How to make your own Memrise course with your class: part 5 of a series of presentations about my project to trial using spaced-repetition software with my ESL classes to increase their retention of new vocabulary. For more information see my blog: http://steveneslwilliams.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/using-memrise-with-esl-classes/

1. Making your own Memrise
course with your class
Step by Step Guide

2. SETTING UP THE COURSE

3. Click
‘Create’

4. 1. Name your course
2. Choose the language your teaching
(English)
3. If you’re going to have translations,
change ‘For’ to ‘Spanish’ speakers. If not,
put ‘English’

5. ADDING VOCAB

6. Add words
and
definitions

7. To record the
pronunciation click
‘Record’

8. Click ‘Back to Course’

9. Click ‘Learning Options’,
then ‘Preview’

10. Click ‘Help me remember this’

11. Click ‘Add a mem’

12. Search for an image

13. Write your text here. It could be:
• An example sentence
• A way to remember the word (e.g.
does it sound like anything in the
students’ L1?)
• A note on the usage (e.g. Is it
followed by an –ing form? Does it
have a dependent preposition?)

14. To add more words, click ‘Edit
Course’

15. To add a new vocab group, e.g.
‘Sports’, click Add Level

16. USAGE SUGGESTIONS

17. Teacher leads the first few
weeks
The teacher:
• Sets up the course
• Adds vocab that comes up in class, either in
the textbook or spontaneously, to Memrise
• After a few weeks or when you have
sufficient vocab, demo Memrise to your
students, maybe using an adapted version
of my ‘How and Why to use Memrise’
presentation
• Lets them try it out with the vocab you have
added
• Then teach them to add vocab using the
‘Adding Vocab’ slides in this presentation

18. Then the kids take over
One student a
week is in charge
of mem-creation
They must:
 Note down new
vocab from the
board and book
 Enter it into
Memrise (using
computer)
 Think of good
mems (based
on L1 if
applicable)
Advantages
 Autonomy
 They learn
about
learning
 They are
more likely
to
remember
vocab if
they’ve
learnt it in
context
first
 Less work
for the
teacher!

19. WHAT MAKES A GOOD
‘MEM’
Help your students create useful content

20. Strong visuals

21. Humour!
Do you know what Spanish
word this picture is for?

22. Give example sentences using
the vocab

23. …or a note on how to use
the word correctly

24. …useful collocations

26. …correction of L1
interference

29. … and clear examples with
well-known celebrities

32. Your students could use their L1
An
example
from a
Spanish
course I
studied
What does the English word remind your
students of in their native language?