Intro
|
| Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Becky: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about… |
| Peter: How To Master 500 Words with Spaced Repetition. |
| Becky: You’ll Learn... |
| Peter: One, The Problem with Learning Something Just “Once” |
| Becky: Two, The Power of Spaced Repetition Learning |
| Peter: Three, How I Reached My 500 Word Goal with Flashcards |
| Becky: And Four, How You Can Take Full Advantage of This Study Tool |
| Peter: All so you can master your target language and reach your goals! |
| Body |
| Becky: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Last time, you learned just how easy it is to reach a language goal... |
| Becky: ...if you have a clear, step-by-step path laid out in front of you. |
| Peter: And you can do this with the Learning Paths study tool. |
| Becky: Alright Peter, what’s new!? With your goal? For the month? |
| Peter: Yes, I promised to learn 500 Chinese words. |
| Becky: So what’s the good news? Did you write out 500 flashcards? |
| Peter: Becky, the bad news is, I did NOT do all of that. I actually cheated... a little bit. |
| Becky: What did I tell you about cheating, Peter? Cheated? |
| Peter: Well, I hit my goal, but with the help of two things: A specific learning technique and technology... which made learning 500 words easy... well let’s say manageable. |
| Becky: Oh, please tell me this the technique. |
| Peter: It’s called spaced repetition. |
| Becky: Listeners, do you know about it? |
| Peter: If you’re a seasoned language learner, you’ve definitely heard of it. |
| Becky: ...but if not, you’ll find out in today’s Inner Circle. |
| Peter: How To Master 500 Words with Spaced Repetition |
| Peter: Becky, let’s jump into the first part. |
| Becky: One, The Problem with Learning Something Just “Once” |
| Peter: First, let’s give you a quick crash course on memory and learning. |
| Becky: Okay. |
| Peter: If you learn 5 new words right now, and I ask you to tell me what you learned... |
| Becky: ...right now? Too easy, Peter. Total recall. |
| Peter: Exactly, you have a 100% chance of remembering. Now, if I asked you in 1 day. |
| Becky: Huh, I think ...I’d still remember most. Half. A few. |
| Peter: At this point, Becky, your memory retention is less than 50%. |
| Becky: So my memory drops? |
| Peter: Exactly. We tend to forget what we learn very quickly...IF we don’t review. |
| Becky: Ah, I did learn about this in college. You’re talking about the forgetting curve - it's some graph - made by a German psychologist.... |
| Peter: Yes, Hermann Ebbinghaus. Basically, his graph shows the relationship between time and memory retention. |
| Becky: So you can see just how fast you forget... |
| Peter: ...if you don’t review. It’s a big drop after the first day. |
| Becky: Okay, well that explains why I don’t remember what I learned in college. Nothing, Peter, nothing. |
| Peter: At least, you remembered the forgetting curve. |
| Becky: Yeah.. that’s true. The irony. |
| Peter: So, it’s like they say... repetition is the mother of... |
| Becky: ...invention? Oh no, learning! |
| Peter: Uh, Becky, yes. The other thing to know, listeners, is that our brains are not like computers, unfortunately. |
| Becky: They’re more like muscles. |
| Peter: Reading a word or phrase just once probably won’t save it to your brain. |
| Becky: ...but reviewing it, from time to time, will. |
| Peter: So, this is where Spaced Repetition comes in. Let’s get into the second part. |
| Becky: The Power of Spaced Repetition Learning. |
| Peter: Listeners, Spaced Repetition Learning simply means... revisiting |
| Becky: ...or coming back to review something over time. |
| Peter: And, the space between each review session gets longer and longer. |
| Becky: So, if you studied something today, you can review it in 2 days... |
| Peter: Then in 5 days... then in 7 days. |
| Becky: That way, you refresh your brain... |
| Peter: ...and strengthen your memory in the long run. Much more effective than cramming. |
| Becky: But Peter, here’s a question. |
| Peter: Yes? |
| Becky: Coming back to review... in 2 days, 5 days. That's inconvenient. I don't think any normal person would remember to do that. |
| Peter: I think you’re right, Becky! So, this learning technique is powerful by itself. It works. |
| Becky: But it’s hard to do manually. |
| Peter: But...when combined with technology, that you listeners already have access to, your learning skyrockets, your progress skyrockets. It’s almost like cheating, |
| Becky: Oh? |
| Peter: Let’s get into the third part. |
| Becky: How Peter Reached His 500 Word Goal with Flashcards. |
| Peter: Here’s what I did. Since my goal was to learn 500 words... |
| Becky: ...based on the 60 lessons you did last time.... |
| Peter: ...I saved the lesson vocab to my WordBank as I went through each lesson. |
| Becky: Listeners, remember, the Wordbank is a Premium study tool where you can save words and phrases. |
