Opinions on flashcards for learning vocabulary?

[Chai]

Hey everyone! I'm currently at an intermediate level in French (B1 if I had to guess) and have been using flashcards as a way to try to grow my vocabulary. Usually when I read something with a word/phrase I don't know, I'll look up the translation then put it into a Quizlet deck (not an Anki fan) and then review about a 100-200 or so every day. However I'm starting to wonder about the effectiveness of this.

It works fine with concrete, easy-to-translate words, like if I study "une ruche" is "a hive" or "hanté" is "haunted" I can easily recognize these and associate the meaning; however with words that don't translate so succinctly, like "se dérouler" (to take place) or "convenir à" (to be suitable for) I often find myself reading these words, momentarily searching for the meaning, and then simply translating in my head. I don't know if it's because these are more complicated words I'm not as comfortable with or because I have been studying with translations.

Should I try to use definitions written in French instead? The reason I haven't been doing that in the first place is simply because it's less convenient than a translation but if the translations are impeding my learning I may switch. Or do you think flashcards are generally unhelpful as a whole? I know some people think reading should be enough to gain vocabulary but if I don't actually make an effort to study a more complicated word a lot of times I will forget its meaning by the next time I see it. Sorry this turned into such a long post and thanks for any advice/opinions you want to share!

[Cainntear]

Short example sentences can often help take those clumsy translations and make them feel more natural.

"Ça ne me convien pas." etc

[smallwhite]

Usually when I read something with a word/phrase I don't know, I'll look up the translation then put it into a Quizlet deck...
It works fine with concrete, easy-to-translate words...
with words that don't translate so succinctly, ... I often find myself reading these words, momentarily searching for the meaning, and then simply translating in my head.

With words that come from my reading plus dictionary look-up, I recall both the translation and the context the word appeared in.

el taladro = electric drill + what Harry's uncle sells
juntarse con = to hang out with + Harry's aunt didn't want her son to hang out with people like Harry

Abstract words aren't particularly harder than concrete nouns for me.

like "se dérouler" (to take place) or "convenir à" (to be suitable for)...
I don't know if it's because these are more complicated words I'm not as comfortable with or because I have been studying with translations.

If "to take place" or "to be suitable for" aren't complicated for you in your native language, then their translation in French shouldn't be complicated for you either, I think.

[Adrianslont]

Hey everyone! I'm currently at an intermediate level in French (B1 if I had to guess) and have been using flashcards as a way to try to grow my vocabulary. Usually when I read something with a word/phrase I don't know, I'll look up the translation then put it into a Quizlet deck (not an Anki fan) and then review about a 100-200 or so every day. However I'm starting to wonder about the effectiveness of this.

It works fine with concrete, easy-to-translate words, like if I study "une ruche" is "a hive" or "hanté" is "haunted" I can easily recognize these and associate the meaning; however with words that don't translate so succinctly, like "se dérouler" (to take place) or "convenir à" (to be suitable for) I often find myself reading these words, momentarily searching for the meaning, and then simply translating in my head. I don't know if it's because these are more complicated words I'm not as comfortable with or because I have been studying with translations.

Should I try to use definitions written in French instead? The reason I haven't been doing that in the first place is simply because it's less convenient than a translation but if the translations are impeding my learning I may switch. Or do you think flashcards are generally unhelpful as a whole? I know some people think reading should be enough to gain vocabulary but if I don't actually make an effort to study a more complicated word a lot of times I will forget its meaning by the next time I see it. Sorry this turned into such a long post and thanks for any advice/opinions you want to share!

Have you tried cloze deletion cards? They work
muchbetter than single word cards or even sentence cards for me.

Also, you are learning collocations at the same time with cloze cards.

If a word would be really hard to remember when totally blanked out, you can leave the first letter or two in to prompt you. It doesn't really matter if that makes the card very easy - the important thing is that you are getting to meet words more frequently.

Oops, sorry, I've just realised that you are not using anki and I don't know if you can do this with quizlet. If you can't do it with quizlet and quizlet is not working for you, it might be time to consider anki again? I'll press submit and post this anyway because I think cloze cards are good.

[Xenops]

Flashcards are helpful to me because:

1. They isolate one word
2. I hear the word in isolation over and over again.

I say do whatever helps you learn: experiment! I don't know if one way is more effective than the other.

[Dylan95]

Flashcards and SRS programs for me are helpful for me as a method of reinforcing and as other people have said, isolating vocabulary.

However, if I only see/use this word in flashcards/srs programs then I will forget it very quickly or my ability to recognize it will only be passive. Often times, I try to form a sentence using the word while reviewing flashcards or I force it into conversations in the target language at least a couple of times.

Some words REQUIRE context. Flashcards are probably sufficient for a lot of words with direct clean translations, but if its a word that doesn't cleanly translate into my native language or is very contextually based, I generally make a few flashcards showing it in context as well.

This isn't quite as relaxing for me as mindlessly reviewing flashcards is because I have to actually think, but due to the fact that I actually have to think, it is far more effective.

[LanguageSponge]

I used to use flashcards to learn new vocabulary, but I stopped after a couple of years of using Anki when an update messed up and I lost a few thousand cards.

Despite this mishap, the more I used Anki the more problems I found with it. I used to love adding more and more cards to it; in my mind it was a good way to roughly keep track of how many words I was learning. But eventually I found that reviewing the cards, as well as entering new ones, took up more and more of my time to the point that I didn't have enough time to do much else language-related that I wanted to. Yes I was learning loads of new words, but that was all I had time for. It wasn't until I lost a lot of the cards I had accumulated and started using that time for other things again like more extended writing, recording myself speaking and other things, that I noticed the extent to which I had grown out of Anki without realising it. I realise that this won't apply to everyone, far from it, but I thought it would be worthy of mention in case someone does get something out of this train of thought.

Even when I was using Anki a lot, I personally found that the simple approach of having one or a few words in the target language on one side and their translations on the other side only remained useful for words or terms that had easily identifiable 1-1 equivalents between the two languages concerned.


Beyond memorising more simple words, I found short sentences to be much more beneficial, firstly because you would have a context to draw on which might make the word a bit easier to internalise, and secondly because frankly, clicking through flashcards bored me after a while.

I also found that using flashcards was a bit misleading when it came to reflecting on how well I was doing: after a while I'd see a card a few times and be able to say that ausmachen can be used to express turning off a light or snuffing out a candle. But these cards need to give me a lot more information than just that, and that's without even going into the grammar of how the word works! Firstly, ausmachen also has over half a dozen other completely different meanings depending on context, way too many to put on one card and still make it truly useful. Secondly, I found while I could translate its meaning into English on the card with no problem, but that wouldn't necessarily mean I could recall the word when I needed it in a real sentence. That turned out to be a completely different skill. For me only a really good example that paints a picture in my head can help me to learn new words effectively. This is why now I am getting back into working on German again, I'm going to mostly be using sentences, creative writing and speaking to do this. You can create context for yourself in writing about things that interest you, and the context that comes from speaking is the memories you create in your conversations with people. Sorry for the length of this post!