Taboo Games Vol 123 Redesigned (Flashcards for teaching speaking)3 Characteristics of a Great Flashcard System1. Different sensory cues are integrated for maximum impactWe know that there are visual learners. They learn best with images and colors. We also know that there are auditory dudes who like melodies and sound with their lessons. Finally, there’s kinesthetic learners, who learn best when they’re moving and actively doing things.Now just to make it clear, we all learn visually, auditorily and kinesthetically. It’s just that people have certain preferences or modalities where they learn best. So a kinesthetic bloke can still learn visually, albeit not as effectively as when he’s jumping around, running after people and generally making a mess of things.Going back to flashcards, what do you think will happen to the learning process when we have cards that hit on multiple sensory modalities?In other words, what’s the effect of having multimedia elements like images, sounds and videos to the flashcard ?Answer: Enhanced learning.Memory will be served well by multimedia as the brain can have multiple points of anchoring.Studies have shown time and again that hitting many varied sensory nerves makes the event, object or, in this case, language lesson more memorable.A great flashcard system is one that hits the eyes with images. Not just ordinary, boring pictures mind you, but funny, cute, interesting or shocking ones.For example, if you want an “el gato” (cat) vocabulary card, don’t just place there a picture of an indistinct feline. Choose one that’s funny or cute—like many of those cat memes. That’ll make it so much more memorable.Use interesting fonts and colors as well for your “el gato” text.If you can have a video of a cat hopelessly chasing a laser pointer, even better.2. Language is always presented with good contextThe brain can’t hold information that exists in a vacuum, at least not for very long. That’s why memorizing a bunch of meaningless numbers is futile. It’ll only take a few minutes before you forget them.You’ve got to make all your learning meaningful.One way of doing this through flashcards is by creating context for your card. That’s why Voxy’s system (which we’ll learn more about later in the post) is so good—it allows you to make flashcards out of the pictures in your phone’s photo gallery. That means the pictures that you’re using already have personal context. They’re already anchored. You already hold memories of them—you only have to add a language lesson.The picture of your drunk uncle on New Year’s Eve, for example, can be used as a Spanish vocabulary card for “tío” (uncle).A great flashcard system makes every card meaningful. Otherwise, it’ll be just a boring vocabulary list.3. It performs spaced repetitionWhat is spaced repetition?Let’s say you have card A and card B. Card A, you know by heart. You get shown Card A, you quickly answer and with 100% accuracy. You get shown Card A, you think your intelligence is being insulted.Card B is a little different. You’re not so familiar with Card B. It takes you a couple of seconds to give an answer. And you’re not even sure of your answer.A spaced repetition system will make sure that you meet Card B more often than Card A.Spaced repetition is a great way to maintain the “freshness” of your flashcards. It means you’ll always be learning something new. You will always be challenged. A great flashcard system is not random. It’s algorithmically determined so you’ll only keep studying words you really need to study. Time is saved in the process.Now that we know all that, let’s see some prime examples of both traditional and digitized flashcards.