Ways to Use Active Recall for Faster Language Learning
Consider this common roadblock with language learning: you’ve studied a new language sufficiently, you’re learning new words, gaining confidence, but when it’s time to speak it, your mind goes blank.
Sound familiar? You might think this stems from a lack of effort, but it’s not. The problem is that the age-old language learning methods are inconsistent and flawed.
So, what’s the solution? Active recalling techniques! Pimsleur® uses this proven method to help you properly retain language knowledge. But what is active recalling, and how can you apply it to your language learning goals? Continue reading to learn all about it.
What Is Active Recall?
Let’s start by asking, “what is active recall in general?” This strategy functions like a test, or a series of small tests, for your brain. And for language learning specifically? It looks like trying to remember a word or phrase without any specific prompts – no reading or looking it up. Every time you successfully reach for and find that word or phrase on your own, you’re bolstering your memory. This process places words and phrases into your short-term memory, and helps transfer them into your long-term memory.
When you force yourself to remember without assistance, active recall is in play. It sounds insignificant on the surface, but it makes a monumental difference in helping you remember what you’ve learned, whether that’s a new alphabet, new words, or new grammatical structures.
How Does Active Recall Work in the Brain? And Why Is It Essential for Language Learning?
Active recall is the ultimate brain-boosting exercise. Similar to how you would lift weights or exercise to strengthen your muscles, active recalling likewise increases your brain power by enhancing the neural pathways responsible for memory retention. The more you retrieve it, the easier it becomes to access later.
How does active recall work in practical, real-world situations? Employing active recall shortly after you intake new information allows you to later retrieve that information in a conversation. This technique transforms passive recognition into active, retrievable memory. Without active recall, your brain may vaguely recognize a word or phrase, but your brain isn’t working to find it and use it in an actual conversation. The more work you put in with active recall, the easier and clearer your new language comes into focus. You can recall words faster, use your long-term memory more effectively, and speak with confidence.
Pimsleur quizzes are designed to support this learning strategy. Our Quick Match and Speed Round quizzes ask learners to reach into their short-term memory to retrieve a new word or phrase, supporting the process of moving new information to long-term memory.
Active Recalling Techniques
You can use active recalling techniques right away with Pimsleur. Our approach is optimized for efficiency, rather than the ineffective approach of flooding you with vocabulary that just doesn’t stick.
For Vocabulary
Building vocabulary with active recall is an ideal starting point. Instead of reading a list of words, try:
- Covering the translation
- Asking yourself a question about the information
- Saying the answer out loud
For example:
- See: “the dog”
- Recall: “el perro”
You can also flip it:
- See: “el perro”
- Recall: “the dog”
With the Pimsleur app, you’ll have access to Flash Cards, which simulate the process above for whatever language you’re trying to learn. Active recalling techniques are built into our lessons, making your learning journey easy and fun.
For Grammar Mastery
Grammar is a bit trickier to master than vocabulary, but the good news is that the active recall method helps with grammar too. As an example, think of something simple like, “I want to play.” Translating this entire sentence into your target language without looking requires you to make choices about grammatical structures. You’ll be retrieving word order, verb tense, verb conjugation, and pronoun usage from your memory in order to produce an accurate translation.
Outside of studying by yourself, you might also use this strategy in conversation. In order to respond to someone in your target language, you’ll retrieve the grammatical structures from your memory and create sentences in real time. If you get stuck or use the wrong verb tense, no problem. Mistakes will happen. You can always check the answer, and keep trying until grammar becomes more natural.
Improving Speaking Skills
The active recall strategy is integrated into Pimsleur’s courses. Our goal is to get you speaking a language conversationally, and practicing with active recall in place really accelerates your learning curve.
Take, for example, our Speak Easy practice feature. This is a short conversation between two speakers where you repeat after each speaker in real time. If you want to add an element of active recall to this practice, only play one speaker’s lines. Then, instead of repeating and/or reading a response, try to pull the appropriate response from your memory. These Speak Easy conversations come from our core audio lessons, so your brain will be stretching into recent memory to retrieve a new, but familiar phrase. Doing so will help transition the phrase from short-term to long-term memory.
Combining Active Recall With Spaced Repetition and Mistakes to Avoid
Spaced repetition is reviewing information over increasing time intervals. When used in tandem with active recall, you’re improving your memory at just the right time. For example, let’s say you learn a new word on day one. The next day, you’ll need to recall that word again. You’ll then be asked to recall the word every four or five days, then every seven days, and so on. By using active recall with spaced repetition, you’re cementing new language information to your long-term memory, which ensures you can find the right word or phrase without hesitation.
Some common mistakes with spaced repetition include:
- Checking answers too quickly. Remember, the key to effective spaced repetition is increasingly longer time intervals, not shorter ones.
- Failing to follow up. You have to repeat the process over time. Exposure to a new word without any practice ensures you’ll soon forget it.
- Not emphasizing speaking. Actually speaking the language with active recall and spaced repetition is much more effective than reading a flash card.
Pimsleur Trains Your Brain to Remember with Active Recall
You could look at a list of foreign language words all day. But to truly learn a language and speak it conversationally, you must be able to recall words and phrases in context. That’s why the Pimsleur Method™ is so effective for helping novices just like you learn a new language. Our learning techniques have built-in active recall sessions to reinforce what’s important, and help you store words and phrases into your short-term and long-term memory.
In other words, Pimsleur helps you learn a new language similar to how you learned your native tongue when you were a child. The heart of this method is all about listening and speaking, using scientifically-backed recall techniques, immersive learning, and active participation.
Now that you know what active recall is, you can better implement this method into your learning goals with Pimsleur. Nail down active recalling, and you’ll notice that:
- Words come to you faster
- Sentences form more easily
- Your confidence grows with each passing lesson
With Pimsleur’s active recalling techniques, you’ll not simply study a new language; you’ll actually remember what you’ve learned. Ready to kick your language learning goals into the next gear? Sign up with a Pimsleur Premium or All Access subscription today. We’re ready to get started when you are!