There are exercises for your brain to help you transfer sound into your memory. Buy books on tape. I know it will make you feel a little corny but it will force you to focus on your hearing as a form of collecting information. This uses a different part of your brain than you use if you were reading written words. And yes, it does improve grammar and writing because you have a better understanding of how written words are spoken and will know precisely where to put exclamations, and pauses.

yup The Missing Memory Link reprogram your verbal memory by J Rowan Music therapy can improve verbal memory and verbal cognative skills, as will will learning to play a musical instrument. The other approach described in this book... is to retrain auditory and Motor representation. James

1) Here you can find an article on this issue: "Improve Verbal Memory Improving your verbal memory, The Missing Memory Link This Article covers the two part technique which consists of two components Auditory and a Motor Articulation." "The theory is centred around a perspective of under functioning brain regions associated with the processing and articulation of speech. Unlike the visual centres situated at the back of the brain, speech centres, which are used to collectively form verbal and abstract representation are distributed throughout the brain. Some of of the regions are remote from one another and connected by specialized dedicated connections. In order for the bulk of needed grey matter to provide our level of verbal capacity, the different regions that are associated with speech, such as motor control, auditory areas, and touch and even prioperception (sense of relative orientation of the body), have to cooperate and work together. If one of these areas is damaged or under-functioning/under represented then verbal capacity and memory are affected severely. The crux of the theory is based on the fact that it is common for those with a deficit in verbal memory to have under representation for verbalization, common indicators such as having shown less or no babbling during infancy." Source and further information: http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Verbal-Memory Further information: - "Early musical training appears to improve memory for words, according to a study in the November 12th issue of the journal Nature.": http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998111109.shtml 2) "Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed a Model of Working Memory in 1974, in an attempt to describe a more accurate model of short-term memory. Baddeley & Hitch proposed their tripartite working memory model as an alternative to the short-term store in Atkinson & Shiffrin's 'multi-store' memory model (1968). This model is later expanded upon by Baddeley and other co-workers and has become the dominant view in the field of working memory. However, alternative models are developing (see working memory) providing a different perspective on the working memory system. The original model of Baddeley & Hitch was composed of three main components; the central executive which acts as supervisory system and controls the flow of information from and to its slave systems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. The slave systems are short-term storage systems dedicated to a content domain (verbal and visuo-spatial, respectively). In 2000 Baddeley added a third slave system to his model; the episodic buffer." "Phonological loop The phonological loop (or "articulatory loop") as a whole deals with sound or phonological information. It consists of two parts: a short-term phonological store with auditory memory traces that are subject to rapid decay and an articulatory rehearsal component that can revive the memory traces. Any auditory verbal information is assumed to enter automatically into the phonological store. Visually presented language can be transformed into phonological code by silent articulation and thereby be encoded into the phonological store. This transformation is facilitated by the articulatory control process. The phonological store acts as an 'inner ear', remembering speech sounds in their temporal order, whilst the articulatory process acts as an 'inner voice' and repeats the series of words (or other speech elements) on a loop to prevent them from decaying. The phonological loop may play a key role in the acquisition of vocabulary, particularly in the early childhood years. It may also be vital for learning a second language. Five main findings provide evidence for the phonological loop: 1. The effect of phonological similarity: Lists of words that sound similar are more difficult to remember than words that sound different. Semantic similarity (similarity of meaning) has comparatively little effect, supporting the assumption that verbal information is coded largely phonologically in working memory. 2. The effect of articulatory suppression: Memory for verbal material is impaired when people are asked to say something irrelevant aloud. This is assumed to block the articulatory rehearsal process, thereby leaving memory traces in the phonological loop to decay. 3. Transfer of information between codes: With visually presented items, adults usually name and sub-vocally rehearse them, so the information is transferred from a visual to an auditory code. Articulatory suppression prevents this transfer, and in that case the above mentioned effect of phonological similarity is erased for visually presented items. 4. Neuropsychological evidence: A defective phonological store explains the behavior of patients with a specific deficit in phonological short-term memory. Aphasic patients with dyspraxia are unable to set up the speech motor codes necessary for articulation, caused by a deficiency of the articulatory rehearsal process. 5. On the other hand, patients with dysarthria, whose speech problems are secondary, show a normal capacity for rehearsal. This suggests that it is the subvocal rehearsing that is crucial." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddeley's_model_of_working_memory Further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressive_language_disorder http://www.memorylossonline.com/glossary/verbalmemory.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Verbal_Learning_Task

Reading a book aloud to yourself I have found to help. I have read somewhere around 400 books and I can tell you my conversation skills have been forever improved.