| Peter: ...And you can also make Flashcard decks from the words in your WordBank. |
| Becky: Is this where the cheating comes in, Peter? |
| Peter: Exactly, Becky. The cheating comes in with the Flashcards. And I say cheating because... Becky, you’d agree... learning 500 words upfront is hard work. |
| Becky: Definitely. |
| Peter: Well, with Spaced Repetition, it’s easy because the goal is NOT to cram. |
| Becky: ...but study a little a day and space your out study sessions. |
| Peter: Exactly. With my deck, I’d have between 20 or 40 cards, sometimes a bit more, to review for the day. |
| Becky: How long did each session take you? |
| Peter: About 5 to 7 minutes. Sometimes I went up to 20 minutes just to put in extra work and start on new words. |
| Becky: Oh, that’s not bad at all. |
| Peter: And, with our flashcards, you mark how well you know them. |
| Becky: So if you don’t know a word? |
| Peter: You’ll keep seeing that word in that study session until you remember it. |
| Becky: And if you get it right? |
| Peter: You’ll see it again 2 days, or possibly later. |
| Becky: Ah, I see. Yeah, that sounds easy enough. |
| Peter: When you’re done with a session, you’re done for the day. The flashcard deck will tell you “NO CARDS DUE RIGHT NOW. Study again on this date.” |
| Becky: Huh. Why? Isn’t it better to keep going? Push on through? |
| Peter: It’s actually better to take a break. This goes back to how our brains work. |
| Becky: Ah, right. Like a muscle. Trying to learn too much at once sets you up for failure. |
| Peter: So, I say it’s like cheating because the technology... |
| Becky: Flashcards |
| Peter: ...combined with the learning technique |
| Becky: Spaced repetition |
| Peter: ...Makes learning easy. The flashcards do the hard work for you. |
| Becky: They redisplay words so that you don’t forget them. |
| Peter: They quiz you on words that you struggle with most. |
| Becky: They remind you when to study next. When to stop. |
| Peter: ...And you learn a small chunk of words at a time to avoid cramming. |
| Becky: Alright, sounds good! How can our listeners take advantage of this? |
| Peter: Let’s get into the fourth part. |
| Becky: How To Learn with Spaced Repetition Flashcards |
| Peter: Listeners, find your Flashcards in the vocabulary drop-down menu on the site. |
| Becky: There you should already have the 100 must-know words deck. |
| Peter: That’s the default deck, but you can always create others. |
| Becky: Click on “Study” and “Start Session” to start learning. |
| Peter: It’ll start quizzing you. You’ll get the flashcard with the word in the target language. |
| Becky: Click on “Show Answer” to confirm the meaning. |
| Peter: And mark it as correct or incorrect. |
| Becky: Based on your answer, the flashcard system will start sorting the words for you. |
| Peter: So if you know that word, you won’t see it for another 2 days. |
| Becky: But if you don’t.... |
| Peter: It’s going to hound you until you remember it! |
| Becky: I like that. It holds you accountable. Then, move on to the next card in the deck. |
| Peter: You can study with 3 modes |
| Number one: Recognition - you get the word in the target language and see if you know the meaning |
| Number two: Production - you get the meaning and see if you know it in the target language |
| And Number three: Listening - you hear the pronunciation and see if you know the meaning |
| Becky: So you can vary your learning with 3 modes. Now, what about the decks? |
| Peter: You can create flashcard decks from... Words you learn in Lessons, The 2,000 Core Word List, Entries in Your WordBank, And the Words and Phrases in our Free Vocab Lists. |
| Becky: In fact, there are suggested lists right below your decks to help you get started. |
| Peter: Listeners, the beauty of these Flashcards is that all you have to do is put in the time... |
| Becky: ...until you master them. Don’t worry about rushing or cramming. |
| Peter: Just do the ones for today and that’s it. |
| Becky: The flashcards will tell you when to come back again. |
| Peter: And just stick with the deck until you’ve mastered it. |
| Becky: Alright Peter, so you’ve hit your goal for the month. And there are 4 months left in the year. |
| Peter: Becky, time flies. |
| Becky: It really does. But you know I’m going to ask you, what’s your next, small monthly goal? |
| Peter: So my next monthly goal will be to take a practice test. |
| Becky: Deadline? |
| Peter: September 30th. |
| Becky: Okay, I don’t know how much study that’s going to require. But study hard, Peter. And remember. You promised to take a Chinese proficiency test by the end of the year. |
| Peter: Ah, yes, it’s my yearly goal. |
| Becky: Listeners, let us know as well. Do you use spaced repetition flashcards for learning? |
| Peter: And what’s your goal for the month? |
| Becky: Email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com. |
| Peter: And stay tuned for the next Inner Circle. |
Outro
|
| Becky: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
Comments
Hide