The Learning Pyramid

Many language teachers fail to optimize the learning experience. 

While learning is indeed a journey, and I'm the first who says that, when you're investing time and a bunch of money, you deserve results.

As a learner, I find live lessons challenging. They're often boring, and I feel I waste my time in 90% of cases. I have never attended mixed-level classes, but in practice I've always experienced people not progressing in reality, but still going from one level to the other without actually being able to speak, and believe me, it's frustrating to wait for others who can barely say "yes" or "no." Worse still, in language classes fully taught in the target language, I end up becoming an unpaid translator for others—not what I'm paying for when I'm there to learn myself.

As a teacher, as well, I'm constantly striving to improve my methods and deliver more value to my students. 

I want them to progress faster and more effectively than they would on their own. This seems obvious to me, but apparently, it isn't to everyone.

The Learning Pyramid: A Game-Changer

Some time ago, I discovered the Learning Pyramid, which revolutionized my approach to teaching and learning. 

While I had an intuitive sense of these principles before, they were mostly based on experience.

Now I had confirmation that my instincts were right!

The Learning Pyramid is a model showing retention rates for different learning methods—essentially, how much you'll actually remember from various types of learning activities.

Personal preferences and interest in a topic certainly matter. After all, if you enjoy a particular learning style, you'll likely learn well regardless of the method. However, some approaches are generally more effective than others.

Consider the difference between sitting through a university lecture versus having to explain that same topic to someone else—especially when you're just beginning to understand it yourself.

In the second scenario, you're actively processing the information and creating mental frameworks to organize what you've learned.​

This crucial process of reprocessing information is often missing in language classes. Combined with insufficient practice, you end up in a frustrating situation where you accumulate new concepts weekly but can't recall what you've learned over three months.

While some criticize the Learning Pyramid, I find it offers valuable insights for improving teaching methods. It's not gospel, but it provides practical guidance.

Critics say: "The Learning Pyramid doesn't work! If you read a blog post you're not going to retain only 10% of it!"

But this misses the point. Reading a short blog post differs greatly from processing a book's worth of information, especially in a foreign language.

Such criticism seems superficial.

The key is repeatedly processing and retrieving information until it becomes readily accessible when needed.​

Everything else is just noise.

Maximizing Retention: Teach to Learn

Looking back, I feel somewhat embarrassed about my early teaching methods. But with each passing month, I've become more effective.

I now apply this knowledge to enhance my students' vocabulary retention.

I've successfully used this approach with students learning Italian, French, and Dutch to help vocabulary stick better, though it works for any language you're studying.

Here's a simple method you can try:

1. Find content in your target language (text, audio, or video). This could even be preparing to talk about something special you've done, which might require learning new vocabulary
2. Identify new words or expressions
3. Explain these new items as if you're teaching someone else. I ask my students to fill a table (or better yet, record a voice message on WhatsApp).

Try this exercise - I'm going to check it out personally

Being active is the whole point

The real learning happens outside the classroom.

I favor autonomous work and minimize live class time because of the mere 5% retention rate shown at the pyramid's top.

You don't learn much when I'm simply lecturing

Classes are useful for human interaction and accountability, but they're not where real learning happens—especially if you live in a country where your target language is spoken.

Even if you don't live in such an environment, a few hours of class per week isn't enough. Regular WhatsApp conversations often prove more beneficial.

While daily classes would be ideal, they're rarely feasible—either financially or practically, given life's demands.

Voice messaging through WhatsApp offers consistent active practice plus the benefit of being able to review your recordings later.​