GlossaryLanguage-learning terms,
explained simply

Passive (receptive) vocabulary is the words you understand when you read or hear them; active (productive) vocabulary is the words you can use yourself. Passive vocabulary is usually the larger of the two, and most vocabulary tests measure it. Practising recall, from the meaning to the word, moves words from one to the other.

Source: Nation, Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001, Cambridge)More: Card types in Lexpad

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which describes six levels of ability, A1 to C2. It says what a learner can do at each level, not how many words they know; researchers estimate the vocabulary behind each level.

Source: Council of Europe (2001; Companion Volume 2020)More: CEFR levels for vocabulary

A cloze is a sentence with a word left out, which you fill in. The name comes from Wilson Taylor’s “cloze procedure” (1953), first used to measure how readable a text is. On flashcards, a cloze deletion tests a word in its context.

Source: Taylor, “Cloze procedure”, Journalism Quarterly (1953)More: Example cloze in Lexpad

A word that shares its origin, and often its form and meaning, with a word in another language, such as English nation and Spanish nación. Cognates make a related language faster to read, but some look alike and mean something else: those are false friends.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary, “cognate”More: Cognates in Spanish

Words that often go together, such as make a decision (not do a decision) or heavy rain. Learning a word with its usual partners helps you use it naturally; examiners count it as part of vocabulary range.

Source: Nation (2001)More: Collocations for IELTS

Language you hear or read that you understand, mostly, even if it holds some words and structures you do not know yet. Stephen Krashen argued that we acquire a language by understanding messages in it. The idea is widely used, and its strong form (that input alone is enough) is debated.

Source: Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition (1982)More: i+1

In FSRS, the share of reviews you want to answer right when a card comes back, such as 90%. A higher target brings cards back sooner, so it means more reviews a day. Lexpad’s Smart schedule offers 85, 90 and 95%.

Source: Anki manual, deck optionsMore: Smart schedule

Reading a lot of easy, enjoyable text quickly, for meaning, rather than studying a short hard text closely. Graded readers, written for learners at a level, are the usual way in.

Source: Day and Bamford, Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom (1998)More: Remember new words from books

A word that looks like a word in your language but means something different, such as Spanish embarazada, which means pregnant. False friends are worth a card of their own, with a note about the meaning you expected.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary, “false friend”More: Spanish false friends

The way memory of something learned once falls away over time, fast at first and then more slowly. Hermann Ebbinghaus measured it on himself with lists of nonsense syllables. Each well-timed review makes the next fall slower.

Source: Ebbinghaus, Über das Gedächtnis (1885)More: Spaced repetition for vocabulary

The Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler, an open-source model that estimates how long you will remember each card and schedules it for when you are likely to forget. It learns from review histories and is used by Anki and other apps. Lexpad’s Smart schedule is built on FSRS-6.

Source: open-spaced-repetition, SRS benchmarkMore: Leitner boxes or FSRS?

Krashen’s shorthand for input one step beyond your current level (i): mostly understood, with a little that is new. It is a way to choose what to read or watch: easy enough to follow, hard enough to teach you something.

Source: Krashen (1982)More: Comprehensible input

The wait before a card comes back for review. In spaced repetition the interval grows after each right answer. In Lexpad’s boxes it is 1, 3, 7 and then 21 days, and longer for mastered words.

Source: Lexpad’s schedule (srs.ts)More: Spaced repetition calculator

The International Phonetic Alphabet, one set of symbols for the sounds of every language, written between slashes, such as /ˈwɔːtə/. Dictionaries use it to show pronunciation; Lexpad’s AI cards give it for every word, in every language.

Source: International Phonetic AssociationMore: What a Lexpad card holds

Your L1 is your first language; an L2 is any language you learn after it. Research on language learning uses the terms for the language you know and the language you are learning.

Source: Nation (2001)More: Languages in Lexpad

A card you keep forgetting, which costs more reviews than it is worth. Anki marks a card as a leech after 8 lapses by default. Lexpad’s “Words you keep missing” asks after 6 by default (4, 6, 8 or off) and offers a note, examples or a rest.

Source: Anki manual, leechesMore: Words you keep missing

A way of reviewing flashcards in boxes: a card you know moves to the next box, which is reviewed less often; a card you miss goes back to the first. Sebastian Leitner described it in 1972. Lexpad uses five boxes.

Source: Leitner, So lernt man lernen (1972)More: The Leitner system explained

A lemma is a word with its inflected forms (go, goes, went, gone); a word family adds its common derived forms (teach, teacher, teaching). Vocabulary sizes depend on which one is counted, which is one reason estimates differ.

Source: Bauer and Nation, “Word families” (1993)More: Why the numbers differ

A memory aid, such as an image or a story linking a new word to something you know. The keyword method links the sound of a foreign word to a familiar word and an image; it helped recall in Atkinson and Raugh’s study of Russian vocabulary.

Source: Atkinson and Raugh (1975), Journal of Experimental PsychologyMore: How to memorize vocabulary

Learning by bringing something back from memory, such as answering a flashcard, rather than reading it again. Also called the testing effect: in Roediger and Karpicke’s study, students who were tested remembered more a week later than those who restudied.

Source: Roediger and Karpicke, Psychological Science (2006)More: How to memorize vocabulary

Collecting the words you meet with the sentence you met them in, and turning them into cards. The name comes from learner communities. The sentence gives each word a context to remember it by.

Source: A learner-community termMore: Text to flashcards

Repeating speech aloud a moment after you hear it, copying its sounds and rhythm. It is used to practise listening and pronunciation together.

Source: Kadota, Shadowing as a Practice in Second Language Acquisition (2019)More: Say it and other drills

An early spaced repetition algorithm from SuperMemo, which sets each interval from the last one and an “ease” for each card. Piotr Woźniak published it in 1987; Anki’s older scheduler is based on it.

Source: Woźniak, SuperMemo 2 (1987)More: Spaced repetition for vocabulary

Reviewing something at growing intervals, just before you would forget it, instead of all at once. Flashcard apps do the timing for you. Each new card a day adds reviews on later days.

Source: Cepeda et al., Psychological Bulletin (2006)More: Spaced repetition for vocabulary · calculator

The finding that reviews spread over time are remembered better than the same reviews crammed together. A review of 317 experiments found it again and again.

Source: Cepeda et al. (2006)More: How many new words a day?