The language learning "Delta" Anki card pattern

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+--------------------------+------------------------------------------+
|       L2, fixable        |              L1, intention               |
+--------------------------+------------------------------------------+
|        L2, fixed         |   L1, (fixable -> fixed) explanation     |
+--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

The above 2x2 layout for Anki cards, which I call a “comprehensible delta”, is one of the best things I’ve happened upon in a while for learning another language. Let’s say you are learning Finnish, and you want to say

Lapset tykkäävät hillosta. (The kids like jam.)

First you have your “normal” Anki card, with “The kids like jam” on the front and “Lapset tykkäävät hillosta.” on the back.

Later on, you answer the card, and you get it almost right:

Lapset tykkäävät hilloa. (your answer - grammatically wrong)

Rather than just hitting “Again”, you can take this opportunity to make a brand new card isolating this very mistake:

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+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Lapset tykkäävät hilloa.    | The kids like jam.                       |
+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| (answer first)              | (answer first)                           |
+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+

and

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+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Lapset tykkäävät hilloa.    | The kids like jam.                       |
+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Lapset tykkäävät HILLOSTA.  | The verb "tykätä" (to like) requires     |
|                             | the elative case (-sta/-stä) for its     |
|                             | rection. The partitive case ("hilloa")   |
|                             | is incorrect here as this is not a       |
|                             | direct object.                           |
+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+

This is exciting to me because it is the first time I have found a structure that successfully seems to isolate one oft-problematic muscle group in the compound movement that is active production in your L2.

If you hate grammar, feel free to ignore this. If you later find out that comprehensible input isn’t actually all you need, and some dedicated exercises to production might be of value, we at the “Work on things you care about directly” camp will welcome you back with open arms.

Some more examples

Here are some screenshots from my own Anki cards, showing the front and back in more detail. N.B. that I don’t always fill out all four fields, if the meaning or mistake is obvious from context.

The colors mean things to me, but they aren’t important for understanding the general concept.

Here’s one where the English translation, specifically, is important. The sentence itself may be grammatically valid, but it doesn’t get across what we want to say.

Another one where the L2 sentence is grammatically valid, but doesn’t mean what we want it to mean: