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Confused: SRS question, studying German | ||
Tags: Spaced Repetition (SRS) | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Amiro Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5660 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Japanese | Message 1 of 21 30 March 2009 at 7:13pm | IP Logged |
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Hi there!
I am studying German and I've heard of the SRS system that you can apply to language learning. My question is what language to put in the question part of the SRS program. Should I put a German sentence in the question part and then English in the answer part, or the other way around? I've read over at http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com that he suggest to put the target language in the question box. Any help? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lindley Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Ukraine Joined 6013 days ago 104 posts - 109 votes  Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 21 30 March 2009 at 7:24pm | IP Logged |
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I personally do it both ways - I use Anki software which can create two cards for one entry. However, if I had to choose, I'd go for the German sentence in the answer part - this way you get the "active" knowledge. If you did it vice versa, you'd mainly learn to recognize the German sentences, but won't be (probably) able to repeat it yourself without any aid. At least I usually can't. And since the goal of language-learning is being able to "use" it, not only recognize and understand, I'd choose "active" studying.
However, the more experienced members of this forum might have a different opinion on this matter :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amiro Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5660 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Japanese | Message 3 of 21 30 March 2009 at 7:48pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you for the answer, anyone else who has thoughts about this?
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| Ortho Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6292 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes | Message 4 of 21 30 March 2009 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
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I think that it is good to figure out what you're trying to use the SRS to do. In my opinion producing (English->German) and recognising (German->English) are different skills. I tend to use Anki for production practice, so I put English sentences and try to come up with the French. For recognition practice, I personally prefer reading, trusting that the natural use of the language when people write long books gives me enough repetition in order of importance, so I only put recognition exercises (French->English) in when something is specific and I want to keep it for some reason and it doesn't come up enough.
Also, for recognition, I prefer to have the question and answer both in L2. So, assuming I was studying English the front might be "Thing people say to each other when meeting" and the back might say "Hello", with no native language on either side of the card. I haven't figured out how to make French-only production cards (because I try to train producing sentences and end up giving the answer in the question). Edited by Ortho on 30 March 2009 at 8:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 21 01 April 2009 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
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I use the target language in the answer box. I also used some ready-made word bases with target language in both question and answer but I don't make such bases by myself (it would be too time-consuming abd I probably wouldn't be sure if it's 100% correct).
I don't use the other direction (L1 -> L2) because just like Ortho I prefer to train my recognition skills by reading, and I use the SRS to enlarge my active vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5807 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 6 of 21 01 April 2009 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
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I use the target language as the question and English as the answer, my reasoning being a couple things:
1. Translating from English, the word may have several distinct meanings in your target language. For example, the word "Nature" could be Natur, Gemüt, Temperament, etc. Staring at the card Nature, how do you know which translation is the answer? And if you add all three as the answer to the card, what if you run across another word that translates to nature later on? It just seemed a lot easier to me to use the target language as the prompt and the native language as the response. 2. I don't really expect to obtain an active knowledge of these words by using SRS, particular learning them out of context. Right now I'm simply looking to have a general idea of what the word means and so that it is easier to understand when I come across it through other means (reading, listening to the radio, watching movies/TV shows, etc). Just my thoughts on it... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 7 of 21 02 April 2009 at 1:25am | IP Logged |
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1. I simply add something more to the question, so that I know which translation is meant (something like: "natur (character)", "natur (essential qualities)" etc., like the comments in a dictionary). In some extreme situations I will add: "nature (not: Gemüt)" so that I know that the other word is meant, and I also have an extra opportunity to revise "Gemüt". The problem of multiple translation possibilities appears also in the other direction: what if you run across another meaning of the word "Natur"? For me, it's not really that different.
2. For me SRS are one of the best sources of active vocabulary (especially nouns, I can't learn verbs as good out of context). But that's just me :). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5807 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 8 of 21 02 April 2009 at 2:35am | IP Logged |
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In the other direction (Target to Native) it hasn't been as much of an issue for me. For one, when I enter a new word I add all the definitions I think I will need. For example, if the dictionary lists price and cost as translations, I might just use one of them. But if it lists price, cost, and rain as possible translations, I would enter price and rain or cost and rain. So far, I haven't actually run across a situation where I've stumbled across a new meaning of a word I've already entered (apart from its use in an idiom, which I enter (the idiom) in its entirety), whereas there were many situations where I was running across multiple target words that had the same English translation. Your workaround sounds like it would work well, but at least for myself I find it much simpler to do it the other way around. :)
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