Did you know that there’s one thing that always helps when learning Georgian, Armenian, or Azerbaijani? It’s consistency and regular 10-minute revision. And today on the Caucasus podcast, we’ll talk about why it’s crucial and how to do these 10-minute revisions.
No, this isn’t a podcast in the series “create your study plan, master the magic revision system.” Today, we’ll talk about quick ways to revise and why a 10-minute revision often works better than a 30-minute one.
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A few years ago, I was reading a book about research on learning effectiveness, and one concept really stood out. Quick, short tests, covering a small portion of material, provided students, course participants, and university students, regardless of age, with the best long-term retention.
Our Georgian language study materials were previously already based on a pattern of small learning portions, consolidation and addition, building on new material while simultaneously revising old topics. But after reading this book, I was inspired to add 3-5-minute interactive mini-tests to our lessons. Currently, our students receive such interactive exercises as homework, and we use the quick -test-concept in classes, including speaking exercises and short dictations. Yes, in the Languages of the Caucasus we are constantly improving our curriculum and teaching methods.
When I started introducing the concept of mini tests and reviews, back then only in Georgian, I discovered that students often lacked ideas for revising at home. And the groups I provided with one or two additional ways to quickly revise between classes had better results and learned more effectively. I’ve been using these methods for several years in my language learning – I often test something on myself before offering it to students and our newsletter subscribers.
How does this 10-minute revision work?
It’s a very quick task, sometimes without even taking out your notebook or textbook, during which you recall from memory what you already know or know a little. Frequent recall of what you already know strengthens the connections in brain and makes the networks of connections between words not only stronger but also more dense – this is a conclusion from another study on how our brains work.
After receiving much positive feedback on this learning method from our students, I decided to send this revision method in the Caucasian Mail newsletter, on average, once a week. Something our newsletter subscribers sometimes do on their commute to work, during a coffee break, or while listening to their favorite podcast. If you’re not yet a subscriber to our Caucasian Mail newsletter, I invite you to sign up.
In November, I’m also inviting you to a free monthly language challenge – you’ll receive short revision methods from me, three times a week, and for those who like to tick and mark, a monthly challenge card with the seven most important types of revision exercises – why seven – I’ll explain that in a moment.
Why is 10-minute language revision better?
Before we discuss how to revise, I’ll tell you why a quick 10-minute revision is often better than 30 minutes. First, I suspect that, like me, you’re a pretty busy adult for whom finding 30 minutes of peace to study without being completely exhausted can be a challenge. It’s a challenge for me, I won’t lie. It’s a challenge for many of our listeners too.
So, instead of searching for that perfect half an hour a week (which usually never comes), it’s better to revise less, but more often. And that’s where quick revision comes in like a knight on a white horse.
Secondly, 10 minutes is the time when, even if you’re feeling a little tired, you can do a bit of homework, read six words from the last lesson, or listen to a song and pick up five words you know. All of these would be a great up to 10-minute revision. What kind of learning is that – you might be thinking right now. Well, it’s regular learning with long-lasting results.
Of course, revision, as the name suggests, assumes you’re acquiring new knowledge, for example, in our Armenian, Georgian, or Azerbaijani courses, or by learning on your own with our self-paced Georgian textbooks.
Revision is just as critical a part of mastering a language as learning new things. Just like eating and drinking are essential, you can’t give one up for the other.
That’s why, in this episode, I’ll share some sample methods that our newsletter subscribers receive every week, so our 10-minute revision.
The first way to revise without taking out your books is to name the objects around you
Choose 5 objects around you and name them in Georgian, Armenian, or Azerbaijani. Add an adjective to each of them e.g., computer – black computer; coffee – tasty coffee. If you only know two adjectives, use both interchangeably.
Do you know much more? Then try using antonyms, e.g., hot coffee – cold tea.
Don’t look up words in the dictionary; use what you can recall from memory. You can repeat this method daily, changing objects. Focus on what you can say, not on what you don’t know yet.
I know from our listeners that they do this kind of repetition on the bus, while walking, while cooking dinner, or on their coffee break at work. And even just a few moments with the language make the mentioned connections between the words in our brain more lasting. Especially when you repeat them in different surroundings.
These quick 10-minute revision methods, tested on Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani, will be provided to participants of our Autumn Language Challenge, which you can join in November. As part of the challenge, you receive three repetitions per week – on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They’re designed to practice all skills for a month: speaking, writing, reading, and listening.
If you’re listening to this podcast later, don’t worry – subscribe to our newsletter and you’ll receive one method on average every week. Plus, you won’t miss the next challenge we’re planning for spring.
Perhaps another way to quickly revise, this time while listening to music.
Very often, when you’re learning a language, you start listening to music from that country. While listening to your favorite bands or artists from Georgia, Armenia, or Azerbaijan, you can do quick and active revision.
How to do this? Play one song and listen carefully. During those few minutes, try to pick out a few words you already know or recognize from hearing them. If you’re just starting out, these will probably be pronouns like I, you, we, etc. If you already know more words, these can be adjectives or verbs in familiar forms.
You don’t need to write them down or look them up in a dictionary. A good listening review is simply hearing and understanding words from the entire song. If your language is already more advanced, you can try listening actively and understanding it well enough to summarize the main idea of the lyrics. Simple and quick, right?
What’s the best 10-minute revision of Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani ?
The one you’ll actually do. And if we’re going to go deeper, it’s worth not repeating the same thing over and over again. For example, only repeating individual words from the last lesson. That’s why the revisions we create for our newsletter subscribers and those as part of the challenge are divided into 7 categories of exercises, which are key to fluent learning of Georgian, Armenian, or Azerbaijani. They are arranged so that they appear alternately.
Why 7 categories? Based on our over 10 years of experience teaching languages, we’ve noticed that combining exercises for speaking, writing, vocabulary learning, listening, and learning new material yields the best results.
We also know that few adults have much time to spend reading. It’s worth doing homework for classes, and it’s also worth using the language every day. No matter where you live. That’s why we’ve divided your quick revision exercises into 7 simple categories, so you can review and practice regardless of your location or daily routine.
I know from our newsletter subscribers that they also use our methods for languages other than ours: so not only Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Armenian. I also use it when learning Korean. And for those of you who like checklists, checkboxes, and at least a mini-plans, because a plan is essential for you, we’ve created a simple and free checklist that you receive after signing up for our newsletter. It lists all 7 categories, and you can mark how many times a week and when you’ll review each category. You’ll also find methods for such revision in our weekly newsletter and during the challenge.
Now all that’s left is to choose one of the two methods discussed and put it into practice. And before you do today’s review, remember to join our newsletter and November language challenge and learn Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani effectively.