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Spaced repetition | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| gidler Senior Member Finland Joined 6624 days ago 109 posts - 118 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Finnish* | Message 1 of 6 19 October 2007 at 9:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Professor Arguelles,
Many people use flashcards with computer-assisted spaced repetition for learning vocabulary and/or expressions. Adding a card to a spaced repetition application's deck essentially ensures that the user will not forget the item (of course assuming that the computer-scheduled reviews are carried out diligently). The downside of this is that adding cards and actually doing the reviews takes a considerable amount of time. On the other hand, the probability of having to look up a word later becomes much smaller. This probably varies from person to person, though. Have you used spaced repetition, for example the Leitner system, when studying languages? What is your opinion of it? What about the "school" approach of memorizing a word once and keeping it in memory solely by exposure? Or even not doing any conscious memorization at all, trusting that after looking a word up a few times (or understanding its meaning from context) it will be automatically memorized? Thank you in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| quendidil Diglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 6313 days ago 126 posts - 142 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 6 19 October 2007 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Another approach to using the SRS is the Antimoon/All Japanese All the Time approach.
On the whole, it involves using whole sentences, and while you don't have to memorize the sentence entire, you should know the meaning of every word in the sentence and its function in the sentence, according to this method. Links: antimoon.com alljapaneseallthet ime.com Edited by quendidil on 19 October 2007 at 8:58pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7257 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 3 of 6 21 October 2007 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am sorry, I am not familiar with any of the computer-assisted programs or other systems of spaced repetition mentioned in these letters. However, when it comes to the kind of memorization aspired to in the use of flashcards, certainly I am familiar with the concept of spacing your repetitions in a logical way so as to most effectively put the information being acquired into progressively deeper stages of your memory. With the old physical cards one would put a number of dividers in the box and work through all the cards, placing those that could be recalled more and more successfully at longer and longer intervals. For autodidactic purposes, I think it would be preferable to be in control of this process oneself than allow any external factor to decide on the spacing of repetitions.
I must say I am somewhat puzzled as to why anyone would want to do flashcards on a computer. It does indeed take time to do this, and the whole time-management idea behind using flashcards in the first place is that they are a marvelous means of stealing back time. In the course of an average active day, most people have many scattered moments of dead time. If you have the energy and the industry to use every spare second by reviewing even a single card, studying vocabulary by means of flashcards is one way of adding an extra hour or more of productive study time to your day. That said, while I have experimented with flashcards for studying the core vocabulary of exotic languages, I have never really spent much time actively memorizing words or anything else. The minds of some people may well be so constructed that this is the best way for them to learn, but I think there are generally more interesting and more efficient ways of attaining the same goals. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 7029 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 6 14 December 2007 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree and disagree with Professor Arguelles.
I agree that I prefer to control the sequence of learning and relearning words based on my own interests and inclinations. However, I feel there is nothing wrong with also having a chance to look at random lists of words, which are in fact not random but governed by some algorithm. The condition is that the words come from context that I am familiar with, otherwise I have no connection to the words and cannot remember them. Since the computer is becoming a classroom, reading room, meeting room and social space, I think a lot of people, me included, do not mind doing Flash Cards on the computer. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6245 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 5 of 6 14 December 2007 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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i think flashcards on the computer are somewhat tiring.
i never even liked just reading on the screen. however, just the action of setting up the whole thing (writing the foreign word, writing the translation) makes you learn so it is useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 7029 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 6 14 December 2007 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
I only use flash cards which have been automatically created from my reading and listening, with the phrase which contained the word also captured. Otherwise I would probably not put in the time. I review them after reading and item for the first time and saving the words, and then when review words at random, sorted by importance, or date saved or from some Tag list or something. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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