When it comes to vocabulary, people often underestimate what they are capable of remembering when they repeatedly study the same words every day or too few words. Others may overestimate what they are capable of remembering, by trying to remember new words every day or too many words.
A solid routine with a Spaced Repetition System (SRS) allows you to strike the perfect balance between old words and new words, and between too many words and too few.
But what is an SRS? An SRS asks you to introduce some new words every day, and to study past words according to their current level on a calendar. Every time you get words right, they move up a level, and the time interval between reviews of those words becomes greater. Every time you get a word wrong, it is demoted to a lower level, which decreases the time interval between reviews for that word. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry, what I am about to say next will help a lot.
Spaced repetition systems basically come in two forms: physical forms (like the Leitner Box) or electronic forms (like Anki). With a physical form of SRS, you simply need to follow a calendar that shows what levels to study on what day. With an electronic form of SRS, the innerworkings of the calendar and timing are hidden from you behind the user interface and the system will present words for you to study when the time is right. Many popular language learning websites and apps employ this already, so you might be familiar with it.
There are pros and cons to both. I prefer the old school way, with flashcards and a physical box, because I enjoy making the cards and I like to give my eyes a rest from screens when I study. With the electronic way, obviously, you can save time from making all the cards yourself (many premade vocabulary decks are out there), you can save space, and it is easy to study on the go.
Here’s a link to an extraordinarily popular video playlist I made all about setting up a physical SRS, the Leitner Box. Check it out! And don’t forget to like and subscribe while watching, so you can find your way back to it. On all of YouTube, this playlist has the most Leitner Box videos!
Do you use spaced repetition systems for your vocabulary training? Let us know about your results, optimizations, and questions below in the comments section!
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