Learned Vocab Refresh: your daily 10-minute language learning habit

As you probably know, language learning takes time and effort. Some days you’ll only have 10 minutes to spare, but you can make those 10 minutes count with Learned Vocab refresh.

Refresh your learned vocab.

Research consistently shows that proficiency levels increase in tandem with vocabulary size.^1,2,3 In fact, of all factors contributing to language proficiency, vocabulary size is by far the single most significant factor.^4,5,6

Needless to say, maintaining your vocabulary is an important part of maintaining proficiency. But thousands of paper flashcards would be inefficient to create, organize, and carry around.

Transparent Language Online makes it effortless to organize and review with your Learned Vocab: your personal collection of words and phrases you’ve learned.

Optimize your time.

Easily organize all your vocabulary in one place. Vocab from Transparent Language Online lessons you complete are automatically added to your that collection, where it can easily be reviewed or automatically refreshed. Of course, not all learning happens in the Transparent Language Online, so you can also easily add your own Learned Vocab from news articles, podcasts, and elsewhere—then refresh it all in one place, whenever you have a few minutes.

Know when and what to review to maximize your time. Learned Vocab’s spaced repetition algorithm helps you review the right vocab at the right time, so you’re not neglecting the “stale” vocabulary that you’re most at risk of forgetting. You can also “archive” words or phrases you know extremely well, ensuring you’ll only refresh what you need.

How does it work?

A word or phrase gets copied into your personal Learned Vocab repository when you’ve either studied it in a lesson or moved it there manually. Once in the repository, a learned word or phrase is in one of two states:

• Stale (it’s time to review)
• Fresh (you know this well, it’s not yet time to review)

You can put words or phrases you never want to review into a third state, “Archived”. A word like “hello” or “please” which you are in no danger of forgetting, archive away.

So how do we determine what’s Stale and what’s Fresh: spaced repetition.

Without going in to too much detail, here’s how Learned Vocab works:

1. While you study a word or phrase in your lessons, the platform records how many times you get it right versus wrong.
2. When that word or phrase goes into your Learned Vocab repository, we consider it Fresh because you just learned it.
3. However, we designate a time at which that word or phrase will become Stale based on how many right versus wrong answers you gave while studying it.
4. When that word or phrase becomes Stale, we alert you that it’s time to “Refresh”.
5. Depending on how well you remembered the word or phrase, it becomes Fresh again for some appropriate period of time.
   

If you remember a word perfectly, it stays fresh for longer. For instance, the first time you learn a word or phrase it might be Fresh for 1 day. Then, after your first refresh, it’s fresh for 3 days. Then 7 days. Then 30 days. And so on. 

Ready to start building and reviewing your vocabulary? Log in now or sign up free via your library.

Sources:
1. Huhta, Ari J. et al. (2011) Diagnosing reading in L2 – predictors and vocabulary profiles, Vortrag auf der ACTFL CEFR Conference 2011, 4.-6. August 2011, Provo, Utah (USA).
2. Milton, J., & Alexiou, T. (2010). Developing a vocabulary size test for Greek as a foreign language
3. Tschirner, E., J. Hacking, and F. Rubio. (2017). Relating Vocabulary Size to ACTFL Reading Proficiency Levels. Conference Paper, Refereed. ACTFL Annual Convention. Nashville, TN., 2017
4. Alderson, J.C. (2005). Diagnosing foreign language proficiency. London: Continuum.
5. Laufer, B. (1992). How much lexis is necessary for reading comprehension? In H. Bejoint & P. Arnaud (Eds.), Vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 126–132). London: Macmillan.
6. Stæhr, L. S. (2008). Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing. Language Learning Journal, 36(2), 139-152.