said it might do. One student chose a
photo of Leeds City Museum, where they
had seen a mummy, to accompany the
phrase 'the Egyptian mummy'. They
commented that "the photo I used makes
me think of my own childhood memories",
which aided their memory. For le voyage
fantastique the same student chose another
"very personal" photo.
Another student used an image from the
TV show The Family Guy to code 'the vast
cohort' (gender and noun: el cohorte;
adjective: enorme; sentence: de las cifras, es
claro que el cohorte enorme de los
matrimonios que existía en los años sesenta
esta empeorando). "I seemed to remember
the colours better than the shapes in the
images, so I will consider this when choosing
images in the future," they commented.
For l'influence anglophone ('English-
speaking influence'), the student selected a
photo of Barack Obama giving a speech
because it stood out to them, "the image of
Barack Obama being quite vibrant, clear
picture in my head". The accompanying
sentence read La musique francophone est
menacée par les influences anglophones.
An analysis of the coded tables showed
that, despite discussion about what
constitutes a concrete and an abstract noun,
some students still found it difficult to
differentiate between the two, or preferred to
use the noun that they had already used in
their work.
In subsequent lessons, students were
tested by removing the gender/noun/
adjectives from the grid and asking them
to use the English translation, image and
rest of the sentence to fill in the gaps.
Although there is promising evidence to
suggest that dual coding could be effective
in MFL teaching and learning, and that
students recognise the benefits, some
misconceptions and errors were still evident.
Furthermore, testing over time would need
to be carried out to determine the effects
on long-term memory.
AIDE MÉMOIRE
Students picked images as mnemonics,
including one of Leeds City Museum for 'the
Egyptian mummy' (left); and of President
Obama for l'influence anglophone (right)
IMAGES
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SHUTTERSTOCK
