Leitner´s Hand Computer is a low tech low cost learning strategy for the autonomous and accelerated memorization of new vocabulary in a second or foreign language. Research has confirmed that we forget very quickly within the first hour of learning but then the forgetting curve decreases gradually. If we review a new word after a couple of hours and then after a couple of days, we increase the chances of remembering it and storing it in our long-term memory. We can then space out its review as necessary.

According to Mondria and Mondria-De Vries (1994), the Hand Computer is based on two principles. "Distributed Practice": Words and their meaning are more efficiently memorized if their repetition is distributed over time instead of being repeated a few times in close succession. And "Expanded Rehearsal": As learning proceeds, the delay will increase thus reinforcing the word in our long-term memory. In the process of memorizing a word and its meaning, we will be helped by reviewing and checking a word at a time when we can still remember it.

Leitner´s Hand computer is recommended for the initial stages of L2 decontextualized vocabulary learning.

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