Abstract: The key-letters method is the integrative product of the keyword method, a well-known mnemonic strategy in the Western world, with the characteristics of the Chinese characters. With 21 fifth-graders at risk for learning disabilities at elementary school as the experimental group subjects and 39 first-grade normal students from a junior high school as the control group subjects, and with 64 obscure English words as memory test materials, the current experiment examined the effect of the mnemonic key-letters method on Chinese children at risk in English vocabulary learning. The most important and the most exciting finding obtained from the current experiment is as follows: prior to the instructions on the key-letters method, the experimental group subjects were much poorer in English vocabulary learning than the control group ones, however, after completion of the instructions on the key-letters method, the differences between the experimental and control group subjects didn’t approach significance.

Key words: mnemonic, keyword method, ECIID, key-letters method, Chinese-speaking children