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I am a big believer in the effectiveness of SRS for getting a basic foothold in a new language or subject, but I stopped adding cards to my Anki decks after awh

I am a big believer in the effectiveness of SRS for getting a basic foothold in a new language or subject, but I stopped adding cards to my Anki decks after awhile because the effort needed to create high quality cards is too high. Studying is a breeze with SRS, but inputting and formatting study material into a computer takes too much time, especially if you want to include images or other context. SRS works best with small atomic units of knowledge that stand on their own without context. I know of no better way of bootstrapping those first 2000 words of vocabulary in a language, but beyond that I think you're much better off using extensive reading of easy texts to build on your language foundation.

pmoriarty 10y ago
"I know of no better way of bootstrapping those first 2000 words of vocabulary in a language" For me, a much, much better way has been something called Total Physical Reponse (TPR)[1] It basically involves a speaker of the target giving the learner a verbal command to perform an action, demonstrating the commanded action, and then prompting the learner once again with the same command. For example, if a teacher was teaching English, he/she could say: "sit down" then demonstrate what they mean by sitting down themselves, then say "sit down" to the student. The student would then mimick the action of the teacher, by sitting down. Then the teacher could say, "pick up the fork", pick up a fork themselves, and then say to the student, "pick up the fork", and the student would pick the fork up, etc. This is super effective for learning vocabulary and grammar at the same time, in context. For me, that's a much easier, faster, and more natural way to learn than using any flashcards or spaced-repetition program. The downside, of course, is that this is just for listening and understanding. It eventually will have to be augmented with other techniques for speaking and learning to read and write. But for just learning to hear and understand the basics of a language quickly, that is the most effective technique I know. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_physical_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_physical_response

pmoriarty 10y ago

"I know of no better way of bootstrapping those first 2000 words of vocabulary in a language" For me, a much, much better way has been something called Total Physical Reponse (TPR)[1] It basically involves a speaker of the target giving the learner a verbal command to perform an action, demonstrating the commanded action, and then prompting the learner once again with the same command. For example, if a teacher was teaching English, he/she could say: "sit down" then demonstrate what they mean by sitting down themselves, then say "sit down" to the student. The student would then mimick the action of the teacher, by sitting down. Then the teacher could say, "pick up the fork", pick up a fork themselves, and then say to the student, "pick up the fork", and the student would pick the fork up, etc. This is super effective for learning vocabulary and grammar at the same time, in context. For me, that's a much easier, faster, and more natural way to learn than using any flashcards or spaced-repetition program. The downside, of course, is that this is just for listening and understanding. It eventually will have to be augmented with other techniques for speaking and learning to read and write. But for just learning to hear and understand the basics of a language quickly, that is the most effective technique I know. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_physical_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_physical_response