You may be surprised to hear that flashcards can be a rather controversial topic in the language learning world. Some swear by them. Some swear at them. So where do I fall in the flashcard continuum? Am I for or against them?
My short answer:
I think that modern digital flashcard apps can be a useful addition to a balanced language learning diet. The operative word here being “addition.” When you use a spaced repetition system, your flashcards can save time and increase your efficiency since you focus on just the words, phrases, and structures you have yet to master.
My longer, more nuanced answer:
As Khatzumoto of All Japanese All the Time puts it, “You don’t learn a language, you get used to it.” And the only way to “get used to” a language is through lots and lots of “input” (listening and reading) and lots and lots of “output” (speaking and writing). Learners can easily miss the forest for the trees if they start spending too much time studying flashcards (and engaging in other conscious, declarative memory tasks) and not enough time exposing their brains to the target foreign language in authentic, real-world contexts and real-time two-way communication.
If you do decide to use flashcards, make sure that they augment—not replace—the input and output activities you need to acquire a language. And just as importantly, make sure your flashcards meet the following three criteria for kick-ass cards:
③ Include images and audio recordings
One of the main problems with most traditional flashcards is that they are text only. Such cards provide few memory “hooks” to attach the content into your long-term memory and only help you practice one of the four language skills: reading. Fortunately, most modern flashcard apps allow you to overcome these limitations by adding images, audio recordings, etc. As Gabriel Wyner puts it in Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It:
Where to find images for your flashcards
To find images for your cards, you can use:
- For maximum effect, use your own photos or drawings (even stick figures will do!).
- Find images using Google Image Search or icons using
- Fluent Forever app.
How to add audio to your flashcards
In addition to images, audio recordings take flashcards to an even higher level, providing another valuable channel of input and a chance to practice an additional language skill. Depending on your flashcard app, you can either upload an audio file to the card or simply turn on text-to-speech in the settings.
To get free audio recordings by native speakers, check out Rhinospike: Foreign Language Audio on Demand!
- Submit your text: Simply upload some text content that you want a native speaker to record.
- Record for submissions in your native language: To both help the community and push your submission ahead in line, answer a request for recordings in your native language.
- Download the finished audio file. When a native speaker has finished recording your text submission, just download it to your computer and then attach it to a flashcard.
If you use Tinycards (my current favorite flashcard app), you can turn on text-to-speech as follows:
- Go to Tinycards.Duolingo.com in your browser (the smartphone app version lacks some of the language options included in the online version).
- Go to one of your decks and click the pencil icon to edit it.
- Click the gear icon in the upper left.
- In the “Audio” section, select the language you want from the dropdown lists for both the front and back of the card.
My short answer:
It depends on the language learning world that you have created according to your belief system and knowledge you have accumulated. For example, if you believe that conscious learning is the only accepted balanced language learning diet, then spaced repetition and digital flashcards may save time and increase your efficiency. The problem is that for most adults conscious learning a foreign language does not work because of the appalling forgetting curve and human innate habit of thinking in the native language. I agree with Randy the Yearlyglot (//www.yearlyglot.com/dont-use-flashcards/) who writes:
“There are two things that make flashcards bad. And I don’t just mean bad as in “ineffective”—I mean bad as in “working against you”. Learning anything (words and phrases) alongside its translation is creating extra steps in your brain. It makes you think slowly, hear slowly, and speak slowly.”
Arkady, I agree that excessive conscious study is a common problem for adult language learners, which is why I devote so much of my blog, podcast, and language guides to the importance of authentic input and output tasks that lead to robust, subconscious procedural memories and spoken fluency. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve is indeed a problem, but it can be overcome by choosing fun, meaningful content, using narrow listening and reading, and leveraging spaced repetition. I also agree that translating to and from one’s native language is potentially problematic, and I encourage learners to check out Gabriel Wyner’s excellent tips about how to create translation-free flashcards in his book Fluent Forever (his app of the same name also applies the same target-language-only principles). That said, as Krashen puts it, “We learn when we understand,” and I therefore think that some (not a lot) of translation can be useful.
John,
Your reply reminds me an old axiom: “There’s no such thing as winning an argument.” You are adding facts to validate usefulness of flashcards based on your knowledge and experience with conscious learning.
In subconscious training you don’t learn a language; you train various language skills without conscious effort. Subconscious Training is defined as an activity in which all three language skills – reading, listening, and speaking – are learned simultaneously. Training three skills concurrently automatically eliminates cross-translation that is the main barrier to acquiring fluency in English. This three-action activity presents the brain with a challenging workload and automatically stops cross-translation into the native language. When cross-translation is stopped, a foreign language center is formed in the brain of an adult because old symbols which were previously wired together with the words of the native language are now re-wired to the words in a second language.
To explain why it is extremely hard to learn a foreign language by conscious learning using flashcards and other tools, I need to remind you about two systems of the mind, introduced by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.
Again, I am not arguing against subconscious language acquisition. It’s one of the pillars of my language learning philosophy. I found your approach fascinating when we chatted for the podcast, and I do think there is great potential in your approach to turning off cross-translation; but the issue I have with debates like this is that it exemplifies the cognitive distortion of dichotomous thinking. Language learning needn’t be an either-or choice between conscious study and subconscious language acquisition. Both are useful. But a little conscious study goes a loooong way and subconscious acquisition (acquired through immersion) should make up the vast majority of one’s time.