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Flash Card Technique | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6253 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 10 09 October 2007 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
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I had been trying to use the computer flashcard program to learn, but it turns out that it's easier for me to learn new words using paper cards than on the computer. Here's my technique (It's probably really close to how most people would do it):
1. Go through the whole box of 500 flash cards, on the L2 side, giving myself about five seconds to retrieve the word. If I know it, it goes back in the box. If I don't, it ends up on the stack on the table. Shuffle 'table stack' when done. 2. Go through the 'table stack' in the same way. Using the L2 side, I give myself five seconds to think of the word. If I think of it this time, it goes into the box. If I don't, it goes into a new table stack. Shuffle table stack when done. 3. Every time I do this, the table stack gets smaller and smaller and, therefore, the focus on the words that I don't know gets more and more intense. (To be honest, I'm still in this step, but almost through it. I'll continue as though I know what I'm talking about, but it's all just how I expect that I'll do in the proceeding steps) 4. When I have gone through the whole list, getting them all right at least once, I put them all back in the starting pile, and run through them again. I'm still just doing them on the L2 side. If it turned out that I had gone through my list too fast (which I purposefully did -- I just had to get it right once to go into the box last time), then items that I went by too fast will end up in the table stack. Hopefully, the things that ended up near the end will have drilled into my head by now, but I expect it will take at least a few run throughs. 5. I will be done only when I can make it through the whole box in the first run-through, without any ending up in the table stack. 6. When I get to this point, I start over using the L1 side, trying to translate into the L2. Lather, rinse, repeat, until I'm done both directions. It's taking me a while, and I'm still only on the first time through (because you have to get every word right at least once to get out of the first pass), but the table stack is getting smaller super fast. I wouldn't be surprised if I finish my first pass tomorrow or the next day. *does a happy dance* For anyone who saw my earlier note asking about methods to stay focused longer, I think just by sticking with it, my focus is growing, so that's super. Oh yeah, step 7.) is get/make a new set of flash cards. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6282 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 10 10 October 2007 at 4:03am | IP Logged |
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I think it is a good idea.
The only problem I would find is trying to maintain the 5-second count continuously in my head while also trying to figure out the word at the same time (particularly if I'm stuck). But then again, it isn't impossible with practice. I will try out this method and give you feedback. While we're on this topic, check out my method in the "Self Study Section on how to learn 600 words." It won't guarantee you anything, but it usually works very well for me. Perhaps we can compare notes, research and ideas. In flash-card study I try to work mostly with forms of progressive/non-linear recall and build up the size of the stack gradually. I think it is a little easier memorizing fewer sets of cards first that eventually build up to larger sets by recombination. Instead of starting with a large deck initially, as the exposure you will get to individual words will be less frequent at a time when you least likely know (and have a higher probability of forgetting) the words until you have been exposed to them repetitively. Edited by xtremelingo on 10 October 2007 at 4:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| edwin Triglot Senior Member Canada towerofconfusi&Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6459 days ago 160 posts - 183 votes 9 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 3 of 10 10 October 2007 at 9:06am | IP Logged |
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I am currently maintaining my list of 2000+ French words/phrases on a daily basis. It takes on average 20 minutes per day. The list is still growing. But then I am using my computer instead of paper cards.
Let me know if you are interested in my method. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6282 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 10 10 October 2007 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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Edwin,
I am interested in your method. Please share. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6253 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 10 10 October 2007 at 4:13pm | IP Logged |
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I'm interested too! (And xtreme, I think you method looks more-likely to succeed than mine. I forgot that when I had started using the above-described method, I knew half the words, so it wasn't quite like having to start from blank slate or anything. I didn't have time to read the rest of the thread, but to the people who said it didn't make sense and was too complicated, I think it made perfect sense)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| edwin Triglot Senior Member Canada towerofconfusi&Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6459 days ago 160 posts - 183 votes 9 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 6 of 10 10 October 2007 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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There is no secret. I just use a spaced-repetition method.
With a spaced-repetition method, you don't review a word/phrase all the time if you know it. So, you review it once a day, then once every 2 day, then may be once every week. A computer software will help you track how often each word or phrase need to be reviewed. But then you can always use paper cards. There are many posts in the forum which talk about building vocab. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6592 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 10 10 October 2007 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
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Yes spaced repetition is great!!!!!!!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6253 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 10 10 October 2007 at 9:01pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, after the first pass through, when I got done, having gotten all of them right at least once, I put them all back in the starting pile, shuffled, and saw how many I could get right without thinking (like, no pause at all) and I only got about 3/4 (375/500). It wasn't as fast of progress as I was hoping, because when I started before this pass, I had about maybe 3/5 of them. I started monday, so just in the Spanish to English direction, I've only learned about 25 per day. I guess that's not too bad, but I was hoping for more.
Going from English to Spanish, I'm nowhere near as good (maybe I could get 35-40%)... but here goes... Okay, here's my official goal: Currently, I'm about 70% Spanish to English and 35% English to Spanish. My birthday is November 5th, so my goal is to get to 100% both directions by November 5th. If I get it, I buy myself a new Spanish-language audio book with a hold-in-your-hand text as a birthday present. And a new box of flashcards :-) (Actually, I'm going to turn that last paragraph into a new thread to do updates on) Edited by Principiante on 10 October 2007 at 9:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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