Do you ever have such situations when the word, idiom or grammatical construction of a foreign language can not be kept in your head, despite the fact that you have already met it many times and even specially taught it? And how many percent of foreign words do you remember a month after learning them? And six months later? Is it difficult for you to motivate yourself to study in a foreign language?



With the answers to these questions, comes the realization that with the problem of forgetting a significant part of the previously studied, you need to do something. Not only effectively teach, but also effectively maintain your knowledge. In addition, there is the problem of overcoming resistance to routine activity, which the introduction of game elements into the monotonous repetition process can help solve.
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Under the cat you will find a story about the method of learning a foreign language with the help of flashcards, about the technique of effective use of the method and about the basic features and algorithms of one version of the software implementation.

So, let's start first, that is, from the ancient (warm tube) method of learning a foreign language with the help of cards and the features of its correct application, and then we will look at how we can improve it with the help of modern technology and algorithms.

Learning the language using cards

Using flashcards to learn a language is an intuitive method, the essence of which is extremely simple: A small piece of paper is taken, on one side of which a text is written in a foreign language, and on the other side on a native one. These sheets are collected in decks, native language up, shuffled and drawn out one by one. The task of the person is to restore the text in a foreign language, seeing only the translation into the native language. What could be easier? But here are hidden pitfalls:

Should I learn individual words?

This question is worth to stop on it in more detail, since the penetration of individual words is the most common mistake in learning a foreign language.

When we express our thoughts, we build our speech from basic primitives, minimal units, just like houses from ready-made blocks or the most complex programs from several dozen operators of a programming language. But is the word the minimal unit of a language? Let's look at a few examples.

First, languages ​​separate the shades of meaning in different ways. For example, knowing that the verb “ solve ” is translated into English, you can translate the phrase “ solve a problem ” as “ to decide a problem ”, but this will be a mistake, and the correct one: “ to solve a problem ” .

Secondly, the same words can mean completely different concepts, which are determined solely by the context in which they are used. For example, the phrasal verb “ to put on ” can have more than a dozen meanings when translated into Russian and the sentence “ It was Angela who put William on to Steven ” can be translated in various amusing ways: “ Angela put William on Stephen ” or “ Angela put on William on Stephen "and so on, but the correct version of" William with Stephen brought Angela together "(more precisely, the phrasal verb" put on to "is used here).

Thirdly, each language has its own, unique idioms, the appearance of which is due to a unique confluence of historical and cultural events. In idioms, the whole phrase takes on a new, often multifaceted meaning. For example, you can guess that “ More haste, less speed ” more or less corresponds to “ Hush and drive, you will continue ”, but how about “ Don't give yourself airs ”, “ You look like red herrings ”, “ Still waters do run deep "or" We don't mean to talk shop ". Not everything is not so obvious, is it?



Fourth, grammar. Words can not be combined in an arbitrary way, and for a natural language there is no possibility to use a compiler that can check and find all syntax errors. Grammar is the most important topic for learning a language, and by no means do I want to ignore the study of grammatical rules. But let's remember that after each grammatical rule there are always examples and, sometimes, we cannot formulate the rule itself, but there are examples in our head and we, by analogy, speak correctly, but at the same time, we don’t even know why. Let's go even further and recall the fact that any child speaks their native language very well, without even knowing such a word as "grammar." Children, during several years of immersion into the language environment, accumulate a sufficient number of basic elements, and can combine them in an arbitrary manner or derive them by analogy.

Fifth, linked text is remembered better. It's really simple here: the word that has been pulled out of the context is, more often than not, just a word, and the full phrase gives an image, sensations, emotions and causes diverse associations to us. But about the emotional color, we will talk further, and now let's summarize:

Learning individual words in a foreign language is a boring and time-consuming process, and most importantly, unable to provide the basic building blocks of a language that can be combined and create complex structures.

So what then to learn?

