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Progressing from L2-L1/L1-L2 Flashcards | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5419 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 1 of 5 28 April 2014 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey all,
I'm just after some opinions. I use the word opinions as I know we all study/learn rather differently, some of us are more flexible than others to take on new methods, and what can work for one won't necessarily work for another.... So I'm a very pedantic pedagogical studier/learner. I currently practically learn predominantly via the use of courses, some reading, some listening. I generally enter all words I have not come across before into my flashcard deck to be learned in both directions L2 to L1 and vice versa. I'm known to be stubborn and I get fixated on my courses and relish in completing things I start. Thus i'm not likely to ditch my courses and radically change my study routine at this stage, so that's not the kind of opinion i'm searching for but if you feel it imperative to let me know i'm doing things all wrong then of course you're welcome to comment. However, what i'm really looking for the next small step. In other words a little advice on flaschcards. I've been told to ditch them before, but i'm clutching to them and can't do away with them. I've also read that many ppl learn a lot through contextual inferences via reading of varioius types. There's no way I can do that in my current frame of mind. Thus my thinking is that I could progress onto the next small stage, which would seem to be: to stop entering Flashcards L2-L1 etc and totally stop using L1, However cards in isolation, words in isolation are tricky to describe in L2, right? I'm not desperate here, i'm just looking for some light hearted advice as I feel my reliance on L1 (English) is slowing progression/focus/immersion/flow. It's not dramatic but noticeable and I know many learners would vouch for extensive reading. But I do ok with flashcards and don't require mnemonics to learn word lists. Isolation is okay for me, but not something I want to do all the time.... sorry guys I'm waffling again, Thoughts on L2-L2 flashcards? perhaps example sentences with gaps? PM 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5475 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 5 28 April 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
I found that extensive reading was an amazing and invaluable tool when it came to getting my reading skills from A2 to wherever they are now. (I'm far better at reading now than when I passed my B2 exam.) Speaking entirely from personal experience, I could never have done it using nothing but courses and word lists. There came a point where the easiest way to learn to read really well was to read a lot! Anyway, when I feel the need to use some flash cards, I have a personal tool that converts Kindle (or Moon+ Reader) highlights into Anki cards: 
The workflow goes something like this: 1. Read a cool book, web page, etc. 2. Highlight interesting sentences with unknown vocabulary, strange grammar, etc. (I have a Chrome plugin for web pages. I almost never type stuff by hand.) 3. Look up the words later using my tool, and add definitions, pictures, fill-in-the-blank exercises or whatever seems appropriate. 4. Import everything into Anki using a custom add-on. I only do this when the mood strikes me: I also do lots of extensive reading with no dictionary whatsoever. I've found that well-designed fill-in-the-blank cards (or "MCDs", as Khatzumoto calls them) are a surprisingly nice way to pick up weird vocabulary efficiently. One of my favorite personal tricks is to cloze each half of a word separately, making two cards. Let me grab some text from the New York Times and Wikipedia to demonstrate:
Anyway, I would never suggest that you stop using any technique that's actually working for you, because what do I know? But if reading is one of your goals, I think that actually reading a lot can be a huge help, especially at B1 and up. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6028 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 5 28 April 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
You can do Anki cards using pictures (front) and L2 (back). If this sounds interesting then what Gabriel Wyrner wrote for at Lifehacker is worth reading. I tried the "no English" approach he describes in his blog and was doing 400 words using only pictures for Italian. I was also working on French idioms using only pictures. I'd type the idiom in Google (example: appuyer sur le champignon) and then "picture". The visual aid is really quite effective! I've never tried using pictures beyond intermediate. The logic is, if you make it to intermediate without the use of English then you're able to start forming your own sentences and simple definitions of the more advanced vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5419 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 4 of 5 29 April 2014 at 12:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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I might continue this thread in my log as it's part my progression along the learning
path CONTINUED HERE Edited by PeterMollenburg on 29 April 2014 at 12:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4852 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 5 29 April 2014 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I thought I would comment here, so as not to take your own log off topic.
There is a lot of advice against using L1 when learning L2, and a lot of it makes sense. However, I would like to make a few comments in support of L1/L2 flashcards. The usual argument is that people find that when they come across a word in their L2, it always brings the L1 word to mind. This is true on the first few instances, but if you read/listen/watch a lot, this will fade the more you come across the word. The student who spends over half their time learning vocabulary will have a problem, but the student who uses a lot of native material as well will find that this "own-language-flashback" will fade with use. It is the same with any learning material. If you used Michel Thomas, then the first several times you come across "je suis", you will remember that he said it is "a sweet word". But once you've come across it a lot, you'll stop getting Michel Thomas flashbacks. None of this says that L2 only flashcards aren't good. So why am I sticking with L1/L2 cards? Because they are simple to make and quick to review. I can add relatively more words into my passive knowledge, and spend more time on reading, watching and listening, during which I will come across those words more and more often. Except this month, when I was adding 25 new cards a day for the Learning Based Challenge, I usually only spend 15 minutes at most on anki. But that time spent makes it easier to access other material, and that other material reinforces what I've learnt by flashcard. To summarize my main point: a particular method of making flashcards isn't going to be a silver bullet for your language study. If you spend most of your time studying vocabulary cards, then they should probably be L2 only, use pictures, etc. But if flashcards are a small fraction of your study time, then don't sweat it too much. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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