Bilingual Recall
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Read it ten times. Still can’t write it?

Bilingual Recall turns Chinese and English sentences into active retrieval practice: hide one language, produce it from memory, and check instantly. Missed words enter spaced practice to bridge the gap from recognition to recall.

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No sign-up, nothing to install. It runs right in your browser.

Hide one language, write it from memory, then check

Re-reading creates an illusion of mastery. Active recall builds real memory.

Re-reading builds passive recognition, tricking you into feeling fluent. Classic research shows that students who recalled passages from memory retained significantly more information after two days and one week compared to those who repeatedly re-read.[1]

In foreign-language learning, continued restudying after initial acquisition yields no benefit for delayed recall, whereas repeated retrieval practice yields substantial gains.[2] Combined with appropriate gaps, retrieval practice firmly consolidates long-term memory.[3]

Bilingual Recall is built on active recall: select bilingual text, hide the target language, and produce the sentence from memory. While writing, there are no hints, autocompletes, or spell-checks, forcing your brain to execute genuine retrieval.

  • Sentence mode works line by line; article mode works paragraph by paragraph, distraction-free
  • Hide both languages for dictation mode, with a read-aloud button
No hints while you write, training genuine recall ability

Mistakes are fine. Every difference is marked in red, right away.

Timely feedback is essential for effective retrieval practice. When you check, Bilingual Recall compares your input word by word with the original and highlights differences in red. Only letters and digits are evaluated; capitalization and punctuation are ignored.

Acceptable variations are recognized to protect learner confidence: British/American spellings (colour vs. color), contractions (don’t vs. do not), and numeric expressions are counted as correct. Differences in articles or inflections are flagged, but can be excluded from your review list.

  • “Check all” checks everything you have written on the page in one go
  • Sentences you get right are marked Mastered and tucked away, and you can Resume learning at any time
Red highlights precisely where to focus attention

Generation effect: Self-produced output outlasts passive reading

Cognitive psychology identifies the "generation effect": information actively generated by the learner is retained far better than passively received material. A meta-analysis confirmed a substantial benefit of roughly 0.40 standard deviations.[4]

Bilingual Recall avoids superficial multiple-choice questions or flashcards. By requiring you to type full sentences and paragraphs, it engages the generation effect to solidify linguistic patterns.

  • Whole sentences and paragraphs, not isolated flash cards
  • Your vocabulary comes from your own mistakes, each with its original sentence as context
The act of typing builds lasting cognitive pathways

Spaced practice: Review at the edge of forgetting to defeat memory decay

A comprehensive meta-analysis of 839 assessments demonstrates that distributed practice (spaced over days) yields significantly longer retention than massed practice (cramming).[5] Among ten common study techniques, practice testing and distributed practice received the highest utility rating.[6]

After each practice, missed words are saved to your vocabulary list. Reviews are scheduled on calendar days: correct answers advance a word one step, while incorrect ones move it back two. Choose between standard, intensive, and relaxed spacing plans.

The schedules are fixed and straightforward, removing setup complexity while systematically reinforcing memory.

  • The standard schedule steps are day 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 15 and 30
  • Reviewing early does not change the original schedule
Steps of the standard spaced review schedule

Fully keyboard-driven for maximum study flow

Writing, checking, and reviewing all operate smoothly via keyboard shortcuts, avoiding context switches caused by mouse usage. Shortcuts are fully customizable and immune to IME composition triggers.

Look up words instantly with the built-in offline dictionary of 47,000 entries, complete with audio pronunciation. Import custom materials in TXT, CSV, or JSON format across sentence-by-sentence or paragraph arrangements.

  • If sentence counts mismatch, import pinpoints the exact alignment error
  • Save imported material as an article, as sentences, or both
Default shortcuts, changeable in Settings

Your study data stays securely in your browser

No registration required. Your articles, practice history, and vocabulary list are stored entirely within your device’s local browser storage (IndexedDB/localStorage) and are never transmitted to external servers.

To prevent data loss from browser cache clearing, export JSON backups or CSV vocabulary files anytime. Automated local folder backups are supported on Chrome and Edge. Works fully offline as a PWA.

  • Export and import JSON backups, merging or replacing
  • Export your vocabulary list as CSV
Your data stays under your control

Frequently asked questions

Is Bilingual Recall really free? Do I need to sign up?

