I have never used the built in flash card review option and I was wondering how it works. I reset my progress with Korean so I don’t have a billion learning vocabulary items and it should be manageable and I’ll try staying on top of reviews etc. But how does it work? Do I just wait for the app to tell me it’s time to review? Do I proactively go in and review vocab to get them started? The vocabulary words are adding up fast so I am a bit hesitant to just wait and hope the app guides tests me on them…
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I personally don’t treat vocabulary acquisition as a separate activity from reading and listening, therefore I generally don’t use SRS, neither on LingQ nor elsewhere. But, since Steve Kaufmann mentions his using this feature regularly, I have tried it on occasion. If I understand correctly, there are two productive ways of using SRS on LingQ: review sentence and review lesson. The former is currently only available on iOS and is accessible when you study in sentence mode and the sentence in question has at least one yellow word. Steve has provided a video demonstration of this feature in his most recent video: Can Writing By Hand Help You Learn A Language Faster? - YouTube A review of the words in the current lesson is available at the bottom right of the screen. These two options should assure that the number of vocabulary items stays manageable, the more general “review due” option seems to reach astronomical proportions really quickly - for example it expects me to do 50k, I don’t consider working through this a sensible use of time. Most of these words are probably irrelevant or specific to a certain context. When using the two more constrained review modes, these problems should be somewhat alleviated.
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Yeah I am a little concerned it will reach astronomical proportions too but for the moment I have the motivation to study a lot.
I already gave up on the built in SRS though. I’m still curious about it but I won’t be using it. I’ll check Steve’s video out thank you. I tried the export to Anki and that worked so well I’ll be using Anki instead. I just have to figure out how to export a 2nd time to add new cards to the deck. Hopefully it’s not too tricky.
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I would second Bamboozled’s stance on acquiring the vocabulary words combined with the context to be more efficient. Once you have a basic understanding of the language, another alternative to using SRS on vocabulary is to use the same system to repeat the lesson with different goals in developing essential core language skills.
I choose receptive learning materials with repeated words so my mind will be more conducive to engaging with the lessons and discovering and learning something new for each pass through the text. I set up a mini goal on every pass by focusing on a particular area or skill to work on, such as pronunciation, subvocalization, different formalities of expressions, grammar, etc. Another option is to couple the lesson with further study from other resources. Exposure to the same or related grammatical structure or vocabularies has worked tremendously well for me in acquiring new vocabulary.
(Login - LingQ
https://www.howtostudykorean.com/)
(Lesson 9 Vocabulary - YouTube
https://kleartextbook.com/category/b_beginning/lesson-ppt/)
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I like the idea of doing SRS but I could never find a way for me to actually incorporate it into my learning, so I don’t bother. It’s not necessary anyway.
It all depends on the unique learning method and goals people want to achieve in various stages of language learning. Using the flash card can be dramatically different according to personal goals and preferences.
I used a more simplified version of SRS with the paper flash card in the past. I had 30 to 40 cards with vocabulary on one side and definitions or sample sentences on the other. Sometimes it’s better to deal with less information at once so you stay more focused and achieve more. I would review this daily deck in short daily sessions of 3 to 5 minutes as often as possible. Whenever I felt comfortable with the vocabulary, I would move it to a weekly deck and add more to the daily one. I would do the same for the weekly and monthly ones.
Another good flashcard use is learning the Chinese idiomatic expression Chengyu. I would put the Chengyu and sample sentences on one side and a short story explaining the origin on the other.
I am sorry that I may have wandered off the original topic. Anyways, as long as we are comfortable with our learning method and making progress toward our specific goals in acquiring language skills or sub-skill, we will enjoy significant momentum in learning in a shorter time than we expected.
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