It's very simple: write on the cards complete thoughts in the language: phrases, sentences, or even a few sentences. It does not matter that of the ten words in the phrase, only one unfamiliar word or a new revolution. The main thing is that each card conveys a complete thought, and ten familiar words will help to weave the old word into a tangle of associations, which is, in fact, our memory. In addition, the practice of writing sentences in a foreign language will have a good effect on the possession of grammar.

Examples from the grammar textbook are also good candidates for getting on the cards, but it is even better to add sentences with unfamiliar grammatical constructions from other sources to the cards. After several times you notice a strange turn, he will begin to “burn the brain” and you will have to find the corresponding rule, which is more likely to remain in memory, because you were interested, and this interest made the rule emotionally colored. And if it is still forgotten, then sooner or later the card, with a corresponding example, will come to hand and refresh the memory.

Emotional coloring

Let's go ahead and talk about how to choose phrases and sentences to get on the cards. The key word here is emotional coloring, that is, any experiences should be associated with the phrase on the card. In this case, it does not matter whether the memories are good or bad, serious or stupid, dramatic or funny. Only the brightness of these experiences is important.

If you take a phrase from the book, and the names of the characters participate in it, then the phrase will be remembered better, if you know the plot of this book, the story of these characters, the exact episode in which the phrase was said, and so on. And it would be even better if you really liked the book or, it does not matter, really did not like it. Favorite songs, films, TV programs, videos on Youtube or audiobooks are also excellent candidates and even better than books, as they allow you to develop the ability to understand the spoken word by ear.

Speaking out loud

Another important aspect of using cards is that after you have read the phrase in your native language, you must say the answer out loud, clearly and at natural volume.

First, the pronunciation of the phrase allows you to remember it better, since the flow of sensations associated with this phrase increases significantly: you concentrate on the pronunciation, you hear the sound of your own voice, you feel the muscles work. It will be even better if you make some gesture or facial expression with the pronunciation or even give a drink to your phrase. All this increases the notorious emotional coloring and associative connectedness.

Secondly, speaking out loud is a good training for speaking: pronunciation, intonation and speed.

Do not forget: there is no silver bullet

Unfortunately, each method has disadvantages. The most important of them that I felt on myself is the pronunciation. If you spell a word incorrectly, then this method will only make your pronunciation fix. Therefore, it is important to carefully monitor the accuracy of pronunciation and correct it as soon as possible.

There is a useful pronunciation exercise: you can select several audio recordings of phrases in a foreign language and listen attentively to each phrase, and then try to copy it as accurately as possible by recording yourself on a dictaphone. You need to compare the two entries, find differences in pronunciation and repeat all over again, improving your speech.

There is a simple rule: What we train, we develop . That is, if we only read, then sooner or later we will learn to do it, but we will not be able to say or distinguish something by ear, if we are only engaged in oral speech, we will not be able to write and so on. Therefore, you devote your time to all the main disciplines of the language: understanding by ear, speech, reading and writing.

iFlashcard

With the method, we seem to have figured out. Now let's look at what information technologies will be able to offer us for its improvement.

There are a great number of programs for electronic cards and everyone who reads this text should be asked why I gave myself up to the passion of cycling and wrote my own. There were several reasons for this:

First, some programs are optimized for learning words, not phrases. I have already written in detail about this, we will not stop.

Secondly, in this program there is only one, single list of cards and there is no division into groups, phrases or lessons. The fact is that I experience chronic intolerance to any routine and uninteresting actions (and cramming applies to them, no doubt) and therefore, to force myself not only to learn new words, but also to repeat old ones can be problematic and I find thousands of reasons to do something more interesting. In this regard, I do not want to separate my cards on any basis except “their level of knowledge” and do not want to switch between the process of learning and repetition. Perhaps you have a question, but how is it that the old cards do not interfere with the study of new ones? I will try to answer this question further.

Thirdly, some programs dictate the training schedule in such a way that the cards have to be given strictly certain time and regularly. But, more often than not, finding the exact time is difficult and I need the opportunity to spend with advantage both five minutes and three hours when it is convenient for me. I understand perfectly well that the effectiveness of methods based on a clear timetable has been scientifically proven, but what's the point if you can't follow them?

