Flash Your Cards And Absorb Spanish

Easy Spanish is no myth. Much has been discussed, both here and elsewhere, about how total immersion accelerates your acquisition of Spanish. There’s one incredibly effective tool that we have skipped thus far and that’s what this article is all about: Spaced Repetition System or SRS. When it comes to nailing the alien Spanish vocabulary SRS is one of the best tools that can augment your regular immersion setup. What it does is slowly but surely wean you away from dictionaries and help you focus more on the insane amount of input you are drawing from the immersion-cocoon you have so painstakingly woven around yourself.

Spaced Repetition System

Flashcards make Spanish vocabulary easy
Photo credit: flicktoast licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

So, what exactly is SRS? Nothing but a much more evolved version of your traditional flashcards. Remember, how paper flashcards helped you commit difficult concepts to memory with the only effort on your part being regular revision of the entire deck of cards? I still consider them the simplest, yet, the single most effective method of improving vocabulary.

The biggest advantage of flashcards is that they call for only a few minutes of flipping on your part on a daily basis and drive home difficult vocabulary seamlessly, without any cramming. We can call it a smarter way of cramming that takes less time and effects better retention. Another benefit is their flexibility; you can put down almost anything on the cards and they will work their magic without any problem. Use them to memorize words, difficult rules of grammar, or even hard to remember verb conjugations, flashcards work equally efficiently in all situations.

So much for them flashcards; now, what is SRS again? Well, spaced repetition is an improved learning methodology that introduces gradually increasing time intervals between subsequent reviews of previously learned items with the aim of exploiting the psychological spacing effect. And any computer application that facilitates or automates this process is a Space Repetition System.

Most SRS programs are modeled after physical flashcards and follow a similar pattern where items to memorize are entered as Q-A pairs. When a pair is due for review, the user must attempt to answer the question that is flashed on the screen. Upon answering, the user hits some option to manually reveal the right answer and feed the degree of difficulty into the program. This feedback is then used by the program’s internal algorithms to schedule pairs for future reviews. Paired with other retention tricks, such as visualization, SRS can be the ultimate weapon in your Spanish-learning arsenal.

What is Anki®?

Now, down to the brass tacks. Anki®. Anki® is a free flashcard application, or SRS, that has many built-in features that physical flashcards lack, such as downloadable word-libraries, scoring system, rep management, etc. another key aspect is the “time-spacing” feature. This is the feature that defines Anki® and underscores its effectiveness. You can add as many words or phrases (cards) in each library (and as many libraries) as you wish and then tag each card as “easy”, “difficult”, etc. You have the option to change the tag each time you revise the deck so what was “difficult” last week could be re-tagged as, say, “easy” today if you are reasonably comfortable. These tags define how often or at what frequency a card would appear in your review.

So, this way, Anki® manages not only what you need to revise, but also how often. All you need to do is browse through your decks which shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes everyday! Anki® does all the hard work for you without telling you about it. Besides, it also eliminates the need for you to tote around fat decks of physical cards which could easily be misplaced or scattered.

Anki® alternatives?

It is not the only SRS implementation there is. Then why Anki®? Well, honestly I don’t know. Call it habit? I got to know about Anki® when I first learned about SRS and I guess it’s human nature to stick with what’s comfortable and get comfortable with whatever comes first. So, I can’t go about how Anki® is better than all other SRS programs but my experience with it has nevertheless been excellent. You can, though, explore others like SuperMemo®, FullRecall®, etc. Anki® worked for me. And it’s free. I am a big fan of what’s simple and what’s free. Anki® scores on both counts and hence sits on my computer.

Treat your Anki® reps as a regular workout routine. Do them everyday and do them for sure. And don’t forget to appreciate the unbelievable amount of vocabulary you end up acquiring after only a few days of using it.

Ramses, my Dutch friend, talks extensively about the merits of SRS at The Language Dojo; I would strongly urge my readers to have a look at his blog which is rich in inspirational tips for language learners like us. You can however try out some of the other SRS systems like SuperMemo®, Mnemosyne®, FullRecall®, and jMemorize® and let others, including me, know how they went for you. There could be an Anki®-killer just round the corner, you never know. Whatever system you try, be sure to be consistent. Make SRS reps an integral part of your lifestyle and your Spanish will thank you.