Flashcards

Learning words from cards: some guidelines

This way of learning vocabulary has to be seen just as one of the first steps in learning a word. There are several reasons for this.

1           There is more to knowing a word than knowing its translation.

2           Learning a word is usually a cumulative process not a one-off piece of learning.

3           Words not only have to be known they have to be readily available for use.

However, learning the translation of a new word is a very good step towards knowing that word.

Research on vocabulary learning provides useful indications of how learning from vocabulary cards can be done most effectively (Nation, 1982; Nation, 1990).

1. Write the word to be learned on one side of the card and its translation on the other side. This forces retrieval of the item after the first meeting. Each retrieval strengthens the connection between the form of the word and its meaning (Baddeley, 1990). Seeing them both together does not do this.
2. Initially start with small packs of cards - about 15 or 20 words. Difficult items should be learned in small groups to allow more repetition and more thoughtful processing. As the learning gets easier increase the size of the pack - more than 50 seems to be unmanageable simply for keeping the cards together and getting through them all in one go.
3. Space the repetitions. The best spacing is to go through the cards a few minutes after first looking at them, and then an hour or so later, and then the next day, and then a week later, and then a couple of weeks later. This spacing is much more effective than massing the repetitions together into an hour of study. The total time taken may be the same but the result is different. Spaced repetition results in longer lasting learning.
4. For words that are difficult to learn, use depth of processing techniques like the keyword technique. Think of the word in language contexts and situational contexts. Break the word into word parts if possible. The more associations you can make with an item, the better it will be remembered.
5. Make sure that words of similar spelling or of related meaning are not together in the same pack of cards. This means days of the week should not be all learned at the same time. The same applies to months of the year, numbers, opposites, words with similar meanings, and words with the same superordinate such as items of clothing, names of fruit, parts of the body, and things in the kitchen. These items interfere with each other and make learning much more difficult (Higa, 1963; Tinkham, 1993).
6. Keep changing the order of the words in the pack. This will avoid serial learning where the meaning of one word reminds you of the meaning of the next word in the pack.
7. Write collocates* of the words on the card too where this is helpful. This particularly applies to verbs. Some words are most usefully learned in a phrase.

*words that tend to be associated with each other, or co-occur in sentences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baddeley, A. D. (1990). Human memory: Theory and practice. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Higa, M. (1963) Interference effects on intralist word relationships in verbal learning. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 2, 170-175.
Nation, I. S. P. (1982). Beginning to learn foreign vocabulary: A review of the research. RELC Journal, 13 (1), 14-36.
Nation, P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House.
Tinkham, T. (1993) The effect of semantic clustering on the learning of second language vocabulary. System 21, 3: 371-380. [2.2]