Mnemonic Devices & Japanese Numbers

A short set of activities designed to help beginner learners of Japanese use mnemonic devices to remember the pronunciation of the numbers 1-10.

Creating mnemonic devices is a common language learning strategy that can help beginner learners remember certain words or phrases that are particularly difficult to reproduce soon after first encountering them for the first time. 

This short lesson considers some handy mnemonic devices for remembering the pronunciation of Japanese numbers 1-10 through the lens of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) theory. 

A language is acquired through repeated exposure to real, meaning-bearing language exemplars that are used in real communicative contexts, attended to for meaning, and negotiated when misunderstanding occurs. 

In this short H5P lesson, learners are first introduced to the idea of mnemonic devices. Then, they are guided gradually through three examples of mnemonic word associations. They can see the English word associated with each number and listen to the Japanese word as well. At this point, imagery is introduced to give one further level of association to the number word they hear. 

After learners have had the chance to see and hear the Japanese number words and their mnemonic equivalents a few times, they're given activities to grapple with that impose increasingly heavier cognitive loads. First, a simple matching activity with pictures. Then, the pictures are removed so as to requires learners to utilize the mnemonic devices they just learned. Last, a short set of simple math problems are presented using only the mnemonic English words in place of numerals. The learners must use only the mnemonic words to complete the math problems.

Browse the images below to see screenshots of the entire lesson.