The Research

June 20, 2025

Mastering a language requires hundreds of hours of dedicated study. Before investing your valuable time in a shiny new app or approach, you should see what language experts and academic research has to say about the various techniques Lingjini synthesizes.

On Flash Cards

1. "Flash cards are the most underrated language-learning tool of all."
   Barry Farber in How to Learn Any Language (pg. 58)
2. "Learning from [flash] cards is a way of quickly increasing vocabulary size through focused intentional learning."
   Paul Nation in Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (pg. 445)
3. "Research also shows that flash card learning is not only common but also effective and efficient. Studies demonstrate that memory...may persist over years if reviewed regularly...[and flash card study] improves L2 learners’ ability to use the words in communication."
   Tatsuya Nakata in The Routledge Handbook of Vocabulary Studies (pg. 304)

On Digital Flash Cards

1. "...digital flashcards were more effective at increasing immediate vocabulary gains than paper flashcards for basic and intermediate-level students."
   Robert Ashcroft et. al in Digital flashcard L2 Vocabulary learning out-performs traditional flashcards at lower proficiency levels (pg. 26)
2. "This research suggests that paper and digital flashcards are equally viable options for students but platform matters. Mobile technologies like tablets might be especially advantageous."
   Kara Sage et. al in Flip, Slide, or Swipe? Learning Outcomes from Paper, Computer, and Tablet Flashcards (pg. 461)
3. "...the participants in the experimental group who used mobile applications outperformed the control group (paper flashcards) in the post-tests, and the effect size of the observed differences was very large."
   Ismail Xodabande et. al in Self-directed learning of core vocabulary in English by EFL learners: comparing the outcomes from paper and mobile application flashcards (pg. 93)

On Spaced Repetition

1. "SRSs are flash cards on steroids."
   Galbriel Wyner in Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It (pg. 11)
2. "The expanding pattern may thus be seen as an effective shaping procedure for successively approximating the desired behavior of unaided recall at long delays."
   T.K. Landauer and Murray Hill in Optimum Rehearsal Patterns and Name Learning (pg. 631)
3. "The present results suggest that the spacing effect and not mere repetition of trials alone is contributing to the gains observed in the adjusted spaced retrieval group. Our results, among others, imply that expanding retrieval practice is most advantageous in comparison to other training schedules."
   Hawley et. al in A comparison of adjusted spaced retrieval versus a uniform expanded retrieval schedule for learning a name-face association in older adults with probable Alzheimer's disease (pg. 648)
4. "We replicated the experiment that yielded the famous forgetting curve describing forgetting over intervals ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days. Ebbinghaus' goal was to find the lawful relation between retention and time-since-learning."
   Jaap M. J. Murre and Joeri Dros in Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve (pg. 1)

On Sentence Mining

1. "...because a sentence context can provide extra information and little effort is required to add a sentence context to word cards, it is probably advisable to use such contexts on cards wherever possible."
   Paul Nation in Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (pg. 461)
2. "You'll learn fastest if you take advantage of...simple, clear sentences with translations and explanations."
   Galbriel Wyner in Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It (pg. 89)
3. "Most people agree that vocabulary ought to be taught in context (Nilsen 1976; Chastain 1976; Rivers 1968). Words taught in isolation are generally not retained."
   Elliott L. Judd in Vocabulary Teaching and TESOL: A Need For Reevaluation of Existing Assumption (pg. 73)
4. "Moreover, this method, unlike that of lists or words to be memorized, actually aids the memory in remembering general definitions. It seems reasonable to assume that if one can associate a context with a word, one has a greater chance of recalling the definition."
   Robert S. Burroughs in Vocabulary Study and Context, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Word Lists (pg. 55)