The bilingual‐dichotic method for learning a foreign‐language vocabulary

The bilingual‐dichotic method organizes native and foreign words in paired‐associate learning for optimum compatibility with study behaviour and asymmetric cerebral hemispheric specialization. Slow‐paced auditory presentations alternate dichotic (simultaneous, native word at left ear and foreign word at right ear) and diotic (foreign word at both ears) input while the student views the word list in parallel to the dichotic format (native word‐foreign word). More college students attained the criterion of perfect cuedrecall and in significantly less study time using the bilingual‐dichotic method to learn English‐Russian word pairs compared with those using the conventional (diotic Russian) or a reversed‐ear dichotic control method. The new method yielded superior overall performance with significantly more accurate recall of the Russian words, and with shorter latencies of response than that obtained with the conventional method. Analysis suggests the bilingual‐dichotic method combines attentional strategies with the right‐ear advantage for dichotic verbal material to enhance rehearsal processes of learning. Practical applications of this new method for learning foreign vocabulary may be found in the early stages of foreign‐language learning in coordination with other exercises.