It is not spaced repetition (SR).
SR occurs when you are forced to recall the word or word phrase, given the English translation, and vice versa. Both directions are required, otherwise you aren’t forced to notice every aspect of the foreign word or word phrase.
I found I could often understand a word in context, but when trying to recall it later on, I hadn’t a clue, or I would come up with something only vaguely resembling the correct answer,
There is no illusion, LingQ works.
I agree with ericb100 that reading is spaced repetition.
I agree also. I was using SRS with Lingq. I have desactivated exercise from my mother tongue to my target langague. I simply don’t need it. For me, translation are there only to make content understable in my target langague. I find exercise to recall meaning from native langague to target langague a chore. It’s just painfull.
Not in the closer sense. It is true that you are repeatedly exposed to words while reading. However, there are some important differences.
When reading you encounter a word in many different contexts, while SR usually gives you only on or a few different, or none at all if solely asking for the translation of a word, for example. Both approaches, learning words or phrases via SR or encountering words in context while reading, have there legitimicy, but they are genuinely different. Stating they are different doesn’t imply one to be objectively be better.
The amount of time that needs to pass before you encounter a word or phrase again is specified by how well you remember it. A text does not care about that, so you may encounter words you know often and words you find hard to remember more rarely. This is the core aspect of SR, though and an important aspect when trying to memorize low frequency vocabulary. If you label everything SR where you encounter a word or phrase repeatedly over the time, then you are basically refering to any use of the language, making the term pointless.
However, we don’t have to discuss what is or isn’t spaced repetition. The term is already defined.
Exactly. SR is of course based on research that shows that exposing the student to a fact at gradually increasing intervals leads to acquisition of that fact in long term memory. That’s why cramming a fact during one lesson often does not lead to long term storage.
I don’t play by the LingQ rules or spaced repetition. I mostly read novels with LingQ with some listen/repeat/shadow.
Every time I don’t recognize a wod, I write it and its definition in a 7"x10" notebook, along with the page number of the book. I then mark it known.
Every time I see phrase I don’t know or with some grammar I find it tricky, I write it and its translation on the left page. I mark that known too.
I mark things known because I was fed up with LingQ marking things known behind my back. I don’t care about LingQ satistics beyond words read.
I’ve come to distrust LingQ so much – I won’t be surprised if LingQ ever loses all my data – that I wanted to rely only upon my records and my review system. I review my notes whenever I have spare moments or I am moved to do so.
My system may be somewhat inefficient, but it’s a routine I’ve come to enjoy and trust. I optimize for engagement with the langauge.
Two years and 2000 hours of intensive reading with LingQ, I am now reading a Stephen King novel without LingQ or a dictionary. I am getting 90-95% of it.
I beg to differ. Getting into the semantics of it all. I’ve never seen anything that says spaced repetition is defined as needing to compare both directions. It’s certainly a useful exercise, but you can set up flash cards/srs to work in one direction if you so choose. It is still “spaced repetition”. You are just training the different directions.
And you are certainly correct. It is easier to identify a word’s meaning in context compared to an isolated word. However we don’t read, listen, or speak in single words (most of the time). I think it’s a useful endeavor to work on the singular words, Working on both is more effective (I think we probably agree on that).
ObstTorte gave a more accurate and complete reply reply than me. Just reading is not SR. SR presents flash cards at intervals determined by an algorithm. If you guess right, the interval increases. If not, the card is reset. Reading is just randomly bumping into words, and sometimes you only hear them once. Yes you can repeat, but you’d have to do so many, many times over months. I have heard moineau only once in the wild, but I know it means sparrow thanks to Anki. I know the items in my garage - le rabot, le ciseau, la perceuse à main, les pinces, le tourne-vis, le boulon, la vis, l’écrou, la tondeuse, l’établi, le marteau, la pelle, le rateau, la bêche, la scie, l’étau, and la tronçonneuse - thanks to Anki. I was listening to a true crime series, and understood when the main character put someone’s head in a vice and killed them. I won’t go into details. But I’ve heard étau, or vice, only once in real input and recognised it immediately. I would not have got those at the required intervals from input.
Incidentally, the new AnkiVice is a good piece of kit. You wear the vice on your head. The Anki app connects to it via bluetooth. Wrong answer - crank. Right answer - uncrank. It’s very effective for learning the case system in russian, or it soon puts you out of your misery…
Re: Language learning / spaced repetition
I’ve seen the Ebbinghaus curves and accept them. I’m sure spaced repetition works. I’m also sure some people enjoy working their flashcards and they get results.
I doubt SR would work for me because I find the flashcard approach tedious and boring and a real motivation killer. So I do semi-random spaced repetition, just by reading a lot, taking notes and semi-randomly reviewing them.
I’m happy with my results. Two years and 2000 hours later with my approach I am reading a Stephen King novel without a dictionary or computer aid. I assume most people learn second languages without SR.
My guess is that SR might be an effective refinement which might yield a 10-25% improvement over my approach (assuming it didn’t make me give up).
If SR doubled my language learning speed, I might reconsider. But I’m skeptical that is the case and I would be surprised if there were studies supporting that.
The crucial factor IMO is time spent in the language and for that motivation is key.
Honestly the srs is LingQ in my experience is not worth using. If you want srs you could just make anki cards out of words you learn in LingQ. I used to think that lingQ was ineffective too but that was only because LingQ only shines if you read a lot. If you simply aren’t reading enough per day to encounter words more than once then you it will never be effective.
Re reading i think is fine if you just do it quickly or if its a show that you can watch more than once. I just wouldn’t overthink it and do what you enjoy but just do as much as you can. The results will follow
Unless Anki has changed since I used it, just setting it up is a heck of a lot more time-consuming than LingQ’s SRS. When I used Anki, I found I wasted more time setting up the flashcards than I spent using them.
