If you want to remember something write it down. Research has shown that students who type notes during lectures don’t remember as well as students who hand write their notes.
Why is that? Researchers think because you can type faster than write, people who type tend to take verbatim notes – they write exactly what the lecturer says. But people who hand write have to summarize as they write, so they are immediately processing the information.
So what does it mean for language learning? These days many of us language learners are not writing language, but reading from a screen, or book, typing or tapping, especially in the early stages of learning. The research suggest that we will remember vocabulary better if we hand write it, and grammar rules more strongly if we write them down, and summarize them.
What do you think, do you prefer handwriting or typing? Let me know below.
Read more about the research here.
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