When you are learning a new language, one method that can be very effective for learning and retaining vocabulary is using flash cards. I’ve used flash cards to increase my vocabulary with Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, and it works well in some cases but not so well in other cases.
The method itself of using flash cards is pretty simple. The easiest way is to buy a stack of index cards, write the word you want to learn on the front, and write the meaning on the back. Shuffle the cards and start going through them to see if you can remember the meaning, looking at the back if you can’t remember. To increase my retention of difficult vocabulary, I would pick out the cards of words I repeatedly had trouble remembering to create a separate stack that I could focus on exclusively. I know there are a ton of computer-based and web-based flash card programs, though I haven’t used any of them before. If you have one that has worked well for you, please let me know in the comments.
I found flash cards to be very helpful for learning written Japanese. Japanese uses three writing systems, two of which are phonetic and relatively simple to learn. However, the third system, kanji, is a pictograph system borrowed from Chinese characters, where each character represents a thing (noun, verb, thought, feeling, idea, etc.). Because each character represents an individual word, there are thousands of characters you need to learn in order to read Japanese effectively, and (at least for me) flash cards were invaluable in learning and retaining kanji characters.
For Italian, the results of using flash cards to learn vocabulary were more mixed. For me, they seemed to be pretty effective for verbs (in infinitive form), nouns, and adjectives. However, they were decidedly less helpful for certain words I was having trouble remembering. As I mentioned in my post on helpful “utility” words, words like allora, tuttavia, nonostante, comunque, quindi, etc. (then, nevertheless, although, anyway, therefore respectively) are very context-dependent and are very difficult to remember out of context. Just try explaining what anyway or nevertheless mean to someone without using an example or explaining the context in which they’re used!
So putting these words on a flash card is not an effective way to learn them because they are not being used in context. A more effective way to learn these words is to pause mentally when you encounter them and absorb the context in which they are used. When you hear them, focus on the intonation. I think you’ll find that the intonation of these words is very similar to their English counterparts. For example, when you hear someone say allora, focus on the context in which they used it and the intonation they used. If the intonation is demanding, then they are using allora in the sense of “And then? Out with it!” If the intonation is slow and drawn out, especially after a pause in the conversation, then they are using it in the sense of “Well then” or “Let’s see,” and it functions as a way to move a conversation along or change the direction of the conversation. After a while, you’ll pick up the different meanings this word can have and you will be able to use it in the right context. You can see why flash cards just don’t work well for these types of words.
Overall, I’d say flash cards can be very effective for words that are not very context-dependent, like nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For words that do depend on context, flash cards won’t be very effective and you should try out other methods. And if you make a set of flash cards, use them! Be sure to shuffle each time, and go back to them after a while. You’ll be amazed at how much vocabulary you can pick up this way!
This post increased my knowledge… very interesting..thank you..
Couldn’t agree more with this: “So putting these words on a flash card is not an effective way to learn them because they are not being used in context. A more effective way to learn these words is to pause mentally when you encounter them and absorb the context in which they are used. ”
Unless I actually use the words and “befriend” them all the looking at flash cards in the world is not really going to work with me. I am also a visual learner so in some cases if I can relate a picture to the word, as well as the sound or intonation I learn it better.
Having said that however, I have found an interesting site called byki where you can make flash cards and add sound and images if you like. Just the act of creating the cards and thinking through visuals to add to the cards helps me learn the word, not so much the flipping through them. But, sometimes when I am on the phone or waiting for a huge graphics file to download I flip through the byki cards…it can’t hurt and maybe something will stick eventually! But, really writing and learning to use new words is the very best way to become more comfortable with new vocab and learn it through experience and not from rote memory.
http://www.byki.com/ I started to use these and add them to my blog articles to help explain some of the vocab I use that I am learning that week. You can make private lists or lists that you can share with the entire internet. I thought it was kind of cool
Ciao Sovi, thanks!
Ciao Melissa, that site sounds interesting. I’ll have to check it out. And I know what you mean about the act of creating the card itself helping you remember the word. The simple act of connecting the word with its meaning, and especially with a picture, in your mind can have an amazing effect!
I am whole-heartedly against the idea of using flashcards, for one simple reason: they associate a word with a word, rather than with a thought. You can never be fluent if you’re translating your thoughts word-for-word in your head as you speak or listen. You must learn to associate the new words with their meanings. (Which is what you do in your native tongue.)
I suppose this might be possible if the flashcard had the Italian word on one side and a picture of its meaning on the other… though this isn’t so easy to do with adjectives, and nearly impossible with adverbs.
If I can restate what she said above, I think Melissa nailed it — the best way to acquire vocabulary is exposure.
Ciao Randy, I agree that translating in your head is not a good way to learn a language and you’re absolutely right about needing to associate new words with their meanings. I think flash cards can be somewhat effective in that they get new words into your mind, along with their meanings (though you have to think of the word in your native language to get the meaning, an additional step, as you mentioned). The goal then becomes to remove that additional step by practicing using the word in a natural context, so you can associate it with its meaning without having to do any internal translation. I think that this method can help with listening and particularly reading comprehension because you become familiar with words you wouldn’t have known otherwise, so it saves the step of looking up an unknown word in the dictionary. Just like any other method, it will become more natural over time as you internalize the language. But perhaps there are better methods to achieve these results. I’m just speaking from personal experience. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject! Very thought-provoking
[...] you memorize characters or just vocabulary in general. Some people rave about that method (click here for an article describing pros and cons). At the beginning, I bought stacks of index (flash) [...]