Assisting English Learning with Quizlet: A Teacher’s Guide

As language teachers, we all have a shared worry, which is how to help students memorise vocabulary lists and fully understand them. However, the issue we are all facing is that students will act like this once we mention the word ‘recite’: 

(Out of earshot)

And I believe for at least one moment we all thought like that: 

(Bottle it)

As English language teachers, we’re always looking for effective ways to engage students and enhance their learning experience. So there should be a lifesaver to evoke student’s interest, and the digital platforms stand out. In this week’s blog, I choose to introduce Quizlet as a useful technology for language teaching. It offers teachers an interactive way to foster communicative competence, such as vocabulary building, grammar practice and pronunciation awareness. 

Quizlet Live is especially effective for language learning as it supports key principles of motivation, interaction, and active recall. Research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) emphasizes the role of engagement and meaningful communication in retaining language skills. It combines competition and collaboration to enhance motivation. Through gamification, students will be fully engaged, making learning more enjoyable and reducing stress. Inspired by Vygotsky’s theory that learning occurs through social interaction, Quizlet Live promotes peer communication, strengthening both language input and output. Moreover, the need to quickly recall and match terms strengthens long-term memory, an approach supported by cognitive psychology research on effective learning strategies. 

With features like flashcards, matching games, and AI-powered study tools, Quizlet transforms rote memorization into an engaging experience. Whether you're teaching in-person or online, this tool allows for customizable study sets, collaborative learning, and adaptive feedback, making it an excellent resource for fostering independent learning and building students' confidence in English. 

There are many key features that make Quizlet a valuable addition to English language classrooms. One of the most important factors is that-it’s free! 

(Super excited)

Quizlet allows teachers and students to sign up for free, making it accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Teachers can create classes where students join and participate in structured learning activities. Quizlet’s flashcards allow students to click and flip cards, with hints to support recall. This feature is perfect for independent vocabulary study and review.

When the first time I used Quizlet, I was quite confused about how to create an appropriate flashcard set for teaching. Then I noticed that I could search for the ones provided by other teachers. It is easy to search for the resources I need based on keywords (such as vocabulary English-English), and I can also browse these flashcard sets by the categories they provide! 

(You can search Quizlet flashcards here! )

As you get familiar with how to creating flashcard sets, you can customize flashcard sets for your students based on their learning needs. Add vocabulary terms, definitions, and images, then organize them into notes. To save time, upload them to Quizlet, which will quickly generate a flashcard set for you! 

（To generate a flashcard set quickly, just use study guides）

Once you have finished creating a flashcard set, you can apply it to eight different activities, including four games for teamwork and competition, and four activities for in-class review. 

(There are eight activities)

Among these activities, Flashcards, Learn and Test are more straightforward in their functionality. Flashcards allow students to click and flip cards, with hints to support recall. Learn and Test can help students memorise and check their progress. These materials are all printable for convenience. 

(You can easily set a test)

Apart from these in-class review activities, I recommend Blocks due to its creativity and interestingness. When using this game during a class, the teacher can organise a rush for the students and the first person to get it right has the right to move the three blocks he/she has been given.

(Answer the question correctly to get three squares of different shapes and colours)

(Blocks can be placed anywhere. When the horizontal row is filled with blocks it is automatically emptied.)

Games and activities can be used in the classroom with digital devices. Activities like Match and Checkpoint are similar to quizzes that are usually used in class, which are matching games and choosing games. To make learning more dynamic, Quizlet offers interactive team-based games, including Quizlet Live and Blast. 

I noticed that Blast is the new more competitive game from Quizlet. Its game mechanic is to blow up the correct word to score points. After I invited participants to experience it, they gave different reviews. Some found the game's interface to be rich and refreshing as a player. However, there were also participants who thought that this game was not fundamentally different from multiple-choice questions and that they felt bored after playing it a few times. 

(Game interface of Blast)

Compared to Blast, Quizlet Live is more effective in encouraging classroom engagement. It is a fast-paced team game where students collaborate to match terms with definitions before other teams. In this game, teams must collaborate to match terms with their correct definitions and only one student per team has the correct answer for each question, encouraging teamwork and discussion. And teachers can monitor the progress of each team, and then give them some appropriate instructions. 

(Teacher’s view when using Quizlet Live)

We now have a basic understanding of how to use Quizlet in the classroom. But there are also some tips that we should be aware of: 

✅ Quizlet Live is adaptable-it works well for different proficiency levels (A2-B2).

✅ No need to prepare everything from scratch-many pre-made study sets are available.

✅ It fosters real-time engagement-ideal for reviewing before tests or reinforcing challenging concepts. 

Despite its benefits, Quizlet also has several disadvantages. While effective for matching and recalling, Quizlet does not require students to actively produce language, such as speaking or writing full sentences. As the game is fast-paced, it might be challenging or even depressing for slower learners or those who need more time to process language. Another important drawback is that-the website itself is not fluent enough for a fast-paced class. When I invited participants to join the game, four out of five told me that they were unable to enter their nicknames because of technical problems with the website, which in turn makes a fast-paced activity time-consuming. 

Would you like to use Quizlet in your language class? Are there any other effective tools? Please share your thoughts about it below in the comments. Thanks for reading!