*** Leitner Box system, a terrific manner to learn foreign Languages ***

Learning a foreign language in beginning seems difficult for everyone. In past decades and centuries it was very difficult but now, there are many different and useful methods to learning a foreign language. I as an English learner think that we need a good method to learn each language skill (including listening, structure, reading & writing and speaking). Each language skill need a good method and I think each method is suitable for some persons and there is no method that can be satisfactory for all people to learning a foreign language. For example that’s natural if a way to learning English for children from 8-10 years is different from methods for people from 25-30 years. And also the manners for part time learners is different from full time learners….

But on the basis of my experiences in learning English, I think one of the best ways to learn and memorize English words is the method of Leitner Box that I tried it and I am very satisfied. This method help us to memorize English words in shorter time economize in our time, so it make learning language more enjoyable and easier.

In this system, we use FlashCards. You can see more information about the Leitner system in WikiPedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitner_system

and you can see more information about FlashCard, too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashcard

But the main point that I didn’t see it in WikiPedia, is that to learn better and more efficient, we should learn Words with their pronunciation and with their different forms. This is what I tried and I’ve got a very nice result. For example, I learnt the word “teach” in such manner:

First I wrote the Word “Teach” and also its pronunciation and kind of the word (that is Verb about this word) on one side. Then I wrote its meaning in Persian on another side. After that, I wrote other forms of this word including: “Teachable”, “Teacher” and “Teaching” each on separate Flash cards, and I write the pronunciation, kind of the word and meaning about each word, like what I did about the main word “Teach” exactly. As a result, I learnt all derivatives from the Word “Teach” and it could help me better to make new sentences. For example, after that, if I need to use an adjective from “teach” in my sentence, I know that “Teachable” is its adjective, and I remember it very soon. And also this manner helped me to memorize the word “teach” better because when we learn a word with its derivatives, in fact, we repeat it for more times, and this help us very much…

Also about the pronunciation, I wrote pronunciation of each word with phonetic alphabet on its flash card, so when I repeated the words, I repeated the pronunciations, too.

But a way that I think is another good manner and unfortunately I didn’t try it yet, is inverse learning! For example, if you are a Persian like me and you read word on flash cards and say their meaning in Persian, after you read all Flash Cards, try to read the Persian side of each Card and say its equivalent word in English with true pronunciation!! If you have extra time, this can be very good to increase your memorize skill. Of course about some words that they have several equivalents in English, you can remember and say other equivalents, too. There is no limitation in it!

Even after that you became skillful in memorize and remembering words, you can use Flash cards on the basis of English to English dictionaries. This can be good for English learners that they study English literature and TOEFL or IELTS is not enough for them!

I think this manner can be useful for learning each language. What do you think? Please write in comments…