Looking for a Language Flashcard App? Pimsleur® Helps You Master New Vocabulary

Pimsleur Team

If you’re considering learning a new language, you might find yourself searching for the best flashcard app for languages. You may recall a time in school when you relied on index cards to help you memorize vocabulary, and now you’re looking for a language flashcard app to mimic that experience for you. And who could blame you? Flashcards are a great way to create visual associations with new vocabulary. They strengthen memory recall and help build up new words and phrases in your target language.

But flashcards aren’t the only way to learn a language. In fact, they work best as one piece of a language learning pie. Pimsleur’s award-winning learning platform includes a Flash Card feature that supports your learning alongside audio lessons that have you speaking conversationally from day one, quizzes, games, reading lessons, and our Voice Coach with real-time pronunciation feedback. The Pimsleur App includes Flash Cards as a critical building block for all learners, especially novice speakers with little or no previous experience speaking a new language. Together with all the elements of The Pimsleur Method^™, our Flash Cards can help you speak a new language.

So, how do flashcards actually help you learn? How does Pimsleur integrate flashcards into our learning content? Keep reading to learn why flashcards work and how we’ve included a familiar learning technique within our fun, informative method of language acquisition.

Why Language Learning Flashcards Work: The Power of Spaced Repetition

If you’ve ever crammed for an upcoming exam in high school or college, you’ve probably used flashcards. Readers of a certain age used – gasp! – actual pencil and paper flashcards as essential study aids. Today, many language flashcards are accessed electronically, as part of a learning platform – including the Flash Cards Pimsleur offers!

In general, flashcards are primarily effective because of a proven learning method called spaced repetition. This technique improves memory recall, even months and years after initial lessons by creating opportunities to review new learning at strategically spaced intervals. Pimsleur implements spaced repetition across all our features, allowing for properly timed, focused practice in between lessons. With our Flash Cards specifically, we start with basic words and gradually build up to more complex language elements. And with Pimsleur, you can always loop back to reinforce what you’ve learned in previous lessons.

Another reason vocabulary flashcards are an ideal learning tool for language acquisition? Using your mobile device or computer for language learning creates the perfect medium for flipping through virtual flashcards – it’s a convenient and effective way to review at the right learning interval. Pimsleur’s Flash Cards include audio in the target language so that you hear the word or phrase as you read it. This paired practice (listening and reading) helps your brain make deeper connections with the new words and phrases. And don’t forget to practice speaking the vocabulary out loud! This third layer of practice (speaking) will make those new neural connections even stronger. If flashcards deploy at strategic intervals, increase in complexity, and exist within a total learning package, as they do with Pimsleur, then they will support your growing confidence in speaking a new language and improve memory retention with every learning session.

How Language Flashcards Are Integrated Into the Pimsleur App

While Pimsleur is not strictly a language flashcard app, our Flash Cards feature works well alongside additional exercises that all help transfer new words and phrases from short-term to long-term memory. Centered around the core elements of The Pimsleur Method (organic learning, graduated interval recall, and core vocabulary), our Flash Cards and other exercises work together to reinforce language acquisition in a natural way – the way you learned your first language as a child.

Not all language apps are the same. Ours, not a pure flashcard app for language learning, is an app that integrates a Flash Cards feature with other key aspects of entertaining and enlightening practice modules. Here are some examples of the exercises you’ll find in our app that work in tandem with our Flash Cards:

Voice Coach. Perfect your pronunciation with real-time feedback. Listen to a native speaker pronounce a phrase, then try it yourself. You’ll receive feedback on your pronunciation. Keep trying until you’re confident in how you sound.
Quick Match. This exercise fosters graduated interval recall with short, succinct matching. Plus, you’ll hear the language properly pronounced by expert native speakers.
Speak Easy. Learning a new language is all about anticipating and learning the next word or phrase in a conversation. Pimsleur’s Speak Easy allows you to listen to a short conversation in the target language and repeat each portion of it in real-time. This setup helps you develop the rhythm of your new language. And like our Quick Match, you’ll improve your aural skills by hearing native speakers in these conversations.
Speed Round. How fast can you pick the right word in the language you’re learning? You’ll find out with this fun, fast-paced feature!
Bonus Packs. Bonus Packs present a variety of new vocabulary not covered in the regular practice lessons, creating the perfect opportunity to stretch your learning and apply concepts beyond the lesson. You’ll see these bonus flashcards in the same format as our lesson Flash Cards, but when you’re finished, you can view all the Bonus Pack flashcards together on one screen. It’s another way to visually work your way through the new vocabulary.

Now let’s take a look at how Pimsleur’s Flash Cards appear on your mobile device or computer. In this example, the target language is German.

1. Select your lesson(s). You can select one lesson, for a more targeted focus, or you can select multiple lessons. Once you’ve finished the entire level, you can even click “Select All” for a real challenge.

2. Choose your learning method (German to English, or English to German).

3. Supposing you choose to start in your target language (in this case, German) you’ll see a word or phrase, an audio button to listen to a native speaker pronounce the word or phrase, and instructions to “Tap to flip the card” and reveal the translation.

4. Tap on the card to flip it, and the translated (in this case, English) word is revealed. You can listen to the audio and flip the card as many times as you like. You can listen at 0.5x, 0.75x or 1.0x speed. And finally, you can select the small notepad and plus sign in the top right corner of the Flash Card to save a tricky phrase to practice later. You can build up a stack of tough vocabulary that you’d like to revisit and find them anytime in the Profile tab under “Vocabulary (#) Saved.”

5. Once the entire group of language flashcards is complete for your lesson, a “Well Done!” message appears.

This simple, straightforward process is well-received by Pimsleur learners. While only one part of our learning platform, our Flash Cards perform like the best flashcard apps for learning languages out there.

Why Pimsleur’s Language Learning Flashcards Build Lasting Vocabulary

Two key aspects of The Pimsleur Method are building core vocabulary and practicing graduated interval recall. Flashcards align intuitively with both of these learning techniques. Learning any new language requires growing your vocabulary in that language. Using flashcards at timely intervals can help you gradually establish that core set of words and phrases that will help you speak conversationally.

Learning is one thing, but can you remember what you’ve learned? Here’s another area where flashcards are super efficient. With gradually increasing intervals – a method that Dr. Paul Pimsleur identified as critical in language acquisition – flashcards not only build vocabulary, but also ensure that you can recall what you’ve learned weeks, months, even years later!

In summary, because Pimsleur is not solely a dedicated flashcard app for language learning, our Flash Cards are perfectly, thoughtfully placed to support your language learning. Our Flash Cards are a tool, which, when utilized alongside our lessons and other exercises, helps you learn new words, strengthen memory retention, and eventually build a robust vocabulary in your new language.

Download The Pimsleur App and Start Building Your Vocabulary with Flashcards

Want the best flashcard apps for learning languages? Pimsleur has you covered with our Flash Cards and more! We offer more than 50 languages in the Pimsleur library, and our learning content is available immediately when you sign up with either a Premium or All-Access subscription.

Jam-packed with effective, scientifically-proven learning content – including, of course, our fun flashcard app for language learning – Pimsleur’s courses offer an accelerated learning curve, a fun and comprehensive learning environment, and an unbeatable value.

Get started today with our Flash Cards (and everything else our app offers), and you’ll be speaking conversationally in a new language within weeks…all it takes is 30 minutes per day!