Mission Possible: Learning foreign words
A lot of people all around the world quit learning foreign languages just because it has seem impossible for them to memorize huge vocabulary, which is necessary for mastering any language. The program LearnWords makes this mission possible for everyone, even for those with poor memory.
It is common knowledge that there are two main ways of remembering information and that is through verbal or visual representation. People with the photographic memory type can learn very quickly, but tend to get their information mixed up. Hence, those people are less accurate, even though they are more confident about remembering correctly. Verbal learners use more comparisons and associations than the visual learners and are, as a rule, more accurate in their memories, although they are less confident.
LearnWords is a set of six effective exercises based on mechanisms of verbal and visual memorization. The sequence of these exercises is arranged by complexity.
The first acquaintance with foreign words begins with an exercise called "Card"; it is made of three parts - the word, its phonetic transcription and its translation.
Then, a more complex exercise, "Mosaic", follows. It asks you to guess a word's correct translation by connecting a word from the left column with its translation in the right column.
"Select translation" exercise is made of multiple-choice questions, where you are required to choose the correct translation of a given word.
"Guess translation" exercise enables you to recall the translation of words on your own.
"Select word" requires you to choose a word's translation and immediately marks your answer correct or incorrect.
"Writing" exercise helps you learn the correct spelling of a word.
For those who have a more evolved verbal memory there are four listening exercises ("Audio test", "Audio-Select translation", "Audio-Select word" and "Audio-Writing"). These verbal exercises present an audio course which will help you with recognition of foreign words, perception of speech and learning the correct pronunciation.
Another classification of human memory is by storage; it distinguishes between short-term and long-term memory. At first, the new information that we learn enters our short-term memory, which lasts about a few moments. However, a person is able to remember some facts for a much longer period of time by putting them in the long-term memory, but it requires something unusual: a vivid image, emotional experience, mutual connection with other known facts. It is not always possible. Fortunately, people have discovered that the periodic revision of the studied information leads to its memorization.
Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus was one of the first to scientifically study the process of forgetting. The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve reveals correlation between forgetting and time.
The graph demonstrates that the loss of data in person's memory already occurs on the first day, especially during the first hour. And only a bit more than a quarter of all the studied material remains two days later!
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
All in all, information is often lost very quickly after it is learned. Thus, factors such as how the information was learned and how frequently it was revisited play a big role in how quickly these memories are lost. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve was the basis for repetition used in the program LearnWords, as the most authoritative and recognized source.
By default, the program includes the following schedule of six repetitions: the first - thirty minutes later, the second - an hour later, the third - nine hours later and so on. Eventually, the latest repetition occurs eleven days after the initial introduction with a word. This way it provides a lasting storage of words in your long-term memory.
Another method of studying words that can be performed with the help of this program (I would say will suit you best if you are lazy at the moment) is auto-moving of words. It is a passive method of study. The program acts like a slide-show demonstrating you the records from the dictionary. You don't have to look intently at the screen of your monitor in order to memorize the words, just carry on with your daily routine at the computer and your visual memory will do the hard work for you.
The learning process with this program is easy and fun. It includes a game component that assists you in overcoming stress caused by the necessity of learning so many unknown words. The points are added for correct answers (three points) and are lost (two points) for wrong answers. Thus, the more difficult words will be repeated more often than the words you know better. The exercises change automatically as you reach a certain level based on your points.
Besides, all the words from vocabulary are divided into blocks - this way you won't be overwhelmed with all this new information.
What I, personally, appreciate in this program most of all is that there is a version not only for the computer, but also for mobile devices. Thereby, you can use the time spent on the road or outside the office efficiently, by using this program.
Moreover, you can try this highly effective training program for learning foreign languages yourself for thirty days absolutely for free.
