Vocabulary retention in cognitive theory

Vocabulary learning has been a key aspect of acquiring a second language for many years. Many scholars and linguists claimed that learning languages cannot be successful without a wide range of vocabulary. However, most ESL learners are confronted with recalling difficulties as they tend to forget the word fast that they learned recently. These challenges are commonly discussed and researched by Cognitivists since they deem that there are several reasons for forgetting associated with memory and mental process. This case study entails small-scale research on vocabulary retention, reasons for forgetting, and some potential solutions to recall words in the second language. For this case study, we have chosen Cognitivism Theory in a bid to investigate and find out remembering challenges of our ESL learner and give her some possible solutions because according to cognitive psychology it is said that systematic forgetting occurs owing to interfering effects, a continuation of the very process of subsumption, neurolinguistic blocking and other factors. Relying on their findings we tried to help our seventeen-year-old student who tends to forget English words easily. In this case, the hypothesis of the research is that pictorial texts or stories can be more effective for short and long-term vocabulary learning and retention.