It is free, with no sign-up and no feature limits. Open the page and click “Get started”.

Where is my study data stored? What if I switch computers or clear my cache?

Only in your own browser. Bilingual Recall has no account system and does not upload your study records.

Clearing browser data or changing devices removes your records, so export a JSON backup from Settings now and then and import it on the new device. In Chrome and Edge you can also back up automatically to a folder you choose.

Do I need an internet connection?

You need to be online the first time you open it. After that most features work offline, and installing it as an app is recommended.

The offline dictionary is split by first letter and each part is cached once you use it, so the first lookup under a new letter needs a connection.

How is this different from word-recognition vocabulary apps?

Recognition means seeing the answer and judging “I know this”; recall means writing it yourself with no hints. Research found that recalling from memory gives longer-lasting memory than re-reading.[1]

Bilingual Recall practises recalling whole sentences and paragraphs in both languages, not isolated flash cards. Your vocabulary comes from your own mistakes and keeps the original sentence as context.

Why are there no hints while I write?

We designed it that way because a hint turns recalling into recognising, and the value of retrieval practice lies in producing the answer yourself.[2]

So there is no spell-check, autocomplete or character count while you write, and the hidden text is not on the page until you check. If you want a peek, you can show it at any time.

How is review scheduled?

Words you add to your vocabulary list are reviewed on a fixed spacing schedule: correct moves a word up one step, wrong moves it back two. Due dates follow calendar days, so a word you get right in the evening is due first thing the next morning.

There are three schedules: standard (day 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 15, 30), intensive and relaxed, plus daily limits for reviews and new words. The schedules are fixed and do not adapt.

How does it differ from flash-card apps such as Anki?

Anki is a powerful general-purpose flash-card app whose review intervals adjust to your answers. Bilingual Recall is more focused: it uses whole Chinese–English sentences and paragraphs for write-from-memory practice, with fixed schedules that do not adapt.

If you already use a flash-card app, the two can complement each other: use Bilingual Recall to practise writing sentences and paragraphs, and keep the words you need long-term in the card tool you like.

How do I import my own articles?

Click “Import” at the top of the app, then paste text or choose a TXT, CSV or JSON file. Alternating sentences, alternating paragraphs, and all English followed by all Chinese are all supported, with either language first.

If the Chinese and English sentence counts do not match, it splits down to where things go wrong and points it out so you can fix it and keep splitting. You can then save the result as an article, as sentences, or both.

Which browsers and devices are supported?

We mainly use and check it in Chrome and Edge. Other recent browsers should handle the basics, but we have not verified each one.

Automatic folder backup currently works only in Chrome and Edge. Read-aloud uses the voices built into your browser, so what is available differs between systems.

Try writing one sentence now

No sign-up, nothing to install. The app comes with a sample article: hide the English and give it a go.

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References

The studies above are about learning methods in general, not about this app. We designed the product around these principles but have not run an effectiveness study of the app itself.

  1. Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. After reading a passage, students either re-read it or recalled it from memory. On a test five minutes later the re-reading group did better; two days and one week later, the group that had recalled remembered significantly more. Read the source
  2. Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319(5865), 966–968. Students learned foreign-language vocabulary. Repeated studying after a word was learned did not help delayed recall, while repeated testing helped a lot; students’ predictions of their own performance were uncorrelated with how they actually did. Read the source
  3. Soderstrom, N. C., Kerr, T. K., & Bjork, R. A. (2016). The critical importance of retrieval—and spacing—for learning. Psychological Science, 27(2), 223–230. Replicated the result above, and found that once the spacing between practice trials was controlled, both repeated testing and repeated studying improved learning. Read the source
  4. Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & Cognition, 35(2), 201–210. A meta-analysis of 86 studies: material you generate yourself is remembered better than material you only read, with a mean effect of about 0.40, roughly half a standard deviation. Read the source
  5. Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. Synthesised 839 assessments from 317 experiments in 184 articles: spaced practice is remembered longer than massed practice, and the best gap depends on how long the material needs to be retained. Read the source
  6. Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. Reviewed ten common learning techniques and rated practice testing and distributed practice as the two with the highest utility; rereading and highlighting did not consistently boost performance. Read the source