Let's take a look at the screenshots. This is how the main window of the program looks like:



Everything is very simple:

1. We click on the Next card button and the program selects a card for us randomly, taking into account the level of our knowledge for each card
2. We see the phrase in the native language (or foreign, if you change the direction in the settings)
3. We remember the translation and, importantly, we pronounce it out loud
4. Click Next card again and see the answer.
5. Compare your answer with the standard and, depending on the result, click either Success or Failure
6. The program adjusts the level of our knowledge of this card and then selects a new card for us and everything repeats again.

Nothing sly. The screenshot shows the Score parameter. It increases when new words are added and correct answers are received, and decreases from reverse actions. The goal of the game: to score 100,000 points, then the program will show a cartoon, exactly as in the game “Well, wait a minute!” .

And this is what the card editor looks like:

Algorithms

It's time to open the hood and see how it all works. The knowledge level of each card is expressed in a weighting factor (a floating point number), on the basis of which, in a pseudo-random manner, a card is selected for display to the user. That is, the basis of the algorithm is the selection of random weighted elements from the set. Each answer from the user Success or Failure changes the weight of the card, respectively, in a smaller or larger direction.

The weight of the card after the answer changes the following code:

double CalcNewFactor( double oldFactor, Answer::T answer ) { return answer == Answer::Correct? oldFactor - CorrectAnswerFactor * ( oldFactor - 1 ): oldFactor + ( MaxWeight - oldFactor ) * IncorrectAnswerFactor; } 

When a correct answer is received, the weight decreases exponentially, while for the minimum card weight not one is chosen, but one in order to avoid a situation in which the probability of showing the card is close to zero, and also to avoid possible problems with rounding.

When an incorrect answer is received, the weight increases logarithmically: the smaller the current weight, the greater it will increase. This approach allows you to simulate a situation where the user gives the wrong answer to the learned card. In this case, the card is immediately transferred to the category of unexplored and, with high probability, will again be shown to the user in the near future.

The parameters IncorrectAnswerFactor and CorrectAnswerFactor are by default equal to 0.5 and can be changed in the settings file.

It remains to figure out how to ensure the possibility of the existence of a single list for all the cards, or rather, how to make sure that the long-learned cards do not interfere with the active study of those that have been added recently.

To solve this problem, we will be helped by two parameters: Maximum MaxWeight and initial InitialWeight card weight. Let's make the maximum card weight equal to the number of cards multiplied by a certain MaxWeightFactor coefficient, and the initial card weight will be equal to half the maximum weight. Then, provided that all the cards are learned (i.e., their weight is approximately equal to 1) their number is N and MaxWeightFactor = 1 (default value), the new card will have an initial weight of (N + 1) / 2 and the probability of her choice by the next card will be approximately equal to 1/3. That is, the probability of choosing a new card does not depend on the number of cards, and this is exactly what allows you to store all the cards in one big deck.

Conclusion

The article considered an effective method of memorizing elements of a foreign language using double-sided cards. The key elements of the method and the rules for getting the most out of it were described. The features of the software implementation of this method were identified, distinguishing it from the existing analogues (the only deck of all cards, the lack of explicit switching between learning and repetition, the absence of imposing a schedule), and described algorithms to ensure such features.

And finally, the links:
Direct download link ( Windows portable ): github.com/black-square/iFlashcards/releases/download/v1.2.5/iFlashcard-1.2.5.zip
Project Page: code.google.com/archive/p/smart-flashcards
Sample card set: github.com/black-square/iFlashcards/releases/download/v1.2.5/settings.xml
GitHub source code ( C ++, Qt, Boost ): github.com/black-square/iFlashcards

In this article, I wanted to describe the difficulties that I had when learning a foreign language and how an attempt to solve them led me to launch a new open source project. I wanted to share my results with the community, get constructive criticism of the method and algorithms, and also express the hope that my achievements will be useful for someone else. And, of course, I invite everyone to take part in the project: share ideas, start task / bugs and send pull requests.