And how should I learn?
The usual way to learn with Parley is to use one of its random query functions.
It keeps track of your knowledge of the expressions by assigning them to one of seven levels ranging from “Level 1” to “Level 7”.
Several options are implemented which can be configured in the dialogue for the query options.
To keep the amount of expressions in a query in a reasonable range, you may restrict it to one lesson and/or a certain word type. Research in psychology of learning suggests that the number of entries in one lesson should not exceed about 30.
The range of a query can depend on the current grade, the number of queries and the last query date.
Learning is efficient if you repeat new vocabulary in growing intervals. There is a blocking and expiring mechanism for that case, so that you are not obliged to modify the settings after each cycle. Correctly answered expressions are blocked at least for the given time and will only be shown after the period of time defined as expiration time.
The direction of the learning can be switched randomly to avoid one way learning only.
For your personal taste or just for becoming acquainted with a new word, you may choose a query that shows the solution together with several other randomly chosen words. This is called multiple choice query.
Special word types need special queries. For this reason there are queries for the conjugation of verbs, comparison form of adjectives and the articles of nouns.
All these settings can be summarized into profiles and retained under an arbitrary name.
When querying, Parley shows the expressions in random order until you confirm all as “known”. If you did not select a special lesson, all lessons are queried one after the other.
When you leave Parley, expressions left in a running query are stored accordingly. At a later restart you can resume the query (this does not apply to special queries with verbs, articles and comparisons at the moment). Those expressions are marked with a green check mark in the main view.
