Words vs. Phrases

The language-acquisition space is full of lunacy of all kinds. The two that bug me the most are:

• grammar-acquisition as a learning method
• flash cards that use words as their atom

I will rant on grammar-translation some other time. Let's consider flash cards for now.

I am not against the concept of flash cards. But they have to be used appropriately.

Phrases are conceptual groupings of connected words. We use phrases in language, not mere words. When you read something or listen to someone, you can identify phrases chained together.

The words is / name/ what / your can realistically only be combined in two ways:

• What is your name?
• Your name is what?!!

So, it makes no sense to remember the words individually.

Technically, if you memorize a dictionary of, say, 30K words, you can construct a large number of sentences. But that is not how languages work. Context matters. The usage of phrases in that context matters too.

People are familiar with the idea that our brain can only handle 7±2 (realistically only 3-5) pieces of information at any given time. But they do not apply the logic to flash cards. It takes just as much effort to remember five phrases as it does to remember five digits or five words. Why would you then use words as the basic unit of vocabulary in a flash card system?

I still prefer the comprehensive input method for language acquisition. Reading/listening to stuff you like will do more for your acquisition than playing with flash cards.

tl;dr. If you must use flash cards to maintain your vocabulary, move to short phrases/sentences as the atom.