Flash Cards

[darkchild]

Has anyone learnt a new language with the use of Flash Cards?

I found out that I can retain words easily using flash cards but still little progress with sentences.

Any positive results with anyone? Please share.

[Teira Eri]

I've used flash cards with teaching and with learning. Flash cards are great for building rapid recognition of something, especially when it comes to basic vocabulary. Children like flash cards with pictures. Adults may use flash cards with quips of sentences or images. I don't use flash cards much myself, but my friend who used them to memorize Japanese kanji swears by their effectiveness.

However, you're probably not learning to build sentences because of the structure/nature of flash cards. It's just tidbits of information. Single word responses. A memorization tool. Writing, listening and reading are how you advance to the next level of comprehension. Unless you're gaining grammatical knowledge and sentence building know-how, flash card based learning is a shaky route. 

[lingvo]

I use Anki to quickly recall every vocabulary I stumble across in my language learning journey. I used "clozed deleted" sentences in order to assimilate better the vocabulary because learning a new word without context is a waste of time.

[宇崎ちゃん]

Flash cards are meant to be used alongside an actual learning source, not as your only learning source.
Same as with mobile apps.

Without flash cards, you will forget things easily.
Without actual learning materials, you will not come far.

[petesede]

With the coming of cheap tablets and smartphones, actual physical flashcards have much less use for me.  It is just too easy to use apps that basically provide the same functionality, but without a cost or hassle of making them.  It is also easier to build your vocabulary.  For me personally, I hated making flashcards and trying to think of what words to include on them. ´Ok, I want 100 with this batch´....  meh.. I just use websites now that do all the auxiliary work.

[111kg]

I think that a good way to use flash cards is to use the spaced repetition technique. Don't just use them again and again, because you'll waste a lot of time repeating the things you already mastered. I'm trying to say that you should focus more on the things that you don't master, so make a separate place for the flash cards with difficult answers.

[lingualbabe]

I haven't really used flashcards for learning new languages. They can be a bit too restrictive and can cost a lot as well for a very simple material. You could learn a few basics through them but you won't go that far without using other resources or tools. However, I think it can be a great starting tool for newbies because it exposes them to the basic words that they need to know. They do have their use but like I said, it can be limited and you cannot rely on it as your only material for learning.

Combine it with apps, reading materials, videos and other sources, why not? In the long run, these flashcards might not be useful anymore, so that's the downside. They're good as a base... But beyond that, if you can acquire other tools, they would just rot in a corner. Like you said, constructing sentences from them can be harder. 

I imagine they can be great for testing or reviewing though. If you just need to brush up on certain words, you can use them. If you have little time, you can spend some time reviewing them. So they do have some uses, I won't disregard that.

[Trellum]

I was planing to use flash cards to learn Finnish when I was 18 years old or so, I needed a better printer, or at least that is what I thought.  Sadly my plan never materialized.  Now I'm not so sure I'd go down this route, unless I try to learn a language like Hebrew or Japanese.  I'm learning Dutch right now,  but I will be focusing my efforts on sites like Dutchpod101 or Memrise. 

[reverserewind]

I make use of them, partially. I've put some stickers on the objects I have difficulty remembering the names of. I hope this will work out, eventually. Has anyone of you succeeded that way?

[wolfette]

I've used flashcards that I made myself to help with languages. I find they can be useful if used in the right way. You have to have different types of words on different cards in different piles. Then you can use those to make simple sentences like "The girl can draw" or "The ball is green". These can get more complex as you add in additional words you wish to learn, making longer sentences gradually such as "The tennis ball is green and white" or "The grey elephant can perform tricks". Initially you want to go for simpler words and sentences until you know them off by heart. Of course, most of those sentences I just used probably aren't the sorts of sentences you're most likely to need, but you can adapt them to what you're going to need wherever you're going for example. 

One thing I found them especially useful for, was directions. I could put an arrow for the direction I wanted on one side of the card and the word for it on the other side. Then I'd again make sentences including common places. For example, "Take the first left and the shop is next to the library." I learned places and directions pretty easily that way. Another alternative to this though is to cut up sections of a map and put them together like a puzzle. While not exactly the same as flashcards, it helped me to learn the place I'd be staying in so if I asked for directions, I could remember from those little flash card puzzle pieces approximately where things were. 

[Lakeisha Brown]

I have tried flash cards and they do work with single words. However, they aren't much help with sentences. I think I need to find a new approach to learning sentences and just use flash cards for words and short phrases.