Understanding How Cognitive Psychology Can Inform and Improve Spanish Vocabulary Acquisition in High School Classrooms.

Erbes, Stella; Folkerts, Michael; Gergis, Christina; Pederson, Sarah; Stivers, Holly

Educators deal with the many dynamic functions and applications of the human brain on a daily basis. The theoretical research of the biology and functionality of the human brain is on the rise, and educational publishers continue to support books and scholarly articles that promote the notion that "brain research" can and should be applied to classroom teaching. Key terms such as brain-differentiated learning, brain-compatible learning, brain-friendly learning, and brain-based teaching have been used to lure educators to adopt these theoretically supported teaching strategies. Much of the literature on brain research deals with explaining the memory systems of the brain, or more specifically how the brain works to retain and retrieve bits of information. The idea that applying this knowledge base to educational psychology to yield positive outcomes in the teaching and learning process sounds promising, however, there is a lack of empirical research conducted in K-12 classrooms to support the positive results of applying brain research to teaching practices. So, the question arises: Have educators and proponents of brain research assumed all too quickly that brain-informed teaching strategies will yield consistent positive results? Our study offers empirical evidence which helps answer this question. This empirical study has investigated how information about human memory from the field of cognitive psychology can be applied specifically to teaching Spanish vocabulary in high school classrooms. Our interdisciplinary study brought together the fields of cognitive and educational psychology along with foreign language teaching in order to understand better how research on human memory can improve teaching vocabulary in high school Spanish classes.

SPANISH language education; LANGUAGE acquisition; COGNITIVE psychology; EDUCATIONAL psychology; VOCABULARY; HIGH schools; INTERDISCIPLINARY education; EMPIRICAL research

Journal of Instructional Psychology, 2010, Vol 37, Issue 2, p120

0094-1956

Academic Journal