Hi!

Is it possible to develop a better way to study definitions? Just selecting a number representing how well you think you know them is kind of boring, and not very effective for learning.
The way you study pinyin and tones is much more active and fun, because you have to think and you have to do something. Like a "test".

There are plenty of ways to do something similar with definitions.

I agree. Last time this was brought up, there were plenty of good ideas (and plenty of infeasible ones), and we talked about it and said something like, "We really want to do this, but can't do it right now." That's still true. Mobile apps need work first!

No matter how you use Skritter to study definitions, it's difficult to get a sense for how words are used and what their connotations are in different contexts. For instance, my teacher recently tried to explain the difference between 標誌 and 象徵. If she hadn't told me that they are used in different situations, I wouldn't have gathered that from Skritter alone.

So I agree with your suggestion DaXia, but I also believe that using Skritter as a tool to study definitions has its limits.

I feel that the example sentences are fantastic for overcoming some of these limitations.

While a 'test' would be nice, this is somewhat out of the scope of Skritter (at least regarding what service I'm willing to pay for). I think for more specific definitions you're better off going through one of the many free dictionaries available online (Pleco's free ones are great, if you can use it), and of course much more so than dictionaries exposure to a large breadth of material in different formats (articles, books, radio, film etc) helps cement what contexts warrant what words.

One site that I use often are the example sentences provided by Bing's dictionary (which is much better than most other free online ones, IMHO).

http://dict.bing.com.cn/

Right now, I think adding the ability for Skritter to show you a meaning or a set of kanji, and ask you to type it in would be a plausible first step to this, though you'd need to do something about synonyms.

I've been trying hard to add one or two or a few examples from one of the linked dictionaries to many definitions, and after I do that, I make sure I review them when they come up again. I add these to the mnemonics section.

a good way would be to show an example from mdbg, nciku, etc.. with the character highlighted.

then show the sentence translation with the english highlighted.

a different example for different levels/different examples each time.

or sentences that use different words from the list being studied?

I don't know about other people, but personally my progress score for definitions is much lower than the scores for other elements. The problem I find on Skritter is that it's very hard to learn the meaning of new words unless it's something relatively uncomplicated like a noun or I can tie it to a previously learned word (it's very hard to learn fine distinctions of meaning in other words). I guess though that learning the definition is the hardest part of the learning process (at least for me), except using the bloody thing, although that would assume you understand the word.

I'm not sure there really is any way to make it easier though, but at the same time it doesn't feel right just using Skritter to learn words you've learned from other sources. The sentences sometimes help, but I usually find that if I can't remember a definition the only way is to look somewhere else, so I guess there is room for some kind of improvement, not sure what it would be though. Perhaps though it is useful, in that it teaches me to look out for a word that I know I don't really understand fully, so that when I see it in actually use it will 'click'.

@Nick

Great!

Thanks!

I like how it is done on this flash card site: http://www.chineseflashcards.net/hanzi.cfm

Select a correct definition from the list of four options. And all options may come from the user's word list.

@MrSmiley

Yeah, this is a lot better than what we have here now. Although, I wish there was some way we could implement the example sentences into the definitions training so that words could be practiced in a context, although this would probably take a lot more work to do. I think what you suggested is good enough.

I don't think multiple choice questions are a good way to study definitions simply because they are too easy. It takes a lot more brain power to come up with the definition on your own that it does to choose from four randomly-generated definitions. In most cases you could guess it from the process of elimination even if you didn't really know it.

@junglegirl

It really depends on your approach to studying. If you don't know the answer you just rate yourself accordingly and move on. No need to try to guess anything. This is not a test. No one will expel you from Skritter if you fail to perform. Or so I hope.

@ MrSmiley: Sure, but nevertheless you've already seen the answer before having a chance to come up with it yourself, so I still think you'd have a less effective study experience that way.

@Junglegirl

I agree that it's easier, but that doesn't mean it's less effective. You will remember the definition, and thats really all that matters. My English is not so good, but I will try to explain how this way is better. Selecting an answer is an "action" and getting it correct is a "reward", and since we tend to like "rewards", our brain makes sure that we remember what we just did so we can do it again. This is a very effective way of learning, and if you think about it, not just the school-system, but the whole society is built up around this actions and rewards/punishment philosophy.

The problem with the selfrating system, is that you don't get this action/reward thing. It takes a lot of brainpower, but it's still "passive", you think the answer but you don't get to actually "answer" the answer. All you get to do is to rate your thoughts, and you yourself is the judge of how well you did, and thats not very "confirming". And no matter how good you rate yourself, it will always feel better when someone else gives you a good rating.

I'm going to side with junglegirl here and say that the multiple choice is less active (in the sense of "active recall" vs. "passive recall") than flashcard style. Action/reward is not as good a lens to view study methods as active/passive. Thinking the answer and then checking yourself is not as active as actually having to fully produce the answer, it's true, and it's not fun at all, which is why we need something better.