From interviews with the Quran teachers-memorizers it was clear that they consider
phonological memory as their primary mode of learning. They repeat and rehearse the text to lodge and maintain it in memory because they do not have meaning to help them in their memorization. In everyday life while people could repeat information they do understand, they normally use semantic memory to help. In situations where semantics is not available, repetition takes the primary or predominant role.
All participants in this study had a consensus on the central role of repetition as not only a means of committing text to memory initially, but also to refresh and consolidate it for long term recall. Repetition and rehearsal, according to them, are an inherent part of their
memorization. One of the teachers said:
There are no skills or sets of skills for memorizing the Quran. Rehearsal and repetition are the only strategies to memorize and remember Quran (SM02).
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I do not know Arabic. I have read Quran with translation but that was many years after I had completed memorization. When I was memorizing Quran, I would repeat it numerous times to remember it. Every morning I would rehearse my lesson from the previous day twenty times. My teacher said to me that if it takes you ten rehearsals to memorize a verse of the Quran, rehearse it fifteen times (SM01).
Memorizers’ views on the role of repetition resonate with findings from literature according to which repetitions strengthen neural links in the brain leading to the consolidation of memories (Nader et al 2000). Repeated and frequent rehearsal as reported by the Quran memorizers may thus have left permanent traces in their brain resulting in
efficient/entrenched memory of the text. The emphasis on the role of repetition and rehearsal in memorizing and remembering the Quran is in keeping with Ellis and Sinclair (1996), and Ellis’ (2001) claim that repetition of sequences in STM is necessary for chunking in
phonological LTM as well as consolidation of information in LTM (see chapter 6 for more discussion on this).
Conversations with the participants also revealed that the memorization is done in a structured way. Each day, before memorizing a new lesson, memorizers revise/rehearse a lesson from the previous day. Then the new lesson is memorized to a point where it is recalled without an error. The next day the same process is repeated: revising the text from the previous day and adding to it by memorizing some more. In addition to this, a memorizer regularly revises text memorized over the last, say, 10 to 15 days. Referring to this mode of memorization, a teacher said:
A learner is assigned a portion of the Quran to memorize, depending on his ability, and the time he has on his hands, and the efforts he is willing to put in. The next day, he recites it to a teacher, and if there are errors in recall, he is asked to memorize it to an errorless recall. Additionally, a memorizer daily recites some portion of the text memorized over the last 30 days (SM01).
Some teachers make the rehearsal schedule even more rigorous. According to a teacher: My practice is that a learner who has memorized 20 ‘parts’ will daily rehearse five ‘parts’. This is in addition to daily rehearsal of lessons learned over a week (SM02).
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From what the participants said it is clear that there is a method in their memorization. They do in a structured and methodical manner. The whole book is memorized incrementally and rehearsal is distributed over set intervals. This is in line with findings from literature
according to which optimal learning happen when distributed over time as compared to massed practice (Bjork 1988). These views are also in consonance with accounts of Quran learning reported in Boyle (2006), Gent (2011), and Moore (2006, 2008).
Referring to the actual way of memorization, the interviewees said that the memorizers look at a verse and say a part or whole of it, depending on its size, several times. Then they look away and try to say it again. They only look back into the Book when they find that they can’t remember a particular word or phrase, and focus on that bit, and just practise that little bit a few times, then they try to put it back into the whole. They look away and if they can’t remember a part—the same part or a different part, so they look at that and memorize it. So, they piece together parts of a verse. Once they have memorized a verse, they move on to the next verse and say it along with the previous verse.
It is important to note that for the Quran memorizers a verse—a short subdivision of the Quranic text— is a basic chunk of memorization. A verse may consist of one, two, or more sentences, often of unequal size. Although the meaning of a verse may flow into the next verse to complete the sense, it is a structural unit in its own right, with a beginning and ending. A chapter of the Quran is neatly divided into verses of different sizes with a sign of a circleat the end of each verse.
The informants were explicit about the role of a verse as a unit of memory. According to them, the memorizers know the physical boundaries of verses and are aware of where a verse starts and ends. With the passage of time, chunking and memorizing becomes easy because the to-be-memorized verses contain words and phrases which the memorizers have already come across. Two memorizers had this to say:
Memorization appeared difficult in the beginning. I was afraid that I would not be able to do it. Initially it would take me a lot of time to memorize and I would quickly forget what I had memorized. But after some time it was not that difficult. After having memorized five Parts, I got used to the style and language of the Quran. There are lots of phrases and verses that get
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repeated at various places in the Quran and I gradually got familiarized with them. With the passage of time, I managed to memorize three to four pages per day (SM03).
The Quran has a unique language. An important thing about Quran memorization is that you need to get used to the language of the Quran. There are words and verses that you repeatedly come across quite a lot. As you get to know them more and more, memorization becomes easy (SM02).
As they memorize, verses are connected with verses, chapters with chapters, and Parts with Parts, until the whole of the Quran is memorized. This is in line with Ellis’ (2001) description of chunking described in chapter 3. This indicates that the Quran is memorized as a series of subtexts and subparts in a hierarchical manner: memorizers organize their memory of the text in terms of chunks of various sizes (smaller to larger) and memories of the text are laid down along structured lines. This also means that as they go along, their learning and retention capacity gets larger as compared with when they were novices. With the passage of time they develop better organizational skills for storing information, as they relate the to-be-
remembered verses to the already memorized ones. In this way they behave like ‘experts’ or skilled performers.
We remember from chapter 3 that chunking is based in semantics. One can organize information into chunks if one has available knowledge of the language system—meaning, word order and phonology, etc. However, it was also noted that features such as familiarity with the phonotactic characteristics of a language and word-likeness can also help in chunking text in a foreign language.
Quran memorizers’ chunking of text, as indicated by conversations with them, is based on the structural and ‘thematic’ organization of the text. Because the Quran is already marked into several divisions of different lengths, memorizers use them as ‘ready-made’ chunks to organize the text in their memory (see section 5.4). Along with this, the memorizers’ early exposure to the text, (i.e. having read it before starting memorization) might have helped them in chunking and memorizing it.
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