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Re: [lojban] Re: flashcards?
On 6/22/06, pavig <paulvigo@gmail.com> wrote:
The way that a leitner flash program can assist in regular language
learning. A leitner system will automatically ignore drilling you on
words you are currently using, and focus you on new vocabulary.
It's worth noting that my critique was directed at sophisticated flash
card systems like Leitner, Logflash, and Supermemo, which all used a
spaced repetitions model of learning.
You have to own a flashcard
program or system and integrate it into the rest of your learning to
ensure you get the most out of it. Just having a program or some cards
that have words on them (without any context) and leaving it at that
is always going to be an inefficient method.
Sure.
Using it properly as a
small component of a complete language learning system makes it
worthwhile.
That's debatable. As I said earlier, a good flashcard program will
earn you only about 15% additional retention on top of the 80%
retention you have for new words introduced amidst a full context.
(I.e. only about 1 of every 200-400 words is unfamiliar. Retention
probably starts dropping when there are more unfamiliar words than
that.) And it does take a lot of time to use. Is the 15% you gain more
valuable than more time doing additional reading? Or grammar
exercises? Or only reviewing trouble words? Or something else?
No doubt, if you want to learn a big list of words, and you don't want
to read a text that introduces them naturally and in context, a flash
card method is great. But if you need to be reading that text anyway,
then is the flash card a waste of time?
Chris Capel
--
"What is it like to be a bat? What is it like to bat a bee? What is it
like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a batted bee?"
-- The Mind's I (Hofstadter, Dennet)