Flash Cards - Candy for the language learner's brain!

Flash cards are images on cards that either teachers or self-taught students can use to help associate new vocabulary with it's meaning.

Why do they work so well?

The exercise of flashing a card with an image on it to remember its meaning in another language, involves different parts of the brain - instead of simply reading the definition in a dictionary, you as the student can SEE what the word means.

The fact too, that these images are usually "flashed" at the student, meaning - shown quickly and then hidden - means that the brain is also challenged in a different way, and when it comes to learning and most importantly remembering, the brain NEEDS to be challenged, in a fun and unusual way!

Get yourself some handy do-it-yourself language tools. Start expanding your new vocabulary today!

How to Teach yourself a Language using Flash Cards

Steps

1. It is possible to buy language flashcards or even possibly get free ones, like you will see below on this page.
2. But to make your own flashcards:
3. Find a website that provides public domain images in many categories. If you own a Microsoft Offic product, you are free to access any of the 150,000 images at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx.
4. Print off your vocabulary images onto manageably sized peices of paper or card.
5. Now get yourself a dictionary or find an online dictionary for the target language. Write the word on the back of the card with the image on the front.
6. Methods and techniques to utilize the flash cards:
7. Barry Farber wrote a book called "How to teach yourself any language" and he found the utilization of "hidden moments" throughout the day very useful when finding time to flip through the flash cards to refresh his memory of new vocabulary. For example while waiting in line-ups or while on public transport. You could also place the cards in a convenient place like the bathroom.
8. Once you learn the words for the images, you may think that you are done with that set of flashcards. There is much more to do. Now you can expand your vocabulary by attaching an verb (action word) to the object. If you have a picture of an apple, you could learn the word for "peel". Or if it is a book, you could learn the word for "read". And so on. After you have exhausted those possibilities, you could move on to adverbs. Peel "quickly", read "quietly". And so on.
9. Flashcards can also be used to teach oneself letters of a new alphabet. Have a friend help flash them in front of you and to correct you if your memory fails.

Tips

• Try not to always flash the cards in the same order as the brain can quickly learn the order and list of the items, but you don't want to memorize an ordered list, you want to remember each image for what it is in the target language.

Warnings

• One language learner admitted that the only time he could find during the day to use flashcards was while he waited at red traffic lights. While this may seem like a free moment, please do always pay attention to the traffic around you, even while at a red light!

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. How to Teach Yourself a Language Using Flashcards article author: LiveandLearnLanguages.com. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Free Live & Learn Language Flashcards

Here at LLL we would like to offer you a free set of cards in any of the languages featured on this site. Please choose the language you would like from the menu below.

You may order free flash cards in English, on this page, however please first kindly press the "Digg this" button you see below.

... and then, when you've seen that the number has changed, using your new Digg counter number in the form below, order your free flashcards from us!

We don't make money from this. What happens is, when the counter number reaches 350, Digg.com will publish this webpage as a news item to all of their subscribers. We will not be receiving money but rather you will be helping us build a good reputation, and popularity with the language learners out there!

Go ahead and order using the form below...

Just a quick note: so far we have had 36 requests for free flashcards but only 8 people have actually "digged" ... so please make sure you PRESS the Digg button above and use a NEW digg counter number in the form below, otherwise you will not be entitled to receive the free flashcards.

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Help Others Live & Learn Using Flash Cards

Have you used flashcards to learn a language? If so, we'd love to hear how they helped you and where you got them from. By sharing our language learning experiences we can help eachother to language learning success.

Please e-mail us your findings using the form below.