=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2344/short7
|storemode=property
|title=Improving listening skills in language learning with spaced repetition technique
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2344/short7.pdf
|volume=Vol-2344
|authors=Yaroslav Baranov
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/micsecs/Baranov18
}}
==Improving listening skills in language learning with spaced repetition technique==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2344/short7.pdf
Improving listening skills in language learning
with spaced repetition technique
Yaroslav Baranov[0000−0002−7328−7300]
ITMO University, Russia
Kronverkskiy Prospekt, 49, Sankt-Peterburg, 197101
iaroslavbaranov@corp.ifmo.ru
Abstract. Listening comprehension is one of the hardest skills for many
people to develop in language learning. Developing listening skills is a
long, slow and painful process for them. Nevertheless, we can significantly
increase it with spaced repetition technique. This article is about using
the spacing effect for improving listening skills. The user extracts frag-
ments from some video and repeats them later with increasing intervals.
We created the application that automates and simplifies this process.
Keywords: Listening comprehension · Language learning · Spaced rep-
etition
1 Introduction
Thousands of people around the world are studying foreign languages. They
spend many years to become fluent speakers. Listening comprehension is an
ordeal for many of them even though they have access to thousands of high-
quality videos on the Internet. We should develop a special learning technique
because it is insufficient to watch those videos passively. People forgot words and
their sounding too fast.
2 Spaced repetition
The spacing effect was reported by a German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus
in 1885 [3]. He observed that we tend to remember things more effectively if we
spread reviews out over time, instead of studying multiple times in one session.
Since the 1930s there have been many proposals for utilizing the spacing effect
to improve learning, in what has come to be called spaced repetition. According
to Ebbinghaus, we gradually forgot things if we do not repeat them (see Fig. 1).
We should recall information if we want to maintain it in our memory.
We break information down into pieces (e.g., statements or video fragments).
Each piece has the last repetition day and the next repetition day. We should
increase the interval before these days. It is ineffective to do it manually. There
are a lot of programs that can assist us. Anki [4] is one of the most popular. It
is a free, cross-platform and general-purpose application.
2 Y.V. Baranov
Fig. 1. The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
3 Spacing effect in language learning
Many learners use spaced repetition for remembering new words. It is easy and
natural to create a flashcard with a foreign word on the front side and the trans-
lation on the back, and then just review it with increasing intervals. Pimsleur
language learning system is also based on spaced repetition. It has been gaining
popularity since 1967 when it was developed.
It seems appropriate to use the similar technique for listening comprehension.
We can replace flashcards with video fragments. The user can extract these
fragments from the video and review them later at increasing intervals. Spaced
repetition can help retaining obtained listening skills and imprint the speech
deeper in users mind.
4 Automation of video fragments extraction
It is quite hard to extract video fragments without a special program, and it is
even more difficult to organize the spaced repetitions of these fragments. We were
unable to find any program that does and tried to write an Anki extension that
would save video fragments as flashcards, but it was proved inefficient. Thus, it
was necessary to create an application from scratch. The special interface was
created that allows the user to stop the video and extract a fragment alongside
with the subtitles (see Fig. 2). The application tries to guess the start time and
the end time of the fragment. This prediction is based on subtitles accuracy and
work well in the most cases. The user can adjust the bounds of the fragment if
subtitles timing is not good enough for him. The application has the convenient
interface for it (green arrows in Fig. 2).
Improving listening skills 3
Fig. 2. The user interface for video fragment extraction
It is possible to attach a flashcard in case the subtitle contain a new word. The
user can improve vocabulary at the same time with listening skills. The program
stores the information about all video fragments in the database. The user can
repeat previously extracted fragments (see Fig. 3). He can slow the speed down
if the speech is too fast or unclear. Pimsleur language learning system is also
based on spaced repetition. It has been gaining popularity since 1967 when it
was developed.
5 Work sequence
The user should stick to the special order while he is working with the applica-
tion (See Fig. 4). There are three activities the fragments extraction, the first
repetitions and the spaced repetitions. The user should start with watching the
video and extracting fragments from it. He should repeat them on the next day
with care. The first repetition is usually more difficult than the next repetitions
(the spaced repetitions). It is worth noting that the user should work with the
application every day and spend about 2 - 2.5 hours. We presented estimated
durations for each type of activity in Table 1.
6 Research
When the user finished a season from some TV series, the application can cal-
culate the average number of extracted fragments per episode. The user can
4 Y.V. Baranov
Fig. 3. The repetition panel
Fig. 4. The work sequence
Improving listening skills 5
Table 1. Activities
Activity Duration (min) Efforts
The fragments extraction 40 – 60 Hard
The first repetitions 30 – 40 Middle
The spaced repetitions 1 – 30 Easy
estimate his skills by this value and track their development from season to sea-
son. This method is very precise because episodes tend to have the same length.
The assistant extracted about 7000 fragments during the three-month period
(from April to June 2016) and processed four seasons from Friends (Table 2). The
average fragments decreased from 100.15 to 51.33. Thus, the assistant improved
his listening skills twice. This is a very good result because many people spend
years to achieve the same result.
7 Technical aspects
The developer wrote the application in Java/Groovy and HTML5 mainly. It
based on client-server architecture and uses Spring Framework on the server
side and AngularJS on the client side.
The video player is based on HTML5 ¡video¿ element. Thus, there are three
supported video formats: MP4, WebM, and Ogg. However, the user should check
if his browser supports particular codecs.
The database is stored in a file. The application works through Hibernate
Framework and uses H2 Database as an engine. Many additional libraries and
frameworks were used, such as Apache commons, Jsoup, Jetty, Twitter bootstrap
and VTT JS.
Table 2. Statistics
Season 5 6 7 8
Episodes 24 25 24 24
Fragments 2404 2067 1367 1232
Average Fragments 100.15 82.67 56.96 51.33
Flashcards 260 270 245 202
Average Flashcards 10.83 10.80 10.21 8.42
8 Conclusions
We have proved that the spaced repetition technique is useful for improving
listening skills. The user can use the application IceMemo [1] to automate this
process. We published the article on the Internet [2], and two hundred of users
6 Y.V. Baranov
downloaded the application from our server and checked it out. Some of them
contacted us a few months later and declared that their listening skills were
improved significantly.
References
1. IceMemo - Improving listening skills in language learning with spaced repetition
technique http://icememo.org/ (retrieved on 10 March 2018)
2. IceMemo studying foreign languages with TV series
https://geektimes.ru/post/278382/ (retrieved on 10 March 2018)
3. Ebbinghaus H. (1885). ber das Gedchtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psy-
chologie [Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology] (in German). Trans.
Henry A. Ruger Clara E. Bussenius. Leipzig, Germany: Duncker Humblot.
4. Friendly, intelligent flash cards. Remembering things just became much easier.
http://ankisrs.net/ (retrieved on 10 March 2018)
5. Baddeley A. (1997). Human Memory: Theory and Practice”