A teacher showing picture cards to a group of young learners in a learning environment

Using flashcards

Memory activities

Example activity: Memory tester

Place a selection of flashcards on the floor in a circle.
Learners have one minute to memorise the cards.
In groups, they have two minutes to write as many of the names as they can remember.

Drilling activities

Example activity: A what?

Learners sit in a circle.
You show a flashcard to Learner 1 and say: This is a hamster.
Learner 1 looks at the flashcard and asks you: A what?
You reply: A hamster and pass the flashcard on.
Learner 1 passes the flashcard to Learner 2 and says: This is a hamster.
Learner 2 asks Learner 1: A what? Learner 1 asks the teacher: A what? The teacher replies to Learner 1: A hamster. Learner 1 replies to Learner 2: A hamster. And so it continues until the flashcard has gone all the way around the circle.
When the group has mastered it, two flashcards can go around the circle in opposite directions. They will cross over mid-circle.
When learners know the game, choose one of them to play the teacher's role.

Identification activities

Example activity: Fast finger

Stick flashcards on the board in a line or on the wall (for very young learners who won't reach the board).
Give a clue to indicate which flashcard you are thinking of. When revising vocabulary, or with higher levels, you can just give a clue, e.g. It's an animal that can't fly, but it can climb trees (cat). When presenting a new lexical set for the first time, give the whole word, e.g. Say stop when the fast finger is above the cat.
Ask learners to shout 'stop' when your finger is above the required flashcard.
Then bounce your finger along in a random fashion to a silly tune until they shout 'stop' at the right time.
When they get the idea, ask a learner to be the 'fast finger'.
You can also use word cards instead of a finger. When the word is above the corresponding picture flashcard, students shout 'stop'.

TPR activities

Example activity: Ladders

Learners sit in two lines facing each other with legs out and feet touching.
Each facing pair is shown a flashcard that they must remember. When you call out their card they stand up and run over the legs of the others, the ladder, around the back and back to their places.
The first one back wins a point for their line. If the learners are very lively you can do it standing up to avoid trampled legs!

While research does seem to indicate that flashcards can provide a useful strategy for learning vocabulary, there are still many teachers who favour the serendipity of learning words as and when the learner finds them interesting/attractive.

This article http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/08/33eureka.h30.html?tkn=WOZFmIfDDYS%2BU0v%2BIV%2FaFYGVXlRL3eLHXNvn&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2 does suggest that the 'ah ha' moment of discovery when a learner connects to a word is critical. Not sure if this applies as much to L2 as it might to L1, or the role of McMurray's fastmapping theory. Like all things, probably a balance is needed, with a definite role for corpus-informed approaches and data-driven learning, using resources like Tom Cobb's lextutor at http://lextutor.ca

I think you are right. Anyway, what I have noticed in the teaching of vocabulary with cards is that most of the students, especially ´adults´ love this kind of activity. They enjoy a lot and get a lot of new words looking for the meaning of them in an English-English dictionary, besides they like to check synonyms and antonyms of these words therefore they can construct new sentences to improve their L2 language.

Thank you so much for these activities: VAK learners will definitely learn! I will try "A what?" and "Fast fingers" with my young learners right this week.

I use matching game by asking students to read words in flashcards and match the with the pictures on the board.

outstanding and beneficial games making use of flash cards

Each game is engaging and fun. Learners will easily remember the teacher's objectives.

This is fun and intriguing, would like to practice it in the class room

"A what?" is my students' favorite game. I assume that "Fast Fingers" will be a bit challenging.

I will try "A what" and "Memory tester" in my next class with children. Thanks for this good piece of advice about flashcards.

I will try ''A what'' in my next classmate. Thank you for these activities.

Great Rahmanjanova Malika! Hope it goes well with your class!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

What?
Advantages: Children practice speaking a lot, which helps them remember sentences and words well.
Disadvantage: the game takes a long time if organized in a large group of about 30 students. Difficult to practice with sentence structures that have both questions and answers.
Fast fingers
Advantages: helps students react quickly, practice information connection skills, develops student capacity.
Disadvantages: the game mainly applies to consolidation and review activities.
Ladders
Advantages: helps students remember, react quickly, and move quickly. Exercise both mentally and physically.
Disadvantages: when implementing the game, you should carefully instruct which direction row 1 runs and which direction row 2 runs to avoid children running in the same direction, causing collisions.

Hi Danh

Thanks for your feedback - it's interesting to read how these activities have worked in practice in your classes - especially when working with larger groups

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Can we use slides on screen instead of cards.

Hi Arif,

This would definitely work for the fast finger activity above but physical cards might be better for the others.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

1*Memory tester: It is a useful activity to help students memorize words. I will try to make it more challenging and competitive: the first group that writes all the names appropriately, will be the winner.
2*"A what?":It is a good activity to introduce the new vocabulary. It helps the students memorize the pictures and drill the words .Also, the students may use different sound pitches to say "A what?" which will be fun. I will use this activity with my classes except the overcrowded ones because of time.
3*Fast Finger: I will use this activity with my students for reviewing words in order to reinforce their understanding and to memorize them.
4*Ladders: I will try it with my students. They enjoy TPR activities which will help them learn and have fun.

All are good activities relevant to the use of flashcards

I like your new versions of the game.

Very good. I like all these activities and it is good to alternate them in order to make our students motivated and engaged in our lessons as some learners maybe helped by one activities while others may be helped by other ones.

All are good activities. They are definitely fruitful.

Flash cards pasted on subject board and let the students to find according to topic

I really like the game "A what?" I will definitely with use it with year 1. I think I will introduce a basic structure with year 2 to have a more practice.

Flashcard process is very interesting for learners if teacher can make more applicable. This is only my point of view but year 2 will be better for them who want and need mainly.

I agree with you, I think it is fun and makes the lesson easy to understand

I think "the memory tester" is an excellent activity to work with first graders because currently we have a large group, 30 students is challenging.thanks a lot.

Thanks for the idea

Interesting

Using flash cards in teaching and learning process is very interesting and this can make learners to memorize, to criticize something that they see. In Rwanda we wish this system can be included in Rwandan teaching system

Thanks for sharing this estrategies, are very important.

Flash cards help learners not only to memorise but also to have a clear picture and meaning of what is being taught. Because they accommodate more than one different learning styles. So they help many learners to learn and think critically and become innovative

Very useful and helpful in teaching and learning.

Flash card can make a content more interractive , help learners to memorise the content quickly also it is learner centered.

Flash cards are very useful for learners can help them to engage in active recall or process wherein students actively engage in learning by stimulating our memories and creating lasting connections to the material

This strategy is helpful in teaching and learning process. Active participation develops via using a variety of flash cards. Another benefit is that learners feel loved and cared for while interacting with their teacher sitting together in a circle.

I really like the strategy of using flash cards as one of the teaching materials, "a what and a hamster" are new things that I have gained from this content. Thank you