I’m trying to seriously simplify my language learning and could use some perspective.
I’m honestly exhausted from jumping between apps. LingQ has been great for my listening and reading comprehension, but I keep getting this nagging fear that if I don’t practice active recall (flashcards etc), my speaking ability won’t develop properly. I know this might sound a bit irrational, but it’s hard to shake.
is it actually okay to focus mainly on listening, reading, and regular practice with native speakers, without drilling output through flashcards?
I’d love to hear real-life experiences from people who reached a high level in a language without heavy output practice or reverse cards. Did your speaking still come together over time? Is it true that passive vocabulary will activate purely through speaking practice?
I’m C1 in several languages, including Swedish and Japanese.
Your brain works differently when it sees flashcards versus when it sees sentences in context. It also works differently when it is encountering recorded audio or video (like TV and radio) versus real-time in person stuff. When you review flashcards you are doing an entirely different type of recall.
Your speaking will NOT improve if you don’t speak. It will improve very SLIGHTLY if you WRITE in the language a lot (because writing increases your thinking speed) and if you do shadowing to copy after stuff like TV characters (because it will improve your pronunciation and muscle memory).
If you can find a native speaker patient enough, it is more effective to speak and write with them.
No one is ordering you to use flashcards, apps or any other software. A lot of the reason why you see people claim this or that method is the best, is because it evolved from a time when it was harder or impossible to find a native speaker and other materials (like books) meant for natives to practice with.
If you’re too embarrassed to write or speak to a native speaker, speak aloud to an AI like ChatGPT until you get more comfortable.
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I don’t think you need to use or need to avoid flash cards.
In my experience with Spanish, I learned the majority of the most common words through input without the need for active recall training to produce them.
I doubt the overall efficiency of spending more and more time on massive ever growing SRS/anki card sets, when you could spend it on input, so I tend to do only very targeted active recall training for:
- Words I confuse with each other, or that just won’t stick
- Idioms, common phrases, and other common collocations that I want to be able to recall, or that I make mistakes with (e.g. if I have a habit of using the wrong preposition with a word)
- Examples of grammatical structures I am working on producing
- Language Island vocabulary and phrases
For active recall, I use:
- L2-L1 Flash cards in LingQ (I set words to review to status 3 and filter by status.) I don’t want to waste time making cards. I usually have < 100. I currently have 31.
- Drills with Chat GPT
- I use the words in writing practice, usually practicing one of my language islands
- Conversations with friends and tutors, again practicing one of my language islands
I learned Japanese before Anki, YouTube, streaming, etc. Most of my input was on paper or in person conversations. I made a lot of paper flash cards for Japanese, in large part because i had to learn the characters, too.
I’d still say I learned the vast majority of words from input without flash cards.
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Use flash cards if you enjoy it, otherwise don’t. And if you do, be careful how you use them.
I find flash cards, in the form of Anki, useful for nouns which have a well defined meaning. Thus the names of common birds and animals. For such words Anki works well. The problem comes with verbs which tend to be more complex, often representing more abstract concepts, and their usage is often more complex, requiring specific prepositions or even constructions. And of course there is often no one to one translation. Even worse, some verbs are only used in a few situations. In this case memorising a verb in each language is probably counterproductive. The solution is to memorise useful phrases, such as “Il a été traduit en justice” or “Il en a fait à sa tête”. And the benefit is that you get loads of grammar thrown in. In fact there is research that suggests that young children learn useful phrases.
I use Anki for phrases, as I tend to get grammar slightly wrong e.g. the wrong preposition, and listening does not sort that out.
Lastly, probably won’t get you fluent in using a word. They are a good way to seed your brain, then when you hear the words in the wild, deeper learning takes place.
I suspect the above explains why some polyglots dislike flash cards.
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