Unlock your language-superpowers: flashcards and spaced repetition
What are flashcards?
Flashcards is the silver bullet of language learning, and the single most important method in a language learner’s toolbox. In its simplest form, a flashcard is a small piece of paper with the word you want to learn on one side, and the translation on the other. It takes 10 seconds to make, yet triggers your memory in a way that feels very much like you’ve unlocked a superpower.
Putting your new vocabulary on a small piece of paper instead of listed on a big one – like the typical vocabulary list – might sound like the same thing. However, unless you can see through paper, there is an important difference. In a vocabulary list, you have the word you want to learn and the translation side by side. It would be difficult to read one without also reading the other. On flashcards, however, you have to flip the card in order to see the translation, and you should do this only after having spent a moment thinking hard.
This subtle change of approach has an incredible effect on your memory. By adding those few seconds before you look at the translation, you are forcing the brain to work hard, unlike when just reading words and translations off a list. This forcing of the brain to work is the key ingredient, because our brain associates information you have worked hard to remember with information that is important.
This means that instead of putting the new word into your mental “unimportant-box” destined for forgetting, your brain puts the new word in the “important-box”, together with other life-saving information. The harder you have to work to recall a word, the better you’ll remember it. Therefore, you’ll ideally practice your flashcards just before you forget them, but we’ll get back to that later. So now that you know how and why flashcards work, we’ll look at how to make them.
Making your flashcards
The basic idea of a flashcard is that you have a question on one side, and the answer on the back. This can be as simple as having the word you want to learn on one side, and the translation on the other. Although this is already much more efficient than ordinary vocabulary lists, there are ways of making your flashcards significantly more memorable.
On average, seven repetitions are enough to remember a new word forever. With well-designed flashcards you might need less repetition, whereas sloppy ones might require more. By incorporating other elements that boost our memory, you can make your flashcards more memorable. Some examples include elements of an emotional, dramatic, humorous, visual, understandable, relatable or sexual character. Additionally, writing by hand or repeating information just before sleep helps our memory.
Concrete ways of incorporating the elements above onto your flashcards include:
Images: Draw the word you want to learn or copy a picture for digital flashcards.
Colours: Experiment with different colours for different types of words, different languages, or for highlighting exceptions to rules etc.
Example sentences: Show how the word is used in a sentence.
Pronunciation: Spell out the phonetics or add a pronunciation file for digital flashcards.
Personal connections: What is the first memory that comes to mind when thinking about the new word? Add that to the flashcard.
Incorporating all or several of the elements above means your flashcards will be more memorable. The downside is that they will take longer time to make. What type of flashcards work best is individual. Ultimately it is up to you to find the balance that optimizes your time and enjoyment to create the perfect deck of flashcards for you.
A few rules to keep in mind when making your flashcards include:
Adding only one new word or piece of information per card.
When reviewing, flip the card only after having tried to remember the word. A few seconds is enough to tell your brain that the information is important.
Go through your cards daily (but not all of them, as we’ll learn in next article)
Make your own flashcards instead of importing a premade deck. The creation of the cards is very useful in itself.
Try to eliminate the use of other languages than your target language on the flashcards. This helps you start thinking in your new language instead of just translating.
Digital flashcards
If you choose to make your flashcards digitally, there are several tools that will simplify your process. Brainscape is an easy app for making flashcards, while Anki is a bit more high level. Fluent Forever is a brilliant app based on the flashcard principle, and although not free, will definitely be worth the investment for many learners. For making your own flashcards you can get low-resolution images from Google’s Tiny-URLservice and download pronunciation files from Forvo.
Reviewing your flashcards
The success of flashcards comes from their ability to make your brain work. The best time for practicing a flashcard is therefore right before you forget it, because this is when you’ll have the hardest time remembering the new word. Therefore, your flashcard approach is only complete once you have a system for when to repeat your cards for optimal retention. This system is called spaced repetition, meaning that you repeat your cards with an increasing amount of time between each repetition.
If your flashcards are digital, the app will have algorithms taking care of this for you. Nevertheless, it is useful to know the science behind, and if using physical flashcards, this is a complete must. The exact system will depend on your memory, on the difficulty of the words you’re learning, and how elaborate your flashcards are. The suggestion below is just an example, and you’ll likely want to adapt it slightly.
If we assume seven repetitions are enough for fully learning the average new word, we want all of our flashcards to go through a seven-stage process. Therefore, prepare seven boxes, small plastic bags etc. Each box/bag is marked with one of the categories below:
Every day
Twice a week
Weekly
Every second week
Monthly
Every three months
Once a year
When making a new flashcard it is put into the “Daily-box”. Every day you go through the cards in this box. Those you remember advance to the twice a week box, those you don’t remember stay behind in the “Daily-box”. You repeat this step following the instructions on the box. This means that once a week (find a fixed day) you open the weekly box, and go through all the flashcards. Those you remember advance to “Every second week”, and those you’ve forgotten return to start.
Better than naming your boxes “Twice a week”, “Weekly”, Bi-weekly” etc. is to write a fixed day you’ll review the content of the box. This will of course mean that you review some of your flashcards too soon, and some after you’ve already forgotten them, but that is completely fine. This system will help you getting somewhere close to the ideal time of repetition for most of your cards, which is more than enough.
Good luck! 😊