LingQ, on the other hand, sets up its SRS system behind the scenes, so you never have to waste more than a few seconds setting it up: it’s always there for you.
Firstly 2000 words is nothing, no matter what are your definitions of a known words. You keep on repeating the older words while you learn new words. The more imput you have the higher % the words are “strongly known”. From my experience you have to get to tens of thousands before words start become automaticly known (although still as passive vocabulory). The faster you get the input in the better (ofcourse to some sensible limits eg you need to sleep, eat and do other things aswell). Secondly I would consider known words solely as an indication of what content to use. You don’t have to repeat same content many times if you don’t like it. There are many ways to use comprehensible input, but it only works if you comit to it. There are no short cuts to learning a language. It takes much more time then one might think.
I also do not pay much attention to the LingQ stats.
First of all there are tons of premade decks out there. In addition, if you just want basic flashcards without any fancy stuff, you can use ai to generate them.
Another point is that creating the deck is part of the learning process, too. At least from my experience I can remember parts of the deck I created pretty well compared to another deck with similar content I downloaded.
The downloaded deck contained example sentence including audio for a grammar book I own (beginner level). The deck I created was for the second book in that series. However, I didn’t create the whole deck at once. I created it along the way while working through the book and started practicing it after I’d finished the book. So it was just part of the schedule: work through a chapter → make the exercises in the book → create the anki cards.
I’m through roughly 20% of the deck and by now didn’t had any issues remembering most of the grammar, even though not every nuance. It’s a bit like writing a summary when practicing for a test in school.
BTW: Setting up the cards is relatively fast doable when using an existing deck as template.
Same experience here. I use Flashcards Deluxe, and spend over half the time creating the decks, but it’s still effective.
I do not know if the stats necessarily reflect reality, I guess they could if we were absolutely strict about how we mark the words as known. What I do know is that after having done a fair amount of reading, new texts that I read are much, much easier to comprehend as I do have some knowledge of many of the words. For example, I have uploaded 55 or so Disney stories to lingQ. I have read/listened to 18 of them so far. The first, Cinderella, was a real struggle. Tons and tons of words I was unfamiliar with. After reading it I read several stories that had similar themes with stuff like castles, witches, kings, princesses, magic spells, etc. in them such as Beauty and the Beast and the Beast, Robin Hood, Bambi, Snow White, and many others, they are all progressively easier to follow. There are always a few new context specific words specific to the new story, but I feel I solidly know many of the words. The fact the context is similar obviously helps but it probably took a week to get thru my first story, now I can do them in a matter of hours.
Also, many of these same words came up when reading famous Russian fairy tales. For this reason, I totally believe that lingQ helps on reading comprehension. I also have the recordings for all of these stories, and they are top notch. The ability to listen and comprehend new stories has also improved, but nowhere near as dramatically as the reading comprehension.
I did not get as much benefit from using Spaced Repetition. The reading context is enormously beneficial IMHO. I had loaded these stories to lingQ to make reading easier, which was so successful that I have read a couple from the books without LingQ. Whether the stats are exactly accurate I do not know, but I have gained a lot and it is just coming up on a year.
most of the setup is just editing how your cards will look but you only need to do that 1 time and there are tons of guides out on youtube. There are also online dictionaries that allow you to make cards out of a click. I mean if lingQ works for you then cool but anki does allow you to add audio, images, change color of text and not to mention tons of premade decks you can import. There’s pretty much no limit. I stopped using it though myself but its pretty neat once you just get past the initial setup.
michael.mcd mentions “Make It Stick - the science of successful learning” by Peter Brown in his topic post. I asked ChatGPT 4.o about the book:
Here are the main ideas of Peter C. Brown’s “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning”:
1. Active Retrieval is Key
Actively recalling information strengthens memory and enhances learning more effectively than passive review. Testing yourself, whether through quizzes or practice tests, improves retention and understanding better than simply re-reading or highlighting.
2. Spacing and Interleaving
Spaced repetition (spreading out learning over time) and interleaving (mixing different topics or types of problems in a study session) lead to better long-term retention. Although these methods feel harder and slower, they help deepen learning and improve adaptability.
3. Effortful Learning Enhances Retention
Struggling to retrieve an answer or solve a problem (desirable difficulty) strengthens learning. Easy learning often leads to rapid forgetting, while challenging processes result in durable knowledge.
4. Illusions of Mastery
Techniques like highlighting, re-reading, or cramming can create a false sense of mastery. These methods make information feel familiar but do not promote deep understanding or long-term retention.
5. Understanding Context and Connections
Learning improves when new knowledge is tied to existing knowledge or real-world applications. Making meaningful connections and understanding the “why” behind facts strengthens memory and facilitates transfer to new situations.
6. The Value of Feedback
Constructive feedback and correcting mistakes during practice are critical for improving learning. Failure is part of the learning process, and addressing errors builds stronger understanding.
7. Embrace Mistakes and Failure
Mistakes are not setbacks but opportunities to learn. Tackling problems and experiencing failure lead to deeper insights and better performance in the long term.
8. Learning Styles are a Myth
The book challenges the idea that people learn best through specific “styles” (e.g., visual, auditory). Effective strategies, like retrieval practice and spaced repetition, benefit everyone regardless of preferred modality.
9. Learning is a Lifelong Process
Effective learning techniques apply beyond the classroom. Adopting these strategies can improve skills in personal and professional life, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and resilience.
10. Teaching to Learn
Teaching others reinforces your own understanding and memory. Explaining concepts forces you to retrieve and structure knowledge, enhancing retention.