I really enjoy using the flash cards in the smart reviews because it forces me to try to remember (and shows me that I need to become better at remembering).
But I also love the (all too rare imho) quiz questions where I’m asked to translate an English phrase to Portuguese. It forces the same recall and also shows me that my Portuguese spelling, and in particularly those pesky accents, need more work.
Does anyone have any good tips for practicing writing with some level of feedback?
And for our lovely admins: Would it be possible to mix writing into the flash cards? Or to get an option for writing-only exercises (with feedback, as in the quiz module)?
I think that the lack of writing practice is a downside to all computer based language training in much the same way that a lack of spoken practice can be a problem with book based learning. You have to be determined and force the system.
There is also a distinction to be made between typing practice and actual pen and paper writing. I understand that there is some evidence that these result in different kinds of learning (in any subject, not just language learning).
To increase the amount of typing practice you get, with feedback, you could look into the conjugations in the verbs section. Each quiz contains a fair amount of typing, and I find that a great help in forming the habits needed to type efficiently in the kind of letter combinations that Portuguese uses. It does, indeed, help with those pesky accents.
Other than that I highly recommend occasionally taking a review section, or a lesson, or a shorty quiz, and literally writing down your answer. Obviously you don’t get the automated feedback, but it is a very valuable practice. Hard work though.
Thank you for suggestions - both make a lot of sense!
I had briefly considered writing the answers to one of the exercise-sets rather than click, but then my mind quickly moved on to how to get feedback. But you’re right, it sounds like a valuable exercise, and even if there’s no automated feedback, maybe it will also be useful to force myself to look everything up - either as part of writing the answers down, or as part of “marking” what’s written. So thank you. I will stop being a lazy git (not really, just trying to get as much learning crammed into the available time) and just give it a shot
