You’re committed to learning new vocabulary, you’ve got your study plans all mapped out, and you’re ready to go, but you don’t have a lot of time to devote only to vocabulary study, because you’ve got a job, or family, or a tight school schedule – any or all of the above. While it’s true that an optimal learning plan includes setting times every day for at least fifteen minutes to focus on learning and reviewing words, sometimes that just doesn’t fit into real life. In that case, what you need are easy, portable tools that you can fit in a bag or backpack or corner of your desk drawer and pull out when you have a few minutes to spare throughout the day.

Vocabulary flash cards are the answer to this problem, for many people. Most flash cards are small enough that they can be tucked into a wallet or a lunch bag in the morning, usually ranging in size between that of a standard business card (approximately 3.5” x 2”) and a regular index card (5.5” x 3.5”). You can buy ready-made sets of vocabulary flash cards, use an on-line flash card generating program and print out a set, or create your own by hand.

When you’re shopping for flash cards (or making your own), look for as many of these features as you can find:

• definitions
• pronunciation guides
• sample sentences
• synonyms and antonyms
• related words and concepts
• illustrations and images

Some sets are color-coded to group nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech together. If this is helpful to you, but your set does not have this feature, you can easily add a coded dot with a colored pen to each card. If you are primarily a visual learner, this will add a valuable component to your study.

People who learn best through listening as well as seeing words may do better using an on-line flash card system that includes audio links. You can also add an audio component to your flash card drills by working with other people, but it’s important that they’re able to correctly pronounce the words for you.

To create a basic flash card, take a piece of paper with enough room to write on, front and back. You can find index cards in several colors at any office supply store. On the front of the card, write the word. You can include the pronunciation guide on the front as well, but if so, place the word at the top and the pronunciation at the bottom, so you can cover one or the other up to test yourself in the future.

On the back of the card, write a short definition of the word, a few synonyms and antonyms for the word, and at least one sample sentence using the word correctly in context. If you have an image or other mnemonic device that will help you remember the word, add that if you have room.

In the next post, we’ll discuss some of the ways to use flash cards in your study.