Sarah spends hours copying vocabulary lists from her textbook into a notebook. She believes that writing out each word and its definition over and over will help her remember them.
Later, she rereads grammar rules in her book and tries to memorize them by heart.
She feels productive but doesn’t see progress. She can’t remember the material she’s trying to learn and her fluency is lacking. Why?
Sadly, she’s wasting her time. The methods she’s using to practice are not effective. So she studies hard, but not smart. But Sarah meets Tina.
Instead of just writing down random words, Sarah switches to working on meaningful language chunks (=phrases) and using flashcards.
First, she pulls out chunks from videos, books, random conversations, etc.
She works on them - figures out when we can use them and how, what they mean, makes examples and has them checked, gets feedback, etc.
Then, she writes each chunk on a flashcard.
Sarah's chunks with example sentences on the left & two sides of flashcards - the question & the answer - on the right
She makes her flashcards in different ways, and she practices in different ways, but one thing is constant - she does not read the answer right away. First, she tries to recall the answer, and only then reads it off the flashcard.
And she does that regularly. With increasing gaps between the study sessions.
This method ensures she revisits the words before she’s likely to completely forget them, which strengthens her memory.
To improve her grammar, she studies new stuff in her lessons, and then makes sure to apply it.
She journals and writes essays using the new grammar. She also uses it in speaking - in role playing in class, with colleagues at work, etc.
If she keeps making the same mistakes or if she finds something important hard to remember, she makes flashcards for it and practices them when she’s working on the chunks flashcards.
Examples of flashcards for common mistakes - the question side is on the left & the answer side is on the right
In the beginning, Sarah practiced a lot. But that brought no results as that practice went against the way our brain learns. Writing lists of words and endlessly writing their definitions is about as useless as rereading grammar rules and trying to memorize them.
These led neither to strong memory, nor to Sarah’s ability to use this stuff in real life.
Practice must be good to deliver progress - it must be effortful and systematic, and it must follow what we know about the way our memory works.
Think about it - you wouldn’t put a potato in the freezer and expect it to turn into French fries, right?
The same way you shouldn’t reread stuff, for example, and expect that you’ll memorize it and be able to use it when you speak.
That’s just not how it works. It’s not about copying endless vocabulary lists or rereading grammar rules. It’s about using smart techniques like working with chunks and spaced repetition.
Sarah was working hard but getting nowhere... until she realized the problem wasn’t her effort but how she was practicing. Are you stuck in the same loop? Want to stop feeling frustrated and start seeing real progress? Sign up for my newsletter to learn how you can improve faster, like Sarah, using this link.
Tina is a professional English Teacher with a Cambridge education and 10+ years of teaching English to adults in-person and online.
She wants you and English learners like you to develop a solid understanding of what you need to do to start speaking better English faster (and not fall for English-in-a-month scams).
Comments