Research library

A Dual Coding View of Vocabulary Learning

Sadoski · Reading & Writing Quarterly

This review applies dual coding theory, the idea that we think in two linked codes, one of words and one of mental images, to how children and adults learn vocabulary. It reports that concrete, easily pictured words are learned faster than abstract ones, and that self-made drawings, illustrations and the keyword method, which links a new word to a sound-alike word in one image, help people learn meanings. Verbal methods such as word-part analysis also help. The review argues that the theory can account for why these methods work, but it does not consider people who cannot form images.